PostgreSQL is a free, open-source relational database that you manage yourself, while Amazon Aurora is a managed cloud database service built on PostgreSQL-compatible architecture that AWS operates for you. Aurora offers higher availability and automatic scaling at premium costs, whereas PostgreSQL provides full control and zero licensing fees.
PostgreSQL vs Amazon Aurora — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
Free, open-source relational database with advanced features and full control
AWS-managed relational database with PostgreSQL/MySQL compatibility, auto-scaling, and high availability
Cost Model. Management Responsibility. Read Replicas Setup Time. High Availability SLA. Automatic Failover. Data Import/Export Flexibility. Query Performance (3x read scaling)
Choose PostgreSQL if you need cost-free database software, require complete control over your infrastructure, or operate in multi-cloud environments—it's ideal for startups, on-premises deployments, and DevOps teams. Choose Amazon Aurora if you prioritize operational simplicity, need 99.95% uptime guarantees, automatic scaling, and are already invested in AWS—it's best for mission-critical applications where team time is expensive.
PostgreSQL: Complete (all operations) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: ~25,000 (PostgreSQL 18) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: ~320 (5-table join) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: JSONB with full indexing | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: ~150 (minimal config) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Native pgvector | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Comprehensive native support | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: TimescaleDB extension native | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: $15.25 (PostgreSQL 18) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 5 (14-18 active) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 10-100 (WAL) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: EDB, multiple vendors | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 35,000 writes/sec | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Manual sharding required | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 1 (single instance) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Manual, typically 5-15 minutes | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 100% (native) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: $0 (open-source) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 3,500+ stars | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 25+ years | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: $0 (infrastructure cost only) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 15,000-25,000 docs/sec | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Full multi-statement ACID | Amazon Aurora: N/A
Query Language Complexity (learning curve)
PostgreSQL: 1-2 months (SQL standardized, widely taught) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Free open-source; commercial support available | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 150-200 MB | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 20+ (B-tree, hash, BRIN, GiST, partial indexes) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 30-60 minutes | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: ~10,000 (single node) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Full compliance, all operations | Amazon Aurora: N/A
Storage Overhead (vs Equivalent Relational)
PostgreSQL: 1x baseline (normalized) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: No (requires partitioning/third-party) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Full SQL with unlimited JOIN depth and CTEs | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Required (schema-on-write) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: ~15k stars | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 2-4 hours (widely supported, simpler setup) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 120-1440 minutes (self-hosted) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: $20-50 (cloud VM minimum) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 0 (requires third-party) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Not native - requires extensions | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Unlimited (petabyte+ capable) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Not included - manual setup required | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Zero - 100% portable SQL | Amazon Aurora: N/A
Supported Concurrent Connections (Free Tier)
PostgreSQL: Unlimited (depends on installation) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 115-120ms | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: $0 (self-hosted only) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 240-1440 minutes (4-24 hours) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Unlimited (self-hosted) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Not built-in | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Unlimited (hardware dependent) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Manual or third-party tools required | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Customizable via WAL archiving | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: $50-200+ (self-hosted infrastructure) or $100-500 (managed provider) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Manual; requires 5-60 minutes intervention | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Unlimited (hardware-dependent) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Trivial (native format, zero lock-in) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 500+ (all available from PostgreSQL ecosystem) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 0 seconds (always running) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 10,000,000+ deployments globally | Amazon Aurora: N/A
Complex Analytical Query Speed (with JOINs + aggregations)
PostgreSQL: 320ms (with window functions) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Yes (default) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 1GB+ (JSONB) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 15+ languages | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 85% of providers | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Yes (since 8.4) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 52ms (PostgreSQL) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
Complex Analytical Query Speed (Aggregate + Join)
PostgreSQL: 850ms (PostgreSQL) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Yes, comprehensive with operators and indexing | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Native with ranking, stemming, 15+ languages | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Full support with 20+ window functions | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: SQL (steep initial curve, powerful at scale) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Full transaction coverage (all operations) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Requires external tools (Citus, pg_partman) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: $15 (RDS free tier + $20) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 5-15% (optimized row format) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 0.5-2 seconds (optimized joins) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: 75+ community extensions | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: Fixed schema (requires ALTER) | Amazon Aurora: N/A
PostgreSQL: $0 | Amazon Aurora: $4,380-$10,700
PostgreSQL: Not built-in | Amazon Aurora: 15-30
PostgreSQL: Unlimited (manual setup) | Amazon Aurora: 15
PostgreSQL: None standard | Amazon Aurora: 99.95
PostgreSQL: 4-8 (manual) | Amazon Aurora: 0.03 (1-click)
PostgreSQL: Limited by hardware | Amazon Aurora: 128
PostgreSQL: Latest (16.2) | Amazon Aurora: Aurora PostgreSQL 16
PostgreSQL: Depends on setup (50-500ms typical) | Amazon Aurora: <1,000 (as low as 100ms)
PostgreSQL: N/A | Amazon Aurora: 5x faster
PostgreSQL: N/A | Amazon Aurora: $86.40-$315.36/month
PostgreSQL: N/A | Amazon Aurora: 99.95% SLA
PostgreSQL: N/A | Amazon Aurora: Automatic daily + continuous backup
PostgreSQL: N/A | Amazon Aurora: 1 (AWS only)
PostgreSQL: N/A | Amazon Aurora: Full ACID support with distributed architecture
PostgreSQL: N/A | Amazon Aurora: 3x (via read replicas)
PostgreSQL: N/A | Amazon Aurora: 6 across 3 AZs
Minimum Monthly Operational Cost (production-ready)
PostgreSQL: N/A | Amazon Aurora: $50-150 (db.t3.small to db.r6g.xlarge)
PostgreSQL: N/A | Amazon Aurora: 35 (automatic)
PostgreSQL: N/A | Amazon Aurora: 128 (automatic)
PostgreSQL: N/A | Amazon Aurora: 0.25 (click-to-launch via console)
PostgreSQL: N/A | Amazon Aurora: 99.95% (multi-AZ deployment)
How to choose between PostgreSQL and Amazon Aurora
PostgreSQL vs Amazon Aurora — Structured Comparison Data
Machine-readable comparison dataset for PostgreSQL vs Amazon Aurora. Contains 106 attribute comparisons, 5 FAQ pairs.
PostgreSQL vs Amazon Aurora — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for PostgreSQL vs Amazon Aurora.
Can I migrate from PostgreSQL to Aurora without rewriting code?
Yes. Aurora is PostgreSQL-compatible, so existing queries and applications work with minimal changes. Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) for automated migration. However, some advanced PostgreSQL extensions may not be available in Aurora, requiring code modifications. The reverse migration (Aurora to PostgreSQL) requires manual export/import.
What is the true total cost of ownership for PostgreSQL vs Aurora?
PostgreSQL has zero licensing but requires infrastructure costs (compute/storage $200-$2,000/month), DevOps staff ($80K-$150K annually), and backup systems. Aurora costs $525-$10,700 annually for equivalent performance with no DevOps overhead. Break-even: Aurora becomes cheaper when DevOps labor exceeds ~$40K/year or you value operational simplicity over raw cost.
Does Aurora guarantee better performance than self-managed PostgreSQL?
No. Aurora and PostgreSQL offer similar query performance on equivalent hardware. Aurora's advantage is operational (automatic scaling, failover), not raw speed. A well-tuned PostgreSQL instance on premium hardware matches Aurora's performance; Aurora wins on *consistency* (managed optimization) and *availability* (automatic recovery).
Can I run PostgreSQL in AWS instead of using Aurora?
Yes. You can run PostgreSQL on EC2 instances, RDS for PostgreSQL (AWS-managed but different from Aurora), or Lightsail. RDS for PostgreSQL is cheaper than Aurora but lacks Aurora's read-scaling and cross-region features. Aurora is AWS's premium PostgreSQL offering with more automation and performance features.
What happens if I need to leave AWS with Aurora?
You can export Aurora data using native PostgreSQL tools (pg_dump) or AWS Database Migration Service, then import into any PostgreSQL instance. However, this requires downtime or a separate migration infrastructure. AWS-specific features (Aurora-specific extensions, native read scaling) won't transfer, requiring application changes.
How to Choose Between PostgreSQL and Amazon Aurora
Cost Model: PostgreSQL has Free (open-source), while Amazon Aurora has $0.06-$1.22/hour (varies by instance type).
Management Responsibility: PostgreSQL has Self-managed (patches, backups, scaling), while Amazon Aurora has Fully managed by AWS.
Read Replicas Setup Time: PostgreSQL has Manual configuration (4-8 hours), while Amazon Aurora has 1-click automated (2 minutes).
High Availability SLA: PostgreSQL has No guarantee (depends on setup), while Amazon Aurora has 99.95% uptime SLA included.
Automatic Failover: PostgreSQL has Requires third-party tools, while Amazon Aurora has Built-in (15-30 second failover).
Consider: Data Import/Export Flexibility
Data Import/Export Flexibility: PostgreSQL has Complete flexibility, runs anywhere, while Amazon Aurora has AWS ecosystem lock-in risk.
Consider: Query Performance (3x read scaling)
Query Performance (3x read scaling): PostgreSQL has Manual sharding needed, while Amazon Aurora has Native read scaling with Aurora replicas.