Amazon DynamoDB vs. Amazon SimpleDB

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Amazon DynamoDB
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Amazon DynamoDB is a cloud-native, NoSQL, serverless database service.
$0
capacity unit per hour
Amazon SimpleDB
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Amazon SimpleDB is a non-relational data store and service.
$0
per GB allowance
Pricing
Amazon DynamoDBAmazon SimpleDB
Editions & Modules
Provisioned - Read Operation
$0.00013
capacity unit per hour
Provisioned - Write Operation
$0.00065
capacity unit per hour
Provisioned - Global Tables
$0.000975
per Read Capacity
On-Demand Streams
$0.02
per 100,000 read operations
Provisioned - Streams
$0.02
per 100,000 read operations
On-Demand Data Requests Outside AWS Regions
$0.09
per GB
Provisioned - Data Requests Outside AWS Regions
$0.09
per GB
On-Demand Snapshot
$0.10
per GB per month
Provisioned - Snapshot
$0.10
per GB per month
On-Demand Restoring a Backup
$0.15
per GB
Provisioned - Restoring a Backup
$0.15
per GB
On-Demand Point-in-Time Recovery
$0.20
per GB per month
Provisioned - Point-in-Time Recovery
$0.20
per GB per month
On-Demand Read Operation
$0.25
per million requests
On-Demand Data Stored
$0.25
per GB per month
Provisioned - Data Stored
$0.25
per GB per month
On-Demand - Write Operation
$1.25
per million requests
On-Demand Global Tables
$1.875
per million write operations replicated
Machine Utilization
$0.00 for first 25 hours $0.14 per machine hour over 25 hours
per GB allowance
Structured Data Storage
$0.00 for first GB-month $0.25 per GB-month thereafter
per GB allowance
Free Tier
25 SimpleDB Machine Hours and 1 GB of Storage for free each month
per GB allowance
Data Transfer
All data transfer in is $0.00 per GB
per GB allowance
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Amazon DynamoDBAmazon SimpleDB
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Amazon DynamoDBAmazon SimpleDB
Considered Both Products
Amazon DynamoDB
Chose Amazon DynamoDB
We used SimpleDB in the past (before DynamoDB existed), but there were several limitations around object size and total size for a given table that we were not able to overcome. DynamoDB has almost no limits, and can scale to store as much data as we need it to.
Similarly, …
Amazon SimpleDB
Chose Amazon SimpleDB
It integrates beautifully with AWS. In some projects we use SimpleDB while we use DynamoDB for others, according to the characteristics of the project. If the infrastructure is AWS, we always think of one of them.
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Amazon DynamoDBAmazon SimpleDB
NoSQL Databases
Comparison of NoSQL Databases features of Product A and Product B
Amazon DynamoDB
9.2
70 Ratings
5% above category average
Amazon SimpleDB
-
Ratings
Performance9.269 Ratings00 Ratings
Availability9.470 Ratings00 Ratings
Concurrency8.868 Ratings00 Ratings
Security9.070 Ratings00 Ratings
Scalability9.469 Ratings00 Ratings
Data model flexibility8.667 Ratings00 Ratings
Deployment model flexibility10.023 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Amazon DynamoDBAmazon SimpleDB
Small Businesses
IBM Cloudant
IBM Cloudant
Score 8.4 out of 10
IBM Cloudant
IBM Cloudant
Score 8.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
IBM Cloudant
IBM Cloudant
Score 8.4 out of 10
IBM Cloudant
IBM Cloudant
Score 8.4 out of 10
Enterprises
IBM Cloudant
IBM Cloudant
Score 8.4 out of 10
IBM Cloudant
IBM Cloudant
Score 8.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Amazon DynamoDBAmazon SimpleDB
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(80 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(34 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.4
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.1
(44 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
6.3
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.1
(44 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Amazon DynamoDBAmazon SimpleDB
Likelihood to Recommend
Amazon AWS
It’s great for server less and real-time applications. It would be great for gaming and mobile apps. However, if you need relational database and have fixed budget, do not use it. While budget can be managed, you need to be careful. Also this is not a tool for storing big data, there are other wide-column database types you could use for it ins the ad
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Amazon AWS
Well suited for: Games, Chat rooms, real time software like corporate events, marathons and so. Anytime and anywhere you could use a NoSQL DB you should think of SimpleDB.
As an arduous AWS user, Amazon SimpleDB easily integrates with EC2 and other AWS module; and if you are not an AWS user, you also have a fantastic tool that will solve the problem for which you are focused.
Read full review
Pros
Amazon AWS
  • To manage varying workloads, it enables users to increase capacity as necessary and decrease it as needed.
  • Users can take advantage of its auto-scaling, in-memory caching, and backup without paying for the services of a database administrator.
  • We can use it for low scale operations.
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Amazon AWS
  • Flexibility
  • Easy to learn and use
  • AWS integration
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Cons
Amazon AWS
  • Cost model may not be easy to control and may lead to higher costs if not carefully planned
  • Indexing may be a cost culprit when not planned, because it's not included on the data costs
  • The Query Language may not fulfill everybody's expectations, as it has less features than those of competitors.
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Amazon AWS
  • Non AWS environments
  • Strict storage limit (but well we have DynamoDB for storage issues)
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Likelihood to Renew
Amazon AWS
It's core to our business, we couldn't survive without it. We use it to drive everything from FTP logins to processing stories and delivering them to clients. It's reliable and easy to query from all of our pipeline services. Integration with things like AWS Lambda makes it easy to trigger events and run code whenever something changes in the database.
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Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
Usability
Amazon AWS
Functionally, DynamoDB has the features needed to use it. The interface is not as easy to use, which impacts its usability. Being familiar with AWS in general is helpful in understanding the interface, however it would be better if the interface more closely aligned with traditional tools for managing datastores.
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Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
Performance
Amazon AWS
It works very well across all the regions and response time is also very quick due to AWS's internal data transfer. Plus if your product requires HIPPA or some other regulations needs to be followed, you can easily replicate the DB into multiple regions and they manage all by it's own.
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Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Amazon AWS
I have not had to contact support for this service, however I have had to contact AWS for other services and their support has been good.
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Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Amazon AWS
The only thing that can be compared to DynamoDB from the selected services can be Aurora. It is just that we use Aurora for High-Performance requirements as it can be 6 times faster than normal RDS DB. Both of them have served as well in the required scenario and we are very happy with most of the AWS services.
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Amazon AWS
It integrates beautifully with AWS. In some projects we use SimpleDB while we use DynamoDB for others, according to the characteristics of the project. If the infrastructure is AWS, we always think of one of them.
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Scalability
Amazon AWS
I have taken one point away due to its size limits. In case the application requires queries, it becomes really complicated to read and write data. When it comes to extremely large data sets such as the case in my company, a third-party logistics company, where huge amount of data is generated on a daily basis, even though the scalability is good, it becomes difficult to manage all the data due to limits.
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Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Amazon AWS
  • Some developers see DynamoDB and try to fit problems to it, instead of picking the best solution for a given problem. This is true of any newer tool that people are trying to adopt.
  • It has allowed us to add more scalability to some of our systems.
  • As with any new technology there was a ramp up/rework phase as we learned best practices.
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Amazon AWS
  • Reduced database administration time
  • Reduced data model analysis time
  • Lower cost of resources in projects in general
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ScreenShots

Amazon DynamoDB Screenshots

Screenshot of Amazon DynamoDB in the AWS Console