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MariaDB vs SAP HANA comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

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

MariaDB
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
Open Source Databases (4th)
SAP HANA
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
89
Ranking in other categories
Data Virtualization (2nd), Embedded Database (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of MariaDB is 6.3%, down from 9.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP HANA is 10.5%, down from 11.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

KumarManish - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to deploy, cost-effective, and integrates seamlessly with other products
We had planned for an RDBMS version and not NoSQL. We use MariaDB Galera Cluster. It's a good product. It is cheap, scalable, performs well, and is efficient. We use GCP’s BigQuery for machine learning. We must follow the best practices of the tool. We missed some best practices like the storage engine and InnoDB. It was very difficult to identify why we were having performance issues. Then, we realized that some of our tables were still on MyISAM, the default storage engine. When we switched it back to the InnoDB, it was very smooth. InnoDB is the recommended one. We must follow the best practices given in the documentation during the initial setup. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.
Dhiraj Jankar - PeerSpot reviewer
Users appreciate the mix of in-memory architecture and ease of backend management
The most valuable SAP HANA features are that, compared to Oracle, there is less administrative work and less complex work to handle, making it very straightforward. The tool itself takes care of the backend work. The main benefits SAP HANA provides to users include its architecture, which combines both column store and row store capabilities. Some places find the row feature important, whereas others find column store important. It allows some tables to be stored in a column base, others in a row base, and the In-Memory functionalities are mostly the highlight of SAP HANA, especially compared to disk-based memory users. This was the main reason SAP HANA was introduced initially.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The initial setup of MariaDB is simple enough."
"The solution is very easy to implement."
"The most valuable feature of MariaDB is the replication mode."
"It delivers fast processing times, particularly for frequent select queries and insert/update operations."
"The solution has PL/SQL compatibility."
"The stability of MariaDB is good, it has high availability."
"It is a stable solution."
"It is very simple to install, and the commands are exactly the same as MySQL."
"It's easy to use, and the Hana Studio is pretty good."
"The most valuable feature of SAP HANA is the modeling of the databases."
"SAP HANA is vertically and horizontally scalable."
"The UX experience is very good."
"It's sufficed all of our requirements. We primarily needed it to run SAP applications, like NetWeaver or S/4HANA, and it has been really good at that."
"The most value for us was in terms of using it to issue tenders online. We host our server, but it is open to the public, so clients who want to buy those tenders were able to go online, put their tender documents up, and we could evaluate them using SAP."
"The feature that I like the most is that we can transport the data to our web data application. SAP HANA's performance is really perfect. We're working on big data, and SAP HANA is really working on high performance. We are happy working with it."
"It is difficult for me to narrow down what the best features are in SAP HANA because they work together to provide the overall functionality of the solution. However, the Fiori application is very good."
 

Cons

"There could be a command-line prompt for repairing the database and fixing indexes, similar to what was available in the old MyISAM storage engine."
"A well-known issue for a lot of different users is associated with write-intensive applications."
"MariaDB doesn't handle long or complex SQL queries quite as well as Oracle Database."
"MariaDB's GUI is an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required."
"There is room for improvement in terms of security."
"The interface should be more user-friendly. It should be able to connect directly to the database and Interact with it without having to use commands. It needs better integration."
"I'd like to see improved materialized views, like the ability to save select queries. This feature is missing in MariaDB compared to other relational databases like Oracle and SQL Server."
"The difficult part related to the product stems not from the tool itself but is related to learning how to implement the product in the right way without creating any wrong configuration that could cause security issues or performance issues."
"Ease of use could be improved in SAP HANA. I like SAP because SAP solutions can be used by anyone, which means even laymen can start working on SAP tools, but in SAP HANA modeling, you'll need to know some other technologies and sequel scripting, and you need a separate skillset, so if you don't have the skillset, you won't be able to work on SAP HANA. Making SAP HANA low-code would make it even better."
"SAP HANA's long run time to extract data could be improved upon."
"Customer service can be improved. While issues are resolved eventually, the first level of support is not as good as we would like. Getting assistance from skilled support takes time."
"The solution is very expensive, however. The pricing depends on the number of users and many other factors that affect licensing."
"There could be better management for faster updates, last year there were some changes in India to the e-invoicing feature."
"The SAP ERP processes are quite complex and it can be challenging."
"It would be nice to know when SAP plans to stop its maintenance of a previous version of SAP ECC ERP because, at this point, anyone utilizing SAP will have no choice but to go on S/4HANA Database."
"The solution could improve by having better migration flexibility. For example, it would be helpful if there was a way for customers could check their nonproduction and production deployments."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost is quite good. You can have the open source, free version, which has adequate capacity."
"It is free of charge."
"MariaDB is available for free."
"There is a monthly subscription to use MariaDB."
"It is an open-source solution."
"The product is not expensive."
"We pay for a yearly license."
"The solution is free, but if you want the enterprise version you will need to pay for some licenses but the cost is less than other solutions, such as Oracle."
"There is an annual license to use SAP HANA."
"The licensing cost for SAP HANA is approximately $200 per user per month."
"The price of licensing is dependent on the size of the project, however, we have found that there is scope to negotiate the cost. If the solution is implemented on-premises there may be some extra costs for hosting etc."
"SAP HANA is more expensive than other solutions."
"The tool has a high price. I rate the solution’s pricing, one on a scale of ten, where one is expensive and ten is cheap."
"SAP HANA is expensive, but unfortunately, we do not have any alternatives."
"The price of SAP HANA is very expensive and it is paid annually."
"While the cost of the license may seem high, it is important to note that the benefits of the solution far outweighs the cost."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about MariaDB?
The integration with other products is seamless.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MariaDB?
I have found the price of commercial MariaDB to be pretty steep, although not as high as Oracle. Customers often prefer the Community Edition because it's free.
What needs improvement with MariaDB?
The only potential area for improvement could be the pricing model, which might benefit from being more flexible or a bit cheaper.
What are the biggest benefits of using SAP HANA?
Based on my work with SAP HANA, the biggest benefit that it can bring to your business is total data management. This product is by SAP - a company that serves almost all needs a client may have co...
Is SAP HANA’s customer and technical support reliable?
We have been using SAP HANA for a fairly short period of time and have only taken advantage of their customer support. So far, we have not had issues that required specialized help from technical s...
Is SAP HANA difficult to set up and start using?
SAP HANA is fairly easy to set up, however, I do not think a complete beginner can do it. You certainly need some preparation - either you need to have experience with similar solutions, or with ot...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
SAP High-Performance Analytic Appliance, HANA
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Wikipedia, Tencent, Verizon, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, Telefónica, Huatai Securities
Unilever, NHS 24, adidas Group, CHIO Aachen, Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited
Find out what your peers are saying about MariaDB vs. SAP HANA and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.