AWS RDS for PostgreSQL vs Upstash Redis
AWS RDS for PostgreSQL and Upstash Redis cannot be scored on the same axes — one of them does not publish a rate for everything managed databases bills on.
List prices checked
Rate cards side by side
Only the axes at least one of them bills on. A dash means that provider does not charge for it.
| Billing axis | AWS RDS for PostgreSQL | Upstash Redis | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry plan | $12.40/mo | $10.00/mo | 1.2× Upstash Redis |
| Storage | $0.115/GB-mo | — | — |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes | — |
Source: Amazon Web Services pricing (May 2026) · Upstash pricing (May 2026). Published list prices only — committed-use discounts, regional variation, and per-request charges are not included. Not yet independently re-checked against the vendor’s page.
Monthly cost for three real workloads
The rate cards applied to identical usage. This is where the winner changes.
| Workload | AWS RDS for PostgreSQL | Upstash Redis | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Side projectA personal site or small app with modest traffic, a few gigabytes of assets, and one small always-on process. | $15 | — | Not comparable |
| Growing SaaSA funded product serving a few thousand daily users, with an image-heavy frontend and two application servers. | $70 | — | Not comparable |
| Media-heavy siteA publisher or video product where delivery dominates the bill and compute is almost an afterthought. | $242 | — | Not comparable |
Workload definitions are identical on every comparison page, so figures here can be read against any other pair in the same category.
What each one is for
AWS RDS for PostgreSQL
by Amazon Web Services
Provisioned Postgres billed per instance-hour whether or not it serves a query, plus storage and backup. Predictable, and the most expensive way to run an idle database.
Free tier: 750 hours per month of a db.t-class instance for 12 months
Upstash Redis
by Upstash
Redis billed per request rather than per hour, reachable over HTTP so it works from edge runtimes that cannot hold a TCP connection.
Free tier: 500,000 commands per month
Common questions
- Is AWS RDS for PostgreSQL or Upstash Redis cheaper in 2026?
- Neither can be scored across all three workloads, because at least one of them does not publish a rate for every axis this category bills on.
- Which has the better free tier, AWS RDS for PostgreSQL or Upstash Redis?
- Both publish one. AWS RDS for PostgreSQL: 750 hours per month of a db.t-class instance for 12 months. Upstash Redis: 500,000 commands per month.
- What do these estimates not include?
- Committed-use and reserved discounts, regional price variation, per-request API charges, support plans, and minimum retention periods. All of those move real invoices, sometimes by a lot. These figures compare published list prices for the same workload, which is the comparison the rate cards alone cannot give you.