# Amazon Aurora vs Google Cloud Spanner

**Leader by Vioscale score:** Amazon Aurora

| Attribute | Amazon Aurora | Google Cloud Spanner |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 50.2 (48% (low)) | 43.9 (39% (low)) |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | Aurora is a serverless, relational database service offering zero infrastructure management and instant scaling. It provides 6x the throughput of standard PostgreSQL and MySQL while maintaining full compatibility with both. | Google Cloud's globally distributed, multi-model database supporting relational, graph, key-value, and search capabilities with native PostgreSQL interface and Gemini AI integration. |
| features.capabilities | `{"sql_model":"full_sql","deployment":"serverless","serverless":true,"consistency":"strong","license_class":"proprietary","horizontal_scale":"distributed_native","acid_transactions":"full","automatic_failover":true,"wire_compatibility":"postgres"}` | `{"isolation":"serializable","sql_model":"full_sql","deployment":"managed","consistency":"strong","replication":"consensus","extensibility":true,"license_class":"proprietary","horizontal_scale":"distributed_native","acid_transactions":"full","automatic_failover":true,"wire_compatibility":"postgres"}` |
| integrations.count | - | 5 |
| integrations.list | - | `[{"name":"Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform"},{"name":"Gemini CLI"},{"name":"Model Context Protocol (MCP)"},{"name":"Agent Development Kit (ADK)"},{"name":"Data Agent Kit"}]` |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"web":true}` | - |
| pricing | - | `{"type":"usage","summary":"Usage-based pricing: compute capacity (nodes/processing units, hourly), storage (monthly), backups, data replication, network bandwidth. Free 90-day trial instances. Optional 1-year and 3-year committed use discounts. Three editions available: Standard, Enterprise, and Enterprise Plus.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://cloud.google.com/spanner","retrievedAt":"2026-08-03T12:40:26.715Z","freeTrialDays":90,"billingPeriods":["hour","month"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | freemium | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | - | low |
| reliability.sla_pct | 99.999 | - |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | - |
| security.fedramp | yes | - |
| security.gdpr | yes | - |
| security.hipaa | yes | - |
| security.pci | yes | - |

## Capabilities (Relational Databases)

| Capability | Amazon Aurora | Google Cloud Spanner |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| SQL model | Full SQL | Full SQL |
| **Transactions** |  |  |
| ACID transactions | Full | Full |
| Highest isolation level | - | Serializable |
| **Consistency** |  |  |
| Consistency | Strong | Strong |
| **Scale** |  |  |
| Horizontal scale | Natively distributed | Natively distributed |
| **Replication** |  |  |
| Replication | - | Consensus (Raft/Paxos) |
| **Availability** |  |  |
| Automatic failover / HA | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Deployment | Serverless | Managed |
| Serverless / scale-to-zero | ✓ | - |
| **Compatibility** |  |  |
| Wire compatibility | Postgres protocol | Postgres protocol |
| **Extensibility** |  |  |
| Extensions / plugins / UDFs | - | ✓ |
| **Licensing** |  |  |
| Licence class | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| **Data types** |  |  |
| JSON / document support | - | - |
| Geo / spatial | - | - |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T16:45:18.463Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*