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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 is very flexible to integrate with SaaS components."
"Eases management of databases."
"The memory is the solution's most valuable feature. It's the main feature of HANA. Others are still the regular IT databases that are on storage and are therefore much slower than HANA. The solution is quite fast."
"In comparison with other DMS solutions, it offers good performance."
"All features are valuable."
"The solution is very stable."
"The product's initial setup phase was really easy."
"The solution is easy to manage enterprise resources and the reporting and analytics are including. It is good for company growth and all module are managed well."
"The speed of getting data."
"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 performance is one of the most important features. It has an API to process the data in a functional manner."
"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."
"Overall the solution is excellent."
 

Cons

"The releases need to be more stable. It's surprising to still encounter significant bugs after ten years of the product being available."
"FI, or the financial module of SAP, has room for improvement. It has to have some better localization for the Middle East, especially in regards to taxes and the letter of credit cycle. I would like to see better localization from the HCM."
"I would like to see improvements in the connectivity of the solution with other BI software. Not every software can connect to it natively."
"They should develop and improve the solution's data management system."
"High availability and disaster recovery are very poor in HANA."
"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."
"I would like more technical documentation. I would like it to be easier to find online help or have a better launch-based service. SAP has a lot of functions, so we need more best practices and more detailed documentation on industry solutions. For example, it would be good to have documentation on why a certain process needs to be set up and which kinds of configurations need to be set up."
"The solution is very expensive for us."
"SparkUI could have more advanced versions of the performance and the queries and all."
"Anything to improve the GUI would be helpful."
"Being a new user, I am not able to find out how to partition it correctly. I probably need more information or knowledge. In other database solutions, you can easily optimize all partitions. I haven't found a quicker way to do that in Spark SQL. It would be good if you don't need a partition here, and the system automatically partitions in the best way. They can also provide more educational resources for new users."
"This solution could be improved by adding monitoring and integration for the EMR."
"In the next release, maybe the visualization of some command-line features could be added."
"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."
"There should be better integration with other solutions."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay for a maintenance license, and the licensing cost is high. In general, it is a very expensive solution."
"SAP HANA is more expensive than other solutions."
"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 solution's license is very expensive so I rate pricing a one out of ten."
"We are spending about 20,000 to 30,000 euros on the solution."
"The price is high and could be a bit cheaper."
"There is an annual license to use SAP HANA."
"Setup and licensing require planning and proper budgeting, as it is not cheap."
"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."
"We use the open-source version, so we do not have direct support from Apache."
"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 bundled with Palantir Foundry at no extra charge."
"There is no license or subscription for this solution."
"The solution is open-sourced and free."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
21%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
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: April 2025.
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