Amazon RDS vs Google Cloud Spanner vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google are both solutions in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.3, while Google is ranked #9 with an average rating of 9.3. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 26.1% mindshare in DS, compared to Google’s 3.8% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Google users who would recommend it.

Amazon RDS

Read 53 Amazon RDS reviews

6,202 Views
5,238 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Google Cloud Spanner

Read 5 Google Cloud Spanner reviews

908 Views
701 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Read 116 Microsoft Azure SQL Database reviews

8,141 Views
3,439 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Amazon RDS

Google Cloud Spanner

Microsoft Azure SQL Database

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Amazon RDS, Google Cloud Spanner, and Microsoft Azure SQL Database based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), MongoDB and others in Database as a Service (DBaaS).

To learn more, read our detailed Database as a Service (DBaaS) Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

January 2025

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Helped 831,997 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Amazon RDS is 26.1%, down from 28.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Cloud Spanner is 3.8%, up from 3.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is 17.1%, down from 18.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

Featured Reviews

Samuel Ebite

AICE Graduate at alx_africa

Ensure high availability with robust encryption and seamless backups

Amazon RDS provides data encryption using services like KMS, crucial for securing high-sensitive data and meeting compliance requirements such as HIPAA or PCI DSS. The best practices we've employed with RDS help design a well-architected framework, encompassing security, encryption, scalability with multi-availability zone deployment, and operational excellence with automated backups. RDS features, such as reserved instances, storage auto-scaling, monitoring with technologies like CloudWatch, and proxies, contribute to cost optimization. The solution enhances security with IAM authentication and offers high availability to end users.

Read full review

Ethan Lo

Infrastructuer Security at Premise Data

A stable and scalable relational database that ensures a return on investment for its users

The most valuable feature of the solution is its scalability. Scalability comes with two options, among which Google Cloud Spanner can scale horizontally, compared to other relational databases that scale vertically. You can change Google Cloud Spanner's resource configuration, which is done through processing units. Suppose you set up Google Cloud Spanner initially with a hundred processing units, and then you run out of resources since your database used too much CPU. In the aforementioned scenario, you can scale up or down and face no downtime in the production phase. The solution's features are important when running a company twenty-four hours, seven days a week.

Read full review

Charley Hanania

Data Platform Specialist at QS2 AG - Quality Software Solutions

It is very easy to implement, manage, and offers great insights into what is happening inside the engine

Microsoft Azure SQL Database is integrated into other Azure capabilities and has a great foundation being on SQL Server with a long history of security, performance, and usability from a DBA perspective. Once you've set up a server, adding databases is easy. There's a minor challenge with having data in separate databases that you want to connect like we do on premises. I'm looking forward to using some of these new AI-driven functions that have come out around vectorization. Having the data closer to my transactional databases or data makes it easy to augment and enhance the Database and applications I currently use. It's great that Azure SQL now seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Fabric. It's a first-tier service in the cloud that connects to web applications and other databases. The data transformation orchestration capabilities within Database Factory and similar capabilities make it effortless to move that stuff forward.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution has unique features like backup and recovery, and snapshots. It upgrades automatically. The solution offers easy analytics concerning performance metrics. Its reliability and scalability are very good. The tool's most valuable features are disaster recovery, high availability and scalability."

"Amazon RDS is easy to manage, and it has customizable performance, high availability, and duality."

"It is very easy to set up initially."

"It makes it easy to administer the database. It helps to scale your database by providing Read Replicas, which reduce transaction time. It is highly available and durable which helps in disaster recovery and management."

"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten...Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."

"Amazon RDS makes it easier for me to manage databases compared to traditional databases like MongoDB or local host servers."

"The solution’s scalability, usability, and availability are valuable to us."

"The initial setup is straightforward, and technical support is good."

More Amazon RDS pros

"The application deployment in the cloud is the best feature of the infrastructure."

"We can scale the solution if we need to."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is its scalability. Scalability comes with two options, among which Google Cloud Spanner can scale horizontally, compared to other relational databases that scale vertically."

"Google Cloud Spanner is stable."

"It is a very scalable solution."

"The most valuable feature of SQL Azure is the user-friendly VMs."

"Some of the best features of Microsoft Azure SQL Database are its scalability, pricing, and ease of setup."

"Azure SQL Database has significantly reduced our total cost of ownership by eliminating the need for managing physical infrastructure, including data warehouses and data centers."

"SQL Azure can integrate well with other Microsoft Windows services."

"Great auto-scaling and security features."

"The best thing about the solution is that it is tightly integrated with Azure Functions and Azure App Service, making it easy to deploy to the cloud."

"The ease of provisioning and administration is most valuable."

"I rate Microsoft Azure SQL Database nine out of 10."

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database pros

Cons

"You can only get access from the sales support. That means if you want to buy something or renew your subscription or upgrade, all these services are easily available. Yet, if you would like to get some technical support, you have to pay for it. You have to pay for an additional subscription."

"For improvements, Amazon RDS could work on more features for multi-availability zone deployment to enhance higher availability, and on simplifying migration for those transitioning from on-premises to cloud environments."

"If we do not keep track of our costs, we might face some problems."

"With my limited experience, I have noticed that documentation management could be improved. It could be better."

"I like using Amazon RDS because it offers quick operations for me. However, there are times when understanding how to use some of the services can be challenging, even with documentation. If I could add a feature, I'd improve navigation for related services."

"Amazon RDS needs to have an overall dashboard where I can view all the tables in the form of pie charts and Gantt charts. The deployment is complex, and we would like to see automated scripts. It needs to incorporate performance insights."

"There are some advanced monitoring queries that we cannot execute because Amazon doesn't give admin privileges to the end users."

"As a customer of Amazon RDS, you don't have super-user privileges, and that is the only drawback where improvements are required."

More Amazon RDS cons

"The cost can be a bit high."

"I want to improve the deployment of cameras and surveillance infrastructure."

"Google came up with something called Cloud Spanner Emulator, which fails to work like the real product if I want to develop some code and run a database locally on my machine."

"The tool lacks to offer AI features."

"The tool needs to improve horizontal scaling."

"The solution could be less expensive. They need to work on their pricing model."

"I would like to see the cloud connectivity environment improved."

"In terms of support, they don't give much support."

"We have a very small database running on SQL Azure. We have not been able to load bigger systems on it. It is still not something that is feasible. All our heavy-duty systems are on SAP, and it should have more compatibility with other vendors such as SAP. Its price can definitely be lower. It is pretty pricey."

"Lacking in technical documentation."

"Lack of flexibility for developers in terms of performance assistance."

"There needs to be a hybrid model for situations where not all customers want a cloud-based SQL solution."

"If there are areas for improvement, one aspect could be the user interface. It could be made more user-friendly and similar to Google BigQuery's interface."

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is fairly priced."

"The prices for different regions are different."

"I would rate the tool's pricing an eight out of ten."

"if you don't know how to optimize and use your tool properly, the cost might hurt you."

"The solution's price is good."

"The cost depends on the kind of instance we use."

"The solution is expensive."

"Amazon RDS is not a very expensive solution."

More Amazon RDS pricing and cost advice

"Price-wise, I heard that Google Cloud Spanner is on the higher side."

"The solution is expensive."

"It is expensive."

"Google Cloud Spanner is an expensive solution."

"I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten."

"The pricing is actually complicated, and that is probably one downside of it. In some respects, although we can plan for the costs on a month-by-month basis, we are finding it hard to project our costings for it. Fundamentally, Microsoft is offering two pricing models, and it is challenging to understand the differences between the two. We're basically on the DTU model at the moment. That may change in the future as the size grows, but it is one of those things that we'll end up monitoring as we progress. At the moment, to get a reasonable response, generally, the price is a little high for us, but it is one of those things for which we know that we can do improvements on our code. So, it is not just the service that's the problem; it is some of the things that we need to do as well."

"Compared to other providers, the pricing is definitely on the affordable side."

"I find that they are relatively expensive, especially when compared to AWS, where the prices are notably lower."

"It's reasonably priced and when you compare it with other products in the cloud environment, it's cheaper."

"The price of the solution is reasonable."

"When looking at the long-term expenses associated with running software on an on-premises server, the costs are almost equivalent but when we include insurance for devices, onsite fees for servers, and other related costs, we may find that this is a cost-effective solution."

"It is expensive for us. We are looking for something less expensive and thinking of migrating the whole system."

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

13%

University

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

14%

Retailer

11%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

72%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon RDS?

The product's installation phase is easy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon RDS?

I find the pricing of Amazon RDS fair, as AWS operates on a pay-for-what-you-use model. Auto scalability helps handle...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon RDS?

For improvements, Amazon RDS could work on more features for multi-availability zone deployment to enhance higher ava...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Google Cloud Spanner?

Google Cloud Spanner has all the features of a traditional relational database, including schemas, SQL queries, ACID ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Google Cloud Spanner?

Google Cloud Spanner is stable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud Spanner?

Price-wise, I heard that Google Cloud Spanner is on the higher side. I am not sure if this is a rumor or if it's fake...

See all answers

What do you like most about SQL Azure?

The automated scalability feature of SQL Azure has proven to be highly beneficial, particularly when deployed in the ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SQL Azure?

The price for running the server increased more than expected in recent months, and better alignment of pricing expec...

See all answers

What needs improvement with SQL Azure?

We're trying to manage our costs better. We've noticed an unexpected increase in the cost of running the server over ...

See all answers

Comparisons

MongoDB Atlas vs Amazon RDS

Compared 31% of the time

Google Cloud SQL vs Amazon RDS

Compared 23% of the time

Oracle Database as a Service vs Amazon RDS

Compared 16% of the time

Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer vs Amazon RDS

Compared 4% of the time

Yugabyte Platform vs Amazon RDS

Compared 3% of the time

More Amazon RDS Competitors

MongoDB Atlas vs Google Cloud Spanner

Compared 16% of the time

SingleStore vs Google Cloud Spanner

Compared 11% of the time

Google Cloud SQL vs Google Cloud Spanner

Compared 10% of the time

Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer vs Google Cloud Spanner

Compared 8% of the time

Yugabyte Cloud vs Google Cloud Spanner

Compared 6% of the time

More Google Cloud Spanner Competitors

Google Cloud SQL vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 43% of the time

MongoDB Atlas vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 16% of the time

Oracle Database as a Service vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 7% of the time

IBM Db2 on Cloud vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 2% of the time

Redis vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 1% of the time

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon RDS

January 2025

Download Amazon RDS product report

Buyer's Guide

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

January 2025

Download Google Cloud Spanner product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure SQL Database

January 2025

Download Microsoft Azure SQL Database product report

Also Known As

RDS

Google Spanner

No data available

Overview

Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) is a web service that makes it easier to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud. It provides cost-efficient, resizeable capacity for an industry-standard relational database and manages common database administration tasks.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Cloud Spanner is the first and only relational database service that is both strongly consistent and horizontally scalable. With Cloud Spanner you enjoy all the traditional benefits of a relational database: ACID transactions, relational schemas (and schema changes without downtime), SQL queries, high performance, and high availability. But unlike any other relational database service, Cloud Spanner scales horizontally, to hundreds or thousands of servers, so it can handle the highest of transactional workloads. With automatic scaling, synchronous data replication, and node redundancy, Cloud Spanner delivers up to 99.999% (five 9s) of availability for your mission critical applications. In fact, Google’s internal Spanner service has been handling millions of queries per second from many Google services for years.

Google

Microsoft Azure SQL Database is a relational database-as-a-service that delivers predictable performance, scalability, business continuity, data protection, and near-zero administration to cloud developers and solution architects. This is the deep technical library for Azure SQL Database.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Edmodo

Streak, Optiva, Mixpanel

adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH

Buyer's Guide

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

January 2025

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