# Managed relational databases for small business 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 a small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/it-data/managed-relational-databases/2026-10/smb

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since.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/smb/index.md

**Standing:** Amazon RDS leads with 24% of first choices; verdict contested. 67 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Amazon RDS](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/amazon-rds/index.md) | 24% | 23% | 71 |
| 2 | [Supabase](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/supabase/index.md) | 18% | 5% | 40 |
| 3 | [Google Cloud SQL](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/google-cloud-sql/index.md) | 16% | 22% | 64 |
| 4 | [DigitalOcean Managed Databases](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/digitalocean-managed-databases/index.md) | 15% | 3% | 38 |
| 5 | [Neon](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/neon/index.md) | 10% | 10% | 42 |
| 6 | [Azure SQL Database](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/azure-sql-database/index.md) | 4% | 18% | 34 |
| 13 | [Amazon Aurora](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/amazon-aurora/index.md) | 1% | 64% | 22 |
| 50 | [PlanetScale](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/planetscale/index.md) | 0% | 38% | 34 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 73 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, Google Cloud SQL; alternatives MySQL, PostgreSQL
- GPT-5.4 mini: Amazon RDS, Google Cloud SQL; alternatives Azure Database for PostgreSQL
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Supabase; alternatives Amazon RDS, DigitalOcean Managed Databases, Neon
- Perplexity Sonar: Google Cloud SQL; alternatives Amazon RDS, Azure SQL Database, DigitalOcean Managed Databases
- Grok 4.20: DigitalOcean Managed Databases; alternatives Amazon RDS, Azure SQL Database, Google Cloud SQL, Neon
- Mistral Small: Amazon RDS; alternatives Google Cloud SQL, Neon
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Amazon RDS; alternatives Google Cloud SQL
- Llama 4 Maverick: Azure SQL Database; alternatives Amazon Aurora, Amazon RDS
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Amazon RDS, Supabase; alternatives Azure Database for Postgres/SQL
- Kimi K2: Amazon RDS, Google Cloud SQL; alternatives Azure SQL Database, Neon, PlanetScale
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Amazon Aurora, Amazon RDS, Google Cloud SQL; alternatives Azure Database for PostgreSQL, MySQL
- MiniMax M2.5: Amazon RDS, Google Cloud SQL; alternatives DigitalOcean Managed Databases
- GPT-6 Luna: Amazon RDS; alternatives Azure Database for PostgreSQL, Google Cloud SQL, Supabase
- Muse Glimmer 30B: DigitalOcean Managed Databases; alternatives Amazon RDS, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, Google Cloud SQL, Northflank

## Sources the answers cite

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

- g2.com: 45 answers, 78 citations
- gane.ai/index: 39 answers, 53 citations
- digitalocean.com: 34 answers, 62 citations
- aws.amazon.com: 25 answers, 55 citations
- sourceforge.net: 24 answers, 33 citations
- northflank.com: 22 answers, 30 citations
- tech-insider.org: 22 answers, 23 citations
- cloud.google.com: 21 answers, 32 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://gane.ai/index/it/it-data/managed-relational-databases/smb (33 answers)
- https://g2.com/categories/database-as-a-service-dbaas/small-business (25 answers)
- https://digitalocean.com/resources/articles/aws-rds-alternatives (21 answers)
- https://northflank.com/blog/best-database-providers (20 answers)
- https://tech-insider.org/aws-rds-vs-azure-database-vs-google-cloud-sql-2026 (17 answers)
- https://g2.com/categories/relational-databases/small-business (14 answers)
- https://toolradar.com/best/managed-databases/for/small-businesses (14 answers)
- https://cloud.google.com/sql (13 answers)
- https://gane.ai/index/it/it-data/managed-relational-databases/2026-09/smb (13 answers)
- https://cloudinsight.cc/en/blog/cloud-sql-solutions (12 answers)

## Warned against

- PlanetScale: 13 of 34 labels negative. "What to Avoid ... Removed free tier in 2024; pricing starts at $39/month and uses row-based billing that can be unpredictable" (Kimi K2, paraphrase prompt)
- Amazon RDS: 16 of 71 labels negative. "What to Avoid ... More complex pricing and configuration; better for larger teams with AWS expertise" (Kimi K2, paraphrase prompt)
- Google Cloud SQL: 14 of 64 labels negative. "AWS RDS and Google Cloud SQL may not be the best options for small businesses on a tight budget due to their premium pricing and potential lock-in" (Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt)
- Amazon Aurora: 14 of 22 labels negative. "The services to genuinely *avoid* right now are the ones that combine premium pricing with heavy lock-in (Aurora, proprietary engines)" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Amazon RDS at 22%.

- Supabase: 11% to 18%, +7. Inside the floor by 4 points · rank 4 → 2 of 69.
- Google Cloud SQL: 11% to 18%, +7. Inside the floor by 4 points · rank 5 → 3 of 69.
- DigitalOcean Managed Databases: 17% to 13%, −4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 2 → 4 of 69.
- Neon: 15% to 12%, −3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 3 → 5 of 69.
- Amazon RDS: 24% to 22%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 1 of 69, unchanged.
- MySQL: 4% to 2%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 7 → 8 of 69.
- Amazon Aurora: 4% to 2%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 9 → 12 of 69.
- Azure SQL Database: 6% to 5%, −1. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 6 of 69, unchanged.
- PlanetScale: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 13 → 17 of 69.

## 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.