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

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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:
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Amazon RDS is 12.8%, down from 20.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Cloud SQL is 6.4%, down from 11.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is 9.1%, down from 13.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database as a Service (DBaaS) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Azure SQL Database9.1%
Amazon RDS12.8%
Google Cloud SQL6.4%
Other71.7%
Database as a Service (DBaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2592669 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director Software Engineer at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Positive experiences with database services, with minor room for feature enhancements observed
I don't really see any disadvantages of Amazon RDS. With Oracle, I think AWS doesn't provide the RAC stability. If you have Oracle installed in your own data centers, you can set up various clusters and we can set up the RACs, but in Amazon RDS, we cannot have the RAC feature of Oracle. They could add that feature. Amazon RDS has limitations regarding RAC. If we talk about installing Oracle in RDS, we cannot have the RAC, but if you deploy Oracle on GCP, then there is probably the RAC feature available. I observed that around two or three years back, but I'm not sure whether they have added the RAC feature in AWS. Amazon RDS is expensive compared to GCP. GCP also has the same features, and although it is quite extensive and feature-rich, I see Amazon RDS as slightly expensive compared to other clouds.
RituRaj - PeerSpot reviewer
SDE 2 at Virtusa
Drag and drop workflows have simplified data mapping and currently improve my cloud database work
The IPaaS Connector, which I have found most valuable, is part of Google Cloud SQL. Google Cloud's user interface is really good, which improves efficiency in my database operations. The UI is excellent, making it easier to understand what we are doing. Currently, I am working on IPaaS Connector, so it is really just a clickable interface without writing any code. I simply use drag and drop and connecting lines, and it is working. Google Cloud SQL's global infrastructure improves our database's latency metrics because we are using Gemini in our project. Since both are products of Google, it makes our product faster.
Thomas Sawyer - PeerSpot reviewer
Executive Director, Platform Architecture at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation – SMBC Group
Automatic tuning and multi-region availability have reduced manual workloads and improved performance management
The features of Microsoft Azure SQL Database that I like the most are easy scaling and high availability. I appreciate those features because it's easy to make Microsoft Azure SQL Database readily available in a multi-region infrastructure. Using Microsoft Azure SQL Database is very easy; it's much easier than SQL on-premise because I don't have to worry about deploying infrastructure, and I can rapidly deploy via infrastructure as code. I am using the automatic tuning feature in Microsoft Azure SQL Database. We are using the new feature of data encryption in Microsoft Azure SQL Database with customer-managed keys only. The reliability and stability of Microsoft Azure SQL Database platform are rock-solid; it's as good, if not better, than what our on-premise stability has been from an uptime perspective.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The provisioning is much faster. You don't have to prepare hardware or install software. You just need to create an instance and you have a database."
"The solution is good for on-premise deployments."
"RDS MySQL (and Postgres) are great managed database services."
"With RDS, everything is turnkey and always available."
"Amazon RDS is a scalable solution."
"Being able to change the size of an RDS MySQL instance is amazing."
"The solution’s scalability, usability, and availability are valuable to us."
"I recommend RDS because it makes your life super easy."
"It runs really well, it's cheap, it's efficient, it's user-friendly."
"The solution is easy to use. I am impressed with the tool's features and functionality."
"It is not the cool features that I find valuable, it is the stability of Google Cloud Platform."
"They have good multi-region failure support, and we can just set up there and read replicas directly and we can fall back."
"Google Cloud SQL is easy to start with and allows me to scale as needed, which is advantageous from a developer perspective."
"Google Cloud SQL is very easy to use and easy to set up; it brings the benefits of being simple to perform queries, store data that I needed to store, and extract data when I needed to extract it quite quickly, without having to set up a full database and queries around it."
"This is a stable solution and offers good performance."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"Microsoft is very efficient and forward-looking, making it less expensive to build the setup for Azure SQL."
"Some of the best features of Microsoft Azure SQL Database are its scalability, pricing, and ease of setup."
"It's user-friendly. Compared to other solutions, it's based more on clicks, not on scripts. It's easy to manage."
"The most valuable feature from the infra point of view is you don't have to keep any on-prem infrastructure, it is available all the time whenever you want to access it."
"The most valuable aspect of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is its accessibility."
"The feature I like the most in Microsoft Azure SQL Database is the recovery point of time to recover the database when needed, which has benefited my organization by improving response time in seconds and milliseconds, and this will improve customer experience and satisfy the commercial team as well."
"The automated scalability feature of SQL Azure has proven to be highly beneficial, particularly when deployed in the cloud."
"The scalability and simple management of the infrastructure are the most valuable features."
 

Cons

"Amazon RDS should have a more user-friendly graphical user interface and include better database management options."
"It would be better if it integrated seamlessly with Microsoft products."
"As a customer of Amazon RDS, you don't have super-user privileges, and that is the only drawback where improvements are required."
"The product's high price is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"I don't think it's very scalable. In comparison, Microsoft Azure has many options."
"The product should support new databases."
"One notable improvement that could enhance the database management experience, particularly during migration scenarios, is the accessibility of the root user."
"The running cost could be improved."
"The most vulnerable problem with Google SQL is that while you can customize your access control list, it provides you with a public IP address."
"I would like to see better integration with all the different tools on the platform."
"I am yet to explore a lot of features that are present in this solution. However, it would be good if more documentation is available for this solution. This would help us in preparing for the certification exam and understand it better. Currently, we don't have much documentation. We do the labs for 20 or 25 minutes, but we can't capture and download anything."
"The most challenging part is dealing with legacy data from your old systems and migrating it into the new setup, but once you've completed the data migration, it becomes quite convenient to use."
"To create a seamless data integration, the title integration of these databases with the data integration platforms is essential. This is what we would like to have in a future release."
"The customer support should be improved."
"They could improve documentation and dashboard stability for efficient user experience and database management."
"It is hard to do logging with the solution."
"Scalability Cost efficiency Business continuity"
"There could be more collaboration with other tools like Data Factory and Databricks."
"Microsoft Azure SQL Database could improve by having better tooling in terms of connecting to other database platforms and better capabilities around programmable interfaces. There should be more fine-tuning on the storage layer. I would like to see T-SQL improvements to automatically translate features from other database platforms for easier migration, as well as some improvements around column store and native capabilities like those in Iceberg and PowerK built into the SQL Server product."
"Operational cost needs improvement."
"Some data types are not available on SQL Azure while it's available on SQL Server."
"The solution requires familiarity with its language so can be tricky."
"Azure SQL can improve by adding more machine learning features like other databases, such as Cassandra or Cosmos DB."
"I am very happy with Microsoft Azure SQL Database; I don't think there's anything in particular I would change, except to make it cheaper."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Amazon RDS is expensive."
"The pricing of RDS is a little bit high compared to Microsoft... However, it is a good price compared to other solutions."
"The substantial initial credit and cost-effectiveness make Amazon an attractive option."
"The solution's pricing needs improvement."
"The solution is expensive."
"The prices for different regions are different."
"The cost depends on the kind of instance we use."
"We are paying for a service license."
"While the platform’s pricing may be higher, it aligns with industry standards, considering the quality of service and features provided."
"From a financial perspective, Google Cloud SQL is on the cheaper side."
"The pricing is very much an important factor as to why we use this solution."
"It is not expensive, especially considering the significant reduction in database management time."
"The solution is affordable."
"You need to pay extra costs for backup and replication."
"It's really cheap. It wouldn't be more than, I believe it's around 50 euro per month for running a cloud SQL."
"When you go with SQL Azure Database, you can create a small database, which is around $4 to $5 per month for development purposes."
"It only has a subscription-based license."
"I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten."
"The solution is expensive."
"I recommend considering a pay-as-you-go pricing model initially."
"There is no licensing cost for the solution."
"Its price can definitely be lower. It is pretty pricey."
"The licensing for this solution is based on subscription."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Educational Organization
12%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business62
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise65
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Amazon RDS?
I think Amazon RDS can be improved or enhanced if it can be implemented with other monitoring tools such as Percona. ...
What is your primary use case for Amazon RDS?
Amazon RDS is typically used for AI applications. I am developing it for an AI recruitment agent and for collecting d...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud SQL?
We have set up automated patch management for Google Cloud SQL, and it does on a daily basis what needs to be done, s...
What needs improvement with Google Cloud SQL?
I would to improve a few glitches in Google Cloud SQL that I have recently noticed. There are a few UI glitches that ...
What is your primary use case for Google Cloud SQL?
I am not working with Oracle; everything I am working on is on Google. I would like to improve a few glitches in Goog...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SQL Azure?
I am not involved in the pricing part of Microsoft Azure SQL Database, so I have not heard anything.
What needs improvement with SQL Azure?
I have not worked much on Microsoft Azure SQL Database's ability to power next-generation AI applications. I cannot s...
What is your primary use case for SQL Azure?
I find the data migration part for Microsoft Azure SQL Database very good for connecting one database to another data...
 

Also Known As

RDS
No data available
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Edmodo
BeDataDriven, CodeFutures, Daffodil, GenieConnect, KiSSFLOW, LiveHive, SulAm_rica, Zync
adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), MongoDB and others in Database as a Service (DBaaS). Updated: September 2026.
913,349 professionals have used our research since 2012.