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Oracle Database In-Memory vs SAP HANA comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 19, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
4.3
Oracle Database In-Memory offers substantial ROI and benefits, though support costs may impact long-term finances for some users.
Sentiment score
6.3
SAP HANA users saw financial and speed benefits, but mid-sized businesses faced mixed feelings about integration costs and challenges.
We do not feel we're getting value for the investment due to the additional resources needed for integration and maintenance.
Director of Infrastructure at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
SAP HANA is a cost-saving solution that helps save money and serves as a time-saving solution that helps save time.
Senior Manager at PwC
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.5
Oracle Database In-Memory customer service improves in some regions but is inconsistent, with users finding varied support experiences.
Sentiment score
6.0
SAP HANA customer service is well-received but varies; improvements needed in response speed, solution accuracy, and expert access.
Support quality varies across regions, with more advanced solutions from the U.S. and UK compared to Asian region support.
DB Architect / Consultant at Virtusa Global
I rate the technical support of Oracle an eight or nine out of ten.
Sr. Oracle Database Administrator at Shoukat Khanum Memorial Hospital
The technical support from Oracle is very good.
Technical Solution Architect at Vodafone
The community support is better than the official SAP support.
SAP Analytics Lead at Miracle Software Systems, Inc
While issues are resolved eventually, the first level of support is not as good as we would like.
Sup-basis consultant at a security firm with 51-200 employees
When we raise a ticket for AWS or Azure issues, we find their support is very proactive, while SAP's support is quite passive.
Senior SAP Basis Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Oracle Database In-Memory is highly scalable and easily adjustable, effectively managing large datasets and supporting enterprise needs.
Sentiment score
7.8
SAP HANA efficiently scales for various user loads, supports growing data, and manages enterprise transactions across industries.
Our operations have grown from a hundred data operations a day to as many in a couple of seconds.
Director of Infrastructure at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
There is enough scalability offered by SAP to meet our deployment needs.
Sup-basis consultant at a security firm with 51-200 employees
The scalability rating is based on the ability to expand.
Program manger at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Users find Oracle Database In-Memory stable and reliable, despite occasional bugs and high maintenance needs for resource-intensive setups.
Sentiment score
7.8
SAP HANA is generally stable and reliable, but some users face occasional performance issues linked to external factors.
It was very difficult to move data from on-site to cloud in one attempt at the start, because we didn't have sufficient bandwidth to copy the data files to the cloud.
Sr. Oracle Database Administrator at Shoukat Khanum Memorial Hospital
Oracle Database In-Memory is stable, which means there are no glitches or issues.
Technical Solution Architect at Vodafone
We recently faced customer data loss during the cluster handover or failover fallback.
Senior SAP Basis Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
We have not had any problems in the last seven to eight years.
Sup-basis consultant at a security firm with 51-200 employees
Regarding stability, they are using legacy systems and have implemented SAP HANA.
SAP Analytics Lead at Miracle Software Systems, Inc
 

Room For Improvement

Oracle Database In-Memory users seek enhancements in cost, installation, integration, security, scalability, interface, and column store support.
SAP HANA faces criticism for high cost, complex deployment, resource limitations, and a challenging interface, affecting adoption and usability.
Enhancing features like CAG augmentation and cache augmentation could significantly optimize performance for large language models.
DB Architect / Consultant at Virtusa Global
The area where improvement is required the most in the product is the UI.
Technical Solution Architect at Vodafone
The main issue is the ecosystem, which lacks the widespread support that SQL enjoys.
Director of Infrastructure at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
The setup process and deployment process for SAP HANA is complex.
Program manger at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Licensing costs with SAP HANA are very high.
SAP Analytics Lead at Miracle Software Systems, Inc
 

Setup Cost

Oracle Database In-Memory is costly, yet offers valuable performance and features, benefiting larger enterprises despite high licensing fees.
SAP HANA's high pricing favors larger enterprises, requiring careful budgeting, with some opting for alternatives due to costs.
Recent reductions in cloud costs and learning opportunities, such as free portals for students, make the pricing reasonable without hindering access to powerful features and performance.
DB Architect / Consultant at Virtusa Global
The pricing for Oracle Database In-Memory is more affordable.
Sr. Oracle Database Administrator at Shoukat Khanum Memorial Hospital
It's a recurring subscription model, which is expensive compared to legacy systems with just a maintenance fee.
Director of Infrastructure at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
SAP is not a cheap company, and its licenses are expensive.
Sup-basis consultant at a security firm with 51-200 employees
I would rate the price for SAP HANA as high.
Senior SAP Basis Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Oracle Database In-Memory enhances performance with real-time analytics, backward compatibility, automated configuration, fast queries, and efficient management.
SAP HANA offers real-time analytics, integration, scalability, and a user-friendly interface, supporting large enterprises with efficient data handling.
The biggest benefit of Oracle Database In-Memory is dealing with a huge amount of information without any latency for our response time.
Technical Solution Architect at Vodafone
The valuable features of Oracle Database In-Memory include its capability to bypass disk storage for faster memory operations, which is critical for transactions and analytics.
DB Architect / Consultant at Virtusa Global
This architecture allows for faster data processing and real-time analytics that were not possible with traditional databases.
Director of Infrastructure at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
The concept enhances speed, allowing the database to serve and move data quickly.
Sup-basis consultant at a security firm with 51-200 employees
One of our dashboards using Excelsius was previously developed on normal BW on Oracle data, which took 10 minutes to open. After developing the same calculation views using those tables and replacing them with calculation views in Excelsius, the dashboard opened in seconds.
SAP Analytics Lead at Miracle Software Systems, Inc
 

Categories and Ranking

Oracle Database In-Memory
Ranking in Embedded Database
4th
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
10th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SAP HANA
Ranking in Embedded Database
2nd
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
91
Ranking in other categories
Data Virtualization (2nd), Database Management Systems (DBMS) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Embedded Database category, the mindshare of Oracle Database In-Memory is 9.9%, up from 8.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP HANA is 9.2%, up from 7.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Embedded Database Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SAP HANA9.2%
Oracle Database In-Memory9.9%
Other80.9%
Embedded Database
 

Featured Reviews

Hosney Osman - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Solution Architect at Vodafone
Real-time analytics have transformed response times and support huge data volumes with compression
I do not have any comment related to the improvement of the solution; for sure, it needs improvement, but for my use cases, it is very sufficient, and I think for the biggest companies, it needs a very powerful infrastructure. The area where improvement is required the most in the product is the UI. The problem with the UI is that it is not complex for understanding, but it needs some training to know what each button does, how it works, and the many variables needed.
HP
SAP Analytics Lead at Miracle Software Systems, Inc
Performs well with high database and reporting performance
We face difficulties replicating the AC DOCA table, which is a huge table, from S/4HANA to SAP HANA BAS, Business Application Studio, or HANA Studio using SLT. For developing Power BI reports using the AC DOCA table, we are replicating full data daily. We want to implement delta load, and while we used OData service for one client, the delta OData service link is not properly updating delta records. Licensing costs with SAP HANA are very high. Due to high pricing, many clients are moving from BW on SAP HANA and S/4HANA to Azure SQL. I have worked with several clients who have moved all data flows to Azure and developed Power BI queries on top of Azure. Many clients are also using Google Cloud Platform (GCP). The certification costs are also very high, more than ₹1,40,000 INR. Previously, it was ₹30,000 to ₹40,000. I want to pursue three certifications but am unable to do so due to the cost.
report
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise23
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise61
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Oracle Database In-Memory?
We can integrate it with any data sources as well.
What needs improvement with Oracle Database In-Memory?
I currently don't know how Oracle Database In-Memory has benefited my organization. We recently received this query from our high management to use this In-Memory function, so we are currently in p...
What are the biggest benefits of using SAP HANA?
Based on my work with SAP HANA, the biggest benefit that it can bring to your business is total data management. This product is by SAP - a company that serves almost all needs a client may have co...
Is SAP HANA’s customer and technical support reliable?
We have been using SAP HANA for a fairly short period of time and have only taken advantage of their customer support. So far, we have not had issues that required specialized help from technical s...
Is SAP HANA difficult to set up and start using?
SAP HANA is fairly easy to set up, however, I do not think a complete beginner can do it. You certainly need some preparation - either you need to have experience with similar solutions, or with ot...
 

Also Known As

No data available
SAP High-Performance Analytic Appliance, HANA
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Shanghai Customs
Unilever, NHS 24, adidas Group, CHIO Aachen, Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited
Find out what your peers are saying about Oracle Database In-Memory vs. SAP HANA and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,768 professionals have used our research since 2012.