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SAP HANA vs Spark SQL comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

SAP HANA
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
84
Ranking in other categories
Data Virtualization (2nd), Embedded Database (4th), Relational Databases Tools (4th)
Spark SQL
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Hadoop (5th)
 

Featured Reviews

Jayarami Reddy Pujeri - PeerSpot reviewer
Comprehensive system with real-time analytics for versatile industry applications
Our primary use case is working with various clients in industries such as pharmaceuticals and other services. We support clients as implementers of SAP HANA, providing expertise in functionality, finance, logistics, and processes The solution is very user-friendly and supports all kinds of…
Sahil Taneja - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to use and do not require a learning curve
Spark SQL can improve the documentation they have provided. It can be a bit unclear at times. They could improve the documentation a bit more so that we can understand it more easily. Moreover, they could improve SparkUI to have more advanced versions of the performance and the queries and all.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Provides us with predictive capabilities for asset maintenance, and real-time forecasts."
"The most valuable feature of SAP HANA is its performance and integration."
"The most valuable features of SAP HANA include its user-friendliness, flexibility, and extensive support for various functionalities like finance, logistics, and workforce processes."
"Using this solution has given us better details for reporting and analytics."
"It's easy to use, and the Hana Studio is pretty good."
"The product's initial setup phase was really easy."
"What's most valuable in SAP HANA is that it covers the business process systems of my company. The solution also helps because it makes almost everything automated. Another valuable feature of SAP HANA is that it can be integrated with third parties and other enhancements needed by the company."
"The UX experience is very good."
"The team members don't have to learn a new language and can implement complex tasks very easily using only SQL."
"Data validation and ease of use are the most valuable features."
"I find the Thrift connection valuable."
"The solution is easy to understand if you have basic knowledge of SQL commands."
"It is a stable solution."
"The stability was fine. It behaved as expected."
"The speed of getting data."
"One of Spark SQL's most beautiful features is running parallel queries to go through enormous data."
 

Cons

"The solution could improve by having better migration flexibility. For example, it would be helpful if there was a way for customers could check their nonproduction and production deployments."
"There could be better management for faster updates, last year there were some changes in India to the e-invoicing feature."
"The performance and integration with other products are areas in need of improvement."
"The initial setup was very, very complex, tedious, and costly and required someone with great expertise to complete it."
"In a future release, SAP HANA should add a module for taxation, such as income tax and withholding tax."
"The worst thing about SAP HANA is the price; it's very expensive. The licensing cost, implementation cost, hosting cost, and appliance cost are all high."
"They should develop and improve the solution's data management system."
"I'd just like to see some more improvements done on the training, both on the functional training and technical training sides as a part of the complete solution."
"The solution needs to include graphing capabilities. Including financial charts would help improve everything overall."
"SparkUI could have more advanced versions of the performance and the queries and all."
"I've experienced some incompatibilities when using the Delta Lake format."
"It would be useful if Spark SQL integrated with some data visualization tools."
"There should be better integration with other solutions."
"In terms of improvement, the only thing that could be enhanced is the stability aspect of Spark SQL."
"In the next update, we'd like to see better performance for small points of data. It is possible but there are better tools that are faster and cheaper."
"There are many inconsistencies in syntax for the different querying tasks."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It comes with a significant cost."
"The licensing could improve."
"It is expensive, which isn't a problem for us because SAP HANA is processing the data so fast."
"The price is high and could be a bit cheaper."
"We are spending about 20,000 to 30,000 euros on the solution."
"The pricing for SAP HANA is high. You pay a lot for the license, and you also have to pay for some add-ons."
"Price-wise, the product falls on the higher side of the spectrum. There is no need to pay for maintenance and support additionally. Support is available for bug fixes in the product."
"The price of licensing is dependent on the size of the project, however, we have found that there is scope to negotiate the cost. If the solution is implemented on-premises there may be some extra costs for hosting etc."
"The solution is bundled with Palantir Foundry at no extra charge."
"We don't have to pay for licenses with this solution because we are working in a small market, and we rely on open-source because the budgets of projects are very small."
"There is no license or subscription for this solution."
"The on-premise solution is quite expensive in terms of hardware, setting up the cluster, memory, hardware and resources. It depends on the use case, but in our case with a shared cluster which is quite large, it is quite expensive."
"We use the open-source version, so we do not have direct support from Apache."
"The solution is open-sourced and free."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
26%
Computer Software Company
15%
Retailer
7%
University
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What do you like most about Spark SQL?
Spark SQL's efficiency in managing distributed data and its simplicity in expressing complex operations make it an essential part of our data pipeline.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Spark SQL?
We don't have to pay for licenses with this solution because we are working in a small market, and we rely on open-source because the budgets of projects are very small.
What needs improvement with Spark SQL?
In terms of improvement, the only thing that could be enhanced is the stability aspect of Spark SQL. There could be additional features that I haven't explored but the current solution for working ...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

SAP High-Performance Analytic Appliance, HANA
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Unilever, NHS 24, adidas Group, CHIO Aachen, Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited
UC Berkeley AMPLab, Amazon, Alibaba Taobao, Kenshoo, Hitachi Solutions
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP HANA vs. Spark SQL and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
837,501 professionals have used our research since 2012.