Question: Is DynamoDB open source?

Answer

No. Amazon DynamoDB's managed database service is proprietary; AWS does not publish its server implementation as an open-source database you can operate yourself. You access it through AWS APIs and pay for the resources you use.

Several related projects have different roles:

• AWS SDKs: open-source client libraries that call DynamoDB. Their availability does not make the database engine open source.
• DynamoDB Local: a downloadable development and testing tool. Running it on your laptop does not provide the production service's replication, scaling or operational guarantees.
• Compatible implementations and adapters: separate systems that implement some DynamoDB API behavior. AWS's open-source ExtendDB adapter uses PostgreSQL as its backend; it is not the managed DynamoDB engine.

If your requirement is local testing, DynamoDB Local may be enough. If you need self-hosting, source access or portability, evaluate a compatible implementation or another database against the actual operations your application uses.

Check transactions, indexing, consistency, Streams and failure behavior before assuming API compatibility means an application can migrate unchanged. See DynamoDB alternatives for the broader options.

Sources: AWS DynamoDB overview and ExtendDB announcement.