We compared Amazon DynamoDB and Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB based on our user's reviews across parameters. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Amazon DynamoDB and Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, while both providing robust cloud database solutions, exhibit distinct features tailored to diverse user needs. DynamoDB, embedded within the AWS ecosystem, excels in managed scalability, security, and high availability but faces criticism over cost predictability and the steep learning curve for new users. Azure Cosmos DB stands out with its multi-model support and global distribution, offering flexibility and performance optimization across geographically dispersed areas. However, it also presents challenges with its complex pricing structure and steep learning curve. Both platforms indicate potential areas for improvement in cost transparency and user-friendly documentation, but they also maintain solid reputations for enhancing data management through their respective unique strengths.
The summary above is based on 53 interviews we conducted recently with Amazon DynamoDB and Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB users. To access the review's full transcripts, download our report.
"The most valuable features are the flexibility and the compatibility options without needing to use any additional services or software. It is an independent solution that doesn't need other solutions to operate."
"Amazon DynamoDB is a fully managed service by AWS, and it is designed to provide fast and predictable performance."
"Speed is the most valuable feature. The speed to store and retrieve data from it."
"We directly pass the JSON value to Amazon DynamoDB, which is why Amazon DynamoDB is faster than relational databases."
"Storing is a valuable feature. We can store as an entire object rather than the traditional structure of the data."
"The ability to store multiple data attributes is crucial. For example, in a contact flow, if a customer calls, we can integrate DynamoDB dynamically. We need only the customer's mobile number as the primary key, which is stored in the DynamoDB table."
"Amazon DynamoDB allows you to configure your read-write capacity and create a single global table that can be accessed with any other region."
"The technical support team is always available to help us."
"It is non-SQL and helps to manage and manipulate data from the coding, rather than direct data and complex queries."
"The initial setup is simple and straightforward. You can set up a Cosmos DB in a day, even configuring things like availability zones around the world."
"rate Azure support nine out of 10. They respond quickly and will help you manage costs. However, they mainly give you an overview of the issue, so they'll never have an in-depth idea of what you're doing. They aren't the owners of our product, so they don't know much about it, but they can ask you generally: What are you doing? Are you doing too many updates? How can we reduce the cost?"
"The solution is user friendly and Microsoft's technical support is good."
"From a global distribution perspective, Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is good and easy to handle."
"The most valuable features of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB were the general infrastructure, ease to use, and interface."
"It is a scalable product."
"Its wide support to the ecosystem is valuable. We can use this database with a lot of use cases, and that's one of the reasons why we prefer it. We have a lot of vendors, databases, and use cases, and wherever possible, we are trying to standardize databases. It is also secure."
"The pricing for larger databases is higher."
"There are some issues like if we missed something or somehow were not able to store the data, then it was quite difficult for us to get back that data."
"If you have no prior experience with this type of non-relational database, the syntaxes, implementation, or understanding may be difficult."
"They could provide more information or training programs to deliver knowledge to the engineers about the components of relational databases similar to popular vendors."
"Having an import option, whether through browsing or local file uploads, would significantly improve the efficiency of data migration, enabling users to swiftly transfer large volumes of data into DynamoDB."
"Currently, there is no option for a scheduled refresh in this solution. We want the data to be populated into DynamoDB on a timely basis. Currently, you have to go to the DynamoDB table and hit the refresh button to populate it with the new data. If you have connected DynamoDB to a BI application for creating visualizations with charts, graphs, or other things, you would want it to get updated as per the schedule so that you have updated visualizations in your BI application."
"I'd like to see better integration with Cognito. It has the integration, but I'd like to see a little more ease of setup. If you have multiple customers and you want the database to enforce who can see what, you can treat DynamoDB so that each row has permissions. You can set this up, but it's a little more of a science project to make Cognito and DynamoDB work well to do protection of individual rows. So I'd like that to be more wizard or easy to set up."
"Maybe the documentation could be improved a bit. Sometimes, it's a little confusing, and people can easily be mistaken about DynamoDB."
"There is room for improvement in terms of stability."
"I have been a devoted Microsoft fan, but Redis DB's memory caching capabilities are really making progress. Even if Cosmos DB is continuously improving and is quite advanced in the field of internal memory optimization, I would still recommend Redis DB to a customer."
"The integration of the on-premise solution with the cloud can be difficult sometimes."
"I would like the speed of transferring data to be improved."
"The solution cannot join two databases like Oracle or SQL Server."
"The built-in integration of the solution is tight."
"At this stage, we would like more enterprise support. We use MongoDB a lot, and we're trying to get rid of MongoDB. So, I would like to see more features in the Cosmos DB API for MongoDB space."
"The biggest problem is the learning curve and other database services like RDS."
Amazon DynamoDB is ranked 2nd in Managed NoSQL Databases with 31 reviews while Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is ranked 1st in Managed NoSQL Databases with 38 reviews. Amazon DynamoDB is rated 8.4, while Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Amazon DynamoDB writes "Manages our contact center dynamically and allows us to store multiple data attributes in tables". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB writes "Removes bottlenecks related to databases in our application and works quickly because of reference keys". Amazon DynamoDB is most compared with Amazon DocumentDB, Google Cloud Bigtable, Amazon Neptune, Amazon Timestream and Amazon Keyspaces, whereas Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is most compared with Amazon Neptune, Neo4j AuraDB, Google Cloud Bigtable, Amazon DocumentDB and Amazon Timestream. See our Amazon DynamoDB vs. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB report.
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