Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Aiven VS Azure Cosmos DB

Compare Aiven VS Azure Cosmos DB and see what are their differences

Aiven logo Aiven

Leverage the complete open source ecosystem of extensions and tools to create highly-performant data pipelines for event-driven applications on all major clouds.

Azure Cosmos DB logo Azure Cosmos DB

NoSQL JSON database for rapid, iterative app development.
  • Aiven Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-23
  • Azure Cosmos DB Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-16

Aiven features and specs

  • Managed Services
    Aiven offers fully managed cloud data infrastructure services, allowing businesses to save time and resources on maintenance and management of their databases.
  • Multi-Cloud Support
    Aiven supports various cloud platforms like AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure, providing flexibility in choosing or migrating across different cloud environments.
  • High Availability and Scalability
    With Aiven’s infrastructure, businesses can easily scale their services and ensure high availability, which is critical for handling growing workloads and avoiding downtime.
  • Comprehensive Security Features
    Aiven offers robust security measures, including encryption, access control, and compliance with major industry standards, ensuring data is secure and protected.
  • Variety of Supported Technologies
    Aiven supports a wide range of open-source technologies such as PostgreSQL, Apache Kafka, and Elasticsearch, providing versatility in building diverse applications.

Possible disadvantages of Aiven

  • Cost
    Managed services can be significantly more expensive than self-hosted solutions, potentially increasing overall business costs, especially for startups or small businesses with limited budgets.
  • Vendor Lock-In
    While Aiven offers multi-cloud support, businesses using proprietary features or integrations might experience challenges if they decide to migrate away from Aiven to another provider.
  • Limited Customization
    Managed services might not offer the same level of customization as self-managed solutions, limiting specific configurations or optimizations that businesses might require.
  • Dependence on Network Performance
    Performance is highly dependent on the quality and reliability of network connections, which can affect data access speeds and service availability.
  • Potential Learning Curve
    Despite being designed for ease of use, some teams may experience a learning curve when adopting new tools and technologies provided by Aiven.

Azure Cosmos DB features and specs

  • Global Distribution
    Azure Cosmos DB allows for the distribution of data across multiple global regions, enhancing availability and delivering low-latency access to data for users around the world.
  • Multi-Model Support
    It supports multiple data models including document, graph, key-value, and column-family APIs, making it versatile for a variety of applications and use cases.
  • Automatic Scaling
    The database automatically scales up and down to meet the demands of application traffic, helping to manage workloads efficiently without manual intervention.
  • High Throughput and Low Latency
    Cosmos DB offers high performance with single-digit millisecond read and write latencies, ensuring fast access to data for applications.
  • Comprehensive SLAs
    Azure Cosmos DB provides industry-leading SLAs covering availability, throughput, consistency, and latency, offering strong guarantees for customers.
  • Integrated Security
    It includes robust security features such as SSL/TLS encryption, role-based access control, and integration with Azure Active Directory for secure data management.

Possible disadvantages of Azure Cosmos DB

  • Cost
    Azure Cosmos DB can be expensive, especially for high-throughput workloads and global distribution scenarios. Its pricing model based on provisioned throughput (RU/s) can add up quickly.
  • Complexity
    Managing and optimizing Cosmos DB can be complex, requiring a deep understanding of its configuration settings, partitioning strategies, and indexing to achieve optimal performance.
  • Vendor Lock-In
    As a proprietary service, using Cosmos DB tightly couples your application to Azure. This can make it difficult to migrate to other database solutions or cloud providers in the future.
  • Consistency Models
    Azure Cosmos DB supports multiple consistency levels which can introduce complexity in designing applications. Developers need to understand and choose the appropriate consistency level for their specific use case.
  • Limited Native Analytics
    Cosmos DB does not have built-in advanced analytics capabilities. Integrating with other services like Azure Synapse or Databricks may be necessary for sophisticated data analytics and reporting.

Analysis of Azure Cosmos DB

Overall verdict

  • Azure Cosmos DB is generally regarded as a robust and versatile database solution, particularly suited for applications that require flexibility, scale, and low-latency global access. It is a good option for developers looking to leverage Azure's cloud ecosystem.

Why this product is good

  • Azure Cosmos DB is a globally distributed, multi-model database service that offers turnkey global distribution, horizontal scaling, and a comprehensive SLA covering throughput, latency, availability, and consistency. It is designed to provide high availability and seamless integration with Azure services, making it a good fit for applications requiring low-latency and the ability to scale across multiple regions.

Recommended for

  • Organizations needing globally distributed applications
  • Developers working within the Azure ecosystem
  • Applications requiring multi-model database capabilities
  • Scenarios demanding high availability and low latency
  • Projects where seamless scalability is a priority

Aiven videos

Introduction to Aiven Postgres Cloud Database

Azure Cosmos DB videos

Azure Cosmos DB: Comprehensive Overview

More videos:

  • Review - Azure Friday | Azure Cosmos DB with Scott Hanselman
  • Tutorial - Azure Cosmos DB Tutorial | Globally distributed NoSQL database

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Aiven and Azure Cosmos DB)
Databases
25 25%
75% 75
Cloud Infrastructure
100 100%
0% 0
NoSQL Databases
0 0%
100% 100
Cloud Computing
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using Aiven and Azure Cosmos DB. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Aiven should be more popular than Azure Cosmos DB. It has been mentiond 32 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Aiven mentions (32)

  • SonicScan - A Music Fingerprinting and Identification App
    For the database I used Valkey on Aiven for free. - Source: dev.to / 10 days ago
  • How to Connect Your Next.js React Application to Redis
    For this demo I'm using Aiven, they offer a 1GB free account, which is more than enough for a POC or prototype. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Run Postgres For Free: Top 3 Options
    Unlike Neon, Aiven provides many open-source managed data infrastructures, such as PostgreSQL Apache Cassandra, Apache Kafka, Apache Kafka Connect, Apache Kafka MirrorMaker 2, Elasticsearch, Grafana, InfluxDB, M3, M3 Aggregator, MySQL, and Redis. It’s a jack of all trades regarding its support for open-source technology. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Building Scalable Data Pipelines with Python – A Complete Guide.
    A PostgreSQL database (created using Aiven and connected using DBeaver). - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Top 8 Managed Postgres Providers
    Aiven provides managed cloud service for PostgreSQL, making sure databases run smoothly, safely, and can grow easily on different cloud platforms. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
View more

Azure Cosmos DB mentions (9)

  • Blazor server app, deployment options
    If you are writing the code maybe consider learning Cosmos DB it’s pretty easy to work with and there is a free tier. Also in my experience it’s much faster than a SQL database. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Infrastructure as code (IaC) for Java-based apps on Azure
    Sometimes you don’t need an entire Java-based microservice. You can build serverless APIs with the help of Azure Functions. For example, Azure functions have a bunch of built-in connectors like Azure Event Hubs to process event-driven Java code and send the data to Azure Cosmos DB in real-time. FedEx and UBS projects are great examples of real-time, event-driven Java. I also recommend you to go through 👉 Code,... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Deploying a Mostly Serverless Website on GCP
    When debating the database solution for our application we were really seeking for a scalable serverless database that wouldn’t bill us for idle time. Options like AWS Athena, AWS Aurora Serverless, and Azure Cosmos DB immediately came to mind. We believed that GCP would have a comparable service, yet we could not find one. Even after consulting the GCP cloud service comparison documentation we were still unable... - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • Which DB to use for API published on Azure?
    If you are looking for one to start with; you can try Cosmos: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cosmos-db/. Source: about 3 years ago
  • Basic Setup for Azure Cosmos DB and Example Node App
    I have had an opportunity to work on a project that uses Azure Cosmos DB with the MongDB API as the backend database. I wanted to spend a little more time on my own understanding how to perform basic setup and a simple set of CRUD operations from a Node application, as well as construct an easy-to-follow procedure for other developers. - Source: dev.to / about 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Aiven and Azure Cosmos DB, you can also consider the following products

SAP HANA - SAP HANA is an in-memory, column-oriented, relational database management system.

Redis - Redis is an open source in-memory data structure project implementing a distributed, in-memory key-value database with optional durability.

Ninox - Ninox is a human-friendly database. Create your own Business Application with Ninox that matches your workflow. Ninox lets you integrate CRM, ERP, HR and many more...

ArangoDB - A distributed open-source database with a flexible data model for documents, graphs, and key-values.

Amazon Aurora - MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible relational database built for the cloud. Performance and availability of commercial-grade databases at 1/10th the cost.

MongoDB - MongoDB (from "humongous") is a scalable, high-performance NoSQL database.