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Google Cloud Spanner 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

Google Cloud Spanner
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
8th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
5
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
6.9
Number of Reviews
134
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Google Cloud Spanner is 7.9%, up from 4.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is 9.9%, down from 15.9% 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 Database9.9%
Google Cloud Spanner7.9%
Other82.2%
Database as a Service (DBaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

LJ
System Architect at UST Global España
Offers good performance to users
The tool lacks to offer AI features. In the future, I would like the product to offer AI features to users. Nowadays, we are creating small acronyms for our SQL Server. We put some templates. If I just put your name and stop it, the entire cloud can be explored, but such features are not there in Google Cloud Spanner. As a layman rather than a developer, if I create a tool or a procedure. If I write a procedure and then when you describe a procedure, a dummy procedure will be written for you, and it will be available for you as a template in SQL Server, but such kind features are not there in Google Cloud Spanner.
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

"We can scale the solution if we need to."
"The solution is stable and reliable."
"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."
"The application deployment in the cloud is the best feature of the infrastructure."
"Google Cloud Spanner is stable."
"It is a very scalable solution."
"The solution effectively handles storing and maintaining information in databases."
"The stability is good."
"What I like the most is the processes and the easiness of deployments."
"The most valuable feature of SQL Azure is the user-friendly VMs."
"Because the solution is cloud-based it's highly manageable, it makes maintenance of logs, space, storage, and backups much easier compared to a traditional SQL server installation."
"The most valuable feature is PolyBase."
"There are a lot of other databases available in the market, but the ease with which you can do the development and the overall support that you get cannot be compared with any other database."
"Since SQL Azure is a stable solution, you do not need to spend time to maintain it."
 

Cons

"The cost can be a bit high."
"The tool needs to improve horizontal scaling."
"The cost can be a bit high."
"Google came up with something called Cloud Spanner Emulator, which fails to work like the real product if I want to develop some code and run a database locally on my machine."
"I want to improve the deployment of cameras and surveillance infrastructure."
"The tool lacks to offer AI features."
"One area for improvement could be expanding the search queries using vectors or AI inside the database."
"Adding users to Azure SQL could be easier. You need to script it out, but it would be nice if it had a UI where you can click and add them. It's not a major thing because we script things all the time, but it would be a minor thing that helps us."
"Lacks some tools on the SQL Server for data virtualization."
"A potential area for improvement could be integrating with third-party clouds. Adding a feature to bring Azure SQL in Azure with SQL on-premises would be helpful."
"A potential area for improvement could be integrating with third-party clouds."
"The document storage is primarily relational, which is not ideally suited for SQL. If there were better integration with SharePoint for document handling in SQL, it would greatly benefit the organization. Moreover, the current on-premise limitations prevent direct file pulling, limiting certain capabilities."
"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."
"Support isn't that great. They need to work on this aspect of their service. It can be challenging to reach them."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Price-wise, I heard that Google Cloud Spanner is on the higher side."
"Google Cloud Spanner is an expensive solution."
"The solution is expensive."
"It is expensive."
"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"The price could be slightly cheaper."
"When you go with SQL Azure Database, you can create a small database, which is around $4 to $5 per month for development purposes."
"The solution is more cost-effective than Google BigQuery. Compared to Google BigQuery, downloading data can be more expensive."
"We have a three-year contract. The cost was somewhere around $70-80,000 for the original deployment, which was about two years ago"
"We pay less than $1000 monthly in licensing fees. There are no additional costs."
"SQL Azure is an expensive solution."
"The pricing is flexible and can be adapted based on our requirements but the pricing options are complex especially if we are using a VM."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
24%
Healthcare Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Media Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business60
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise61
 

Questions from the Community

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 transactions, and provides excellent integration and monitoring tools as well as...
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 news, but I believe that having BigQuery and GCP together could be a little cos...
What needs improvement with Google Cloud Spanner?
The tool lacks to offer AI features. In the future, I would like the product to offer AI features to users. Nowadays, we are creating small acronyms for our SQL Server. We put some templates. If I ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SQL Azure?
I would say I am at a basic experience level with the pricing, setup costs and licensing because while I am the administrator for the service, I do not provision the services and worry about the co...
What needs improvement with SQL Azure?
I have no comments at the moment on how Microsoft Azure SQL Database can be improved. I have no comments on additional features that I would like to see released in the next release. I do not have ...
What is your primary use case for SQL Azure?
My main use cases for Microsoft Azure SQL Database are third-party applications.
 

Also Known As

Google Spanner
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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 Google Cloud Spanner vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
896,510 professionals have used our research since 2012.