We performed a comparison between IBM Db2 Database and SQL Server based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: IBM Db2 Database has an edge in this comparison due to the high marks it received for its performance. Reviewers are happier with the pricing of SQL Server, however.
"It's a very mature product."
"The scalability and availability of this solution are the most valuable features."
"Your iOS, your throughputs, your performance cycles, you cannot touch it with Microsoft or with Oracle scalability-wise. That is far and away the most scalable systems and the highest performing systems of the set of them."
"I like that its true active-active. For example, if there are two instances within a cluster, we can take one of them down and there's no failover or switch over. There's no primary and secondary, it's true active-active. We can take one side down and we can upgrade that with new maintenance or a new version, obviously testing coexistence beforehand, without impacting the business."
"The setup process has become much easier recently."
"The most valuable features are with the industrial side."
"The most valuable aspect of this solution is its stability. We have never had any problems and have never had to contact technical support."
"The newly added feature of ALSM is one of the top features"
"There was an online system in which we had about 2500 requests to the DB per second. Every request had a completion window of one second to process and retrieve data. After switching to SQL Server, and AlwaysOn, and Snapshot, and tinkering, and configuring and tinkering, the handling capacity we measured increased to about 5000 requests per second, while the time decreased to 0.5 seconds per request."
"Scalability, cluster ability, ease of use, ease of implementation — these are all great."
"We found it to be quite scalable."
"Its security is good. The GUI of SQL Server is also very good."
"One of the things I most like about SQL Server is the log shipping piece. This is a great feature."
"The solution can be deployed in a few minutes."
"The product has very good online documentation that can be used for troubleshooting."
"It's great that the database engine is always on."
"I would like to see some artificial intelligence brought into the solution."
"The solution could improve by providing more integration."
"They should develop its containerized version."
"The product’s user interface is not easy to use."
"IBM Db2 Database is not ACID compliant, which would improve it. Db2 lacks Isolation, so when two people are trying to update the same field at the same time it can become stuck. Other newer databases do not have this issue, such as Microsoft SQL, Oracle DB, PostgreSQL, and SAP HANA."
"I would like to see better support for advanced analytics."
"The ease of use, or ease of management, could be improved."
"GUI needs improvement."
"The reporting services of the solution (SSRS and now Power BI) are the less valuable items of the SQL Server suite."
"For a big amount of data, when we are speaking about IoT Segments, and Big Data projects, there are performance issues."
"The interface integration could be better."
"The licensing costs are very high."
"Indexing, as well as integration, are areas of this product that need improvement."
"I would like to have the option to use fewer processors for certain tasks, thus reducing the licensing fee."
"I would like to see more integration with other products and it needs to be more secure."
"SQL Server could integrate better with other platforms."
IBM Db2 Database is ranked 6th in Relational Databases Tools with 67 reviews while SQL Server is ranked 1st in Relational Databases Tools with 260 reviews. IBM Db2 Database is rated 8.2, while SQL Server is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of IBM Db2 Database writes "Very scalable with high availability and excellent technical support". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SQL Server writes "Easy to use and provides good speed and data recovery". IBM Db2 Database is most compared with Oracle Database, SAP HANA, Teradata, MySQL and Oracle Database In-Memory, whereas SQL Server is most compared with MariaDB, SAP HANA, Oracle Database, LocalDB and Teradata. See our IBM Db2 Database vs. SQL Server report.
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We monitor all Relational Databases Tools 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.