Database Hosting: Choosing Between Cloud Managed Services
Choosing the right managed database service involves balancing performance, cost, reliability, operational simplicity, and the specific capabilities your application needs. This article provides a practical comparison to inform your decision.
Decision Framework
- Which cloud provider are you using? Native managed services on your primary cloud provider are the default — they integrate tightly with IAM, monitoring, VPC, and billing
- What database engine do you need? PostgreSQL is our default for new projects. MySQL for WordPress/PHP ecosystems. Specialist databases for specialist workloads.
- What scale do you need? Most applications function well on a small-to-medium RDS instance. Plan your starting point and understand scaling options.
- What are your HA requirements? Multi-AZ for production (1-2 minute failover). Read replicas for read-scaling. Global clusters for multi-region requirements.
PostgreSQL Options Compared
- Amazon RDS PostgreSQL: Solid, well-supported, good ecosystem integration. Good starting point for most projects.
- Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL: 3-5x performance vs RDS, faster failover, auto-scaling storage. 20-40% higher cost. Worth it for production applications.
- Cloud SQL (GCP): Equivalent to RDS on GCP. Good integration with BigQuery and GCP services.
- Supabase: PostgreSQL + auth + storage + real-time. Excellent for startups and rapid development. Managed service with open-source option.
- Neon: Serverless PostgreSQL with branching — innovative for development workflow. Early stage as a production platform.