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Google Cloud Bigtable vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 19, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Google Cloud Bigtable
Ranking in Managed NoSQL Databases
10th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB
Ranking in Managed NoSQL Databases
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
103
Ranking in other categories
Database as a Service (DBaaS) (4th), NoSQL Databases (2nd), Vector Databases (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Managed NoSQL Databases category, the mindshare of Google Cloud Bigtable is 4.6%, down from 8.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is 16.3%, down from 16.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed NoSQL Databases Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB16.3%
Google Cloud Bigtable4.6%
Other79.1%
Managed NoSQL Databases
 

Featured Reviews

Aakash Sharma - PeerSpot reviewer
Great for streaming data and being a managed service is an advantage
Our primary use case is for analytics, analyzing the data sets and curing Bigtable is very user-friendly where streaming data is required. I think it's relatively easier to use than Ascentra. The fact that it's a managed service is an advantage.   The cost of this product is too expensive.…
MichaelJohn - PeerSpot reviewer
Very efficient for application-facing scenarios
There are several areas for improvement. Firstly, having a local development emulator or simulator for Azure Cosmos DB would be beneficial. It would be very handy to have a Docker container that developers can use locally. Although, I know there is a free tier and so on and so forth, having a local environment would be nice. For example, SQL Server is very portable. You can even install it on your machine. That is the number one thing that is missing in Azure Cosmos DB. The second improvement area is the IDE of choice. That means how you interact with Azure Cosmos DB. For example, with SQL Server, you have SQL Server Management Studio. I know there is a little bit of support for Azure Cosmos DB in Azure Data Studio, but it is not heavily advertised or it does not feel like first-class citizen support. Developer experience or developer tooling is missing in terms of interacting with the database. Better developer tools or an IDE for interacting with Azure Cosmos DB would enhance the developer experience. Lastly, there is some mixed messaging about what Azure Cosmos DB is, given its multiple APIs. There are so many Azure Cosmos DB APIs available. There is NoSQL. There are MongoDB, Gremlin, and others. There is still some mixed messaging for others who are new to Azure Cosmos DB about what Azure Cosmos DB is. Is this like MongoDB, but then there is also MongoDB in Azure Cosmos DB? I know it well, and I know that the default one is just NoSQL, but others I have interacted with over the last ten years or so get confused.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"It's very user-friendly where streaming data is required."
"The most valuable feature is the backup and replication service."
"Stability-wise, it is a simple solution. I rate the solution's stability a ten out of ten."
"The main benefit I receive from Google Cloud Bigtable is the managed service part."
"Bigtable is faster than other competitors in the market. It helps us collate all the data, and the security features are great. The latency is low, and the computation speed is fantastic. Bigtable is also a managed service, so you don't have to worry about anything aside from analyzing the data ingested."
"The solution is very convenient."
"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The main benefit I receive from Google Cloud Bigtable is the managed service part."
"The user interface of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is the best part of the entire Microsoft ecosystem; I find it to be the best user interface you can ever hope for, especially when compared to AWS and GCP, which do not measure up as well."
"The standout features are its ability to do data compression easily and the ability to scale horizontally."
"The solution's read capacity and write access functions are very fast so users don't have to wait when fetching or displaying data on a screen."
"I definitely recommend Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB."
"For modern applications, I would recommend Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB."
"As a NoSQL database, it offers schema flexibility which simplifies design and reduces initial engineering overhead."
"Specifically, we are using the MongoDB API, so we leverage it in that way. I like the flexibility that it offers. My team does not have to spend time building out database tables. We can get going fairly quickly with being able to read and write data into a MongoDB collection that is hosted inside Azure Cosmos DB."
"Cosmos is a PaaS, so you don't need to worry about infrastructure and hosting. It has various APIs that allow it to integrate with other solutions. For example, we are using a MongoDB-compatible API for customers, which makes it easier for developers on the team who previously used MongoDB or are accustomed to the old document storage paradigm."
 

Cons

"The cost of this product is too expensive."
"I've used Bigtable for about three or four years."
"This product needs better security and transparency, and the price should be reduced."
"When it comes to complex queries, a user can't get any help from a drop-down box and pick columns. It would be great if some improvements could be made in the aforementioned area concerning the solution."
"Improvement should be made as per customer recommended and requirements."
"The lagging problem of the product I face is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"While Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is generally easy to use, it has some limitations."
"There is room for improvement in Microsoft's maintenance aspect. For example, we had a major incident at the end of December where the entire South Central region was down for our application, causing many problems due to a lack of access to the database."
"The UI needs enhancement. Unlike SQL, Cosmos DB's UI is not as straightforward, making it a bit challenging to use efficiently."
"I would give a low rating to Microsoft support, as whenever I talked to them, I never got a solution. I had to guide them."
"Microsoft's support services are inadequate, especially during critical incidents."
"The main area of improvement is the cost, as the expense is high. Also, when writing processes into Cosmos, sometimes the threshold is met, which can be a problem if developers have not written the code properly, limiting calls to five thousand."
"The solution’s pricing could be improved."
"One of our biggest pain points is the backup and restore functionality needs improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Because of the lack of understanding about RUs, the costs become unpredictable. It sometimes goes over the budget."
"Its price is in the middle, neither too low nor too high."
"Its pricing structure is quite flexible."
"When we've budgeted for our resources, it's one of the more expensive ones, but it's still not very expensive per month."
"You need to understand exactly the details of how the pricing works technically to stay within reasonable pricing."
"Cost isn’t a big hurdle for us right now. The solution is not costly."
"It's expensive. I would rate it a seven out of ten for pricing."
"Cosmos DB is expensive compared to any virtual machine based on conventional RDBMS like MySQL or PostgreSQL."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
16%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Legal Firm
5%
Legal Firm
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise55
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Google Cloud Bigtable?
Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.
What needs improvement with Google Cloud Bigtable?
One point for improvement in Google Cloud Bigtable is that people have confusion in mapping. There are many similar products available, and Google has managed services for similar products as well....
What is your primary use case for Google Cloud Bigtable?
My main use case for Google Cloud Bigtable is mainly for advertisement-related analytics-related use cases.
What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
The initial setup is simple and straightforward. You can set up a Cosmos DB in a day, even configuring things like availability zones around the world.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
The pricing for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is good, but there is a developer factor to consider. It could be economical or expensive depending on usage. Guidance about query consumption of Request U...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
In terms of improvement for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, while it eliminates the burden of managing database infrastructure, we realized it might not be possible to use various models simultaneously ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Microsoft Azure DocumentDB, MS Azure Cosmos DB
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Cognite, Dow Jones, Loblaw Digital
TomTom, KPMG Australia, Bosch, ASOS, Mercedes Benz, NBA, Zero Friction, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Kinectify
Find out what your peers are saying about Google Cloud Bigtable vs. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
871,358 professionals have used our research since 2012.