Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service comparison

Microsoft and Oracle are both solutions in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category. Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.5, while Oracle is ranked #12 with an average rating of 9.3. Microsoft holds a 11.3% mindshare in DS, compared to Oracle’s 1.6% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of Oracle users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Read 134 Microsoft Azure SQL Database reviews

3,559 Views
3,488 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Oracle Exadata Express Clou...

Read 12 Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service reviews

591 Views
236 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Oracle Exadata Express Clou...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 12, 2024

Microsoft Azure SQL Database and Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service are two prominent cloud-based database solutions. Microsoft Azure SQL Database appears to have the upper hand in pricing and deployment based on user reviews, while Oracle Exadata is recognized for its superior features that justify its higher cost.

Features: Microsoft Azure SQL Database offers scalability, integration with Microsoft tools, and AI-driven performance insights. Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service stands out with robust analytics, high availability, and extensive support for complex queries.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Azure SQL Database users suggest improvements in automated backups, advanced query optimization, and better user interface design. Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service users express the need for a more user-friendly setup process, better documentation, and enhanced customer support options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Azure SQL Database is praised for its simpler, faster deployment process and responsive support. Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service, although having a steeper learning curve and slower deployment times, provides knowledgeable support.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Azure SQL Database is generally viewed as cost-effective with straightforward pricing and positive ROI. Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service, while more expensive, is considered worth the investment by users who need its advanced capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs. Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs. Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service

December 2025

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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

6.9

Number of Reviews

134

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Oracle Exadata Express Clou...

Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)

12th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is 11.3%, down from 16.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service is 1.6%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Database as a Service (DBaaS) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Azure SQL Database	11.3%
Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service	1.6%
Other	87.1%

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

Featured Reviews

Thomas Sawyer

Executive Director, Platform Architecture at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation – SMBC Group

Automatic tuning and multi-region availability have reduced manual workloads and improved performance management

The features of Microsoft Azure SQL Database that I like the most are easy scaling and high availability. I appreciate those features because it's easy to make Microsoft Azure SQL Database readily available in a multi-region infrastructure. Using Microsoft Azure SQL Database is very easy; it's much easier than SQL on-premise because I don't have to worry about deploying infrastructure, and I can rapidly deploy via infrastructure as code. I am using the automatic tuning feature in Microsoft Azure SQL Database. We are using the new feature of data encryption in Microsoft Azure SQL Database with customer-managed keys only. The reliability and stability of Microsoft Azure SQL Database platform are rock-solid; it's as good, if not better, than what our on-premise stability has been from an uptime perspective.

Read full review

Shrikant Navelkar

Director at Clover Infotech

Have achieved excellent performance and seamless integration with effective cost control in cloud solutions

When customers are migrating from Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service and need to remove some of their test and development environment, what happens in normal virtualization is that they can just switch it off, but in ExaCS, they need to terminate the entire thing. Most of the customers are not aware of this, so they keep spending money even if they want to shut down their UAT environment or development environment, so Oracle needs to make it simpler in terms of reducing the bill on ExaCS when customers want to shut down certain environments. Today, you have to terminate the entire VM, and only then your billing will stop. The only functionality I would expect from Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service is that if Oracle is able to support Oracle MySQL Enterprise also on Exadata, that will solve a lot of problems.

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

"Provisioning the instance, connecting to it, and deploying full-stack applications end-to-end on Azure is much easier than AWS."

"Its cost benefit is most valuable because you are charged per data unit instead of licensing. You can easily migrate your on-premise SQL to the cloud with a managed instance. That's what it is designed to do. It is easy to take your on-premise or older SQL instance and move it to the cloud. It makes it easy to get off your on-premise SQL and start utilizing the cost benefit of the cloud."

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

"My impression is that this solution is quite stable."

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

"The stability of the solution is very good."

"Great auto-scaling and security features."

"SQL Server has helped to significantly reduce the total cost of ownership."

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database pros

"I like that Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service is easier to use and is a cost-saving solution because you won't need to hire people to run and maintain it."

"The performance of the tool is valuable."

"I would rate Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service ten out of ten for its overall solution."

"I highly recommend Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service as a very good solution if you can afford it."

"Having the prediction happen in the modular format allows you to start with a lower version of Exadata and then you can keep on upgrading it as per your requirement."

"The solution is very stable and offers great performance."

"In the cloud, Exadata is more scalable. The on-prem version was limited. It wasn't that scalable because it only came in a quarter rack, half rack, and full rack. In the cloud, it scales to what you need."

"It is a scalable product."

More Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service pros

Cons

"The solution’s pricing needs improvement because it is too high."

"Microsoft Azure SQL Database would benefit from enhanced documentation, along with ongoing improvements to scalability and cost-effectiveness."

"Microsoft Azure SQL Database could improve by having better tooling in terms of connecting to other database platforms and better capabilities around programmable interfaces. There should be more fine-tuning on the storage layer. I would like to see T-SQL improvements to automatically translate features from other database platforms for easier migration, as well as some improvements around column store and native capabilities like those in Iceberg and PowerK built into the SQL Server product."

"I think Microsoft Azure SQL Database should be cheaper. The license is expensive, but not always; it depends on the case regarding pricing and licensing."

"I wish the customer service and technical support were a bit quicker, though I recognize that not everything can be solved within an hour or a day."

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

"I am very happy with Microsoft Azure SQL Database; I don't think there's anything in particular I would change, except to make it cheaper."

"The preset configuration switches we can select on SQL Azure should be made more liberal to work on."

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database cons

"I feel there is a need for better integration with Google Maps and Google Earth. This is crucial for me in the geographical facilities of the environment."

"The only downside is the difficulty in monitoring, and that's why I would like to implement MySQL database."

"The solution's pricing could be improved."

"The product's installation process needs improvement. It could be more accessible."

"The customer's default choice is the on-premise version of this solution. Only when Oracle or the partners like us, can explain to customers the cloud value proposition, and if the compliance authorities allow, they can look into this cloud solution. It will take some time for Oracle to change its perception of customers' de-facto standards. Exadata used to be treated as a black box, which is not the case now. The customer is aware of what is happening inside, how the configurations have been made, and what patching has been applied. Oracle needs to market the cloud version better."

"The support must be faster."

"Scaling Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service can be done, but the process is a little tedious, which could be an area for improvement in the solution."

"We use artificial intelligence for deep learning, and it would be a huge benefit to implement this in Oracle Exadata."

More Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its price can definitely be lower. It is pretty pricey."

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

"I have an annual spend number, and it is in the hundred thousand dollar range. There are no additional costs to the standard licensing fees. Even though you have to look at the cost numbers of what you're going to be charged on a monthly basis, what you have to also remember is that your application may need a lot of rewriting and things like that. You get charged not just for the monthly costs but also for the transactions that occur. If your access to the data layer is not so efficient, your costs will go up because you're pulling far more data than you potentially need. These are hidden costs that nobody ever considers. If your application is not written very efficiently, you may actually increase your costs over on-prem versus cloud."

"I find that they are relatively expensive, especially when compared to AWS, where the prices are notably lower."

"It is expensive. Snowflake and PostgreSQL are cheaper than this. Google is also cheaper than Azure. Its licensing is on a pay-as-you-go basis. It is based on usage and storage."

"SQL Azure is an expensive solution."

"It only has a subscription-based license."

"I would like it to be cheaper, but comparatively, it is reasonably priced."

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database pricing and cost advice

"The price of this solution is very comparative to others on the market. There is no direct comparison between this solution and with something else because I do not see any other similar product."

"I think Oracle pricing is usually above average market price."

"The tool is not cheap, but it is not really expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	59
Midsize Enterprise	17
Large Enterprise	61

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	8

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.

See all answers

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

I would say I am at a basic experience level with the pricing, setup costs and licensing because while I am the administrator for the service, I do not provision the services and worry about the co...

See all answers

What needs improvement with SQL Azure?

I have no comments at the moment on how Microsoft Azure SQL Database can be improved. I have no comments on additional features that I would like to see released in the next release. I do not have ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service?

Oracle is quite expensive here in Brazil. Pricing is the primary challenge we face with Oracle.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service?

We have been implementing Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service for our customers for more than 10 to 12 years for our various customers through the on-premise Exadata offerings Oracle has.

See all answers

Comparisons

Google Cloud SQL vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 20% of the time

Amazon RDS vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 16% of the time

MongoDB Atlas vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 13% of the time

Azure Database for PostgreSQL vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 9% of the time

SingleStore vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 2% of the time

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database Competitors

Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer vs Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service

Compared 26% of the time

Google Cloud SQL vs Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service

Compared 25% of the time

Oracle Database Appliance vs Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service

Compared 24% of the time

More Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure SQL Database

January 2026

Download Microsoft Azure SQL Database product report

Buyer's Guide

Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service

January 2026

Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service report

Download Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service product report

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 Exadata Express Cloud Service delivers a managed Oracle Database 12c Release 2 Enterprise Edition with options, running on Oracle Exadata engineered systems – all at a highly affordable entry-level price. It is a full Oracle Database experience, compatible with what you get on-premises or in other Oracle Database Cloud Services, provisioned within minutes, and suitable for small to medium sized data.

Oracle

Sample Customers

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

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Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs. Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service

December 2025

Free Report: Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs. Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service

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