Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs Oracle Database as a Service comparison

Microsoft Azure SQL Database 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 SQL Database

Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

116

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

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 March 2025, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is 15.9%, down from 18.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Database as a Service is 9.1%, 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

Charley Hanania

Data Platform Specialist at QS2 AG - Quality Software Solutions

It is very easy to implement, manage, and offers great insights into what is happening inside the engine

Microsoft Azure SQL Database is integrated into other Azure capabilities and has a great foundation being on SQL Server with a long history of security, performance, and usability from a DBA perspective. Once you've set up a server, adding databases is easy. There's a minor challenge with having data in separate databases that you want to connect like we do on premises. I'm looking forward to using some of these new AI-driven functions that have come out around vectorization. Having the data closer to my transactional databases or data makes it easy to augment and enhance the Database and applications I currently use. It's great that Azure SQL now seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Fabric. It's a first-tier service in the cloud that connects to web applications and other databases. The data transformation orchestration capabilities within Database Factory and similar capabilities make it effortless to move that stuff forward.

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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

"The product is easy to set up."

"We appreciate that Microsoft Azure SQL Database supplies reliability and efficiency with its infrastructure, which is very beneficial to our organization."

"It is good for scalability and high availability. It is also secure because of Microsoft's cloud investment. It is easy to use because it is on the cloud. Creation or making it available through web services is super easy. Azure SQL can be quickly published as web services for APIs to connect with other applications. Because it is in Microsoft Cloud, you can easily integrate with Microsoft stack."

"I rate Microsoft Azure SQL Database 10 out of 10."

"The hardware is all managed by Microsoft."

"The initial setup is straightforward."

"Microsoft Azure SQL Database supplies reliability and efficiency with its infrastructure, which is very beneficial to our organization."

"The initial setup is very easy. It's extremely straightforward."

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database pros

"I like the solution’s performance and real application concepts."

"Oracle Database as a Service's most valuable feature is its financial applications."

"The most valuable feature of Oracle Database as a Service is that it is managed by the vendor and you do not have to purchase on-premise hardware."

"You can be up and running the same day."

"The solution's scalability and flexibility are very good and implementation is easy."

"The solution is fast and easy."

"Improves client satisfaction by decreasing their problems."

"Scalability is very easy. If you want to, you can make it onto two or three servers, racks, or whatever you want. It's easy."

More Oracle Database as a Service pros

Cons

"The solution could improve by allowing the export of the data more seamlessly. It is difficult to copy and back up data."

"It's a little bit limited in terms of functionality."

"SQL Azure could improve the feature set. They are catching up to Microsoft SQL Server."

"They could improve Azure SQL by adding some of the features available on-prem, such as cross-database queries and the ability to run particular jobs. We need to migrate those to something else, like a function or logic app."

"We need improvement in the latency between availability zones. The managed SQL MI does not allow us to control the zone it runs in, which affects latency."

"It is a little bit expensive for us. They can improve the price. It would also be very helpful if they can offer some free trial."

"I would like to see more compatibility with SSMS and more backward compatibility with regular on-prem SQL."

"The document storage is primarily relational, which is not ideally suited for SQL. If there were better integration with SharePoint for document handling in SQL, it would greatly benefit the organization."

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database cons

"The solution’s price could be reduced."

"The price of Oracle Database as a Service could be better."

"The solution is not very stable."

"The solution provides the same type of RDBMS engine for all use cases. They need to provide different products that will be suitable for all use cases. The solution does not support the documentation of databases."

"My favorite option – Multitenant – should be available for some pluggable databases in all editions, without any fee."

"The solution can be improved by reducing the pricing, making the deployment less complex, and increasing security."

"It would be better if we could have a little bit of automation or a chance for autoscaling with Oracle Database as a Service."

"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."

More Oracle Database as a Service cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is expensive for us. We are looking for something less expensive and thinking of migrating the whole system."

"It's reasonably priced and when you compare it with other products in the cloud environment, it's cheaper."

"The price of the solution is reasonable."

"It is reasonable."

"When you go with SQL Azure Database, you can create a small database, which is around $4 to $5 per month for development purposes."

"We pay less than $1000 monthly in licensing fees. There are no additional costs."

"The solution is moderately expensive."

"The solution is expensive."

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database pricing and cost advice

"Customers need to pay extra costs for the solution based on their scope and business."

"It is an expensive product. I rate the pricing an eight out of ten."

"The price depends on the solution you choose: standard, enterprise, or high performance. For example, enterprise can start between 0.4 an hour up to 1,800. Additional fees also depends on what package you choose. Your feels will be different if you choose the standard, enterprise, high performance, or extreme package. You will pay in relation to what option you ask for. The price is very good if you compare it to other databases."

"The price of Oracle Database as a Service is expensive."

"The solution's price is reasonable but depends upon the negotiation."

"The solution is based on an annual fee."

"I do not know firsthand about the price of Oracle Database as a Service, but it is known that Oracle solutions tend to be priced higher than competitors."

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

More Oracle Database as a Service pricing and cost advice

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842,296 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

73%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

25%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SQL Azure?

The automated scalability feature of SQL Azure has proven to be highly beneficial, particularly when deployed in the cloud.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SQL Azure?

The price for running the server increased more than expected in recent months, and better alignment of pricing expectations is needed. Notably, costs related to IT staff coming into the office on ...

What needs improvement with SQL Azure?

We're trying to manage our costs better. We've noticed an unexpected increase in the cost of running the server over the past few months. Addressing pricing clarity and alignment would help us. Als...

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 ...

Google Cloud SQL vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Comparisons

Compared 45% of the time

Amazon RDS vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 27% of the time

MongoDB Atlas vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 14% of the time

vCloud Air vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 2% of the time

IBM Db2 on Cloud vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 2% of the time

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database Competitors

Amazon RDS vs Oracle Database as a Service

Compared 46% of the time

Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer vs Oracle Database as a Service

Compared 19% 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

Redis vs Oracle Database as a Service

Compared 3% of the time

More Oracle Database as a Service Competitors

Product Reports

Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Download Microsoft Azure SQL Database product report

Oracle Database as a Service

Download Oracle Database as a Service product report

Also Known As

No data available

Oracle DBaaS, Oracle Database Cloud

Overview

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

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

adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH

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

Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs. Oracle Database as a Service