SQL Server vs Teradata comparison

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SQL Server

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 30, 2025

SQL Server and Teradata both compete in the database management and analytics space. SQL Server appears to have the upper hand due to its cost-effectiveness and community support, contrasting with Teradata's premium pricing.

Features: SQL Server offers dynamic resource allocation for adaptive disk and memory usage, Graphical Query Analyzer for interactive query building, and robust OLAP services for data warehousing and decision support. Teradata provides high scalability, complex query processing capabilities, and a massively parallel processing architecture, which is ideal for large datasets and in-depth data analytics.

Room for Improvement: SQL Server could improve its compatibility with non-Windows platforms, reduce costs, and bolster open-source feature offerings. Enhancements in installation processes, indexing, and horizontal partitioning would also be beneficial. Teradata requires better cloud integration, enhanced scalability, and improved user interfaces. It should also offer better support for unstructured data and a more competitive pricing strategy.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SQL Server offers flexibility in deployment from on-premises to various cloud models, supported by a strong community. However, the responsiveness of customer service may vary. Teradata focuses on large enterprises with advanced deployment capabilities, offering substantial support at higher costs. SQL Server excels in initial customer support and deployment versatility, while Teradata provides high-capacity deployment options.

Pricing and ROI: SQL Server is generally considered cost-effective, offering flexible scalability for small-to-medium enterprises with varied licensing models aimed at keeping costs lower than competitors like Oracle. Teradata's pricing is positioned on the premium end but promises valuable returns in high-volume data processing scenarios, focusing on performance and analytical capabilities. It delivers high ROI for enterprises necessitating in-depth analytics despite a higher initial investment.

To learn more, read our detailed SQL Server vs. Teradata Report (Updated: December 2025).

SQL Server vs. Teradata

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Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score

7.2

SQL Server delivers significant ROI through cost-effectiveness, efficiency in data management, reduced operational costs, and valuable features.

Sentiment score

6.9

Teradata significantly boosts speed, efficiency, and ROI, with studies showing a 427% average ROI over three years.

SQL Server is the most cost-effective with good human resource availability to manage it.

Manager - Production Database Administration at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

All applications need our repository to provide services for our online business or our customers, so the return is good.

SandroChauca

Infrastructure Coordinator at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

With Standard edition, they have saved a ton of money and they are really happy about that.

For more quotes and insights, download the SQL Server report

Data Warehouse Lead at Resurs Bank AB (publ.)

At least fifteen to twenty percent of our time has been saved using Teradata, which has positively affected team productivity and business outcomes.

Shugoyal Shugoyal

Senior product analyst at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Independent research showed that Teradata VantageCloud users achieved an average ROI of 427% across three years with payback under a year, demonstrating the platform's ability to deliver a strong financial return.

Engineers at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

We have realized a return on investment, with a reduction of staff from 27 to eight, and our current return on investment is approximately 14%.

For more quotes and insights, download the Teradata report

Interim and Fractional CIO and CTO at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

Customer Service

Sentiment score

6.5

Microsoft's SQL Server support is generally satisfactory, with proficient paid options but noted delays and communication issues.

Sentiment score

7.1

Teradata's support is praised for professionalism and responsiveness, but feedback on speed is mixed; training resources enhance service.

I give their technical support a rating of ten out of ten.

Data Warehouse Lead at Resurs Bank AB (publ.)

There was a time when Microsoft support provided very crisp answers, but over time, they have diluted their support to third parties, leading to a drop in support quality.

Manager - Production Database Administration at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

When we created support tickets, the experience was very positive.

For more quotes and insights, download the SQL Server report

Subdirector of Support for Production at Servicios Electrónicos Globales -Oficial

The customer support for Teradata has been great.

Interim and Fractional CIO and CTO at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

They are responsive and knowledgeable, and the documentation is very helpful.

Engineers at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

Customer support is very good, rated eight out of ten under our essential agreement.

For more quotes and insights, download the Teradata report

Team Leader for Data Base Administrators at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

7.1

SQL Server offers effective scalability with proper setup, though extremely large databases may require specific tuning or cloud solutions.

Sentiment score

7.5

Teradata offers scalable cloud and on-premise solutions with strong adaptability, overcoming hardware limitations and cost challenges efficiently.

The server where we installed it has grown from 64 gigabytes in RAM to 256 gigabytes, demonstrating significant scalability capabilities.

Subdirector of Support for Production at Servicios Electrónicos Globales -Oficial

Most of the time, they simply add another node in the availability group.

Data Warehouse Lead at Resurs Bank AB (publ.)

I can scale both horizontally and vertically without challenges.

For more quotes and insights, download the SQL Server report

Manager - Production Database Administration at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Whenever we need more resources, we can add that in Teradata, and when not needed, we can scale it down as well.

Shugoyal Shugoyal

Senior product analyst at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

This flexibility allows organizations to scale according to their needs, balancing performance, cost, and compliance requirements.

For more quotes and insights, download the Teradata report

Engineers at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

This expansion can occur without incurring downtime or taking systems offline.

RajeshKumar25

Principal Consultant & Director at Quensulting

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

7.6

SQL Server is stable and reliable, with occasional performance issues resolved by Microsoft support and proper configuration.

Sentiment score

8.3

Teradata's robust architecture ensures exceptional stability and reliability, with minimal downtime and high user ratings despite some integration challenges.

There was an issue with memory-optimized tables, but it was resolved in 2025, allowing you to remove that file group, which was not possible before.

Data Warehouse Lead at Resurs Bank AB (publ.)

All applications supporting SQL Server in my experience work very well across various industries including telecom, finance, banking, ad, entertainment, and workforce management.

For more quotes and insights, download the SQL Server report

Manager - Production Database Administration at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Its massively parallel process architecture allows the platform to distribute workload efficiently, enabling organizations to run heavy analytic queries without compromising speed or stability.

Engineers at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

I find the stability to be almost a ten out of ten.

For more quotes and insights, download the Teradata report

Team Leader for Data Base Administrators at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees

The workload management and software maturity provide a reliable system.

RajeshKumar25

Principal Consultant & Director at Quensulting

Room For Improvement

SQL Server needs cost control, better integration, UI simplification, enhanced performance, security, and improved scalability, support, and features.

Teradata requires improvements in transaction processing, scalability, UI, cost-effectiveness, analytics features, integration capabilities, and security measures.

It is fine to do a first release that works, but you cannot simply abandon it in the following years without service packs and improvements.

Data Warehouse Lead at Resurs Bank AB (publ.)

I would appreciate using Microsoft Pro as it can integrate with Excel or, with a simple query, consume information from the database using Microsoft Excel.

SandroChauca

Infrastructure Coordinator at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

When we consider the price for replication in another site, the pricing becomes prohibitive.

For more quotes and insights, download the SQL Server report

Subdirector of Support for Production at Servicios Electrónicos Globales -Oficial

I want to highlight two features for improvement: first, storing data in various formats without requiring a tabular structure, accommodating unstructured data; and second, adding AI ML features to better integrate Gen AI, LLM concepts, and user-friendly experiences such as text-to-SQL capabilities.

Ganesh Verma

Data Engineer at Tredence Inc.

Unlike SQL and Oracle, which have in-built replication capabilities, we don't have similar functionality with Teradata.

Team Leader for Data Base Administrators at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees

The most challenging aspect is finding Teradata resources, so we are focusing on internal training and looking for more Teradata experts.

For more quotes and insights, download the Teradata report

Interim and Fractional CIO and CTO at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

Setup Cost

SQL Server pricing is complex and perceived as high, but offers value, with free and usage-based options available.

Teradata offers high-value analytics with flexible pricing, excelling in performance and ROI, ideal for large enterprises and data-intensive sectors.

Cost savings on human resources for Windows plus SQL Server versus other solutions.

For more quotes and insights, download the SQL Server report

Manager - Production Database Administration at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Teradata is much more expensive than SQL, which is well-performed and cheaper.

Team Leader for Data Base Administrators at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees

Initially, it may seem expensive compared to similar cloud databases, however, it offers significant value in performance, stability, and overall output once in use.

RajeshKumar25

Principal Consultant & Director at Quensulting

Role-based access control (RBAC), strong audit and compliance features, high availability, fault tolerance, and encrypted data at rest and in-transit are key features.

For more quotes and insights, download the Teradata report

Engineers at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

Valuable Features

SQL Server offers dynamic resource allocation, ease of use, scalability, and high availability with robust performance and extensive services support.

Teradata excels in parallel processing, scalability, and performance, offering robust data management, security, and integration for efficient data warehousing.

Always On HADR functionality is one of the features that I use on a daily basis and one of my most used features, saving me lots of time, especially since previously I had to build a SQL cluster and Windows clusters that had many dependencies on shared infrastructure, but now with Always On, it is too stable with easy management and almost zero maintenance, which SQL Server handles itself.

Manager - Production Database Administration at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

I have been working with SQL Server for a long time, and it works well for me as I am using it in different applications, such as web applications, Windows applications, or the data warehouse reporting.

SandroChauca

Infrastructure Coordinator at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

The best features of SQL Server are availability and stability.

For more quotes and insights, download the SQL Server report

Subdirector of Support for Production at Servicios Electrónicos Globales -Oficial

Teradata's security helps our organization meet compliance requirements such as GDPR and IFRS, and it is particularly essential for revenue contracting or revenue recognition.

Interim and Fractional CIO and CTO at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

Its architecture allows information to be processed efficiently while maintaining stable performance, even in highly demanding environments.

For more quotes and insights, download the Teradata report

Engineers at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

It facilitates data integration, where we integrate and analyze data from various sources, making it a powerful and high-quality reliable solution for the company.

reviewer2783274

Senior Data Engineer at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Categories and Ranking

SQL Server

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

1st

Ranking in Database Management Systems (DBMS)

4th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

272

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Teradata

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

6th

Ranking in Database Management Systems (DBMS)

3rd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Customer Experience Management (6th), Backup and Recovery (15th), Data Integration (15th), Data Warehouse (3rd), BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (8th), Marketing Management (5th), Cloud Data Warehouse (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of SQL Server is 12.1%, down from 19.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Teradata is 4.0%, down from 5.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Relational Databases Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
SQL Server	12.1%
Teradata	4.0%
Other	83.9%

Relational Databases Tools

Featured Reviews

Ledger and seamless integrations have strengthened trusted analytics and unified workloads

Data Warehouse Lead at Resurs Bank AB (publ.)

SQL Server's high availability and disaster recovery features work for supporting mission-critical applications, but there is much more to wish for. These features are not quite ready yet, although they do function. However, they could be significantly better. High availability and disaster recovery features should be improved in the next releases. I have noticed that everything could be improved or enhanced in the future, particularly temporal tables and window functions. Sometimes, I believe Microsoft releases features to stay ahead of competitors, but they do not make them feature-rich or feature-complete. They release something to be ahead of leaders and then seem to forget to maintain and upgrade them. I want Microsoft to pay more attention and be more mindful about the things they implement. It is fine to do a first release that works, but you cannot simply abandon it in the following years without service packs and improvements. You must continue to build on features rather than forgetting about them.

Read full review

Delivers consistent performance and enables advanced analytics across complex data environments

Engineers at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

Teradata stands out as a solid platform for managing and analyzing large volumes of data. Its architecture allows information to be processed efficiently while maintaining stable performance, even in highly demanding environments. One of its most notable strengths is the ability to run complex queries at high speed, which is essential for organizations that require timely and reliable analytics. Teradata offers a well-integrated ecosystem that supports working with different types of data and enables scalability as organizational needs grow. Its focus on advanced analytics, integration with modern business intelligence tools, and the ability to operate both on-premise and in the cloud make it a versatile solution for data warehousing and large-scale processing. Teradata's stability, technological maturity, and the availability of strong documentation and best practices are noteworthy. I consider Teradata to be a tool with great potential for any organization looking to enhance its analytical capabilities, optimize data processing, and move toward more data-driven decision-making. Teradata stands out as a solid platform for managing a large volume of data in different projects. Its architecture allows information to be processed efficiently while maintaining stable performance, even in high-demanding environments. A well-integrated AI ecosystem that supports working with different types of data and enables scalability as organizational needs grow across different kinds of enterprises or organizations. The focus on advanced analytics integration with modern business intelligence tools is particularly valuable. Teradata combines a powerful parallel process and optimizing SQL engine with a highly scalable architecture allowing businesses to execute complex queries and analytics in real-time. It supports multi-cloud, hybrid, and on-premise environments, giving organizations flexibility to choose the setup that best aligns with their strategy. One of the biggest strengths is the ability to unify disparate data sources and support high concurrency, enabling different teams, such as analytics, operations, BI, and data science, to access consistent, trusted data across the enterprise.

Read full review

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Comparison Review

it_user232068

Senior Data Architect at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Aug 5, 2015

Netezza vs. Teradata

Original published at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/should-i-choose-net Two leading Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) architectures for Data Warehousing (DW) are IBM PureData System for Analytics (formerly Netezza) and Teradata. I thought talking about the similarities and differences…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

38%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

23%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	119
Midsize Enterprise	59
Large Enterprise	115

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	28
Midsize Enterprise	13
Large Enterprise	52

Questions from the Community

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...

Comparing Teradata and Oracle Database, which product do you think is better and why?

I have spoken to my colleagues about this comparison and in our collective opinion, the reason why some people may declare Teradata better than Oracle is the pricing. Both solutions are quite simi...

Which companies use Teradata and who is it most suitable for?

Before my organization implemented this solution, we researched which big brands were using Teradata, so we knew if it would be compatible with our field. According to the product's site, the comp...

Is Teradata a difficult solution to work with?

Teradata is not a difficult product to work with, especially since they offer you technical support at all levels if you just ask. There are some features that may cause difficulties - for example,...

IBM Db2 Database vs SQL Server

Comparisons

Compared 17% of the time

Oracle Database vs SQL Server

Compared 12% of the time

MariaDB vs SQL Server

Compared 10% of the time

SAP HANA vs SQL Server

Compared 9% of the time

LocalDB vs SQL Server

Compared 4% of the time

More SQL Server Competitors

Oracle Exadata vs Teradata

Compared 8% of the time

Snowflake vs Teradata

Compared 7% of the time

IBM Db2 Database vs Teradata

Compared 5% of the time

Oracle Database vs Teradata

Compared 5% of the time

OpenText Analytics Database (Vertica) vs Teradata

Compared 4% of the time

More Teradata Competitors

Product Reports

SQL Server

Download SQL Server product report

Download Teradata product report

Also Known As

Microsoft SQL Server, MSSQL, MS SQL

IntelliFlex, Aster Data Map Reduce, , QueryGrid, Customer Interaction Manager, Digital Marketing Center, Data Mover, Data Stream Architecture, Teradata Vantage Enterprise (DIY)

Overview

SQL Server is a relational database management system (RDBMS) by Microsoft. The product's main purposes are to store data and retrieve it as requested by other software applications - on the same computer or on another computer across a shared network. The solution is built on top of Structured Query Language (SQL), which is a standardized programming language used for relational database management.

The product is tied to Transact-SQL (T-SQL), which is an implementation of SQL from Microsoft that adds several proprietary programming extensions to the standard language. SQL Server is built similarly to other RDBMS products, as its structure is a row-based table that connects related data elements in different tables to one another. One of its most important components is the SQL Server Database Engine, as it controls data processing, storage, and security. Beneath the Database Engine is the SQL Server Operating System, which is used for memory and I/O management, locking data to avoid unneeded upgrades, and job scheduling.

The solution has four editions with different sets of services and tools. They include:

SQL Server Developer
SQL Server Expression
SQL Server Standard
SQL Server Enterprise

The first two are available for free and are typically utilized by smaller companies, as they work with fewer functions and storage. The second two editions are generally used by bigger organizations and enterprises and offer more features.

The solution has several functions through which users can facilitate different data-related processes. These include:

Aggregate functions: These functions are used to calculate one or more values and return a single value.
Window functions: Window functions calculate an aggregate value based on a group of rows and return multiple rows for each involved group.
Date functions: These functions allow clients to handle data and time data efficiently.
String functions: Through the string functions, SQL Server processes an input string and returns a string or numeric value.
System functions: The system functions of the product return objects, values, and settings.

SQL Server Services

SQL Server has a wide range of add-on services that provide additional benefits beyond database management. These services include:

Machine learning: SQL Server machine learning services allow users to do machine learning and data analytics within the product.
Service broker: This feature is a part of the database engine and offers messaging and message queuing for applications on the platform.
Replication: This feature consists of transaction replication, merge replication, and snapshot replication.
Analysis: SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) adds online analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining capabilities to SQL Server databases.
Reporting: This feature supports the development of custom reporting applications.
Notifications: This feature generates data-driven notifications which are sent to subscribers of Notification Services.
Integration: This SQL Server feature provides capabilities for data integration, data import, and data warehousing.
Full-text search: Through this feature, users can utilize specialized indexing and query for unstructured text stored in the solution.
Visual studio: This feature supports data programming with SQL Server.
Azure Data Studio: This is a cross-platform query editor that can be downloaded and used alongside SQL Server.

SQL Server Benefits

The solution has many benefits for users. These include the following:

The platform ensures a consistent experience across other platforms while being fast and agile.
Through the built-in intelligence features, users can understand their data better.
The solution has enterprise-level security, which ensures the smooth and safe performance of users' data.
SQL Server offers the ability to retrieve large amounts of data quickly and efficiently.
The product installation process is fairly easy, and it offers a user-friendly interface.
SQL Server offers improved data storage and retrieval functions through frequent upgrades.
The solution reduces the risk of database server attacks, since it is not an open-source database.

Reviews from Real Users

A president at a consultancy evaluates SQL Server as a veteran solution with critical log shipping feature.

Harkamal S., a user at a manufacturing company, rates SQL Server with a high mark because it is a stable, scalable, and easy-to-deploy solution that pretty much covers everything.

Microsoft

Teradata is a powerful tool for handling substantial data volumes with its parallel processing architecture, supporting both cloud and on-premise environments efficiently. It offers impressive capabilities for fast query processing, data integration, and real-time reporting, making it suitable for diverse industrial applications.

Known for its robust parallel processing capabilities, Teradata effectively manages large datasets and provides adaptable deployment across cloud and on-premise setups. It enhances performance and scalability with features like advanced query tuning, workload management, and strong security. Users appreciate its ease of use and automation features which support real-time data reporting. The optimizer and intelligent partitioning help improve query speed and efficiency, while multi-temperature data management optimizes data handling.

What are the key features of Teradata?

Parallel Processing Architecture: Enables efficient handling of substantial data volumes.
Cloud and On-Premise Deployment: Offers seamless adaptability across environments.
Query Tuning: Improves speed and performance of data retrieval processes.
Workload Management: Ensures optimal resource allocation for enhanced performance.
Robust Security: Provides high levels of data protection and system integrity.
Data Integration: Facilitates cohesive data management from multiple sources.
Automation for Real-time Reporting: Enhances timely data insights and decision-making.
Optimizer and Intelligent Partitioning: Further increase query speed and system efficiency.
Multi-Temperature Data Management: Optimizes the handling and retrieval of data.

What benefits and ROI do users look for?

Efficient Data Management: Facilitates smooth integration and processing of diverse data sets.
Scalability: Easy adjustment to increasing or decreasing data requirements.
Improved Performance: Fast query speeds and optimized resource use.
Comprehensive Security: Safeguards data integrity and accessibility.
Ease of Use: Simplifies data handling and operational processes.

In the finance, retail, and government sectors, Teradata is employed for data warehousing, business intelligence, and analytical processing. It handles vast datasets for activities like customer behavior modeling and enterprise data integration. Supporting efficient reporting and analytics, Teradata enhances data storage and processing, whether deployed on-premise or on cloud platforms.

Sample Customers

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.

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SQL Server vs. Teradata