S3 vs. DynamoDB
Understand the core differences between AWS S3 and DynamoDB, including performance, latency, scalability, pricing, and use cases. Learn when to choose S3 for large objects and infrequent queries or DynamoDB for low-latency, structured data and atomic transactions. This lesson helps you select the right storage option for your serverless application needs.
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Comparing S3 with DynamoDB
S3 is designed for throughput, not necessarily predictable (or very low) latency. It can easily deal with bursts in traffic requests, especially if the requests are for different items.
DynamoDB is designed for low latency and sustained usage patterns. If the average item is relatively small, especially if items are less than 4KB, DynamoDB is significantly faster than S3 for individual operations. Although DynamoDB can scale on-demand, it does not do that as quickly as S3. If there are sudden bursts of traffic, requests to DynamoDB may end up throttled for a while.
S3 operations generally work on entire items. Atomic batch operations on groups of objects are not possible, and it’s difficult to ...