Alibaba Table Store
Key value databases
Wide column database software
Database software
NoSQL databases
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
Take the quiz to check if Alibaba Table Store and its alternatives fit your requirements.
Pay-as-you-go
Free Trial unavailable
Free version
Small
Medium
Large
-
What is Alibaba Table Store
Alibaba Table Store (also known as Tablestore/OTS) is a fully managed NoSQL database service on Alibaba Cloud for storing and querying large volumes of structured and semi-structured data. It supports key-value and wide-column data models with automatic partitioning and horizontal scaling for high-throughput workloads. Typical use cases include IoT telemetry, user profiles, time-series-like event data, and application metadata that needs low-latency reads/writes. It integrates with Alibaba Cloud services and provides APIs/SDKs for application access.
Managed horizontal scalability
The service is designed to scale out by partitioning data across nodes without customers managing servers. This fits workloads with variable traffic patterns and large datasets where capacity planning is difficult. Operational tasks such as provisioning, patching, and cluster maintenance are handled by the cloud service. For teams already standardized on Alibaba Cloud, this reduces infrastructure overhead compared with self-managed NoSQL deployments.
Key-value and wide-column model
Tablestore supports a primary-key based access pattern and a wide-column schema that can store sparse attributes efficiently. This aligns with common NoSQL use cases such as user state, device data, and event records where rows may have different sets of columns. The model supports predictable performance when queries follow primary-key or indexed access patterns. It provides a familiar approach for teams used to wide-column systems and key-value stores.
Ecosystem integration and APIs
Tablestore provides SDKs and APIs that integrate with Alibaba Cloud identity, networking, and monitoring services. This simplifies building cloud-native applications that need a NoSQL backing store alongside other Alibaba Cloud components. It also supports data access patterns commonly used in microservices and mobile backends. Integration can reduce time-to-implement compared with stitching together multiple third-party components.
Cloud and vendor dependence
Tablestore is an Alibaba Cloud service, so deployment is tied to that cloud’s regions, tooling, and service limits. Migrating applications to another environment can require data model and API changes, especially if the application uses service-specific features. Organizations with multi-cloud mandates may need additional abstraction layers. This can increase long-term switching costs compared with more portable database options.
Limited relational querying
As a NoSQL key-value/wide-column system, it is not optimized for complex joins and ad hoc relational analytics. Query patterns typically need to be designed around primary keys and secondary indexes rather than flexible SQL joins. Teams may need an additional analytical store or search engine for broader query requirements. This adds architectural complexity for mixed OLTP and analytics use cases.
Data modeling requires planning
Performance and cost depend heavily on partition key design, access patterns, and index choices. Poor key design can lead to hot partitions or uneven throughput, which may require rework and data migration. Application teams often need to model data around known query paths rather than evolving ad hoc queries. This can slow iteration for use cases with rapidly changing requirements.
Plan & Pricing
Pricing model: Pay-as-you-go (hourly billing). Prices vary by region and by instance type (Capacity instance vs High-performance instance). Resource plans (subscription) are also supported to offset usage for some billable items.
Key billable items & example unit prices (official Alibaba Cloud pricing page; regional variability noted):
- Data storage (per GB-hour):
- Capacity instance: US$0.00010 per GB-hour (example: China Mainland).
- High-performance instance: US$0.00030 per GB-hour (example: China Mainland).
- Data transfer (outbound Internet): examples
- US West / US East: US$0.076 per GB.
- Other regions listed with different unit prices (e.g., China Mainland US$0.123/GB; Hong Kong US$0.153/GB).
- Additional read throughput (metered additional CU, per 10k CU):
- Capacity instance (example): US$0.0006 per 10k CU.
- High-performance instance (example US West/US East): US$0.0030 per 10k CU (region-dependent).
- Additional write throughput (metered additional CU, per 10k CU):
- Capacity instance example: US$0.0012 per 10k CU.
- High-performance instance example: US$0.0030 per 10k CU (region-dependent).
- Reserved throughput (hourly) — supported only for High-performance instances (per 10k CU):
- Reserved read throughput (example US West/US East): US$0.0001 per 10k CU-hour.
- Reserved write throughput (example US West/US East): US$0.0003 per 10k CU-hour.
Notes & important details (from official docs):
- Billing is hourly and based on 4 main dimensions: storage, reserved read/write throughput, metered (additional) read/write throughput, and outbound Internet traffic. Resource plans (subscription) can be used to offset applicable billable items. Prices shown on the product pricing page are reference prices and vary by region; exact billing may depend on your chosen instance type and region.
- Some features (search index, SQL query, time series model, multiple data versions, lifecycle management, Tunnel Service, etc.) incur additional billable items as documented.
Discount/options:
- Resource plans (subscription) are available to pre-purchase capacity and reduce costs for supported billable items; remaining usage is billed pay-as-you-go. Contact sales for enterprise/custom pricing or large-volume options.
(Prices and examples pulled from Alibaba Cloud Tablestore pricing and billing documentation pages.)
Seller details
Alibaba Group Holding Limited
Hangzhou, China
1999
Public
https://www.alibabagroup.com/
https://x.com/AlibabaGroup
https://www.linkedin.com/company/alibaba-group/
