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Google Cloud Spanner vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database comparison

Google and Microsoft are both solutions in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category. Google is ranked #8 with an average rating of 10.0, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.5. Google holds a 8.1% mindshare in DS, compared to Microsoft’s 10.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.
Google Cloud Spanner
Read 5 Google Cloud Spanner reviews
  • 1,718 Views
  • 1,649 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Read 134 Microsoft Azure SQL Database reviews
  • 5,581 Views
  • 5,469 Comparison Views
96% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 12, 2024

Microsoft Azure SQL Database and Google Cloud Spanner are two prominent cloud database services with distinct functionalities and benefits, each suited to different needs. Users find Spanner superior for its global distribution and consistency.

Features: Microsoft Azure SQL Database is praised for its integrated AI capabilities, disaster recovery options, and strong integration with Microsoft services. Google Cloud Spanner is noted for its strong global scaling, true ACID compliance, and global transactional consistency.

Room for Improvement: Users identify areas for improvement in Azure SQL Database's performance tuning, advanced data analytics features, and documentation. For Google Cloud Spanner, complex query execution, additional native support for various data types, and training resources need enhancements.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Users generally find the deployment process of Microsoft Azure SQL Database straightforward, benefitting from integrated support. Google Cloud Spanner offers robust deployment options but could enhance initial setup ease. Azure receives mixed feedback on customer service responsiveness, while Spanner users value prompt and knowledgeable support.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Azure SQL Database offers competitive pricing with flexible options, appealing to those seeking cost-effective solutions. Google Cloud Spanner, meanwhile, is considered expensive but justified by its high performance and scalability. Users experience significant ROI with Azure due to cost savings, while Spanner users justify the higher upfront costs with long-term gains in performance and reliability.

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To learn more, read our detailed Google Cloud Spanner vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database Report (Updated: April 2026).
Buyer's Guide
Google Cloud Spanner vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database
April 2026
Download the complete report
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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

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 April 2026, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Google Cloud Spanner is 8.1%, up from 4.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is 10.1%, 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 Database10.1%
Google Cloud Spanner8.1%
Other81.8%
Database as a Service (DBaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

LJ
LijomonJose
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.
Read full review
Thomas Sawyer - PeerSpot reviewer
Thomas Sawyer
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.
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

"We can scale the solution if we need to."
"Google Cloud Spanner is stable."
"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."
"It is a very scalable solution."
"The most valuable feature of SQL Azure is the user-friendly VMs."
"Azure SQL connects directly to our Power Platform apps, making it easy to use."
"We primarily and generally use it only for DB purposes. When it comes to the Azure part, we can easily provision, scale up, and scale down the generator machine. This kind of flexibility is the USP of SQL Azure. Its interface and ease of use are also valuable. It is very easy to use and integrate with multiple databases. If I need to pull in or import some data from my on-premises database, the ease with which you can connect and pull the data, not only from SQL Server but also from other flavors of MySQL or even Oracle, is very good."
"I rate Microsoft Azure SQL Database 10 out of 10."
"Customers can benefit from a lot of cost savings if they go for Azure."
"It is quick to set up and easy to scale."
"Every new version has new features and it pretty much covers everything in terms of memory, database, the caching, the redundancy, and high availability."
"Microsoft Azure SQL Database scales well, allowing us to increase our compute level or add more instances as required."
More Microsoft Azure SQL Database pros
 

Cons

"I want to improve the deployment of cameras and surveillance infrastructure."
"The cost can be a bit high."
"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."
"The cost can be a bit high."
"SQL Azure only supports distributed transactions with other instances of SQL Azure."
"It does take some time to learn about the environment."
"We have a very small database running on SQL Azure. We have not been able to load bigger systems on it."
"Azure SQL had a bit of a learning curve to start, but it was fairly simple once I understood how to develop it. I was using PowerShell to connect to it, and I've never connected to online databases through Azure using PowerShell. Scripting the PowerShell connections could be simpler. The coding is familiar, but figuring out how to use it initially can be easier."
"The initial setup was very complex."
"I think this product can improve its integrations with business intelligence software. The integrations are always cumbersome due to the approvals, passwords, et cetera."
"I think that the cost management in SQL is not clear because we may use some tax to identify products, but in some cases identifying the transactions in SQL is not easy for some financial cost centers."
"Their support is nice but frequently their responses aren't effective."
More Microsoft Azure SQL Database cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Price-wise, I heard that Google Cloud Spanner is on the higher side."
"Google Cloud Spanner is an expensive solution."
"It is expensive."
"The solution is expensive."
"The cost is around $2,000 per month."
"SQL Azure's licensing cost is expensive."
"I believe the licensing is more on a global scale."
"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."
"When looking at the long-term expenses associated with running software on an on-premises server, the costs are almost equivalent but when we include insurance for devices, onsite fees for servers, and other related costs, we may find that this is a cost-effective solution."
"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 price could be slightly cheaper."
"The licensing for this solution is based on subscription."
More Microsoft Azure SQL Database pricing and cost advice
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
23%
Healthcare Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Media Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Computer Software 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...
See all answers
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...
See all answers
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 ...
See all answers
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...
See all answers
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 ...
See all answers
What is your primary use case for SQL Azure?
My main use cases for Microsoft Azure SQL Database are third-party applications.
See all answers
 

Comparisons

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Yugabyte Cloud vs Google Cloud Spanner
Compared 10% of the time
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Compared 5% of the time
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Compared 16% of the time
Amazon RDS vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database Logo
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Compared 13% of the time
Azure Database for PostgreSQL vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database Logo
Azure Database for PostgreSQL vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Compared 11% of the time
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MongoDB Atlas vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Compared 11% of the time
Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database Logo
Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Compared 4% of the time
More Microsoft Azure SQL Database Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Database as a Service (DBaaS)
April 2026
Google Cloud Spanner reportDownload Google Cloud Spanner product report
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure SQL Database
April 2026
Microsoft Azure SQL Database reportDownload Microsoft Azure SQL Database product report
 

Also Known As

Google Spanner
No data available
 

Overview

Cloud Spanner is the first and only relational database service that is both strongly consistent and horizontally scalable. With Cloud Spanner you enjoy all the traditional benefits of a relational database: ACID transactions, relational schemas (and schema changes without downtime), SQL queries, high performance, and high availability. But unlike any other relational database service, Cloud Spanner scales horizontally, to hundreds or thousands of servers, so it can handle the highest of transactional workloads. With automatic scaling, synchronous data replication, and node redundancy, Cloud Spanner delivers up to 99.999% (five 9s) of availability for your mission critical applications. In fact, Google’s internal Spanner service has been handling millions of queries per second from many Google services for years.

Google

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

Streak, Optiva, Mixpanel
adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH
Buyer's Guide
Google Cloud Spanner vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database
April 2026
Free Report: Google Cloud Spanner vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Find out what your peers are saying about Google Cloud Spanner vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
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