Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Amazon RDS vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 12, 2024

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

Amazon RDS
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
54
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
117
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Amazon RDS is 25.0%, down from 27.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is 15.9%, down from 18.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database as a Service (DBaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

Samuel Ebite - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Charley Hanania - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The tool is very easy to use and configure."
"The initial setup is straightforward, and technical support is good."
"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."
"It handles large-scale data migrations perfectly. Amazon RDS's performance is quite good. Charges are incurred after you utilize the service"
"The most valuable feature of Amazon RDS is its performance."
"The time to install or set up a database environment is very fast."
"The product solved our DevOps and admin problems."
"I use Amazon RDS to support scalability, with multi-AZ support being an essential aspect."
"The tool set is familiar since I've used SQL Server on-premises for quite a few years."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"The product is easy to set up."
"What I like about SQL Azure is that it's similar to your on-premises SQL databases. It's not much different, so it's easy to start quickly on the solution if you know Microsoft SQL. I find its ease of use most valuable, and I also like that SQL Azure is also easily integrated with the Azure Cloud platform."
"Azure SQL Database is very quick and easy to use. It certainly makes my infrastructure and development teams more efficient."
"It is easily scalable, and it is faster than SQL Server. It is also less expensive than using SQL Server. It has the pay-as-you-go model, and the charges are based on the usage."
"I prefer using Microsoft SQL Server because I like the experience and the way Microsoft handles the query tuning and security."
"SQL Server has helped to significantly reduce the total cost of ownership."
 

Cons

"Amazon cannot guarantee the stability of some extensions, and there is a need for different extensions to meet PCI requirements."
"In the next release, it would be great to see RDS provide connection pooling out of the box."
"The Amazon RDS engine could provide features for additional databases, such as Db2. It could also provide support for other databases, such as NoSQL databases, DynamoDB, and Apache Cassandra. They could all stay under one hood."
"The running cost could be improved."
"The security features could be improved."
"If we do not keep track of our costs, we might face some problems."
"In the next release, it would be great to have access to core parameters to improve or tweak the performance."
"It would be better if it integrated seamlessly with Microsoft products. Our clients use the Microsoft Tally application server. We already tried to create a reputation from, for example, an on-premises environment from our client to Amazon RDS using Microsoft Tally server, and we couldn't do that because we didn't have a strong user in RDS. We couldn't create a reputation from an on-premises environment from the Microsoft Tally server to RDS. I think that it would be a good implementation, and it would help us with this case."
"Service Broker should be added in Azure Cloud. Service Broker is currently available only in the on-premises version."
"There is probably more functionality in our on-prem SQL Server than SQL Azure."
"It should have better profiling capabilities."
"I would like to see the cloud connectivity environment improved."
"I would like to see more compatibility with SSMS and more backward compatibility with regular on-prem SQL."
"Microsoft Azure SQL Database is not cheap."
"They could improve Azure SQL by adding some of the features available on-prem, such as cross-database queries and the ability to run particular jobs. We need to migrate those to something else, like a function or logic app."
"I would like to the solutions scalability to be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price could be better."
"The price of Amazon RDS is reasonable."
"Amazon RDS is not a very expensive solution."
"Amazon RDS is less expensive than other solutions."
"We are paying for a service license."
"Amazon RDS could improve by reducing the price."
"By using a combination of Reserve Instances and On-Demand pricing, you can reduce the cost."
"The price of Amazon RDS is expensive."
"There is a license required to use the solution and it cost $30 to do the installation."
"The cost is around $2,000 per month."
"The price could be slightly cheaper."
"Microsoft services are costly, which is the only problem we face. So, pricing is an area of improvement."
"I recommend considering a pay-as-you-go pricing model initially."
"I believe the licensing is more on a global scale."
"We have had some issues with the licensing of the solution."
"There is no licensing cost for the solution."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Database as a Service (DBaaS) solutions are best for your needs.
849,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
14%
University
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Educational Organization
72%
Computer Software Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Manufacturing Company
2%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon RDS?
The product's installation phase is easy.
What needs improvement with Amazon RDS?
One key improvement would be adding support for multi-storage paradigms, including columnar support, as seen in TiDB. The serverless support with Aurora could also be enhanced. Additionally, having...
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 cloud.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SQL Azure?
The pricing of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is not cheap, affecting user uptake. A gradual reduction in price could improve accessibility and user numbers, making it easier for users to adopt the s...
What needs improvement with SQL Azure?
Pricing could be improved to make Microsoft Azure SQL Database ( /products/microsoft-azure-sql-database-reviews ) more accessible. A reduction in price might encourage more users and bring more pro...
 

Also Known As

RDS
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Edmodo
adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon RDS vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.