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Amazon RDS vs TigerData

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of Amazon RDS and TigerData built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.

Updated 14 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Choose Amazon RDS if…

Teams already inside AWS, where the database sitting in the same VPC as everything else is worth more than any single feature on this page. Six engines, up to 35 days of point-in-time recovery, and read replicas you create and delete yourself.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Choose TigerData if…

Time-series and analytics workloads that want to stay in Postgres — TimescaleDB's compression is the reason the storage line is affordable at volume.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Consider something else if…

  • Amazon RDS: You want a database per pull request. RDS documents no branching, and replicas are manual — AWS states outright that it does not autoscale them.
  • TigerData: The advertised storage price assumes 5x compression, so a workload that does not compress that well pays materially more than the figure suggests.

2 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.

Visit Amazon RDS documentationVisit TigerData documentation

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

01.

At a glance.

CriterionAmazon RDSTigerData
Data
EnginePostgreSQL, alongside MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server and Db2. Each engine is a separate RDS product with its own version list and its own feature support, so a capability documented for one is not a capability of RDS as a whole.PostgreSQL with TimescaleDB, aimed at time-series, real-time analytics and events. A self-managed edition exists for on-prem and private cloud.
Point-in-time recovery
Any point inside the configured backup retention period, so up to 35 days. Transaction logs are uploaded to S3 every five minutes, which is what bounds how close to now the latest restorable time can be.
3 days on Performance, with cross-region backups available for disaster recovery on higher tiers.
Read replicasSupported — 15 per primary, raisable on requestSupported

Only criteria both providers publish appear here; a tinted cell marks a real difference. Criteria only one of them documents are listed below, and an absence there means we found no source — not that the feature is missing. How we source this.

The small bar above a value is inetGeek's own lean toward that side — computed from the same facts shown, never a number the provider published. See the picker below "The short answer" to weigh only the criteria you care about.

02.

Where they differ.

Engine

Amazon RDS
PostgreSQL, alongside MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server and Db2. Each engine is a separate RDS product with its own version list and its own feature support, so a capability documented for one is not a capability of RDS as a whole.
TigerData
PostgreSQL with TimescaleDB, aimed at time-series, real-time analytics and events. A self-managed edition exists for on-prem and private cloud.
Sources (2) →
  • Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL — Amazon Relational Database Service User Guide ↗

    “Amazon RDS supports DB instances running several versions of PostgreSQL. [...] DB instances running PostgreSQL support Multi-AZ deployments, read replicas, Provisioned IOPS, and can be created inside a virtual private cloud (VPC).”

    Read 2026-09-09 · official docs

  • Pricing — TigerData ↗

    “TimescaleDB Enterprise Self-managed TimescaleDB for on-prem, edge and private cloud Open source TimescaleDB Time-series, real-time analytics and events”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official site

Point-in-time recovery

Amazon RDS

Any point inside the configured backup retention period, so up to 35 days. Transaction logs are uploaded to S3 every five minutes, which is what bounds how close to now the latest restorable time can be.

TigerData

3 days on Performance, with cross-region backups available for disaster recovery on higher tiers.

Sources (2) →

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

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03.

Documented by only one.

These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing.

Entry paid planTigerData: Compute starts at $30/month on Performance, billed hourly, with storage charged separately. Scale starts at $36/month.
Pricing modelTigerData: Compute and storage are billed separately and hourly rather than as one plan price — compute from $30 a month, storage at $0.177 per GB-month, with the headline storage figure resting on an assumed 5x compression ratio.
Managed connection poolingAmazon RDS: Supported
Connection limitAmazon RDS: Not a fixed number: RDS for PostgreSQL sets max_connections by formula from the instance's memory — LEAST({DBInstanceClassMemory/9531392}, 5000) — so a bigger instance class gets more connections and the ceiling is 5,000 however large it is. The parameter can be set by hand anywhere from 6 to 262,143, which is a limit on what you may configure rather than what an instance will serve. Other engines use different divisors: MySQL is memory/12582880 with no cap.
Backup retentionAmazon RDS: Between 0 and 35 days, set per DB instance; 0 disables automated backups entirely. The default depends on how the instance was created — one day via the API or CLI, seven days via the console — so there is no single default to quote. Multi-AZ DB clusters cannot be set below 1 day.
Storage priceTigerData: $0.177 per GB-month on Performance and $0.212 on Scale. TigerData notes the effective price assumes 5x compression, which is an average rather than a guarantee.
SOC 2Amazon RDS: Listed as SOC-compliant on AWS's own compliance scope page.
ISO 27001Amazon RDS: Covered under AWS's account-wide ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification — not scoped per-service the way SOC, HIPAA and PCI DSS are on AWS's own site.
HIPAAAmazon RDS: Listed as a HIPAA-eligible service on AWS's own reference page.
GDPR / data residencyAmazon RDS: AWS customers can process personal data on all AWS services in compliance with GDPR, and choose the storage type and geographic region for their data.
PCI DSSAmazon RDS: Listed as PCI DSS-compliant on AWS's own compliance scope page.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Should I choose Amazon RDS or TigerData?

Pick Amazon RDS if Teams already inside AWS, where the database sitting in the same VPC as everything else is worth more than any single feature on this page. Six engines, up to 35 days of point-in-time recovery, and read replicas you create and delete yourself.

Pick TigerData if Time-series and analytics workloads that want to stay in Postgres — TimescaleDB's compression is the reason the storage line is affordable at volume.

Provider pages

Amazon RDSAWS managed relational database service running PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server and Db2 on provisioned DB instances.TigerDataManaged TimescaleDB — Postgres for time-series and real-time analytics — priced with compute and storage billed separately.

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Every page here is sourced and dated.