This blog was originally published in April 2023, and we thought it was time for an update.
The objective remains the same: since nearly all cloud providers offer a MySQL-based cloud service, who provides the best value?
Comparing MySQL cloud services
To answer that question, we compared the cost of the following services:
- Amazon RDS for MySQL
- Amazon Aurora MySQL-Compatible Edition
- Google Cloud SQL for MySQL
- Azure Database for MySQL
- HeatWave MySQL on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)
Comparison information:
- We considered the scenario of an OLTP application with 1 TB of data running 24 hours/day for 30 days, i.e., 720 hours.
- All calculations use public prices published as of January 10, 2025. For all vendors, we considered the on-demand/pay-as-you-go list prices.
- For the cost calculation, we’ve attempted to use “apples-to-apples” comparisons as much as possible. We considered the compute shapes, CPUs, memory, storage, and backup storage—for a single Availability Zone/Domain deployment for all services.
- When I/Os are charged separately (Amazon Aurora), we considered 800 million read I/Os and 80 million write I/Os for a month.
- For backup storage, we always considered that the data amount would be equivalent to 100% of the database storage.
Cost comparison
Summary:
Details:
1. Amazon RDS for MySQL
Metrics
- Shape: db.r6i.8xlarge – $3.84/hour
- CPUs: 32 vCPUs
- Memory: 256 GB
- Storage: $0.115/GB/month
- Backup storage: No additional charge for backup storage up to 100% of total database storage, additional backup storage at $0.095/GB/month
Costs
2. Amazon Aurora MySQL-Compatible Edition (Standard)
Metrics
- Shape: db.r6i.8xlarge – $4.64/hour
- CPUs: 32 vCPUs
- Memory: 256 GB
- Storage: $0.10/GB/month
- I/O rate (charged separately): $0.20 per 1 million requests
- Backup storage: No additional charge for backup storage up to 100% of total database storage, additional backup storage at $0.021/GB/month
Costs
3. Google Cloud SQL for MySQL Enterprise Plus edition
Metrics
- CPU: $0.0574/vCPU/hour
- Memory: $0.0097/GB/hour
- Storage: $0.182 per GB/month
- Backup storage: $0.086 per GB/month
Costs
4. Azure Database for MySQL (E Series)
Metrics
- CPUs: 32 vCPUs
- Memory: 256 GB
- Storage: $0.115/GB/month
- Backup storage: No additional charge for backup storage up to 100% of total database storage, additional backup storage at $0.095/GB/month
Costs
5. HeatWave MySQL on OCI:
Metrics
- CPUs: 32 ECPUs
- Memory: 256 GB
- Storage: $0.04/GB/month
- Backup storage: No additional charge for backup storage up to 100% of total database storage, additional backup storage at $0.04/GB/month
Costs
As we can clearly see from this comparison, HeatWave MySQL is far less expensive than the MySQL cloud services from AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure. Moreover, this value may even be greater depending on the deployment region.
Caution: AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud prices vary widely by region
OCI offers consistent pricing and availability for all services across all global regions. This predictability makes it easy for you to plan and budget for rapid geographic expansion regardless of where you need to consume the cloud services. However, prices for AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure vary per region.
For AWS and Azure, we considered their US East regions in Northern Virginia in the above comparison, and for Google Cloud, their US East4 region, also in Northern Virginia. Compared to those US East regions, prices vary as follows for the different services in their other regions:
As demonstrated in this blog, HeatWave MySQL delivers substantially more value than the MySQL cloud services offered by AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure. Furthermore, not only can you power your OLTP applications using HeatWave MySQL but you also get built-in lakehouse-scale analytics, generative AI, and machine learning at no additional cost.
See what’s possible with HeatWave MySQL (3:16)
What if you’d like to run HeatWave MySQL on other clouds than OCI? You can! HeatWave is available natively on AWS and on Azure via the Oracle interconnect for Azure. With our HeatWave MySQL migration program you can confidently migrate with free expert guidance, free step-by-steps migration guides, and free training.
Don’t hesitate to contact us to further discuss how we could help you.