Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs Oracle Database as a Service comparison

Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs. Oracle Database as a Service

Download the complete report

Helped 849,190 peers since 2012

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.

Read full review

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"SQL is a simpler database. We use it more than other databases."

"The SQL connector effectively syncs data to our database."

"We don't have to manage it much. It is managed by Microsoft, which makes it easy for us because there is no admin overhead for managing the servers. It is also easily scalable. During peak hours, it can scale higher."

"Microsoft Azure SQL Database is fairly easy to use and set up for our DBA teams, who use it for various applications and tools like RabbitMQ."

"The stability is good and the performance is fantastic. Even when we try to do an inquiry into issues we can do it easily."

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

"The interface is awesome."

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

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database pros

"Improves client satisfaction by decreasing their problems."

"The most valuable feature of Oracle Database as a Service is the object types. The object types are not available in other databases, such as SQL and Postgres. Additionally, the security is very good."

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

"The most valuable features of Oracle Database as a Service are configuration and troubleshooting."

"We value the single data run that the solution provides."

"It is a good solution and has a large community."

"When we want more information on something that we are using, it is easy to find related topics on the internet."

"The solution is very stable. It's very powerful."

More Oracle Database as a Service pros

Cons

"I feel that the price is high and it could be reduced."

"Some more documentation and suggestions for network policies could be helpful."

"The product could be more competitive in terms of features, security, and scalability."

"Microsoft Azure SQL Database could improve by having better tooling in terms of connecting to other database platforms and better capabilities around programmable interfaces."

"Operational cost needs improvement."

"The pricing is very high."

"There are compatibility issues that prevent Azure SQL Database from being a direct replacement for SQL Server running on a virtual machine."

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

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database cons

"The solution’s price could be reduced."

"On the cloud services, they need to improve some console-level items, including the logging of the databases on the console level."

"The tool needs to improve its pricing and stability."

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

"The price of the solution is an area of concern. From an improvement perspective, the price of the solution should be lowered."

"The installation process requires improvement as it can be quite complex."

"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."

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

More Oracle Database as a Service cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is more cost-effective than Google BigQuery. Compared to Google BigQuery, downloading data can be more expensive."

"SQL Azure is an expensive solution."

"I believe the licensing is more on a global scale."

"There is no licensing cost for the solution."

"I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten."

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

"The pricing is actually complicated, and that is probably one downside of it. In some respects, although we can plan for the costs on a month-by-month basis, we are finding it hard to project our costings for it. Fundamentally, Microsoft is offering two pricing models, and it is challenging to understand the differences between the two. We're basically on the DTU model at the moment. That may change in the future as the size grows, but it is one of those things that we'll end up monitoring as we progress. At the moment, to get a reasonable response, generally, the price is a little high for us, but it is one of those things for which we know that we can do improvements on our code. So, it is not just the service that's the problem; it is some of the things that we need to do as well."

"The license is based on the number of users."

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database pricing and cost advice

"The solution is expensive."

"This is an expensive solution."

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

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

"Oracle Database as a Service's pricing is good."

"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."

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

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

More Oracle Database as a Service pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Database as a Service (DBaaS) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

849,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

72%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

26%

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 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 pricing of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is not cheap, affecting user uptake. A gradual reduction in price could improve accessibility and user numbers, making it easier for users to adopt the s...

What needs improvement with SQL Azure?

Pricing could be improved to make Microsoft Azure SQL Database ( /products/microsoft-azure-sql-database-reviews ) more accessible. A reduction in price might encourage more users and bring more pro...

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 42% of the time

Amazon RDS vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 26% of the time

MongoDB Atlas vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 17% of the time

vCloud Air vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 3% 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 17% 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

Azure Database for PostgreSQL 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