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Amazon RDS on Outposts vs SQL Server comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 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

Amazon RDS on Outposts
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
16th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SQL Server
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
274
Ranking in other categories
Database Management Systems (DBMS) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of Amazon RDS on Outposts is 0.9%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SQL Server is 10.7%, down from 17.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SQL Server10.7%
Amazon RDS on Outposts0.9%
Other88.4%
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Junilson Souza - PeerSpot reviewer
Membro Do Conselho Consultivo at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Has reduced database management efforts and supported student learning through smooth deployment
The most important feature of Amazon RDS on Outposts for me is the self-managed aspect. The user doesn't have to worry about putting the service online, scaling the solution, and they don't have to worry about backups and other administrative tasks. The self-managed feature by AWS is very interesting. I use the automated backups in Amazon RDS on Outposts, and I recommend it. I work as a consultant for AWS products, and I have recommended Amazon RDS on Outposts and the automatic backup. Automated backups are helpful because the technical team doesn't have to worry about backups, making it much easier. It frees the technical team to deal with other kinds of questions within their projects. Amazon RDS on Outposts positively impacted my organization by being very useful to migrate, freeing the technical team to think about other matters instead of focusing just on backups and provisioning the database.
Peter Larsson - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Warehouse Lead at Resurs Bank AB (publ.)
Ledger and seamless integrations have strengthened trusted analytics and unified workloads
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Amazon RDS on Outposts positively impacted my organization by being very useful to migrate, freeing the technical team to think about other matters instead of focusing just on backups and provisioning the database."
"The scalability and cost-effectiveness of AWS were beneficial during spikes in database usage, as it allowed our platform to adjust and remain operational."
"The product's initial setup phase is simple and straightforward."
"The solution reduces the configuration and maintenance of the database."
"The solution is easy to manage."
"The scalability and cost-effectiveness of AWS were beneficial during spikes in database usage, as it allowed our platform to adjust and remain operational."
"I have found the most valuable features to be the flexibility and the vast amount of features available."
"SQL Server suffices our main requirement of a small database, and it is also very cost-effective."
"SQL Server, generally speaking, is stable also in high transaction environments."
"It is fairly easy to work with, and I like the high-availability options, like mirroring for example, and the high-availability groups."
"The performance of SQL Server is perfect."
"SQL Server provides good performance. Most of the SQL solutions can be integrated and this solution is no different, you are able to link other databases. For example, we have Oracle running a Postgres Server and it is linked. It follows the ISO standard when it comes to commands, it works well."
"It is beneficial in terms of what the business gains from it."
"Stability and usability, which is quite simple, are two of the solution's most valuable features."
 

Cons

"I would like to see some improvements in its version upgrades because its upgrade from MySQL 5.7 to MySQL 8 was not straightforward."
"The tool should include features to clone the RDS instances and have more central management for a lot of RDSs, not just every instance."
"If our database is too big, we sometimes face glitches in it."
"I find the pricing to be expensive."
"Areas that could be improved with Amazon RDS on Outposts for Brazilians include the cost because it remains a very important consideration."
"The maintenance and tasks should be improved so as to reduce database files."
"The performance could be better. When we pump in millions of records, we start struggling, and that's why we want improvement in those areas."
"Price could be cheaper, and access to reporting tools should be better."
"It would definitely be better if SQL Server were free."
"The way to make cursors and manage raw data in rows can be improved. Currently, the way to construct or build these cursors is very hard, and you can waste memory. You need a highly skilled person to make it more efficient. It can also have support for Cubes, which is the organization of data in different dimensions by using MDX languages."
"The backup capacity needs to be bigger."
"As we have faced problems with the solution in both the past and present, I feel it could be more stable."
"We would like to have a common storage option in the SQL Server. This option is available in Oracle Database."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licenses are included with the subscription my company purchases from Amazon."
"Amazon RDS on Outposts is expensive compared to other solutions."
"The solution can get expensive fast."
"The pricing from Microsoft is quite expensive compared to Oracle."
"The licenses are purchased annually."
"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."
"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."
"The cost associated with SQL Servers is on the higher side."
"The licenses are really expensive. Their licensing model should be more simplistic."
"Pricing for this product is very reasonable."
"It's cheaper than Oracle."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
40%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
4%
Comms Service Provider
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business119
Midsize Enterprise60
Large Enterprise119
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon RDS on Outposts?
Regarding price, using Amazon RDS on Outposts was a little bit more expensive than using EC2.
What needs improvement with Amazon RDS on Outposts?
Areas that could be improved with Amazon RDS on Outposts for Brazilians include the cost because it remains a very important consideration. The general self-managing service is a concern as well be...
What is your primary use case for Amazon RDS on Outposts?
I have experience with AWS. I have about five years of experience with AWS products. The AWS products I deal with include virtual machines, EC2, database, basic storage, S3, and basic usage. I have...
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

No data available
Microsoft SQL Server, MSSQL, MS SQL
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
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 Amazon RDS on Outposts vs. SQL Server and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
894,738 professionals have used our research since 2012.