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SQL Server vs Vertica 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

SQL Server
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
268
Ranking in other categories
Relational Databases Tools (1st)
Vertica
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
86
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (5th), Cloud Data Warehouse (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

SQL Server and Vertica aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. SQL Server is designed for Relational Databases Tools and holds a mindshare of 18.6%, down 23.1% compared to last year.
Vertica, on the other hand, focuses on Data Warehouse, holds 8.6% mindshare, down 8.7% since last year.
Relational Databases Tools
Data Warehouse
 

Featured Reviews

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.
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

"I have found the whole solution with all its features wonderful."
"The product’s most valuable features are flexibility and scalability."
"Many developers like SQL Server."
"The latest version supports for big data analytics. SQL Server's vector processing-based batch execution mode is now available to the entire execution of R or Python code. Since much of the work that tends to be done in R and Python involves aggregation, batch mode - which processes rows of data several at a time, can be very helpful."
"I have seen that this is a very stable product."
"The solution has proven to be very stable."
"The Azure SQL Server database requires almost zero maintenance and management."
"The solution is stable."
"I have found the solution to be scalable."
"I like the projection feature, which increases query performance."
"The solution is quick, has good compression data, and is not expensive."
"The hardware usage and speed has been the most valuable feature of this solution. It is very fast and has saved us a lot of money."
"It maximizes cloud economics with Eon Mode by scaling cluster size to meet variable workload demands."
"The feature I like best is performance. We use Red Tool and Red Job for the data warehouse and reporting. It's perfect. Performance is good, and it can return ad hoc queries very quickly. Of course, it's a cluster, so it's easy to scale."
"Partition and join back to node are easy and simple for DBAs."
"The performance is very good and the aggregate records are fast."
 

Cons

"SQL Server database capacities could be further increased to be more accessible for larger data requirements."
"It would be nice if there was a feature to search for a specific value across multiple tables. This would save a lot of time for its users."
"The tool is expensive."
"Running multiple instances on the same box would be beneficial."
"They can build more performance-tuning tools in it. They can also make the stuff a little more user-friendly and provide the ability to schedule jobs. They can perhaps also streamline it a little bit so that it is not so resource-intensive, which would be helpful. SQL Server has a tendency to consume all the memory you allow it to. If you are not careful, you can basically break your server. I would like to see it having a smaller footprint in terms of system resource consumption. They might want to consider re-evaluating their pricing. It is expensive."
"There are certain shortcomings in the scalability of the product, making it an area where improvements are required."
"They have too many licensing options. They may want to simplify its licensing and bring it down to two, three, or four categories from ten to fifteen categories. Having so many different licensing options makes it difficult to decide which one to choose from. They can club things together. This is an area where they can make things easier for customers."
"SQL Server backups could be better."
"Fact-to-fact joins on multi-billion record tables perform poorly."
"The geospatial functionality could be designed better."
"The documentation of Vertica is an area with shortcomings where improvements are required."
"Vertica seems to scale well, except for one use case where you are on a multi-node cluster. For example, if you had a nine-node cluster, one node goes down, then the eight nodes don't scale, because the absence of the node is very apparent, which is a problem. If you have nine nodes or multiple nodes, the whole idea is that if one of those nodes goes down, then you should not see an impact on the system if you have enough capacity. Even though we have enough capacity, you can still see the impact of the one node going down."
"It needs integration with multiple clouds."
"Documentation has become much better, but can always use some improvement."
"Some of our small to medium-sized customers would like to see containerization and flexibility from the deployment standpoint."
"It would be great if this were a managed service in AWS."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would rate the tool's pricing a six out of ten. It is not extremely cheap but also it's not the most expensive product."
"For licensing, we pay yearly. The licensing is very expensive, and it should be cheaper."
"We didn't have any licensing costs for SQL Server."
"I believe the licensing to be on an annual basis."
"The price of SQL Server could be better in the African market. The licensing model needs to be improved, it is confusing."
"The price of the solution could be cheaper."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."
"The areas that need improvement are with regards to the commercial aspect of the solution, the licensing cost could be reduced in order to help customers to adopt it."
"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."
"The solution is free and we pay for the storage."
"It's free up to three nodes and 1TB, and then get in contact with their sales guys."
"The price of Vertica is less expensive than some competitors, such as Teradata."
"Work with a vendor, if possible, and take advantage of more aggressive discounts at mid-fiscal year (April) and fiscal year-end (October).​"
"From a cost perspective, the software is less than most of its competitors."
"The pricing could improve, it is a little expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
53%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Real Estate/Law Firm
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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...
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

Microsoft SQL Server, MSSQL, MS SQL
Micro Focus Vertica, HPE Vertica, HPE Vertica on Demand
 

Overview

 

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.
Cerner, Game Show Network Game, Guess by Marciano, Supercell, Etsy, Nascar, Empirix, adMarketplace, and Cardlytics.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and others in Relational Databases Tools. Updated: March 2025.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.