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DynamoDB Alternative for Small Workloads

DynamoDB is great for scale, but heavy for startups. Explore simpler, cheaper key-value alternatives for small-to-medium datasets.

BaseKV Team••5 min read
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Amazon DynamoDB is an engineering marvel. It scales to infinity and never virtually goes down. But for a startup or a side project, it can feel like bringing an aircraft carrier to a fishing trip.

Developers often look for a DynamoDB alternative for small workloads that offers the Key-Value semantics without the AWS complexity.

The Complexity of "Serverless" Scaling

DynamoDB's "On-Demand" pricing is attractive because you pay per request. But the developer experience (DX) introduces friction:

  1. Proprietary API: You must use the AWS SDK. PutItem, UpdateExpression, AttributeValues. It's verbose and proprietary.
  2. IAM & Permissions: Setting up roles, policies, and access keys just to read a value.
  3. Local Development: You need dynamodb-local (a Java wrapper) or extensive mocking.

For a small workload (e.g., a few thousand users, under 10 GB of data), this overhead slows down development.

What Small Workloads Actually Need

  • Simple API: get(key), set(key, value).
  • Persistence: Data must be safe.
  • Zero Ops: No server patching.
  • Portability: Ability to run locally and in the cloud easily.

Key-Value Stores as an Alternative

Often, you are using DynamoDB just as a glorified Key-Value store. You store a JSON blob under a Partition Key.

If that's your usage pattern, a standard KV store is:

  • Faster to integrate: compatible with standard open-source libraries.
  • Easier to debug: CLI tools that are simple and human-readable.
  • Cheaper: No "Write Capacity Unit" math to do.

Cloud-Agnostic is a Feature

Using AWS-specific services locks you into their ecosystem. Moving a DynamoDB table to Google Cloud or a VPS is a rewrite. Moving a Redis-compatible or standard HTTP KV store is just a data export.

Conclusion

DynamoDB is the right choice for hyper-scale. But for the 99% of apps that are "small to medium", it introduces unnecessary drag.

Consider using a lightweight, persistent key-value store. It matches the "serverless" vibe (HTTP API, simple connection) but keeps your architecture agile. BaseKV offers a DynamoDB-compatible HTTP API subset (PutItem/GetItem) specifically for this transition.