Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs Oracle Database as a Service comparison

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. Oracle Database as a Service

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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

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)

6th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

NoSQL Databases (3rd), Managed NoSQL Databases (1st), Vector Databases (3rd)

Oracle Database as a Service

Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)

5th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is 1.4%. The mindshare of Oracle Database as a Service is 8.8%, up from 8.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

Featured Reviews

MichaelJohn

Director | Data & AI at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Very efficient for application-facing scenarios

There are several areas for improvement. Firstly, having a local development emulator or simulator for Azure Cosmos DB would be beneficial. It would be very handy to have a Docker container that developers can use locally. Although, I know there is a free tier and so on and so forth, having a local environment would be nice. For example, SQL Server is very portable. You can even install it on your machine. That is the number one thing that is missing in Azure Cosmos DB. The second improvement area is the IDE of choice. That means how you interact with Azure Cosmos DB. For example, with SQL Server, you have SQL Server Management Studio. I know there is a little bit of support for Azure Cosmos DB in Azure Data Studio, but it is not heavily advertised or it does not feel like first-class citizen support. Developer experience or developer tooling is missing in terms of interacting with the database. Better developer tools or an IDE for interacting with Azure Cosmos DB would enhance the developer experience. Lastly, there is some mixed messaging about what Azure Cosmos DB is, given its multiple APIs. There are so many Azure Cosmos DB APIs available. There is NoSQL. There are MongoDB, Gremlin, and others. There is still some mixed messaging for others who are new to Azure Cosmos DB about what Azure Cosmos DB is. Is this like MongoDB, but then there is also MongoDB in Azure Cosmos DB? I know it well, and I know that the default one is just NoSQL, but others I have interacted with over the last ten years or so get confused.

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Duy AnhMai

Product Owner at Heineken

Offers security and good performance

Price-wise, the tool is expensive, and I feel it is an area where improvements are needed. Oracle Database as a Service is not as popular as other tools because we use AWS and GCP. Oracle is okay in terms of performance for banking businesses and some big companies. As I use the tool in Heineken, I know Oracle is an okay security solution. We use and deploy some applications and features from Oracle that are better than what others offer. The data in the tool is actually stored in the production part, so it is always kept a secret. I don't think that AI has been integrated into the tool. The AI used by Oracle is not as strong as that used by AWS. I recommend the tool to others, especially banking, finance, and insurance companies where the security needs to be better. There is maintenance for the tool required, but I don't know which company does it for our organization. I rate the tool a ten out of ten.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is very fast."

"The initial setup is simple and straightforward. You can set up a Cosmos DB in a day, even configuring things like availability zones around the world."

"Specifically, we are using the MongoDB API, so we leverage it in that way. I like the flexibility that it offers. My team does not have to spend time building out database tables. We can get going fairly quickly with being able to read and write data into a MongoDB collection that is hosted inside Azure Cosmos DB."

"The solution is highly scalable."

"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB offers exceptional stability, boasting a reliability rating of 99.95 percent."

"The solution is extremely user-friendly and easy to navigate."

"Our team has found the vCore index to be one of the most valuable features. We have tokenized and vectorized our entire database and stored this data in MongoDB collections with a vCore index, which works like magic for keyword selection."

"It is a NoSQL database."

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB pros

"What I found most valuable about Oracle Database as a Service is its fast transactions and materialized views."

"The solution is scalable, has support & right incident, and allows easy data recovery."

"It has significantly enhanced our application development process by introducing substantial time savings and streamlining routine tasks."

"The most valuable features are the free tools provided to make the solution more secure."

"The most valuable Oracle Database as a Service is security."

"I would rate customer service ten out of ten."

"The scalability and high availability are the most valuable features of Oracle DaaS."

"We have found all of the features of this solution to be valuable to our organization."

More Oracle Database as a Service pros

Cons

"What is missing in Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is definitely cold storage. We know it's coming, but that's currently what is missing—the possibility to park older data in a cold tier."

"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB's performance could be better. In large volumes of documents, the querying process becomes slow and complicated."

"We would like to see advancements in AI with the ability to benchmark vector search capabilities, ensuring it answers questions accurately. During our initial implementation, we faced challenges with indexing and sorting, which are natively available in other offerings but required specific configurations in Cosmos."

"One area of improvement for Cosmos database is the auto-scaling of RUs during high loads. It would be beneficial if the database could automatically scale resources rather than requiring manual adjustments."

"Currently, I have no suggestions for enhancement or new implementations in Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB. However, the cost can sometimes be high, especially during cross-partition queries with large data amounts."

"One area for improvement is the ease of writing SQL queries and stored procedures in Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB."

"The query is a little complex. SQL server should have more options. But the query should be better."

"The query searching functionality has some complexities and could be more user-friendly."

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB cons

"The solution needs more certifications for other products and applications because migration to the cloud is difficult without them."

"There is room for improvement in the speed of the data migration process."

"Improvement in Oracle DBaaS could focus on enhancing performance monitoring and reporting tools."

"There is room for improvement in terms of flexibility."

"I would like to see improvements in the license cost. The solution is subscription-based for PaaS services. You need to buy your own authorized license."

"Some bugs could be fixed. There have been some internal software bugs, just like any other newly released software. These bugs gets fixed by patch updates from Oracle on regular basis."

"I would like to improve the stability of the Oracle database."

"I have had a hard time finding some documentation. There should provide easier accessible documentation for Oracle Database as a Service."

More Oracle Database as a Service cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"When we've budgeted for our resources, it's one of the more expensive ones, but it's still not very expensive per month."

"With heavy use, like a large-scale IoT implementation, you could easily hit a quarter of a million dollars a month in Azure charges if Cosmos DB is a big part of it."

"Its cost is transparent. Pricing depends on the transaction and data size, but overall, it is cheaper compared to hosting it on your corporate network due to other factors like power consumption."

"From a startup point of view, it appears to be expensive. If I were to create my startup, it would not have the pricing appeal compared to the competition, such as Supabase. All those other databases are well-advertised by communities. I know there is a free tier with Azure Cosmos DB. It is just not well advertised."

"Cosmos DB is expensive, and the RU-based pricing model is confusing. Although they have a serverless layer, there are deficiencies in what I can define and assign to a database. Estimating infrastructure needs is not straightforward, making it challenging to manage costs."

"The tool is not expensive."

"The cost is the biggest limitation of this solution."

"The solution is very expensive."

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB pricing and cost advice

"The licensing is a nightmare. Tons of options which need to be licensed individually, and no real offering for VMware or other Hypervisors."

"The solution is expensive."

"The price of the solution depends on the scale of how you will use it."

"The tool's licensing is on an yearly basis."

"Oracle Database as a Service has a yearly licensing fee, which is expensive."

"There should be a standard way to license the database in a virtual environment (e.g. VMware) and there should be a low-end version (like Standard Edition One) again."

"Oracle Database as a Service is always a bit costly, but it's an excellent service. My company used the on-premises version, and that was costly."

"This solution is costly because it saves a lot of data."

More Oracle Database as a Service pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Legal Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Financial Services Firm

27%

Computer Software Company

15%

Retailer

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?

The initial setup is simple and straightforward. You can set up a Cosmos DB in a day, even configuring things like availability zones around the world.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?

Its cost is transparent. Pricing depends on the transaction and data size, but overall, it is cheaper compared to hosting it on your corporate network due to other factors like power consumption. C...

What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?

I had a challenging experience implementing the emulator with a Mac. I had to install the emulator in a Docker container because it is not natively compatible. A significant amount of time was spen...

What do you like most about Oracle Database as a Service?

It has significantly enhanced our application development process by introducing substantial time savings and streamlining routine tasks.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Database as a Service?

Prices are high. Technical support from Oracle tends to be high in quality.

What needs improvement with Oracle Database as a Service?

It would be beneficial if Oracle could offer features similar to those provided by open-source platforms like Postgres, such as a multi-core-based platform and a shared node database. While Oracle ...

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Compared 46% of the time

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Compared 17% of the time

Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs Oracle Database as a Service

Compared 12% of the time

Google Cloud SQL vs Oracle Database as a Service

Compared 11% of the time

Google Cloud Spanner vs Oracle Database as a Service

Compared 4% of the time

More Oracle Database as a Service Competitors

Product Reports

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Download Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB product report

Oracle Database as a Service

Download Oracle Database as a Service product report

Also Known As

Microsoft Azure DocumentDB, MS Azure Cosmos DB

Oracle DBaaS, Oracle Database Cloud

Overview

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is a globally distributed, multi-model database service providing scalability, user-friendliness, and seamless integration, suitable for managing large volumes of structured and unstructured data across diverse applications.

Azure Cosmos DB is renowned for its scalability, stability, and ease of integration, offering robust support for multiple data models and APIs. Its capacity for handling unstructured data efficiently and providing real-time analytics makes it ideal for applications requiring high performance and global distribution. With features like automatic failover and integration with Microsoft products, users benefit from cost optimization and secure data handling. Enhancement opportunities include simplifying queries, improving documentation, and expanding backup and analytics functionalities.

What are the most important features of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?

Scalability and Autoscaling: Efficiently handles growing data and user demands.
Multi-Model Support: Adapts to different data models seamlessly.
Global Distribution: Provides low-latency access across multiple regions.
Automatic Failover: Ensures high availability and reliability.
Integration with Microsoft Products: Offers seamless connectivity with Azure services.

What benefits should users look for in Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB reviews?

Performance and Speed: Exceptionally fast processing for real-time data analytics.
Cost Optimization: Tools for managing expenses effectively.
Secure Data Handling: Implements strong data security measures.
Flexible Data Ingestion: Supports diverse data ingestion methods.

Azure Cosmos DB is frequently used in sectors like web, mobile, IoT, and analytics. It supports applications as a key-value store, processes real-time data, and enables global scalability with low-latency access. Its big data management capabilities and integration with Azure services enhance its utility across industries.

Microsoft

Oracle Database Cloud Service combines the power of Oracle Database, with the unique capabilities of the Oracle Cloud. The service provides a secure, automated data management platform that leverages on demand Oracle Cloud Infrastructure services via a simple web based user interface and RESTful API. Oracle Database Cloud Service provides elastic database services for development, test, and production environments of custom and packaged online transaction processing (OLTP), data warehousing, and mixed workload applications. It enables businesses to reap all Oracle Platform as a Service (PaaS) benefits including subscriptionbased, self-service access to reliable, scalable, and elastic cloud environments and accelerates time to value by simplifying the provisioning and administration of Oracle databases.

Oracle

Sample Customers

TomTom, KPMG Australia, Bosch, ASOS, Mercedes Benz, NBA, Zero Friction, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Kinectify

Solution-Soft, DX Marketing, Suredell and Partners, Frontiers, SettleOurEstate.com, Demand Analysis Ltd, endlich IT & Projekt Service OHG

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. Oracle Database as a Service