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Amazon RDS vs Turso

SEPT 2026 audit

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

Updated 16 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 Turso if…

Applications that want a database per tenant or per user — 100 databases on the free plan and unlimited above it make that a shape you can actually build.

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.
  • Turso: It is SQLite, not Postgres: the metered units are rows read and written rather than compute, and the extension ecosystem you may be relying on is not there.

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

Visit Amazon RDS documentationVisit Turso 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 RDSTurso
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.SQLite, via libSQL — Turso's own fork. Not Postgres or MySQL, so the query surface and the client libraries differ from every other database on this site.
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.
10 days on Developer. 1 day on the free plan, 30 days on Scaler and 90 days on Pro.

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.
Turso
SQLite, via libSQL — Turso's own fork. Not Postgres or MySQL, so the query surface and the client libraries differ from every other database on this site.
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 — Turso ↗

    “Embedded Replicas Database Branching Backups & Recovery Platform API Turso Database Quickstart”

    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.

Turso

10 days on Developer. 1 day on the free plan, 30 days on Scaler and 90 days on Pro.

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.

Free tierTurso: Yes
Entry paid planTurso: $4.99/month for Developer, the cheapest paid plan. Scaler is $24.92 and Pro $416.58.
Pricing modelTurso: Per database, metered on rows rather than compute time: 500 million rows read and 10 million written a month on the free plan, 2.5 billion and 25 million on Developer, with overage at $1 per billion rows read and $1 per million written.
Storage (entry plan)Turso: 9 GB on Developer, then $0.75 per GB. The free plan includes 5 GB; Scaler is 24 GB at $0.50 and Pro 50 GB at $0.45.
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.
Database branchingTurso: Supported
Read replicasAmazon RDS: Supported — 15 per primary, raisable on request
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.
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 Turso?

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 Turso if Applications that want a database per tenant or per user — 100 databases on the free plan and unlimited above it make that a shape you can actually build.

Provider pages

Amazon RDSAWS managed relational database service running PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server and Db2 on provisioned DB instances.TursoManaged SQLite built on libSQL, priced per database with rows read and written as the metered units.

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Every page here is sourced and dated.