Google Cloud Spanner vs AWS Aurora - Which database service is better?

Choosing the right database service can be a challenging task, especially when it comes to comparing two of the biggest names in the industry - Google Cloud Spanner and AWS Aurora. Both services offer high availability and are designed to handle large amounts of data, but which one is the best? In this blog post, we'll compare the two services to help you decide which one is right for your specific use case.

Performance

When it comes to performance, both Google Cloud Spanner and AWS Aurora offer impressive capabilities, but there are some key differences to consider. Google Cloud Spanner is designed to handle large-scale, mission-critical applications and provides an impressive maximum transaction rate of up to two million writes per second across multiple regions. On the other hand, AWS Aurora is optimized for maximum performance and provides an average read latency of less than 10 milliseconds and an average write latency of less than 20 milliseconds.

Here are the specifics for each database:

• Google Cloud Spanner:

  • Maximum write transactions per second: 2 million
  • Maximum read transactions per second: 10 million
  • Maximum database size: 2 petabytes
  • Maximum row size: 100 megabytes

• AWS Aurora:

  • Maximum write transactions per second: 500,000
  • Maximum read transactions per second: 500,000
  • Maximum database size: 64 terabytes
  • Maximum row size: 4 megabytes

As we can see, Google Cloud Spanner offers significantly higher transaction rates and a larger database size compared to AWS Aurora. However, AWS Aurora's average read and write latencies are faster, making it more suited for applications that require low latency.

Cost

The pricing model for both Google Cloud Spanner and AWS Aurora is complex and dependent on many factors, including the number of nodes, storage, network usage, and more. In general, Google Cloud Spanner is more expensive compared to AWS Aurora. The cost for Google Cloud Spanner is based on the number of nodes, while AWS Aurora's pricing is based on the amount of storage used.

Here's a general comparison of the pricing between the two services:

• Google Cloud Spanner:

  • Node pricing: $0.90 per node per hour

• AWS Aurora:

  • Storage pricing: $0.10 per GB-month

While Google Cloud Spanner does offer higher transaction rates and a larger database size, it comes at a higher cost compared with AWS Aurora.

Reliability

Both Google Cloud Spanner and AWS Aurora offer high availability and reliability, but they differ in their approach. Google Cloud Spanner is designed with a distributed architecture that spans multiple regions, offering a highly available and reliable database service. On the other hand, AWS Aurora uses a master-slave configuration that provides high availability and fault tolerance.

Conclusion

In the end, the choice between Google Cloud Spanner and AWS Aurora depends on your specific use case. Google Cloud Spanner offers higher transaction rates and a larger database size, but it comes at a higher cost compared with AWS Aurora. AWS Aurora, on the other hand, offers faster read and write latencies, making it more suited for applications that require low latency. Both services offer high availability and reliability, making them suitable for mission-critical applications.

In summary, here's a general comparison of the two services:

We hope this comparison has helped you make a more informed decision about which service is right for your needs. If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with us.

References

1. Google Cloud Spanner
2. AWS Aurora
3. Google Cloud Spanner vs AWS Aurora: Choosing a Cloud Database