AWS Database Migration Service vs Debezium: Which is Better in 2026?
AWS Database Migration Service and Debezium are both Change Data Capture (CDC) tools, made for different people. AWS Database Migration Service is for teams moving databases into AWS, or keeping a source and target in sync during a migration, inside their own AWS account. Debezium is for backend and platform engineers who want log-based CDC under an Apache licence and are happy to operate it.
Quick verdict
There’s no single winner; pick on your constraint. Choose AWS Database Migration Service if your target, your source or both already live on AWS. Choose Debezium if you want CDC with no licence fee at any volume.
AWS Database Migration Service vs Debezium: Side by Side
| AWS Database Migration Service | Debezium | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Change Data Capture (CDC) | Change Data Capture (CDC) |
| What it is | Managed database migration and replication (AWS) | Open-source CDC engine |
| Source databases | Major commercial and open-source databases | 8 stable database connectors, 10 incubating |
| Where it runs | Your AWS account | Your infrastructure: Kafka Connect, Debezium Server or embedded |
| How you pay | Hourly per instance or per DCU | Free (Apache 2.0) |
| Free access | AWS Free Tier credits for new accounts | Free |
| Pricing | Usage-based | Free |
| Starting price | Pay-as-you-go | Free tier available |
| Free tier | — | |
| Rating | 4.1 | 4.6 |
| Best for | Change Data Capture (CDC): database migration, AWS, cut-over sync | Change Data Capture (CDC): open-source CDC, Kafka, Postgres WAL |
Ratings are App Stack Builder’s editorial score out of 5, not an average of user reviews.
Pros & Cons
- Pay-as-you-go with no licence
- Heterogeneous migrations plus free schema conversion
- Serverless option scales itself
- Lives inside your AWS account
- Tied to AWS as source or target
- Tuning large ongoing replications takes work
- Hourly rates live in a calculator, not on the page
- Free at any volume
- Log-based CDC, not polling
- Runs with or without Kafka
- Wide database coverage
- You operate it yourself
- Snapshot and schema-change handling needs care
- No vendor support contract from the project
Key Features Compared
AWS Database Migration Service
- Homogeneous and heterogeneous migrations from Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, MariaDB and others
- Billed hourly per replication instance (Single-AZ or Multi-AZ), or by DCU-hour on DMS Serverless
- Burstable instances include 50 GB of storage; compute and memory-optimized ones include 100 GB
- Schema Conversion is free apart from the S3 storage it uses
- New accounts since July 15 2025 get up to $200 in AWS Free Tier credits instead of free DMS hours
Debezium
- Apache 2.0, hosted by the Commonhaus Foundation; 3.7.1.Final released November 6 2026
- Stable connectors: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, SQL Server, Oracle, Db2 and CockroachDB
- Incubating: Cassandra, Spanner, Vitess, TiDB, SQLite, Informix and others
- Runs on Kafka Connect, as Debezium Server (no Kafka needed) or embedded in a Java app
- Debezium Platform and an operator for running on Kubernetes
Choose AWS Database Migration Service if…
- Your target, your source or both already live on AWS.
- You are converting between engines, for example Oracle to PostgreSQL.
- You want pay-by-the-hour with nothing to install.
Choose Debezium if…
- You want to start free. Debezium has a free tier and AWS Database Migration Service does not.
- You want CDC with no licence fee at any volume.
- You already run Kafka, or want to send changes to another broker through Debezium Server.
- You need control over snapshots, filtering and event format.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is AWS Database Migration Service better than Debezium?⌄
There’s no single winner; pick on your constraint. Choose AWS Database Migration Service if your target, your source or both already live on AWS. Choose Debezium if you want CDC with no licence fee at any volume.
What is the difference between AWS Database Migration Service and Debezium?⌄
What it is. AWS Database Migration Service: Managed database migration and replication (AWS). Debezium: Open-source CDC engine. Source databases. AWS Database Migration Service: Major commercial and open-source databases. Debezium: 8 stable database connectors, 10 incubating. Where it runs. AWS Database Migration Service: Your AWS account. Debezium: Your infrastructure: Kafka Connect, Debezium Server or embedded. How you pay. AWS Database Migration Service: Hourly per instance or per DCU. Debezium: Free (Apache 2.0). Free access. AWS Database Migration Service: AWS Free Tier credits for new accounts. Debezium: Free.
AWS Database Migration Service vs Debezium: which is cheaper?⌄
AWS Database Migration Service pricing: Usage-based. Debezium pricing: Free. Confirm current pricing on each tool's official site, as plans change.
Which is rated higher, AWS Database Migration Service or Debezium?⌄
On our editorial score, AWS Database Migration Service is 4.1 out of 5 and Debezium is 4.6 out of 5, so Debezium is slightly ahead. This is our own score, not an average of user reviews.
When should I skip both AWS Database Migration Service and Debezium?⌄
Skip AWS Database Migration Service if you need long-running CDC into a warehouse outside AWS. Estuary Flow or Debezium fit that better. Skip Debezium if you don’t want to run CDC infrastructure. Estuary Flow manages it for a per-GB fee.
Sources · tool facts checked November 2026
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