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SAP IQ vs SQL Server 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 IQ
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
19th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (12th)
SQL Server
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
267
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of SAP IQ is 0.6%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SQL Server is 20.1%, down from 23.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Tejas Raj - PeerSpot reviewer
Columnar database, so pulling records is easy but there isn't enough documentation for installation
I've seen very few SAP IQ systems in recent years. So people are moving away from SAP IQ In the last three years, I've rarely encountered customers using it. Fewer systems with SAP IQ usage among our customers. Most of them have moved on to HANA. There are parallel products, and there are also viable alternatives from AWS, so many have migrated to those.
Azizul Haque - PeerSpot reviewer
It has eliminated all kinds of inconsistencies, and it is reliable, secure, and fast
I don't know whether SQL Server can support large organizations where the database size is more than 100 GB. It might be because of SQL Server, or it might be because of the programming of the software vendor, but a lot of people think that it is a problem with SQL Server. It can't handle a large amount of data or large data size. In terms of its usage, about 90% of our applications are running on the SQL Server database. We have around 1,600 users for our software, and all the applications are connected to the SQL Server database.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Unbeatable speed and compression with a colummn-structured relational database."
"Columnar storage allows high compression, high load rates and high query performance."
"The initial setup is easy."
"All data is compressed and indexed, allowing for fast execution of transactions."
"The column-based technologies (basically all the database for ITP) are used for SAP IQ. It is used as a column-based solution."
"The product is easy to learn."
"Valuable features for us include the compression, speed, fast response time, and easy object maintenance."
"The primary benefit of SAP IQ is its ability to limit the expansion of the costly SAP HANA database, which has limited storage capacity. This necessitates a form of data management that involves moving data from SAP HANA to SAP NLS, which is essentially archiving. This allows us to retain access to the data via a link whenever it is required."
"The most valuable features of this solution are easy queries and straightforward programming for beginners."
"Very easy to use, and it's very democratic in the enterprise."
"Microsoft SQL Server is one of the better database administration software packages out there. It runs primarily on Windows Server platforms, but it can also run on Linux platforms."
"I value the ability it gives me to test on small machines and easily scale up to larger devices for live applications."
"I have found the whole solution with all its features wonderful."
"Its availability for a secured server is one of its most valuable features. Also its replications - we can manage eight replicas. Their clustering and availability groups are also valuable."
"The installation is really easy."
"The solution can be deployed in a few minutes."
 

Cons

"The organization who owns the product does not support it well and appears not to be doing significant development for the future."
"The solution works best when combined with other SAP solutions. If the environment has other systems other options might be better."
"There is very little documentation available."
"The room for improvement would be the marketing of the product, because this product is much better than advertised."
"Concurrency and functional error messaging."
"The tool gets stuck sometimes."
"I think the universe should be part of the Sybase IQ tool set."
"Multiplex is very problematic. There are consistency problems in the metadata, meaning it is possible to lose metadata consistency. You should make sure you have healthy backups."
"If SQL Server could perhaps run on Linux, that would be good. Most of us prefer Linux and I've used a lot of Linux. I understand that SQL Server is quite powerful, but I'm not sure if the functionality is there, but if it could be used in an open-source type of environment, it would be very good."
"For small-scale businesses, Microsoft could improve by removing some limits in SQL Express."
"It needs to be improved to handle big data for large volumes of transactions for big industries. As compared to Oracle Database, SQL Server is not suitable for big data or large organizations where the database size could be more than 100 GB or more. In our country, for a large database and a large volume of transactions, we normally use Oracle Database. Most of the large banks are shifting from SQL Server to Oracle Database because of its slowness."
"The pricing and quality of the product could be improved."
"The pricing in general could be better."
"The security features of the solution could be better."
"I would say that people should know how to get a SQL setup in place since it might be an area where they lack when it comes to the solution."
"The solution is lacking a compound index for comparing values."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The only costs after standard licensing fees are for add-ons and upgrades."
"Negotiate based on the features required."
"The cost of implementation is about $3,000."
"It's not that costly. So, the pricing is cheap."
"Negotiation is very important."
"Evaluate all options; check to see if you need expensive add-ons."
"The price has been going higher and higher. The market is quite price sensitive."
"The setup cost is high, but it will return every penny."
"There is a license required for servers and for the POS we use the free version. The free version allows you to have tables and a total database size of approximately 10 GB, which is enough for our requirements."
"If you are looking for a small setup and do not want an open-source solution or invest too much money in your database then SQL Server is a very good choice."
"For a brief period, approximately one year before 2018, I had experience working with the open-source version of SQL Server. During that time, I found SQL Server to be the preferred choice, in my opinion."
"The licenses are really expensive. Their licensing model should be more simplistic."
"Historically, SQL Server has been much more affordable than Oracle, which is overpriced."
"I don't need a license for it as I will be migrating to Office 365."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
45%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
5%
Educational Organization
52%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SAP IQ?
The primary benefit of SAP IQ is its ability to limit the expansion of the costly SAP HANA database, which has limited storage capacity. This necessitates a form of data management that involves mo...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP IQ?
IQ implementation costs about three thousand dollars. It's less expensive compared to alternatives like Teradata Base in terms of transactional efficiency.
What needs improvement with SAP IQ?
The primary negative aspect is the cost, which can be a challenge due to the economic conditions in Peru.
Would you say the price of SQL Server is high compared to that of similar products?
SQL Server is fairly priced because it has various editions, depending on the number of users, servers, or core packs you are using. If you compare the product to others in this category, the price...
Has using SQL Server helped your organization in any way?
SQL Server has helped my organization through partitioning to distribute the workload, as it splits them up into smaller pieces so the machines can easily deal with it. However, this comes with a h...
Which authentication mode is best for SQL Server?
My company connects through SQL Server authentication. We have company Windows accounts, but we do not want to connect the two, out of security concerns and to keep things separated for our own pur...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Sybase IQ
Microsoft SQL Server, MSSQL, MS SQL
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ASR Group, Citrix, State of Indiana, PocketCard Co. Ltd.
Microsoft SQL Server is used by businesses in every industry, including Great Western Bank, Aviva, the Volvo Car Corporation, BMW, Samsung, Principality Building Society, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario.
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP IQ vs. SQL Server and other solutions. Updated: February 2025.
838,533 professionals have used our research since 2012.