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SQL Server vs kdb+ comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

kdb+
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
26th
Average Rating
9.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SQL Server
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
268
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of kdb+ is 0.3%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SQL Server is 19.3%, down from 23.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Nitin Garg - PeerSpot reviewer
An easy-to-deploy solution that can be used for data ingestion and usage
I work for a fintech company where we create several strategies generally built on finance data, which are like one-time series data. We deal with huge bulk data on a daily basis, and we use kdb+ for data ingestion and usage The most valuable feature of kdb+ is the speed at which it returns the…
Azizul Haque - PeerSpot reviewer
It has eliminated all kinds of inconsistencies, and it is reliable, secure, and fast
I don't know whether SQL Server can support large organizations where the database size is more than 100 GB. It might be because of SQL Server, or it might be because of the programming of the software vendor, but a lot of people think that it is a problem with SQL Server. It can't handle a large amount of data or large data size. In terms of its usage, about 90% of our applications are running on the SQL Server database. We have around 1,600 users for our software, and all the applications are connected to the SQL Server database.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The solution returns data quickly, and data retrieval is fast in kdb+."
"The solution has a user-friendly environment and supporting functionalities. It also has great memory and processing databases."
"It's a flexible solution."
"SQL Server's most valuable features are its user-friendly nature and cost-effectiveness."
"We like business integration, database, and analysis."
"It is a simple query language. It is consistent across all versions. If you start with an older version, move to the newer version. The same code will still work."
"The latest version supports for big data analytics. SQL Server's vector processing-based batch execution mode is now available to the entire execution of R or Python code. Since much of the work that tends to be done in R and Python involves aggregation, batch mode - which processes rows of data several at a time, can be very helpful."
"We're satisfied with the stability."
"SQL Server Profiler makes finding and debugging easy."
 

Cons

"The solution should have a more user-friendly user interface."
"Sometimes, the tool doesn't support all the native features, and because of this, our company has to customize it to meet our requirements, which is a challenging process for our company's engineers."
"While using it, we really didn't experience any pain points."
"SQL Server could improve by increase the performance, it cannot handle large amounts of data. I did not find any additional features compared to others solutions."
"Maintenance of the solution is an area of concern, and improvements can be helpful."
"Microsoft doesn't have active-active load balancing scenarios. It's always a failover cluster."
"Price could be cheaper, and access to reporting tools should be better."
"Performance could be better. But I don't know if it's a problem with my application or with my database."
"Database support could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"It costs a lot."
"I believe the licensing to be on an annual basis."
"The price could be cheaper."
"The product’s price depends on the specific server requirements."
"We are on an annual enterprise license for the solution and the cost of the license could be reduced."
"For our purpose, we are not required to have a license for what we are using it for."
"Cost is a major derivative for any organization. It has a reasonable cost value, and its cloud support is also better than others. Comparatively, Oracle can do the same things or is even better in certain areas, but it is expensive. The cost along with the support are the plus factors for SQL Server."
"There is a license required for servers and for the POS we use the free version. The free version allows you to have tables and a total database size of approximately 10 GB, which is enough for our requirements."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
43%
Computer Software Company
11%
Real Estate/Law Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Educational Organization
53%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about kdb+?
The solution returns data quickly, and data retrieval is fast in kdb+.
What needs improvement with kdb+?
The solution should have a more user-friendly user interface.
What is your primary use case for kdb+?
I work for a fintech company where we create several strategies generally built on finance data, which are like one-time series data. We deal with huge bulk data on a daily basis, and we use kdb+ f...
Would you say the price of SQL Server is high compared to that of similar products?
SQL Server is fairly priced because it has various editions, depending on the number of users, servers, or core packs you are using. If you compare the product to others in this category, the price...
Has using SQL Server helped your organization in any way?
SQL Server has helped my organization through partitioning to distribute the workload, as it splits them up into smaller pieces so the machines can easily deal with it. However, this comes with a h...
Which authentication mode is best for SQL Server?
My company connects through SQL Server authentication. We have company Windows accounts, but we do not want to connect the two, out of security concerns and to keep things separated for our own pur...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Microsoft SQL Server, MSSQL, MS SQL
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

UniCredit, AIRBUS
Microsoft SQL Server is used by businesses in every industry, including Great Western Bank, Aviva, the Volvo Car Corporation, BMW, Samsung, Principality Building Society, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and others in Relational Databases Tools. Updated: February 2025.
842,194 professionals have used our research since 2012.