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Actian PSQL vs SAP HANA comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 19, 2025

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

Actian PSQL
Ranking in Embedded Database
12th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SAP HANA
Ranking in Embedded Database
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
91
Ranking in other categories
Data Virtualization (2nd), Relational Databases Tools (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the Embedded Database category, the mindshare of Actian PSQL is 1.3%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP HANA is 8.8%, down from 9.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Embedded Database Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SAP HANA8.8%
Actian PSQL1.3%
Other89.9%
Embedded Database
 

Featured Reviews

辺琢也 渡 - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy configuration, with affordable pricing, and reliable
We use Actian PSQL for analytics purposes Actian PSQL is easy to configure and the performance is affordable. It would be great to have some sizing guides to configure the on-premise software to make it easier. We need to improve the security options for the on-premise option. I would like to…
Dhiraj Jankar - PeerSpot reviewer
Users appreciate the mix of in-memory architecture and ease of backend management
The most valuable SAP HANA features are that, compared to Oracle, there is less administrative work and less complex work to handle, making it very straightforward. The tool itself takes care of the backend work. The main benefits SAP HANA provides to users include its architecture, which combines both column store and row store capabilities. Some places find the row feature important, whereas others find column store important. It allows some tables to be stored in a column base, others in a row base, and the In-Memory functionalities are mostly the highlight of SAP HANA, especially compared to disk-based memory users. This was the main reason SAP HANA was introduced initially.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Actian PSQL is easy to configure and the performance is affordable."
"One feature I find very valuable, is the response time of the application on the database memory."
"It's easy to use, and the Hana Studio is pretty good."
"The benefits include high database loading performance, superior reporting performance, and ease of use."
"All features are valuable."
"Our operations have grown from a hundred data operations a day to as many in a couple of seconds."
"SAP HANA is vertically and horizontally scalable."
"We appreciate that the current, redesigned version of this solution that is much more straightforward for new users, and has been well thought out with industry best practice standards in mind."
"The performance is very, very good. It's one of the best aspects of the solution."
 

Cons

"We need to improve the security options for the on-premise option."
"The openness of the system could be more developed. The solution should go into the cloud. The cloud mechanism should be more invested."
"I would have rated the solution higher if this version was not missing some key features the newer version has."
"The initial setup was pretty complex, considering the enormous amount of data they had from an Oracle ERP."
"The SAP ERP processes are quite complex and it can be challenging."
"Licensing costs with SAP HANA are very high. Due to high pricing, many clients are moving from BW on SAP HANA and S/4HANA to Azure SQL."
"The solution is very expensive, however. The pricing depends on the number of users and many other factors that affect licensing."
"The SAP HANA interface has room for improvement because it takes more work to manage than the Microsoft SQL Server interface."
"The support is lacking and not worth the premium price. If support was just a nominal fee, it would be perceived differently."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have found Actian PSQL to be affordable."
"SAP HANA is an expensive product."
"Setup and licensing require planning and proper budgeting, as it is not cheap."
"The price of this product is good."
"SAP HANA is very expensive here in China. My company bought the SAP ERP suite, which includes SAP HANA. For others who use SAP HANA as an analytical database, CPU numbers will affect the pricing, so as a solution, it's costly."
"SAP HANA is very expensive for small to medium businesses."
"We are spending about 20,000 to 30,000 euros on the solution."
"SAP HANA is more expensive than other solutions."
"The price of the solution could be reduced, it is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise61
 

Questions from the Community

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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...
 

Comparisons

No data available
 

Also Known As

PSQL, Pervasive PSQL
SAP High-Performance Analytic Appliance, HANA
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Datamatics, Medical Data Vision, Inferenda, Sheetz, SecureAlert, Zilliant
Unilever, NHS 24, adidas Group, CHIO Aachen, Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited
Find out what your peers are saying about Actian PSQL vs. SAP HANA and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
872,837 professionals have used our research since 2012.