# Managed relational databases for enterprise buyers: what AI models recommend, October 2026

Gane Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "managed relational database service" and as "hosted SQL database", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/it-data/managed-relational-databases/2026-10/enterprise

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/it-data/managed-relational-databases/enterprise/index.md

**Standing:** Amazon Aurora leads with 26% of first choices; verdict contested. 54 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Amazon Aurora](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/amazon-aurora/index.md) | 26% | 30% | 44 |
| 2 | [Azure SQL Database](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/azure-sql-database/index.md) | 24% | 17% | 63 |
| 3 | [Amazon RDS](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/amazon-rds/index.md) | 20% | 15% | 48 |
| 4 | [Google Cloud SQL](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/google-cloud-sql/index.md) | 9% | 7% | 54 |
| 6 | [Oracle Autonomous Database](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/oracle-autonomous-database/index.md) | 2% | 8% | 13 |
| 15 | [AlloyDB for PostgreSQL](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/alloydb-for-postgresql/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 11 |
| 16 | [Google Cloud Spanner](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/google-cloud-spanner/index.md) | 0% | 23% | 13 |
| 92 | [PlanetScale](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/planetscale/index.md) | 0% | 60% | 10 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 92 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Amazon RDS, Azure Database Services; alternatives Google Cloud SQL
- GPT-5.4 mini: Amazon Aurora, Azure SQL Database; alternatives AlloyDB for PostgreSQL, Amazon RDS, Oracle Autonomous Database
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Amazon Aurora; alternatives Azure SQL Database, CockroachDB, Google Cloud Spanner
- Perplexity Sonar: Amazon RDS; alternatives Amazon Aurora, Azure SQL Database, PlanetScale
- Grok 4.20: Amazon Web Services (AWS) Relational Database Service; alternatives AlloyDB for PostgreSQL, Azure SQL Database, Google Cloud SQL
- Mistral Small: Amazon RDS; alternatives Azure SQL Database, Google Cloud SQL
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Amazon Aurora; alternatives Azure SQL Database, CockroachDB, Google Cloud SQL
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Amazon Aurora; alternatives Azure SQL Database, Google Cloud Spanner
- Kimi K2: Amazon Aurora; alternatives Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, CockroachDB, Google Cloud SQL
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Amazon RDS; alternatives Azure SQL Database, Google Cloud SQL
- MiniMax M2.5: Amazon Aurora; alternatives Azure SQL Database, Google Cloud SQL, IBM Cloud Relational Databases
- GPT-6 Luna: Amazon Aurora; alternatives AlloyDB for PostgreSQL, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, RDS for PostgreSQL
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Amazon RDS; alternatives Azure SQL Database, Google Cloud SQL

## Sources the answers cite

75 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- gane.ai/index: 38 answers, 59 citations
- northflank.com: 34 answers, 39 citations
- digitalocean.com: 31 answers, 34 citations
- aws.amazon.com: 30 answers, 72 citations
- g2.com: 29 answers, 53 citations
- learn.microsoft.com: 29 answers, 41 citations
- cloud.google.com: 25 answers, 42 citations
- gitnux.org: 25 answers, 39 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://gane.ai/index/it/it-data/managed-relational-databases/enterprise (38 answers)
- https://northflank.com/blog/best-database-providers (27 answers)
- https://digitalocean.com/resources/articles/aws-rds-alternatives (25 answers)
- https://tech-insider.org/aws-rds-vs-azure-database-vs-google-cloud-sql-2026 (21 answers)
- https://g2.com/categories/relational-databases/enterprise (17 answers)
- https://gane.ai/index/it/it-data/managed-relational-databases/2026-09/enterprise (17 answers)
- https://cloud.google.com/sql (15 answers)
- https://viasocket.com/discovery/blog/6suci8/relational-database-services/7-relational-database-services-for-247-saas (14 answers)
- https://cloudinsight.cc/en/blog/cloud-sql-solutions (11 answers)
- https://gitnux.org/service/managed-database (10 answers)

## Warned against

- Amazon Aurora: 13 of 44 labels negative. "That eliminates most serverless/autoscaling options (like Aurora Serverless or Azure SQL serverless), which bill by the second and can produce unpredictable invoices." (DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt)
- Azure SQL Database: 11 of 63 labels negative. "Auto-pause causes connection delays; unsuitable for applications with frequent, unpredictable access patterns." (Kimi K2, negative prompt)
- PlanetScale: 6 of 10 labels negative. "Why avoid? Shut down new user onboarding in 2023; no longer viable for fresh enterprise deployments." (Grok 4.20, negative prompt)
- Amazon RDS: 7 of 48 labels negative. "rates it "highest caution" and recommends avoiding it for production core systems" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
New leader: Amazon RDS (36%) to Amazon Aurora (30%). Margin 10 points, within noise.

- Amazon RDS: 36% to 20%, −16. Cleared the floor by 5 points · rank 1 → 3 of 81.
- Azure SQL Database: 15% to 23%, +8. Inside the floor by 3 points · rank 3 → 2 of 81.
- Google Cloud SQL: 8% to 9%, +1. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 4 of 81, unchanged.
- Amazon Aurora: 30% to 30%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 2 → 1 of 81.
- Oracle Autonomous Database: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 6 → 5 of 81.
- Google Cloud Spanner: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 10 → 15 of 81.
- CockroachDB: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 11 → 16 of 81.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, October 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.