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Amazon RDS on Outposts vs SQL Server comparison

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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
27th
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
275
Ranking in other categories
Database Management Systems (DBMS) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of Amazon RDS on Outposts is 1.0%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SQL Server is 10.3%, down from 15.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SQL Server10.3%
Amazon RDS on Outposts1.0%
Other88.7%
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."
"If we want to expand to other servers and create an extra node, it's expandable."
"All our healthcare projects are using the SQL Server, and we're able to load millions of data without any issues."
"SQL Server, a widely adopted database management system, is utilized across numerous sectors. Initially competing with Oracle and Db2, SQL Server has gained popularity. It serves as the backend database for a variety of applications."
"It's the right tool for production-ready or enabled databases."
"As an engineer working for multiple organisations, MS SQL has proven stability and operational power."
"Its stability delivers performance and usability."
"The features that we have found the most valuable are reliability, availability perspective, and current scalability."
"We don't have any issues with the scalability of SQL Server."
 

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."
"If our database is too big, we sometimes face glitches in it."
"The tool should include features to clone the RDS instances and have more central management for a lot of RDSs, not just every instance."
"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 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."
"When transferring data from the SQL Server to Excel, the data types are not copied correctly. This issue might be associated with the formatting of the data types."
"The web interface and the command line interface could be better so we could manage and build some things around an API. If we could build our own solution, our own interface, and then manage the solution through that open API, that would be better."
"The price could be better. It costs a lot, and competing databases like Postgres are free."
"I would like to see the database become fully automated."
"Occasionally the performance, as good as it is, is a bit off."
"There is room for improvement in performance when managing a large quality of data and a high number of active users."
"Something that could be improved is the cost because it's very high. That's the only thing I'm concerned about but the technology is good."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Amazon RDS on Outposts is expensive compared to other solutions."
"The solution can get expensive fast."
"The licenses are included with the subscription my company purchases from Amazon."
"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."
"I don't need a license for it as I will be migrating to Office 365."
"There is a subscription that needs to be purchased to use the solution."
"The price of the solution could be reduced, it is expensive."
"The cost is high and because it's an expensive product, we are in the process of moving towards open-source solutions."
"Licensing fees increase depending on size and performance. If you want higher performance, you should go for a different course."
"We did a one-time payment. Its price, in general, can be reduced."
"There is a license required for the use of SQL Server and we are on an annual subscription."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
35%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Construction Company
6%
 

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...
 

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: September 2026.
915,287 professionals have used our research since 2012.