PostgreSQL Benchmark: AWS RDS vs. Self-Hosted on Hetzner (2026)
A technical benchmark comparison of PostgreSQL performance across AWS RDS, Hetzner, and Hostim reveals significant differences in write and read throughput. The study provides reproducible data showing that managed services like RDS often trade raw performance for convenience and high availability.
Why it matters
This data helps infrastructure engineers make informed decisions regarding cost-to-performance ratios when deploying database clusters.
Short answer first: at the same size (2 vCPU / 4 GB, PostgreSQL 16), Hostim had the fastest writes , about 2.5× the write throughput of AWS RDS db.t4g.medium and 2.1× a default self-hosted Postgres on Hetzner. Hetzner had the fastest reads , on raw per-core CPU speed. RDS was slowest or near-slowest on both , and its listed price is the smallest part of the real bill.
The article is a technical analysis focused on empirical data and methodology rather than opinion.
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