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

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.3
Amazon RDS customer service is prompt and knowledgeable, but costs vary, with mixed feedback on support quality and access.
No sentiment score available
Sentiment score
8.6
Microsoft Azure SQL Database offers knowledgeable support but faces criticism for slow response times and accessibility issues.
The documentation is quite good.
The customer support is hard to reach, with Microsoft’s technical support being difficult to get in touch with.
 

Room For Improvement

Sentiment score
4.8
Amazon RDS improvements include easier migrations, cost reduction, better integration, database support, shell access, and enhanced documentation and tools.
No sentiment score available
Sentiment score
5.3
Microsoft Azure SQL Database needs enhanced security, cost-efficiency, better integration, improved automation, and comprehensive documentation for user satisfaction.
Simplifying migration for those transitioning from on-premises to cloud environments.
I could not get an accurate quote on what my monthly costs would be based on my needs.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
10.0
Amazon RDS is praised for scalability and adaptability, though some users experience challenges or prefer alternatives.
No sentiment score available
Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Azure SQL Database is highly scalable, flexible, and reliable, easily handling varying demands and adjusting resources efficiently.
Its automated scaling, both in storage and instances, is vital as it eliminates manual interventions.
Scaling the solution is incredibly simple and involves just clicking a button or dragging a slider.
 

Setup Cost

Sentiment score
8.0
Amazon RDS pricing is seen as cost-efficient with proper management, though unpredictable costs can occur without optimization.
No sentiment score available
Sentiment score
7.1
Microsoft Azure SQL Database pricing varies by usage, offering flexibility, but can be complex with regional and subscription factors.
While Azure provides great services, long-term plans on AWS are 20% to 30% cheaper.
I find the pricing of Amazon RDS fair, as AWS operates on a pay-for-what-you-use model.
I rate the price for Amazon as eight on a scale from one to ten.
While the pricing of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is good, obtaining an estimate of monthly costs based on specific needs was challenging.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.5
Amazon RDS is highly rated for stability, reliability, and performance, with effective backup features ensuring high availability and uptime.
No sentiment score available
Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Azure SQL Database is highly reliable and stable, with excellent performance and security features, despite concerns about future scalability.
Amazon RDS is very stable when deployed correctly across different zones with the right configurations.
 

Valuable Features

Sentiment score
9.0
Amazon RDS offers easy management, scalability, high availability, security, and development efficiency with automated tasks and on-demand scaling.
No sentiment score available
Sentiment score
8.3
Microsoft Azure SQL Database offers scalability, high availability, seamless Microsoft integration, robust security, and ease of use with automatic 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.
Amazon RDS makes it easier for me to manage databases compared to traditional databases like MongoDB or local host servers.
Amazon RDS fulfills PCI requirements, which is a valuable feature for us.
Some of the best features of Microsoft Azure SQL Database are its scalability, pricing, and ease of setup.
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Amazon RDS is 25.6%, down from 28.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Cloud Spanner is 3.9%, down from 3.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is 17.5%, down from 19.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database as a Service (DBaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

Udhay Prakash Pethakamsetty - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides excellent authentication, authorization, integration, data protection, and autoscaling features
The product should support new databases. RocketDB is written in C++. It is useful when we work with Kafka. The product should support more databases and not just the standard four to five databases. It will help the users to explore new avenues and not be confined to the standard ones. The tool provides automatic backup, but the recovery is slow if something goes wrong. We need to wait for some time. If a failure happens, recovery takes some time. Meanwhile, we lose business. It would be great if it happens much faster. The cross-region replication settings are very complex. We need to do careful planning.
Ethan Lo - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
DineshKumar27 - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers high-availability features with different price points and licensing models for users
There are certain shortcomings when it comes to the stability of the product, especially if I consider the fact that there can always be some bug-related issues in the tool. The aforementioned area can be considered for improvement in the product. I am sure that the tool does all sorts of quality checks before releasing the product in the market, but there are thousands of different environments today where users use the solution for their own purposes and customize it to fit their business requirements. In some cases, there may be some bugs that users need to fix, and many of them might even fix it as well. As SQL Azure is available as a cloud-based tool, it helps to maintain uniformity in the environment, so the number of issues is reduced significantly.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
6%
University
6%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
14%
Retailer
11%
Government
9%
Educational Organization
70%
Computer Software Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Government
2%
 

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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon RDS?
I would rate the pricing between six and seven. The cost is manageable because you can see the expense associated wit...
What needs improvement with Amazon RDS?
They could provide better integration for the solution with Microsoft products. Although this may be challenging due ...
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 ...
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...
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 ...
What needs improvement with SQL Azure?
The solution’s pricing needs improvement because it is too high.
 

Also Known As

RDS
Google Spanner
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Edmodo
Streak, Optiva, Mixpanel
adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, MongoDB and others in Database as a Service (DBaaS). Updated: November 2024.
816,562 professionals have used our research since 2012.