What's the difference between Amazon Keyspaces and Amazon DynamoDB?
Both are fully managed, serverless-capable NoSQL databases on AWS. DynamoDB is AWS-native with its own API and data model; Keyspaces is Apache Cassandra-compatible, letting you use existing Cassandra drivers, tools, and expertise.
Compare side-by-side
*Content generated by AI and reviewed for accuracy
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Comparisons
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Amazon Keyspaces
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Amazon DynamoDB
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Category
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Databases, Wide column databases |
Databases, NoSQL databases, Non-relational databases |
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Description
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Serverless, scalable, highly available Apache Cassandra-compatible database service designed for consistent single-digit-millisecond reads and writes at any scale. |
Serverless, NoSQL, fully managed database designed for single-digit millisecond performance at any scale. |
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Best for
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Key features
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Pricing model
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On-demand or provisioned capacity |
On-Demand, Reserved, or Serverless (pay-per-use) |
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Free Tier
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No |
Yes — 25GB + 25 read/write units |
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Expert take
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Keyspaces gives you Cassandra without the operational burden of managing clusters. If your team already knows CQL and has Cassandra data models, Keyspaces lets you bring that expertise to AWS without rewriting your application. |
DynamoDB gives you single-digit millisecond reads and writes at any scale with zero operational overhead. The key is data modeling — when you design your access patterns upfront, DynamoDB rewards you with consistent performance that doesn't degrade as your table grows to petabytes. |
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Customer story
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View product pages
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How DynamoDB and Keyspaces compare
Both Amazon DynamoDB and Amazon Keyspaces are fully managed, serverless-capable NoSQL databases with encryption at rest and in transit, IAM integration, and point-in-time recovery. The features listed in the table above highlight where the services differ.
Choose DynamoDB when you're building new on AWS and want the deepest integration with the AWS ecosystem (Lambda triggers, IAM fine-grained access, CloudFormation). DynamoDB's API is AWS-native, and its single-table design pattern delivers the best performance at scale.
Choose Keyspaces when you have existing Cassandra workloads, your team knows CQL (Cassandra Query Language), or you need portability between Cassandra-compatible systems. Keyspaces uses standard Cassandra drivers, so existing applications work with minimal changes.
Key distinction: DynamoDB is more performant and deeply integrated with AWS but uses a proprietary API. Keyspaces gives you Cassandra compatibility and portability at the cost of some DynamoDB-specific features (DAX caching, DynamoDB Streams, Global Tables with conflict resolution).
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