What users are saying about
Top Rated
107 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener noreferrer'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 9 out of 100
Based on 107 reviews and ratings
108 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener noreferrer'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 8.5 out of 100
Based on 108 reviews and ratings
Likelihood to Recommend
Amazon RDS
If you're operating within the Amazon universe of cloud computing, it's almost a no-brainer to utilize [Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)]. RDS is well suited for probably a majority of applications that are candidates to host on a cloud computing platform as it reduces overall management and complexity of your system.However, if you're doing a lot of data exporting/importing using tools that write to/read from the disk on the server, you may have challenges integrating RDS, as you have no access to the underlying host.

Verified User
Engineer in Engineering
Marketing and Advertising Company, 11-50 employeesIBM Cloudant
IBM Cloudant is generally a good tool for a NonSQL, document oriented Database as a Service. It is very scalable and reliable, and managed services through IBM seems to be working well. You can consider as almost no lock-in since it is based on CouchDB API structures and you can migrate to any other provider in the future if needed. If you need real Global Availability, like Asia / China you may need to look for alternatives.

Verified User
Executive in Information Technology
Consumer Goods Company, 10,001+ employeesFeature Rating Comparison
Database-as-a-Service
Amazon RDS
9.4
IBM Cloudant
—
Automatic software patching
Amazon RDS
9.7
IBM Cloudant
—
Database scalability
Amazon RDS
9.7
IBM Cloudant
—
Automated backups
Amazon RDS
9.2
IBM Cloudant
—
Database security provisions
Amazon RDS
9.5
IBM Cloudant
—
Monitoring and metrics
Amazon RDS
8.3
IBM Cloudant
—
Automatic host deployment
Amazon RDS
9.7
IBM Cloudant
—
NoSQL Databases
Amazon RDS
—
IBM Cloudant
7.7
Performance
Amazon RDS
—
IBM Cloudant
7.8
Availability
Amazon RDS
—
IBM Cloudant
8.2
Concurrency
Amazon RDS
—
IBM Cloudant
7.6
Security
Amazon RDS
—
IBM Cloudant
7.9
Scalability
Amazon RDS
—
IBM Cloudant
7.3
Data model flexibility
Amazon RDS
—
IBM Cloudant
7.2
Deployment model flexibility
Amazon RDS
—
IBM Cloudant
7.7
Pros
Amazon RDS
- For engineers with experience managing databases, setup is simple. And for the uninitiated, the RDS console interface becomes intuitive with some practice.
- Not having the maintain the underlying infrastructure is a great benefit of using RDS. Patching and backups can be scheduled from the console and from then on are pretty much automated.
- Right-sizing the DB instance to perform optimally with an application can be a very simple procedure. If a DB instance is not struggling to keep up, the instance size can be scaled up with just a few clicks.
- Baseline configurations are generally sane for most RDS instances. This allows novice developers and engineers to get the most out of the service without being a complete database administrator.
Senior Systems Reliability Engineer
The Walt Disney CompanyEntertainment, 10,001+ employees
IBM Cloudant
- For us, performance and scalability is the key, and Cloudant DB backed by CouchDB is scalable and performant.
- IBM Cloudant dB is very easy to provision for sandbox, development, QA as well as production.
- Support for Java for CouchDB app server analytics enables a greater control for over developers.
- Schema free oriented very easy to program and build applications on it.
- We love it!!
Director - Data and Analytics Services (Presales)
Miracle Software Systems, IncComputer Software, 1001-5000 employees
Cons
Amazon RDS
- There should be a proper listing of all parameter groups alongside the instances that they are attached to. This would help to see which instances would be affected if a parameter group is changed.
- RDS should allow SUPER privilege to the master user. A few advanced tasks(like getting a physical backup using MySQL Enterprise Backup) fail because SUPER privilege is not available for the master user.
- A few parameters are not modifiable in the parameter groups and the access to the server filesystem is not given. This should not be the case because as an advanced user, you might want to understand things a little deeper.
Software Developer
ezDIHealth, Wellness and Fitness, 201-500 employees
IBM Cloudant
- It was only after we went with the cloud-based solution that IBM rolled out an on-premise version.
- We found that a 3rd-party ODBC driver was required for a few applications that needed to pull data out of Cloudant.
- The sales process was difficult because the salesperson we used was not as versed on Cloudant as I had hoped.

Verified User
Analyst in Marketing
Retail Company, 51-200 employeesLikelihood to Renew
Amazon RDS
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
IBM Cloudant
IBM Cloudant 7.3
Based on 1 answer
the flexibility of NoSQL allow us to modify and upgrade our apps very fast and in a convenient way. Having the solution hosted by IBM is also giving us the chance to focus on features and the improvement of our apps. It's one thing less to be worried about
General Manager
SupermioComputer Software, 1-10 employees
Usability
Amazon RDS
Amazon RDS 8.8
Based on 5 answers
The vast majority of things you'd want to do in Amazon Relational Database Service are simple to accomplish and remarkably consistent across database engines. Pricing, scalability and monitoring are easy to configure. If I had one complaint, it's that database engine specific features are not well documented in AWS, requiring reading external documentation in order to use some database systems to the fullest. But for most use cases, the defaults available in AWS are simple, easy to use, and good enough.

Verified User
Professional in Information Technology
Human Resources Company, 51-200 employeesIBM Cloudant
IBM Cloudant 7.7
Based on 5 answers
It's mostly just a straight forward API to a data store. I knock one off for the full text search thing, but I don't need it much anyways. Also, the dashboard UI they give is pretty nice to use. It provides syntax-highlighting for writing views and queries are easy to test. I wish other DBs had a UI like this.
Developer
Qubit NetworksTelecommunications, 11-50 employees
Reliability and Availability
Amazon RDS
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
IBM Cloudant
IBM Cloudant 8.2
Based on 2 answers
it is a highly available solution in the IBM cloud portfolio and hence we have never had any issues with the data base being available - we also do continuous replication to be on the safer side just in case some thing goes awry. We also perform twice a year disaster recovery tests.
customer service leader
ifoxComputer Software, 1001-5000 employees
Performance
Amazon RDS
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
IBM Cloudant
IBM Cloudant 8.2
Based on 2 answers
very easy to get started and is very developer friendly given that it uses couchDB analytics. It is a cloud based solution and hence there is no hardware investment in a server and staging the server to get started and the associated delays/bureaucracy involved to get started. Good documentation is also available.
customer service leader
ifoxComputer Software, 1001-5000 employees
Support Rating
Amazon RDS
Amazon RDS 8.9
Based on 25 answers
The product is fairly straight forward to use, and staff as well as knowledge base is pretty good for getting answers you may need. The product is a great, flexible alternative to adding to one's own in-house infrastructure. It's especially useful for environments that you aren't sure about the overall long term need. Amazon Relational Database Service is great for environments that once you determine the long term need, can be maintained by Amazon.
President, Principal
Klaxon IT SolutionsHospital & Health Care, 11-50 employees
IBM Cloudant
IBM Cloudant 8.6
Based on 6 answers
Very happy by the commitment given by the team which has been really good over the last 7 years of usage.
VP of Engineering
AirFi / MI AirlineInformation Technology and Services, 11-50 employees
Online Training
Amazon RDS
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
IBM Cloudant
IBM Cloudant 7.3
Based on 1 answer
online resources are good enough to understand but there is nothing like testing. In our case, we discovered some not documented behavior that we take in count now. Also, the experience in NodeJs is critical. Also, take in count that most of the "good practices" with cloudant are not in online courses but in blogs and pages from independent developers
General Manager
SupermioComputer Software, 1-10 employees
Implementation Rating
Amazon RDS
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
IBM Cloudant
IBM Cloudant 8.2
Based on 8 answers
- Test the architecture on CouchDB helped us to address initial design flaws.
- The migration to Cloudant as such was very painless.
- We have migrate our replication system to Cloudant Android Sync for mobile devices.
- We have regular informal contact with the Cloudant leadership to discuss our use cases and implementation strategies.
VP of Engineering
AirFi / MI AirlineInformation Technology and Services, 11-50 employees
Alternatives Considered
Amazon RDS
Amazon Relational Database Service will probably give you everything you need from a traditional manual DB setup, except everything is managed for you. The only downside is having to pay the premium for the service; however, the trade-off of not having to deal with the intricacies involved with database administration, make it well worth it for most.
Senior Software Engineer
RocketripComputer Software, 11-50 employees
IBM Cloudant
It's easier to use than Dynamo, more open than Firebase, and has better documentation that CouchDB... it might not be fair to compare Modulus, Modulus obviously suffers from some scalability issues and might not be in the same class... but its a hosted DB service we had some experience with in the past....
CTO (Chief Technical Officer)
YukonBabyHospital & Health Care, 1-10 employees
Scalability
Amazon RDS
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
IBM Cloudant
IBM Cloudant 8.6
Based on 21 answers
As a DB-as-a-Service, Cloudant has freed us from this kind of problem. Using the IBM Bluemix dashboard you can control how many transaction are executed in milliseconds and this is for now our rating of scalability between 200-24 milliseconds for one http POST (insert document), well under the project rate that was defined by an order of magnitude.
Owner
NEWLOG Consulting SrlComputer Software, 11-50 employees
Return on Investment
Amazon RDS
- Switching back to RDS from Redshift has made my BI Dashboards much more performant (though again, we're not dealing with data in the magnitudes that justify the Redshift toolset).
- It has decreased our tech debt. Engineering has been much more straight forward.
- Our uptime has been improved by removing unnecessary data migration processes.
Senior Project Manager
OnMetricInternet, 11-50 employees
IBM Cloudant
- Saving in-terms of cost of procuring and maintaining hardware, which will be realized over the next 5 years.
- Positive ROI in terms of the number of FTEs involved in maintaining our databases; our DBAs can now focus on other important and business critical applications.
- Best ROI in terms of our organization's vision - they are no longer anxious / nervous to move to the cloud. We are already on the CLOUD.
Director - Data and Analytics Services (Presales)
Miracle Software Systems, IncComputer Software, 1001-5000 employees
Screenshots
Amazon RDS
IBM Cloudant
—Pricing Details
Amazon RDS
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
Optional
Free to try. Pay only for what you use with no minimum fee.
Amazon RDS Editions & Modules
Edition
Amazon RDS for MySQL | $0.29 ($0.58)1 |
---|---|
Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL | $0.24 ($0.48)1 |
Amazon RDS for MariaDB | $0.25 ($0.50)1 |
Amazon RDS for Oracle | $0.482 ($0.964)1 |
Amazon RDS for SQL Server | $1.02 ($1.52)1 |
- per hour, R5 Large (R5 Extra Large)
Additional Pricing Details
—IBM Cloudant
General
Free Trial
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
Entry-level set up fee?
No
IBM Cloudant Editions & Modules
—