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Amazon RDS vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft 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 Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.7. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 25.0% mindshare in DS, compared to Microsoft’s 15.9% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.
Amazon RDS
Read 54 Amazon RDS reviews
  • 5,264 Views
  • 4,374 Comparison Views
98% willing to recommend
Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Read 117 Microsoft Azure SQL Database reviews
  • 6,648 Views
  • 2,858 Comparison Views
96% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 12, 2024

Amazon RDS and Microsoft Azure SQL Database are strong players in the cloud database market. Based on the comparisons, each product has distinct advantages that cater to different needs.

Features: Amazon RDS offers automated backups, ease of scalability, and high availability. Microsoft Azure SQL Database has advanced machine learning capabilities, integration with other Azure services, and built-in security features.

Room for Improvement: Amazon RDS could improve its support, reduce downtime during maintenance, and enhance its performance analytics. Microsoft Azure SQL Database needs better performance analytics, improved documentation for complex setups, and more intuitive user interfaces.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Amazon RDS is easier to deploy and integrates well with AWS services, but its customer service receives mixed reviews. Microsoft Azure SQL Database has a straightforward deployment process and an effective support team, especially for enterprises already using Azure.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon RDS offers competitive pricing with good ROI for small and medium businesses, but costs can increase with higher usage. Microsoft Azure SQL Database is more expensive but the added features and integration justify the cost, providing good ROI for enterprises needing comprehensive solutions.

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To learn more, read our detailed Amazon RDS vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database Report (Updated: March 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Amazon RDS vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database
March 2025
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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.
Read full review
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.
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 initial setup is straightforward, and technical support is good."
"Amazon RDS fulfills PCI requirements, which is a valuable feature for us."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten...Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."
"Being able to change the size of an RDS MySQL instance is amazing."
"I found it to be a stable solution."
"Amazon RDS is quite a well-managed and stable service...The initial setup was very easy."
"I use Amazon RDS to store and manage data securely. It helps me retrieve information and gain insights from the data that comes in for my business or specific applications."
"It is very easy to set up initially."
More Amazon RDS pros
"We're a Microsoft customer, so it fits in with everything else we work with."
"The initial setup is very easy. It's extremely straightforward."
"The solution effectively handles storing and maintaining information in databases."
"Some of the best features of Microsoft Azure SQL Database are its scalability, pricing, and ease of setup."
"Very easy to use on any platform and works well."
"SQL is a simpler database. We use it more than other databases."
"My main use case for SQL Azure is for a self-reading application related to portfolio management. In this application, users can have portfolios designed and managed based on recommendations from their brokers. These recommendations are sent to users, and if consumed, they get executed and added to their portfolios, which can be easily maintained through mobile applications. This involves using Kafka for messaging and execution."
"The most valuable aspects of this solution are the integration with the darknet stack especially Microsoft, table groups, supports major capability requirements, and SQL always-on feature."
More Microsoft Azure SQL Database pros
 

Cons

"One notable improvement that could enhance the database management experience, particularly during migration scenarios, is the accessibility of the root user."
"Amazon RDS could improve by having more sophisticated. I use other solutions that have better technology for more difficult tasks."
"The running cost could be improved."
"If we do not keep track of our costs, we might face some problems."
"The Performance Monitor they have is a little clanky, at least in regards to the UI."
"The support team of Amazon RDS provides us with some links to go through whenever we face some issues, but it doesn't work for us."
"There are some advanced monitoring queries that we cannot execute because Amazon doesn't give admin privileges to the end users."
"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."
More Amazon RDS cons
"Microsoft Azure SQL Database would benefit from enhanced documentation, along with ongoing improvements to scalability and cost-effectiveness."
"There is so much information that it becomes confusing at times. The information can be more friendly. They could also provide additional training, especially at the beginning."
"SQL Azure could improve by adding more features."
"One of the nice features in Microsoft SQL Server is the SQL Server CLR, which we sometimes need to use to protect our procedures using C# or CLR. This is not available in the SQL Azure database."
"Its automation can be improved. SQL Server Agent was a very big part of the on-prem tools. While moving from on-prem to the cloud, redoing some of such tools was very cumbersome in Azure. There was a whole new set of technologies and methodologies. It should have easier automation-type features to be able to implement such tools. It should have almost a SQL agent type of substance built into that."
"SQL Azure could improve the feature set. They are catching up to Microsoft SQL Server."
"One area for improvement is the need for accurate cost estimates."
"If the product could support applications requiring an SQL server for installation, by using SQL Azure as a backend, that would be useful."
More Microsoft Azure SQL Database cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"In my case, MySQL is free, and if there are any costs, then it is much less than other solutions since all such things usually come bundled with the hardware."
"I would rate the tool's pricing an eight out of ten."
"We are paying for a service license."
"The cost depends on the kind of instance we use."
"By using a combination of Reserve Instances and On-Demand pricing, you can reduce the cost."
"The cost is manageable because you can see the expense associated with each instance and utilize tools for tagging and cost control."
"The price could be better."
"The substantial initial credit and cost-effectiveness make Amazon an attractive option."
More Amazon RDS pricing and cost advice
"I recommend considering a pay-as-you-go pricing model initially."
"The solution is moderately expensive."
"It is beneficial in terms of cost because you are charged per data unit instead of licensing."
"There is no licensing cost for the solution."
"The price could be slightly cheaper."
"Compared to other providers, the pricing is definitely on the affordable side."
"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."
"The price of the solution is reasonable."
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
14%
University
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Educational Organization
73%
Computer Software Company
4%
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.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon RDS?
The pricing for Amazon RDS is reasonable.
See all answers
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...
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 cloud.
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 expectations is needed. Notably, costs related to IT staff coming into the office on ...
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 the past few months. Addressing pricing clarity and alignment would help us. Als...
See all answers
 

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Compared 16% of the time
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Compared 7% of the time
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Compared 2% of the time
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Compared 2% of the time
More Microsoft Azure SQL Database Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Amazon RDS
March 2025
Amazon RDS reportDownload Amazon RDS product report
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure SQL Database
March 2025
Microsoft Azure SQL Database reportDownload Microsoft Azure SQL Database product report
 

Also Known As

RDS
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)

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
adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH
Buyer's Guide
Amazon RDS vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database
March 2025
Free Report: Amazon RDS vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon RDS vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
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We monitor all Database as a Service (DBaaS) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.