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What's the Difference Between AWS Direct Connect and AWS VPN?

Compare AWS Direct Connect and AWS VPN side by side — features, pricing, and ideal use cases to help you choose the right product.

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Comparisons
AWS Direct Connect
AWS VPN
Category

Networking, Hybrid connectivity

Networking, VPN
Description

Dedicated network connection to AWS

Encrypted network access to AWS resources
Best for
  • Hybrid cloud
  • Data migration
  • Real-time data feeds
  • Disaster recovery
  • Site-to-site connectivity
  • Remote access
  • Hybrid cloud
  • Branch office connectivity
Key features
  • Dedicated connections
  • Hosted connections
  • Link aggregation
  • MACsec encryption
  • SiteLink
  • Site-to-Site VPN
  • Client VPN
  • Accelerated VPN
  • CloudHub
  • Multi-tunnel support
Pricing model

Port hours + data transfer out

Pay per VPN connection hour + data transfer
Free tier

No

No
Expert take

“Direct Connect provides dedicated bandwidth that does not traverse the public internet, giving you consistent latency and throughput. Use a private VIF for VPC traffic and a transit VIF to reach multiple VPCs through Transit Gateway over a single connection.”
— Riku Kobayashi, re:Post Top Contributor [profile]

“Site-to-Site VPN creates encrypted tunnels between your network and AWS over the internet. It works as a quick-start option or as Direct Connect backup for redundancy.”
— Giovanni Lauria, re:Post Top Contributor [profile]
Product page

Learn more about AWS Direct Connect »

Learn more about AWS VPN »

When to use AWS Direct Connect or AWS VPN

Use AWS Direct Connect when:

  • Hybrid cloud
  • Data migration
  • Real-time data feeds
  • Disaster recovery

Learn more about AWS Direct Connect »

Use AWS VPN when:

  • Site-to-site connectivity
  • Remote access
  • Hybrid cloud
  • Branch office connectivity

Learn more about AWS VPN »

AWS product comparisons

Read about AWS products side-by-side

Displaying 1-8 (21)
2026-07-30

What's the difference between Amazon Aurora and Amazon Neptune?

Both are purpose-built, fully managed AWS databases, but they solve fundamentally different problems. Aurora handles structured relational data with SQL; Neptune handles highly connected data where relationships between entities are the primary query pattern.
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What's the difference between Amazon RDS and Amazon Redshift?

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What's the difference between Amazon Aurora and Amazon DynamoDB?

Both are fully managed AWS database services, but they serve fundamentally different data models and access patterns. Aurora is a relational database for structured data with relationships; DynamoDB is a NoSQL key-value store built for single-digit millisecond performance at any scale.
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What's the difference between Amazon DocumentDB and Amazon Neptune?

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What are the differences between Amazon DynamoDB and Amazon DocumentDB?

Both are fully managed NoSQL databases on AWS, but they serve different data models. DynamoDB is a key-value store optimized for known access patterns at massive scale; DocumentDB is a document database for flexible JSON schemas with MongoDB compatibility.
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Both are fully managed, serverless-capable NoSQL databases on AWS. DynamoDB is AWS-native with its own API and data model; Keyspaces is Apache Cassandra-compatible, letting you use existing Cassandra drivers, tools, and expertise.
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What's the difference between Amazon ElastiCache and Amazon MemoryDB?

Both are Redis-compatible, fully managed in-memory services on AWS. ElastiCache is designed as a caching layer in front of another database; MemoryDB is designed as a primary database that combines in-memory speed with Multi-AZ durability.
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2026-07-30

What's the difference between Amazon Aurora and Amazon RDS?

Both are fully managed relational database services on AWS, but Aurora is a cloud-native engine built for higher performance and availability, while RDS gives you familiar open-source and commercial engines with less operational overhead than self-managed.
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