How does Tungsten Cluster compare to Amazon Aurora for MySQL high availability?

Tungsten Cluster provides more flexible MySQL high availability than Amazon Aurora. Unlike Aurora, Tungsten Cluster supports on-premises, multi-cloud, and hybrid deployments, offers true active-active multi-region topologies, and includes zero-downtime maintenance. Aurora is limited to AWS infrastructure and requires maintenance windows for certain operations.

Can Tungsten Cluster run outside of AWS unlike Amazon Aurora?

Yes. Tungsten Cluster runs on any infrastructure — on-premises, any public cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure), or hybrid environments. Amazon Aurora is exclusively an AWS-managed service and cannot be deployed outside of AWS.

Does Amazon Aurora support active-active multi-primary replication?

No. Amazon Aurora does not support true active-active multi-primary replication across regions. Tungsten Cluster supports both Composite Active-Active (CAA) and Dynamic Active-Active (DAA) topologies, enabling writable clusters in multiple regions simultaneously.

How does the cost of Tungsten Cluster compare to Amazon Aurora?

Tungsten Cluster uses non-linear subscription pricing starting at up to $8,000 per node per year, with volume discounts of 20–40% for larger deployments and a 20% new customer discount. Amazon Aurora pricing is consumption-based and can become significantly more expensive at scale, particularly for I/O-intensive workloads and multi-region deployments.

What level of support does Tungsten Cluster offer compared to Amazon Aurora?

Tungsten Cluster includes 24/7/365 expert support with an average response time of under 3 minutes for urgent issues, delivered by engineers with 25+ years of MySQL experience. Amazon Aurora support is tiered through AWS Support plans, with premium response times only available on higher-cost Business and Enterprise plans.

Tungsten Cluster vs. Amazon Aurora

MySQL and MariaDB Clustering Solutions Comparison

Learn why Tungsten Clustering is a better (complete, proven) and more cost-effective (software, 24/7 support and consulting all included) MySQL High Availability (HA), Disaster Recovery (DR) and Geographically-Distributed (Geo-Scale) solution compared to Amazon AWS Aurora for MySQL.

For any MySQL clustering to be a complete high-availability and disaster recovery solution, it requires three core components working in sync: connectivity (proxy), management (orchestration) and replication (local/global).

Tungsten Cluster

Tungsten Clustering includes three highly integrated and fully tested components Tungsten Proxy, Tungsten Manager and Tungsten Replicator working together to provide both local (individual clusters) and global (multiple clusters working together) data service for continuous 24/7 MySQL operations.

Connectivity Complete and Integrated (Tungsten Proxy)

Orchestration Integrated Business Rules (Tungsten Manager)

Replication Advanced Local and Global (Tungsten Replicator)

 Connectivity
 Orchestration
 Replication

Amazon Aurora

Amazon Aurora for MySQL is an attractive, yet somewhat expensive, ‘managed’ SaaS solution for DevOps and local MySQL HA needs. Adding disaster recovery will make it much more expensive without performance gain on the secondary site. Aurora does not offer a truly global multi-site solution.

Connectivity Direct (benefits from 3rd-party proxy or load balancer)

Orchestration Limited

Replication Distributed file system for cluster, asynchronous for AWS cross region

Amazon AWS Aurora for MySQL Comparison

Use Cases Supported

	Tungsten Cluster	Amazon Aurora
High Availability	Supported	Supported
Disaster Recovery	Supported	With Aurora Global Database
Zero Downtime Maintenance	Supported	Not Supported
Continuous Operations	Supported	With Aurora Global Database
Multi-Primary	Supported	Not Supported
Active/Passive	Supported	Not Supported
Active/Active	Supported	Not Supported
Geo-Scale	Supported	Not Supported

Features & Benefits

	Tungsten Cluster	Amazon Aurora
Continuous Operations	4.67	3.00
Zero Downtime Maintenance	Both database, operating system and hardware changes & upgrades	Requires maintenance window and downtime
High Availability	Automatic failover of primary	30 seconds downtime with DNS change
DR with Active/Passive Cluster	Automated site level switch with one failover command	Only with Aurora Global Database. Takes “a few minutes.”
DR with Active/Active Cluster	Only requires repointing the apps	Cross-region active/active not supported
DR Failback	Single command, fast	Cross-region failback requires reprovision
Backup & Data Recovery	Flexible backups using existing external tools	Managed, proprietary
Scalability/Read replicas	4.40	4.00
Scalability/Read replicas	Supported	Supported
Scalability/Physical location	Deploy anywhere, on-prem and in the cloud (also hybrid- and multi-cloud)	AWS regions only
Scalability/Instance size	Choose the instance size, minimal requirements	Supported
DB Node Auto-Scale	No auto-scale. Requires manual steps	Auto-scale supported with "serverless," reduced functionality
DB Cluster Scaling	Ideal for the SaaS apps (Pod Architecture)	Ideal for DevOps
Geographic Scaling	5.00	3.33
Scalability/Read replicas	Across regions, availability zones, and clouds	But only for read replicas and in AWS regions
Active/Active Geo-Clusters	Multi-site active/active supported and widely deployed	Local only
Active/Passive Geo-Clusters	Supported and widely deployed in cross-regions and cross-clouds, also on-premises	Supported (in AWS only)
Performance	4.75	3.50
Smart-Scale	Tungsten Proxy with automatic read/write split, no application changes	Not natively, requires 3rd party proxy
Load Balancing	Highly configurable with automatic read/write splitting	High performance but read/write splitting requires app awareness
Up to Date Read Replicas	Using asynchronous replication	Using distributed file system
Robust Database Performance	Tune your favorite database, asynchronous replication adds almost no performance penalty	Tweaks to standard MySQL for performance
Transparency	5.00	3.33
No Application Changes	Works out of box without app changes	Apps with advanced MySQL 8.0 and MariaDB features may not work
All MySQL Versions	Native MySQL: Community, MySQL Enterprise, MariaDB, Percona Server, all versions	"Compatible MySQL" based on MySQL 5.6 and 5.7, no MySQL 8.0 or MariaDB 10.x support
Compatibility With All Database Engines	All MySQL engines	InnoDB only
Security	4.33	5.00
Security/Encryption at rest	Can leverage existing cloud or filesystem encryption technologies	Built in
Security/Encryption in flight	Supported for all traffic	Supported for all traffic
Compliance (PCI, HIPAA)	Can be used in security/privacy standards	Can be used in security/privacy standards
Management and Monitoring	4.80	4.20
Deployment	Easy to deploy	Easy to deploy
Cluster Management	Easy management via web-based GUI	UI, region specific - can only view a single region at a time
Monitoring - GUI	Full GUI based cluster monitoring. Performance monitoring with Prometheus	Full monitoring, though enhanced monitoring is charged extra
Alerts / Notifications	Integration with notifications systems	Alerting via AWS api, must be configured
OS/DB Patching	Assistance with scripts, no downtime	Automatic, however will cause interruption
Real-time Data (Analytics, Data Lake, Reporting)	5.00	1.00
Replication Into Analytics	Real-time to the data analytics engines (AWS Redshift, Hadoop, Vertica, many others)	AWS Redshift only, using external tools
Filtering	Complex filtering at schema and data level	Only basic MySQL replication
Cluster Aware	Replication stream not interupted by loss of a single cluster node	External tools need to be made aware

Support Services

	Tungsten Cluster	Amazon Aurora
24/7 Support	5.00	2.00
24/7 Support	24/7 support with high, near 100% customer satisfaction	Basic support > 12 hours, business-critical Enterprise support extremely expensive
Fast Support Reponse Time	The fastest in the industry, averaging less than 3 minutes for Urgent support request.	Unless paying very high Enterprise support fee
Support Team Experience	Each member has 20+ years experience on DBA and Site Reliability	Unknown who will be providing support, often lower-level call center member with limited or no DBA experience

Intangibles

	Tungsten Cluster	Amazon Aurora
MySQL Version Support	5.00	2.00
MySQL Community	Fully supported, all versions up to 8.0	'MySQL Compatible', 5.6, 5.7, 8.0 (most) features only
MySQL Enterprise	Fully supported, all versions up to 8.0	Not supported
MariaDB	Fully supported, all versions up to 10.5	Not supported
Percona Server	Fully supported	'MySQL Compatible', 5.6 and 5.7 features only
Infrastructure and Platform	5.00	0.75
On-premises Deployment	Fully supported	Not supported
Cloud Deployment	All cloud environments (AWS, Google Cloud, MS Azure) are supported	AWS only
Multi-Cloud	Fully supported	Not supported
Hybrid-Cloud	Fully supported	Not supported
Product Maturity	5.00	3.67
Complete	One solution for HA, DR & Geo-Scale	Mainly for HA, DR only with Aurora Global, no Geo-Scale
Integrated	Comes with Manager, Proxy & Replicator	RDS Proxy is rudimentary and costs extra
Fully Tested	Proven in business-critical customer environments	Widely deployed, testing methodology unknown
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)	4.33	3.33
Low Subscription Cost, High Value	Instance size does not matter, non-linear pricing (additional clusters are at increasingly lower cost), no cost TrueUps	Instance size based pricing, Linear pricing
24/7 Support	Included	Enterprise-level support available at a very high cost
Few DBA Resource Needed	Large number of clusters can be managed with small number of DBAs	Although, the 'managed' DBaaS still needs DBAs

Tungsten Cluster

Tungsten Clustering is the only complete, fully-integrated, fully-tested MySQL HA, DR and geo-clustering solution running on-premises and in the cloud combined with industry-best and fastest, 24/7 support for business-critical MySQL, MariaDB, & Percona Server applications.

It allows enterprises running business-critical MySQL database applications to cost-effectively achieve continuous global operations with commercial-grade high availability (HA), geographically redundant disaster recovery (DR) and geographically distributed active/active.

Continuous Operations

Local clustering for enterprise-grade high availability (HA) and multi-site clustering for best-in-class disaster recovery (DR).

High Availability

Automated local failover, automated recovery and failback for MySQL and MariaDB clusters.

Disaster Recovery

Composite “clusters of clusters” spread across two or more sites or cloud data centers for a geographically distributed managed mesh of MySQL or MariaDB clusters.

Global Scaling

Geo-distributed and global clusters that are locally and globally aware. Serve a geographically-distributed user base with high availability and performance.

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Related Resources

Read the Comparison Blog

Amazon Aurora MySQL - High Noon with Tungsten Clustering for MySQL High Availability (HA), Disaster Recovery (DR) and Geographic Distribution

This is the first blog in our ‘High Noon’ comparison series in which we look at the main solutions for MySQL high availability, disaster recovery and geographic-distribution. We focus on highly available, geo-scale, multi-region MySQL for business critical applications as directly compared to Amazon Aurora. Tungsten Clustering makes it easy to deploy and manage highly available MySQL clusters with any version of MySQL, MariaDB, and Percona Server for MySQL on-premises, in the cloud, hybrid-cloud or multi-cloud.

Matthew Lang

Feb 09, 2021

High Noon Competitor Comparisons, Database-as-a-Service, MySQL High Availability, Tungsten Clustering

Watch the Comparison Presentation

MySQL HA/DR/Geo-Scale - High Noon #1: AWS Aurora

This first installment of our High Noon series of on-demand webinars is focused on AWS Aurora. It looks at some of the key characteristics of AWS Aurora and how it fares as a MySQL HA / DR / Geo-Scale solution, especially when compared to Continuent Tungsten Clustering.

Matthew Lang

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Tungsten Cluster vs. Amazon Aurora

Amazon AWS Aurora for MySQL Comparison

Use Cases Supported

Features & Benefits

Support Services

Intangibles

Tungsten Cluster

Continuous Operations

High Availability

Disaster Recovery

Global Scaling

Interested to Learn More? Get in Touch!

Related Resources

Read the Comparison Blog

Amazon Aurora MySQL - High Noon with Tungsten Clustering for MySQL High Availability (HA), Disaster Recovery (DR) and Geographic Distribution

Watch the Comparison Presentation

MySQL HA/DR/Geo-Scale - High Noon #1: AWS Aurora

Upgrade From the Following Solutions

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Highly Experienced

Quick Response

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