ApsaraDB RDS is easy to set up and provides cost-effective, high performance relational database services. RDS supports flexible billing, on-demand specification changes, and out-of-the-box services.
Flexible billing
ApsaraDB RDS supports the subscription and pay-as-you-go billing methods. You can choose a billing method that suits your business requirements and minimizes costs.
For short-term use, we recommend that you choose the pay-as-you-go billing method. Pay-as-you-go RDS instances are billed on an hourly basis based on your actual resource usage. You can release your instances when you no longer need them to stop further costs.
For long-term use, we recommend that you choose the subscription billing method. Longer subscription periods typically offer larger savings.
ApsaraDB RDS supports the serverless billing method. Serverless is suitable for users who have intermittent scheduled tasks and fluctuating or unpredictable workloads. If you select the serverless billing method for your RDS instance, ApsaraDB RDS automatically scales the computing resources and expands the storage capacity based on your business requirements. This prevents idle resources and reduces instance O&M costs. For more information, see Serverless.
For more information, see Billing rules.
On-demand specification changes
During the startup phase of your business, you can purchase RDS instances with low specifications to meet the minimum requirements. As your workloads increase and you need to store more data, you can upgrade the instance specifications. During off-peak hours, you can temporarily downgrade the specifications of RDS instances to save on costs.
For more information about how to change the specifications of your RDS instance, see the following topics:
For more information about the pricing after specification changes, see Specification change fees.
Out-of-the-box
RDS instances can be purchased without any upfront payment for hardware or software, which help you reduce initial investment costs.
You can create an RDS instance within a few minutes in the ApsaraDB RDS console or by calling an API operation.
Transparency and compatibility
ApsaraDB RDS is compatible with most native database engines. You can directly use existing code and tools on ApsaraDB RDS without the need to modify the code or tools.
ApsaraDB RDS is compatible with existing programs and tools. You can use Data Transmission Service (DTS) to migrate data to your RDS instance. You can also use common data import and export tools to migrate data to and from your RDS instance. The migration does not require much workforce. For more information, see What is Data Transmission Service?
Convenient management
ApsaraDB RDS is a fully managed service. Alibaba Cloud is responsible for the routine O&M tasks, including troubleshooting hardware and software issues and installing database patches.
You can create, delete, restart, back up, and restore RDS instances in the ApsaraDB RDS console or by calling API operations.