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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

"It's sufficed all of our requirements. We primarily needed it to run SAP applications, like NetWeaver or S/4HANA, and it has been really good at that."
"The performance in terms of processing time is unmatched due to the in-memory processing capability."
"It's easy to use, and the Hana Studio is pretty good."
"The solution is stable."
"When we upgraded, we received more functions or more features."
"The most valuable feature of SAP HANA is the interaction it provides with external suppliers and clients."
"The most valuable feature of SAP HANA is the modeling of the databases."
"We have found the solution to be customizable and it is beneficial it comes as a bundled package. Additionally, it is user-friendly."
"The performance is one of the most important features. It has an API to process the data in a functional manner."
"Overall the solution is excellent."
"One of Spark SQL's most beautiful features is running parallel queries to go through enormous data."
"Certain data sets that are very large are very difficult to process with Pandas and Python libraries. Spark SQL has helped us a lot with that."
"Offers a variety of methods to design queries and incorporates the regular SQL syntax within tasks."
"The team members don't have to learn a new language and can implement complex tasks very easily using only SQL."
"The stability was fine. It behaved as expected."
"The speed of getting data."
 

Cons

"The SAP HANA interface has room for improvement because it takes more work to manage than the Microsoft SQL Server interface."
"There could be better management for faster updates, last year there were some changes in India to the e-invoicing feature."
"The support is lacking and not worth the premium price. If support was just a nominal fee, it would be perceived differently."
"The pricing is expensive."
"Uses a large amount of RAM and is costly."
"SAP HANA is not strong like Oracle when it comes to finance. They are only strong with the logistic business project."
"The relationship with a partner that sells SAP could be better. We depend much more on our own development, and the partner is for selling us the solutions, so we need them to be able to supply help and answers. The partner isn't very helpful, and we have to rely on our own knowledge and research."
"The main issue is the ecosystem, which lacks the widespread support that SQL enjoys."
"In terms of improvement, the only thing that could be enhanced is the stability aspect of Spark SQL."
"There are many inconsistencies in syntax for the different querying tasks."
"There should be better integration with other solutions."
"It would be beneficial for aggregate functions to include a code block or toolbox that explains its calculations or supported conditional statements."
"The solution needs to include graphing capabilities. Including financial charts would help improve everything overall."
"This solution could be improved by adding monitoring and integration for the EMR."
"I've experienced some incompatibilities when using the Delta Lake format."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 SAP HANA is very expensive and it is paid annually."
"There is an annual payment needed to use the solution."
"We pay for a maintenance license, and the licensing cost is high. In general, it is a very expensive solution."
"Set up a consortium of consulting partners and hardware vendors to define your tech. Landscape TCO (total cost of ownership) and then approach the OEM for pricing (on-premise or on cloud or a hybrid model). Check if you can bring your own licenses for some of the existing application licenses on the new platform, to reduce TCO."
"The cost of SAP HANA is high, and I would rate the price at eight out of ten."
"People who are technical will accept the cost, but financially they will assess whether this solution will bring them revenue or not. People often ask, how will I profit when the cost is so high?"
"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."
"The solution is open-sourced and free."
"We use the open-source version, so we do not have direct support from Apache."
"The solution is bundled with Palantir Foundry at no extra charge."
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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
23%
Computer Software Company
15%
Retailer
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

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: March 2025.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.