Is DynamoDB open source?

No. DynamoDB is a proprietary, fully managed AWS service — the source code is not public and you cannot self-host the production engine. For local development, AWS ships DynamoDB Local, a free downloadable emulator, and some third-party databases advertise DynamoDB-compatible APIs you can run yourself.

What that means in practice

DynamoDB only runs inside AWS. You consume it as an API — there is no server software to download, license, inspect, or operate, and no community edition. That is also its selling point: AWS handles setup, patching, replication, scaling, and backups, and the service has no versions or maintenance windows.

DynamoDB Local is free, not open

AWS provides DynamoDB Local, a downloadable version of DynamoDB that runs on your computer as a Docker image, Java archive, or Apache Maven dependency. It is free to use and works offline, but it is an emulator for development and testing — not the production engine, and not open source either.

Compatible alternatives

Because the DynamoDB API is well documented, some open-source and third-party databases implement DynamoDB-compatible endpoints. Compatibility varies by feature, so verify the operations you rely on (transactions, streams, secondary indexes) before treating any of them as a drop-in replacement. If you're evaluating databases, the DynamoDB vs. comparisons cover the mainstream alternatives — and if open source is the requirement, DynamoDB vs Cassandra compares it with the leading open-source wide-column store.

Go deeper

Run the emulator locally with the DynamoDB Local guide, build queries visually in the expression builder, and download DynoTable — it connects to both AWS and local endpoints.

References

Last verified 2026-07-13 against the official AWS documentation linked above.