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SAP IQ vs Vertica comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

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 Data Warehouse
13th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Relational Databases Tools (26th)
Vertica
Ranking in Data Warehouse
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
86
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Data Warehouse (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of SAP IQ is 2.6%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Vertica is 8.6%, down from 8.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Warehouse
 

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.
T Venkatesh - PeerSpot reviewer
Processes query faster through multiple systems simultaneously, but it could support different data types
We use the solution for various tasks, including preparing data marts and generating offers. It helps extract data based on rules from the policy team and provides insights to enhance business operations. We also analyze transactions to target customers and improve business performance The…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"All data is compressed and indexed, allowing for fast execution of transactions."
"IQ is a very high-performance and high-transaction database."
"It is very robust for ad hoc DW queries and its columnar compression is unique and valuable."
"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."
"Columnar storage allows high compression, high load rates and high query performance."
"The initial setup is easy."
"Unbeatable speed and compression with a colummn-structured relational database."
"The Vertica architecture means it can process/ingest data in parallel to reporting and analyzing because of its in-memory Write-Optimized Storage sitting alongside the analytics optimized Read-Optimized Storage."
"The extensibility and efficiency provided by their C++ SDK."
"We are able to integrate our Vertica data warehouse with Tableau to create numerous reports quickly and efficiently."
"Vertica is a columnar database, this support our developments in analytics, advanced analytics, and ETL process with large sets of data."
"Partition and join back to node are easy and simple for DBAs."
"Its projections and encoding are excellent tools for tuning large volumes."
"Vertica is a columnar database where the query performance is extremely fast and it can be used for real-time integrations for API and other applications. The solution requires zero maintenance which is helpful."
"I don't need any special hardware. I can use commodity hardware, which is nice to have in a commercial solution."
 

Cons

"The only negative aspect of IQ is the cost, which can be challenging for companies in Peru."
"The room for improvement would be the marketing of the product, because this product is much better than advertised."
"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 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."
"The primary negative aspect is the cost, which can be a challenge due to the economic conditions in Peru."
"In our company, we have faced difficulties in scaling the solution for certain use cases."
"I believe the installation process could be streamlined."
"We faced some challenges when trying to use the temporary tables feature."
"In my opinion, Vertica's documentation could be improved. Currently, there is not enough documentation available to gain a comprehensive understanding of the platform."
"The integration of this solution with ODI could be improved."
"It needs integration with multiple clouds."
"It would be great if this were a managed service in AWS."
"It's hard to make it slow for a small data volume. For large volumes, it's hard to make it work. It's also hard to make it faster, and to make it scale."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Evaluate all options; check to see if you need expensive add-ons."
"Negotiation is very important."
"It's not that costly. So, the pricing is cheap."
"Negotiate based on the features required."
"The cost of implementation is about $3,000."
"The only costs after standard licensing fees are for add-ons and upgrades."
"The first TB is free and you can use all the Vertica features. After 1TB you have to pay for licensing. The product is worth it, but be aware of this condition, and plan. The compression ratio is explained in the documentation."
"Vertica is an expensive tool."
"It's difficult today to compete with open-source solutions. In these areas, there is a lot of competition and the price of this solution is a bit pricy."
"The solution is relatively cost-effective."
"Start with license per 1TB. Starting from hundreds of TB there is unlimited licensing to be considered. Move historical data to HDFS/S3 which are significantly cheaper or even free."
"The price could be cheaper and it is best to negotiate the price."
"It's an expensive product"
"It's free up to three nodes and 1TB, and then get in contact with their sales guys."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
45%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Real Estate/Law Firm
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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.
What is your primary use case for SAP IQ?
I worked on implementing new databases, migration data in production, and developer environments with SAP IQ.
What do you like most about Vertica?
Vertica is easy to use and provides really high performance, stability, and scalability.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Vertica?
The solution is relatively cost-effective. Pricing and licensing are reasonable compared to other solutions.
What needs improvement with Vertica?
The product could improve by adding support for a wider variety of data types and enhancing features to better compete with other databases.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Sybase IQ
Micro Focus Vertica, HPE Vertica, HPE Vertica on Demand
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ASR Group, Citrix, State of Indiana, PocketCard Co. Ltd.
Cerner, Game Show Network Game, Guess by Marciano, Supercell, Etsy, Nascar, Empirix, adMarketplace, and Cardlytics.
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP IQ vs. Vertica and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
848,716 professionals have used our research since 2012.