Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) Reviews & Product Details

What I like best about Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) is that it simplifies database management by handling backups, batching, scaling, high availability, and automation. It reduces a lot of operational overhead compared to managing databases manually. Automated monitoring, patching, and failover improve reliability and reduce manual maintenance effort. Automated backups simplify recovery and retention. Deployments across multiple availability zones improve availability and reliability. Performance insights enhance query monitoring and optimization, while read replicas improve support for scaling and analytic workloads. Basic setup is straightforward. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

VAS can increase as workload scales, especially for high-performance instances and storage. I've also found out that certain low-level database optimization and customization are limited compared to self-managed databases. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like that Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) handles the management of the database infrastructure, which gives me and my team more time to focus on the actual data. The high availability and advanced security features are impressive, making the service more reliable. I find the variety of database engines provided by AWS at one place very convenient, as it simplifies our operations. The AWS-managed databases take over the tedious task of manual database handling, and they provide a fast, reliable, and secure database environment that's critical for us. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

In terms of RDS, the block storage is something that can be a problem sometimes as the block has a fixed storage limit which can be critical at the time of storage migration or critical operations. Also, for a beginner, the initial setup can be a bit tedious. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The best thing about Amazon RDS is how it eliminates manual database management. It automatically handles backups, software patching, scaling, and high availability setups up letting you focus on application development instead of infrastructure maintenance. Features like Multi-AZ deployment, read replicas, and point-in-time recovery enhance reliability and performance with minimal effort. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Customization is limited, and there’s no root access. On top of that, the costs can feel unpredictable. I’ve also run into vendor lock-in, downtime during scaling, and limited control over replication, which makes it harder to manage things the way I want. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

- Broke a massive Oracle 11g/12c backed monolith application into 25 microservice‑aligned schemas and migrated everything to Oracle 19c on RDS, giving each service its own performance and scaling boundary.

- What I like most about RDS is that we no longer need to spend a lot of time on manual heavy lifting — patching, automated backups, point-in-time restores (to the second), and even provisioning. Tasks like these used to take weeks, involve multiple meetings, and require approval cycles, but are now fully automated and happen in the background with just a simple configuration.

- The recovery and failover challenges we previously faced with our monolith have been completely eliminated. By leveraging Amazon RDS’s automated, synchronous replication and Multi-AZ failover capabilities, we’ve gained a level of resilience that promises our application stays online even during a full Availability Zone outage. With 99.95% uptime, we are far more than just resilient (In a worst-case failover scenario, the transition happens in roughly 2 minutes, which is well within our acceptable RTO).

- Managing 25 microservices and their rapidly expanding data sets doesn't seem to be a challenge to us, and our operations have been simplified with its configuration-based implementation. With RDS, we have the option to seamlessly scale storage, upgrade instance types, and leverage read replicas to offload traffic. This flexibility has been a cornerstone of our migration journey, delivering significant cost savings and operational efficiency.

- We have the option to stop RDS instances of lower environments during weekends or when not in use, saving additional costs.

- AWS, as usual, has top-notch customer support for RDS. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

- Moving from on-prem to RDS broke our deep New Relic integration; because we no longer have OS-level access to install custom agents, we lost the ability to perform granular, table-level monitoring that we relied on for legacy performance tuning.

- We observed that DB gets stuck in the Upgrading/Modifying state during modifications and we really don't have any way to check the actual issue other than just waiting. Sometimes, we are left with just to restart the same, which is quite tedious at times. This really needs some focus from AWS; we, users, need visibility on the progress.

- SYSDBA permissions are restricted, but that's not a blocker. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

AWS RDS offers both PostgreSQL and their tweaked version, Aurora. It is stable and performs well. The query logs and insights are useful to managing the database. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Not much to dislike; the gaps, like query analysers, are available for free. PostgreSQL has a pretty great ecosystem and documentation that surrounds it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Its fully managed nature—handling backups, scaling, patching, and high availability automatically—so you can focus on building applications instead of managing databases. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Limited low-level control compared to self-managed databases, especially for advanced tuning and customization. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Well, RDS is a must as per me if your project is in AWS and you are working on relational databases, Few things I personally liked about Amazon RDS are that most of the operations like patching, backups, scalings etc are automatic so a lot of less effort needed from the operations side, and I don't think any other RDS works as good as Amazon RDS works with AWS. I also found all the operations being performed very smoothly, and I personally never faced any failures while using this, so definitely quite robust too. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There are a few downside too here, first the cost of using this I feel is too high, initially the cost might seem normal but as your application scales cost increases a lot. Also I felt there is very less control over the database server which didn't let me customize a few things I wanted to. Also If a few more monitoring tools can definitely help the user to troubleshoot. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like the automated backups and patching. It takes care of routine database maintenance, which saves a lot of time and reduces the risk of errors. The multi-AZ replication feature is also great for ensuring uptime. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Scaling can be a bit tricky for very large workloads, and cost can grow if you need high availability across regions. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like Amazon RDS because it handles backups, scaling, and high availability without any maintenance hassle, making it incredibly reliable for my apps. The automated backups provide a constant safety net, allowing me to focus on building my applications rather than worrying about losing data. I also enjoy the effortless scaling that keeps performance smooth during unexpected spikes. Additionally, the built-in reliability with Multi-AZ deployments and automatic failover protects against outages, giving me peace of mind. The initial setup was surprisingly easy for our team, and we had a production-ready database running within minutes, removing much of the complexity usually faced with manual deployments. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

While Amazon RDS is excellent overall, a few areas could be improved. The cost escalates quickly as storage and instance sizes grow, and more transparent pricing would help. Fine-grained control over server configuration is also limited compared to self-managed databases. Additionally, maintenance windows and failover times can occasionally feel longer than expected. Better visibility and faster transitions would make the service even stronger. Limited fine-grained control compared to self-managed databases. Restricted parameter tuning. No access to the operating system. Limited support for custom plugins and extensions. Storage and I/O behavior not fully customizable. Maintenance processes are controlled by AWS. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

1. A managed database service that I can easily use in my application.

2. It provides all the necessary requirements, such as migrations, backups, and scaling. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Connecting to it through a client is painful, I’ve experienced this problem many times. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.