No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

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 7.5%, up from 4.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is 9.5%, down from 15.6% 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 Database9.5%
Google Cloud Spanner7.5%
Other83.0%
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

"The application deployment in the cloud is the best feature of the infrastructure."
"It is a very scalable solution."
"Google Cloud Spanner is stable."
"The solution is stable and reliable."
"We can scale the solution if we need to."
"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."
"Performance of memory-optimized tables in SQL Azure exceeds that of an on premise SQL Server."
"Transitioning from a traditional on-premise SQL database to Microsoft Azure SQL Database is beneficial because features such as auto-indexing allow us to scale during peak seasons and scale back on demand, which is very useful for handling our spiky peak traffic based on seasonal factors, avoiding the need to purchase more hardware as required with traditional setups."
"Since SQL Azure is a stable solution, you do not need to spend time to maintain it."
"We like the collaborative nature of the solution."
"Microsoft Azure SQL Database has significantly improved our operations by allowing us to extract data and generate comprehensive reports in Power BI."
"I prefer using Microsoft SQL Server because I like the experience and the way Microsoft handles the query tuning and security."
"SQL Azure can integrate well with other Microsoft Windows services."
"SQL Azure is reliable and scales well."
 

Cons

"The tool needs to improve horizontal scaling."
"The tool lacks to offer AI features."
"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 cost can be a bit high."
"Although the solution integrates well into Azure’s ecosystem, it has limited capability and is incompatible with many third-party applications or tools."
"There is probably more functionality in our on-prem SQL Server than SQL Azure."
"The underlying Windows OS is highly scalable but has a very large resource requirement."
"Its automation can be improved. SQL Server Agent was a very big part of the on-prem tools."
"We haven't had any major issues that have prevented us from doing stuff fundamentally. For its implementation, sometimes, it is complicated to understand what your needs are. It would be good to have a few use cases that provide different cloud variations that match on-premise installations and show how they can be moved to the cloud a bit better."
"We need improvement in the latency between availability zones. The managed SQL MI does not allow us to control the zone it runs in, which affects latency."
"I think Microsoft Azure SQL Database should be cheaper. The license is expensive, but not always; it depends on the case regarding pricing and licensing."
"Microsoft Azure SQL Database could improve by providing more support for Availability Groups within Managed Instance."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Google Cloud Spanner is an expensive solution."
"It is expensive."
"Price-wise, I heard that Google Cloud Spanner is on the higher side."
"The solution is expensive."
"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."
"It requires a license. As compared to its competitors, such as Oracle, it is affordable and reasonable."
"There is a license required to use the solution and it cost $30 to do the installation."
"SQL Azure's licensing cost is expensive."
"Offers options for paying the license on a yearly or a monthly basis."
"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."
"Microsoft Azure SQL Database is not cheap."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Database as a Service (DBaaS) solutions are best for your needs.
900,228 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
25%
Healthcare Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Construction Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

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: June 2026.
900,228 professionals have used our research since 2012.