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

117

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 April 2025, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is 15.9%, down from 18.4% compared to the previous year. 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

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

"Overall, Azure SQL has been great. The ease of deployment and scalability are significant reasons we push our larger clients to Azure. We could throw the kitchen sink at the thing if we wanted."

"I am very happy with this solution; right now, I don't think there is anything I would change."

"Database services and Active Directory related functions for this solution are good. Stable, scalable, and easy to install. Its technical support is good."

"The database is extremely scalable, allowing seamless scaling up or down with a simple change in parameters."

"The most valuable feature of SQL Azure is the user-friendly VMs."

"The solution effectively handles storing and maintaining information in databases."

"It is quick to set up and easy to scale."

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

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database pros

"My impression of the scalability of Oracle Database as a Service is very high."

"One of the key features is Oracle Database as a Service. We chose to implement it as a service, which provides good performance, for example. Flexibility and other features let us implement database research with the SQL team range of features also."

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

"Oracle has helped our organization by being a reliable solution that is stable with zero crashes. The differentiation between Oracle's database and other databases is that Oracle needs more attention. It's not a click here, click there solution, it needs more time put in, but once you do that, it's ready to go and you can forget about it."

"It's a scalable product."

"It is a product brought to you by a company that concentrates only on database solutions, so it is the best at what it does."

"The most valuable feature is the integration into other Oracle applications."

"It effortlessly hosts applications for months and exhibits exceptional reliability."

More Oracle Database as a Service pros

Cons

"There could be more collaboration with other tools like Data Factory and Databricks."

"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."

"They should also simplify the security in Azure. We are using the cloud as a platform, so there is no physical infrastructure. We're using Azure components like databases and servers to create an application. Integrating those components in terms of permissions and security is challenging for us. Maybe there is a lack of knowledge on our side, but it's not straightforward."

"Integration needs to be improved for this solution."

"If there are areas for improvement, one aspect could be the user interface. It could be made more user-friendly and similar to Google BigQuery's interface."

"Their support is nice but their responses aren't effective."

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

"A potential area for improvement could be integrating with third-party clouds."

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database cons

"For many companies, the standard version is not enough. They need to move to the enterprise version. However, there is a large price jump between the two."

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

"They should add more integration to the solution."

"The performance needs improvement."

"Oracle Database as a Service could improve the performance when monitoring."

"It is very hard to support Oracle Database."

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

"Oracle Database as a Service could improve the provisioning. You have to recreate on-premise hardware environments in the cloud, it was not very intuitive."

More Oracle Database as a Service cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"With one being expensive and five being competitive, I would give the product a four out of five as it's relatively competitive. It is also important to note that pricing is based on usage."

"Microsoft services are costly, which is the only problem we face. So, pricing is an area of improvement."

"I am not aware of the exact pricing, but our monthly bill for Azure is around 80,000. It is less expensive than using SQL Server. It has the pay-as-you-go model, and the charges are based on the usage."

"The pricing is flexible and can be adapted based on our requirements but the pricing options are complex especially if we are using a VM."

"Microsoft Azure SQL Database is not cheap."

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

"The solution is expensive."

"The licensing for this solution is based on subscription."

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database pricing and cost advice

"The solution is quite expensive but worth the money."

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

"If your organization is not making that much money, then I don't think you should use the enterprise or any other expensive versions of the solution. I recommend the tool for bigger companies."

"In my opinion, it's not cheap, but every business can decide for itself."

"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."

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

"Oracle Database is less expensive than the previous solution we used."

More Oracle Database as a Service pricing and cost advice

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842,767 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

73%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

26%

Computer Software Company

15%

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 43% of the time

Amazon RDS vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 27% of the time

MongoDB Atlas vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 16% of the time

vCloud Air vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 2% of the time

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB 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 18% 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 4% 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