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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

"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten...Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."
"Amazon RDS is easy to maintain and easy to deploy."
"The solution's customer service is excellent."
"Relational databases excel in extensive normalization, eliminating data redundancy and efficiently structuring tables which leads to a clear and efficient relationship between tables using primary keys."
"The product's most valuable features are option groups, S3 integration, automated and scheduled snapshots, and cross-region replication."
"Amazon RDS is lightweight and flexible."
"The most valuable feature is that it is a fully managed database, where they handle most of the administrative tasks and leaves the users more time to concentrate on business."
"It handles large-scale data migrations perfectly. Amazon RDS's performance is quite good. Charges are incurred after you utilize the service"
"SQL Server has helped to significantly reduce the total cost of ownership."
"Emergency mode is quite useful."
"My impression is that this solution is quite stable."
"Coding does not require much effort."
"SQL Azure is good with transactional systems."
"Overall, Azure SQL has been great. The ease of deployment and scalability are significant reasons we push our larger clients to Azure. We could throw the kitchen sink at the thing if we wanted."
"Azure SQL Database is very quick and easy to use."
"I rate Microsoft Azure SQL Database nine out of 10."
 

Cons

"There are some use cases that might come up where we would want to understand the performance aspects better."
"The response time and the number of iterations required for the product's technical support could be improved."
"The solution could improve by adding a sandbox environment and more security."
"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."
"If we do not keep track of our costs, we might face some problems."
"It would be helpful if they made it easier to migrate from an existing on-premises solution to the cloud-based service."
"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 product must add more older versions of the database engines."
"There are some limitations for cross-database queries and features. The migration of data from older systems should be easier. For deployment, there are too many options, which sometimes makes it difficult to figure out the best option. There is not enough information to help you to find the best option for deployment. There should be more documentation about this."
"One area for improvement is setting up logs, especially for servers like VM SQL. It was also tricky to connect services on VNets to on-premise."
"Microsoft Azure SQL Database could be improved by offering an easier way to view all existing roles in the database without needing complex queries found online."
"The managed SQL MI does not allow us to control the zone it runs in, which affects latency."
"Azure SQL can improve by adding more machine learning features like other databases, such as Cassandra or Cosmos DB."
"We've noticed an unexpected increase in the cost of running the server over the past few months."
"I would like to see integration with Snowflake."
"I want the pricing to be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"On a scale from one to ten, where ten is the most expensive, and one is the cheapest, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."
"The solution’s pricing could be cheaper."
"The substantial initial credit and cost-effectiveness make Amazon an attractive option."
"Amazon RDS is less expensive than other solutions."
"I would rate the tool's pricing an eight out of ten."
"It is less expensive than SQL Server. We pay based on the usage on a monthly basis."
"The solution is expensive."
"The solution's pricing needs improvement."
"We have a three-year contract. The cost was somewhere around $70-80,000 for the original deployment, which was about two years ago"
"The license is based on the number of users."
"I'm not sure what the exact price is, but it's a moderate amount. It's not too expensive."
"Compared to other providers, the pricing is definitely on the affordable side."
"I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten."
"You can use it for smaller instances and pay less. You can also go for the premium product with all the security, scalability, and business continuity features, but you have to pay a premium amount."
"If we use a smaller or free-sized Microsoft Azure SQL Database, it is extremely cost-effective and much cheaper than on-premise enterprise licenses, which are expensive."
"It is reasonable."
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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.
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 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 ...
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...
 

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: March 2025.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.