Yes, the developer copy is nice. It's a shame you can't get that with other AWS services, although LocalStack (not personally tried) does look nice.
I am tempted to use DynamoDB from time to time but I've won a few jobs with our ability to deploy to a customer environment, even if they don't always end up doing that. Most of our competitors won't even entertain the idea, so it's a great box to be able to tick.
Note: My experience is in B2B. This isn't such a concern for B2C at least not today. Nonetheless, I would still not want to tie myself to AWS too tightly for a B2C app. Amazon is great today. Tomorrow, who knows? After all, I remember the days when nobody got fired for choosing IBM. I'm not so sure that's true now.
I am tempted to use DynamoDB from time to time but I've won a few jobs with our ability to deploy to a customer environment, even if they don't always end up doing that. Most of our competitors won't even entertain the idea, so it's a great box to be able to tick.
Note: My experience is in B2B. This isn't such a concern for B2C at least not today. Nonetheless, I would still not want to tie myself to AWS too tightly for a B2C app. Amazon is great today. Tomorrow, who knows? After all, I remember the days when nobody got fired for choosing IBM. I'm not so sure that's true now.