Aiven vs Convex
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Aiven and Convex.
Quick Verdict
4.0/5
Aiven
0 reviews
4.0/5
Convex
0 reviews
Both Aiven and Convex are equally rated at 4.0/5. Aiven manages a dozen open source data services — PostgreSQL, MySQL, Kafka, OpenSearch, ClickHouse, Cassandra, Valkey, InfluxDB, Grafana, M3, DataHub, Flink — across AWS, GCP, Azure, DigitalOcean, UpCloud, and OVHcloud. Convex is a backend-as-a-service that provides a reactive database with real-time subscriptions, serverless functions, file storage, and authentication. TypeScript-first developer experience.
Aiven Managed open source databases — 12 services | Convex TypeScript-first backend platform with real-time sync and serverless functions | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 4.0 (0 reviews) | 4.0 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | freemium | freemium |
| Starting price | Free tier available | Free tier available |
| Best for | Teams standardizing on open source data services — Postgres plus Kafka plus OpenSearch — who want managed operations, hourly multi-cloud billing, and the option to move between AWS, GCP, Azure, DigitalOcean, UpCloud, and OVHcloud without re-architecting. | TypeScript teams building real-time, collaborative or AI-agent applications who want to replace an assembled backend stack with one reactive platform and value developer velocity over infrastructure control. |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | — | — |
| RAM | — | — |
| Storage | — | 1 GB |
| Bandwidth | — | — |
| SLA uptime | — | — |
| Data-center count | — | 3 |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ||
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ✓ | |
| Free tier | ||
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | AWS, GCP, Azure, DigitalOcean, UpCloud, OVHcloud regions worldwide; BYOC in own cloud accounts | US East (N. Virginia), EU West, Canada Central |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tiermanaged optionbackups includedeu datacenterus datacenterapac datacenterapi access | free tierapi access |
| Visit Aiven → | Visit Convex → | |
Aiven
Pros
- + Broad managed portfolio (Postgres, Kafka, OpenSearch, ClickHouse, Valkey, and more) on one console, API, and Terraform provider
- + True multi-cloud across AWS, GCP, Azure, DigitalOcean, UpCloud, and OVHcloud with 100+ regions and plan portability
- + Always-free tier with no card and no expiry, plus $5/month Developer plans on dedicated resources
- + Hourly, all-inclusive billing — VM, network, backups, maintenance, and migrations inside the plan price
- + 99.99% availability SLA with automatic failover on production tiers, plus BYOC for data residency
Cons
- - Production tiers are expensive relative to raw infrastructure (PostgreSQL from $75/month at Startup)
- - High availability, point-in-time recovery, and cloud/region choice are gated to Startup and above
- - Standard support is best-effort email; faster response and phone support are paid add-on tiers
- - Idle environments still bill hourly; free services may be powered off after inactivity
- - Aiven's plan vocabulary and add-ons (PrivateLink, extra storage) are their own abstraction to learn
Convex
Pros
- + Replaces a whole backend stack — database, functions, sync, search, storage and auth — with end-to-end TypeScript type safety and ACID transactions
- + Generous economics for reactive apps: query/mutation compute free on serverless, plus a real free plan and pay-as-you-go Starter tier
- + All unit rates and per-tier limits published, including an honest 1.3x regional multiplier for EU and Canada
- + Core backend open-sourced (March 2024) with self-hosting option — genuine lock-in relief uncommon in this category
- + Well-funded ($110.5M through a $57M Series B in 2026), SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA compliant, with named production customers at real scale
Cons
- - Document model is not SQL — poor fit for Postgres estates, analyst workflows and BI tooling
- - Usage-based metering can surprise chatty clients; no hard spend caps on paid tiers
- - Support SLAs are a paid feature: 30-minute P1 response only in $1,000–$2,000/month premier tiers
- - TypeScript-first to the point of exclusion — a non-starter for non-TS teams
- - Self-hosting the open-source backend is an operational project most teams will only use as an escape hatch
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