# Amazon RDS vs Timescale Cloud

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** Amazon RDS

| Attribute | Amazon RDS | Timescale Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 72 (73% (medium)) | 58.6 (63% (medium)) |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"Automates routine database tasks like provisioning, backups, and patching while supporting multiple database engines. Offers flexibility with deployment options in cloud or on-premises environments. It is indexed under Managed Databases.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/pricing/?nc2=h_pr_pr","question":"What is Amazon RDS?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Amazon RDS offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Paid plans are also available: AWS Free Tier, Aurora Serverless (On-Demand) and Aurora Reserved Instances. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/rds/aurora/pricing/","question":"Is Amazon RDS free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Amazon RDS supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/rds/aurora/pricing/","question":"What platforms does Amazon RDS support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Amazon RDS can be deployed cloud / SaaS and on-premise, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/pricing/?nc2=h_pr_pr","question":"Can Amazon RDS be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 15 integrations for Amazon RDS, including Amazon Aurora, Amazon EC2, Amazon EBS, AWS CloudWatch, AWS CloudFormation, AWS Config, Amazon S3 and AWS IAM, plus 7 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/pricing/?nc2=h_pr_pr","question":"What does Amazon RDS integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA and GDPR for Amazon RDS. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Amazon RDS not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/?nc2=h_dsc_aa_cmp","question":"What security certifications does Amazon RDS have?","confidence":0.7},{"answer":"Amazon RDS is available worldwide. Its primary market is the United States. The vendor is headquartered in the United States.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/rds/aurora/pricing/","question":"Where is Amazon RDS available?","confidence":0.75}]` | `[{"answer":"A PostgreSQL-based platform that adds time-series capabilities for efficient storage, fast queries, and real-time analytics on time-series data and events, with compression and tiered storage support. It is indexed under Managed Databases.","source":"https://www.timescale.com","question":"What is Timescale Cloud?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Timescale Cloud offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.timescale.com","question":"Is Timescale Cloud free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Timescale Cloud supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://www.tigerdata.com/learn/understanding-rds-pricing-and-costs","question":"What platforms does Timescale Cloud support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Timescale Cloud can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://www.timescale.com","question":"Can Timescale Cloud be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 6 integrations for Timescale Cloud, including Kafka, S3, Iceberg, Tableau, Power BI and Grafana. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.tigerdata.com/learn/understanding-rds-pricing-and-costs","question":"What does Timescale Cloud integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2 and GDPR for Timescale Cloud. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Timescale Cloud not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://www.tigerdata.com/security/vulnerability-disclosure","question":"What security certifications does Timescale Cloud have?","confidence":0.7}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"on_prem":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | Automates routine database tasks like provisioning, backups, and patching while supporting multiple database engines. Offers flexibility with deployment options in cloud or on-premises environments. | A fully managed PostgreSQL database optimized for ingesting, storing, and querying machine-generated and time-series data efficiently with automatic scaling and compression. |
| features.capabilities | `{"free_tier":true,"engine_family":"multi_engine","pricing_model":"tiered_plus_usage","deployment_type":"hyperscaler_native","automatic_failover":true,"private_networking":true,"point_in_time_recovery":true,"multi_region_replication":true,"built_in_connection_pooling":true}` | `{"free_tier":true,"engine_family":"postgresql","pricing_model":"usage_based","deployment_type":"independent_multi_cloud","automatic_failover":true,"private_networking":true,"self_host_alternative":true,"point_in_time_recovery":true,"multi_region_replication":true,"extensions_plugin_support":"extensive"}` |
| integrations.count | 15 | 4 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Amazon Aurora"},{"name":"Amazon EC2"},{"name":"Amazon EBS"},{"name":"AWS CloudWatch"},{"name":"AWS CloudFormation"},{"name":"AWS Config"},{"name":"Amazon S3"},{"name":"AWS IAM"},{"name":"AWS Outposts"},{"name":"AWS Graviton3"},{"name":"Amazon QuickSight"},{"name":"Amazon Redshift"},{"name":"AWS Artifact"},{"name":"Amazon GuardDuty"},{"name":"AWS Audit Manager"},{"name":"Amazon CloudWatch","native":true,"category":"monitoring","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"AWS Database Migration Service","native":true,"direction":"bidirectional"}]` | `[{"name":"Kafka"},{"name":"S3"},{"name":"Iceberg"},{"name":"Tableau"},{"name":"Power BI"},{"name":"Grafana"},{"name":"Amazon S3","native":true,"category":"data_ingestion","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Apache Iceberg","native":true,"category":"data_warehouse","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"AWS Transit Gateway","native":true,"category":"networking","direction":"bidirectional"}]` |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"AWS Free Tier","summary":"$100 AWS credits included; free tier valid for 12 months","features":["Aurora PostgreSQL serverless instances","Database automation (provisioning, backup, patching)"],"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":100,"period":"one_time","currency":"USD"}],"description":"$100 in AWS credits at sign-up, valid for up to 12 months; eligible services include Aurora. Additional $100 in credits available. For new signups after July 15, 2025: choice of Free Plan or Paid Plan.","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"free_tier_credits":"first year","storage_per_cluster":"1 GiB","aurora_serverless_capacity":"up to 4 ACUs"}},{"free":false,"name":"Aurora Serverless (On-Demand)","summary":"Billed per Aurora Capacity Unit (ACU) per second based on usage","features":["Automatic scaling to hundreds of thousands of transactions per second","Multi-AZ deployments","Read replicas","Global Database support","All Aurora features"],"description":"Auto-scaling configuration that adjusts database capacity based on application needs in real-time","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Aurora Reserved Instances","summary":"Annual commitment with amortized hourly pricing","features":["1-year commitment term","Designated to specific AWS Region and instance type","Billed for every hour of term regardless of running status"],"commitment":"annual","description":"Commitment-based pricing for predictable workloads with significant savings over on-demand","contactSales":false}],"addOns":[{"name":"CPU Credits","components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"vCPU-hour"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.09,"currency":"USD"}]},{"name":"Data API"},{"name":"RDS Extended Support"},{"name":"Database Savings Plans"}],"summary":"Free tier with $100 AWS credits for 12 months. Hybrid pricing: serverless billed per ACU/second, reserved instances with annual commitment, on-demand per hour. Pricing varies by region and instance type.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://aws.amazon.com/rds/aurora/pricing/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-19T14:45:21.479Z","billingPeriods":["hour","month","year"]}` | `{"type":"usage","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"Performance","summary":"Hourly compute (from ~$30/month) + $0.177/GB-month storage","features":["Hourly billing with zero friction to get started","4 database services","Reliability and monitoring","Single-node high-availability replicas","Point-in-time-recovery to 3 days","Basic support (9-5 ET)"],"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"gb"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.177,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"For new applications and internal tools that need strong performance without complexity","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"pitr_days":"3","support_hours":"business hours (9-5 ET)","database_services":"4"}},{"free":false,"name":"Scale","summary":"Hourly compute (from ~$36/month) + $0.212/GB-month storage","features":["Unlimited database services","Unlimited Tiered Storage","Private endpoints","SOC 2 report","Advanced Reliability and Monitoring","Multi-node high-availability replicas","Point-in-time-recovery to 14 days","Integrations with observability tools","SAML Single-sign-on (SSO)","HIPAA compliance","Cross-region backups for disaster recovery","Production support (24x7, 1 hour response time for Sev 1)"],"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"gb"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.212,"currency":"USD"}],"contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"storage":"unlimited","support":"24x7 production","pitr_days":"14","database_services":"unlimited"}}],"summary":"Usage-based hourly compute metering plus per-GB storage. 30-day free trial.","currency":"USD","freeTier":false,"sourceUrl":"https://www.tigerdata.com/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-10-12T16:07:23.454Z","freeTrialDays":30,"startingPrice":{"unit":"gb","amount":0.177,"currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | no |
| pricing.model | free | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | free | low |
| pricing.starting_price | - | `{"amount":0.177,"currency":"USD"}` |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| reliability.sla_pct | 99.99 | - |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.certifications | - | `[{"name":"SOC 2 Type II","level":"Type II","status":"active"}]` |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | yes |
| security.fedramp | yes | - |
| security.gdpr | yes | yes |
| security.hipaa | yes | yes |
| security.iso27001 | yes | - |
| security.pci | yes | - |
| security.soc2 | yes | yes |
| security.trust_center | https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/ | https://www.tigerdata.com/security |

## Capabilities (Managed Databases)

| Capability | Amazon RDS | Timescale Cloud |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Capabilities** |  |  |
| Engine family | Multi engine | Postgresql |
| Deployment type | Hyperscaler native | Independent multi cloud |
| Serverless scale to zero | - | - |
| Database branching | - | - |
| Point in time recovery | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multi region replication | ✓ | ✓ |
| Automatic failover | ✓ | ✓ |
| Private networking | ✓ | ✓ |
| Built in connection pooling | ✓ | - |
| Extensions plugin support | - | Extensive |
| Self host alternative | - | ✓ |
| Pricing model | Tiered plus usage | Usage based |
| Free tier | ✓ | ✓ |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-17T01:29:50.112Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*