Amazon RDS vs Aurora: Why Aurora Wins

Let's talk databases. If you're building apps on AWS, you've probably come across Amazon RDS and Aurora. Both are managed database services, but Aurora's got some tricks up its sleeve that make it the go-to choice for many developers.

RDS is like your reliable old Honda Civic. It does the job, supporting popular databases like MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, etc. You don't have to worry about the nitty-gritty of server management, which is nice. But when you need to scale up, things can get a bit clunky. With RDS Storage Auto Scaling, you simply set your desired maximum storage limit, and Auto Scaling takes care of the rest. Aurora automatically increases storage from a minimum of 10 GB to a maximum of 128 TiB. This is done in increments of 10 GB without any impact on the database performance. You are not required to provide the storage in advance.

Enter Aurora. Think of it as RDS's cooler, more efficient cousin. It's MySQL and PostgreSQL compatible, but AWS rebuilt it from the ground up to squeeze out way more performance. We're talking up to five times the throughput of standard MySQL on the same hardware and three times faster than PostgreSQL.

RDS allows you to provision up to 5 replicas, and the process of replication is slower compared to Aurora.
Aurora allows you to provision up to 15 replicas, and the replication is done in milliseconds. Plus, it scales like a dream, automatically growing storage as needed.

But here's where Aurora shines: high availability and disaster recovery. It replicates your data across multiple availability zones, so if one goes down, you're still golden. Failover is quick and painless, which means less downtime and fewer headaches for you.
Let's see this in action with a quick Node.js example:

const { Client } = require('pg')

const client = new Client({
  host: 'your-aurora-cluster-endpoint',
  user: 'your-username',
  password: 'your-password',
  database: 'your-database',
  port: 5432,
})

async function runQuery() {
  await client.connect()
  const res = await client.query('SELECT NOW()')
  console.log('Current time:', res.rows[0].now)
  await client.end()
}

runQuery().catch(console.error)

With Aurora, this code runs faster, and you can sleep easier knowing your data's safe and sound.

Aurora’s unique architecture gives you more durability, scalability, resiliency, and performance when compared to RDS. Although there is a small increase in cost(about 20%), it is recommended to use Aurora for enterprise-level applications. If you are looking for a native high-availability solution and/or read-intensive workload, then Aurora is a perfect match

So yeah, if you've got the choice, go with Aurora. Your future self will thank you. Let me know what you think in the comment section.

Until next time👋!