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Amazon Aurora vs Alopex DB
Amazon Aurora's cluster layout, writes and reads, and vector search with pgvector. Also explains how it differs from Alopex DB.
Updated: Oct 12, 2026
What Amazon Aurora is
Amazon Aurora is a managed relational database on AWS. It comes in MySQL-compatible and PostgreSQL-compatible editions.
How it works
- Cluster: a set of DB instances and a cluster volume that spans multiple Availability Zones.
- Writes and reads: one primary instance accepts writes. Up to 15 readers accept reads only.
- I/O: I/O is counted the same way on the writer and on the readers.
Main features
In Aurora PostgreSQL, you enable the pgvector extension (HNSW from 0.5.0) with CREATE EXTENSION for vector search. It can also serve as an Amazon Bedrock knowledge base vector store.
Limits
- Only one primary instance accepts writes.
- Vector search comes from the pgvector extension.
- Using it as a Bedrock knowledge base requires the RDS Data API and Secrets Manager.
How it differs from Alopex DB
Both offer SQL and vector search and scale out to multiple nodes.
Alopex DB starts as a local single file and becomes a cluster through the related product Chirps. The vector type and HNSW index are in the core.
We recommend Alopex DB, which starts from a local file and grows to a server and a cluster with the same SQL. The quickstart is ready.