Amazon RDS vs Google Cloud Spanner vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google are both solutions in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.4, while Google is ranked #8 with an average rating of 10.0. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 12.6% mindshare in DS, compared to Google’s 7.8% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Google users who would recommend it.

Amazon RDS

Read 58 Amazon RDS reviews

4,001 Views
3,801 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Google Cloud Spanner

Read 5 Google Cloud Spanner reviews

1,449 Views
1,377 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Read 134 Microsoft Azure SQL Database reviews

4,459 Views
4,370 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Amazon RDS

Google Cloud Spanner

Microsoft Azure SQL Database

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Amazon RDS, Google Cloud Spanner, and Microsoft Azure SQL Database based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), MongoDB and others in Database as a Service (DBaaS).

To learn more, read our detailed Database as a Service (DBaaS) Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

March 2026

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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:

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Amazon RDS is 12.6%, down from 25.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Cloud Spanner is 7.8%, up from 4.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is 10.5%, down from 15.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Database as a Service (DBaaS) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Microsoft Azure SQL Database	10.5%
Amazon RDS	12.6%
Google Cloud Spanner	7.8%
Other	69.1%

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

Featured Reviews

Baqir Sajjad

AWS Architect at Virtual University

Customer support and automated backups offer reliability while ease of deployment enhances user experience

The features of Amazon RDS that I have found most valuable include web and mobile applications, enterprise applications, data warehousing and analytics, and software as a service platforms, along with dev testing environments, disaster recoveries, and backups. The mobile app backend and development environment is also the best feature for database management for my customers. Database management is effective in Amazon RDS because it offers automated backups, high availability, read replicas, and support from multiple database engineers, while also providing security, monitoring and metrics, scalability. We are using snapshots and database migrations as well as performance optimization. The impact of Amazon RDS scalability and backup has been positive, with good vertical scaling, scale up and down, horizontal scaling, and storage scaling. The performance was good and availability helped with reducing downtime.

Read full review

LijomonJose

System Architect at UST Global EspaÃ±a

Offers good performance to users

The tool lacks to offer AI features. In the future, I would like the product to offer AI features to users. Nowadays, we are creating small acronyms for our SQL Server. We put some templates. If I just put your name and stop it, the entire cloud can be explored, but such features are not there in Google Cloud Spanner. As a layman rather than a developer, if I create a tool or a procedure. If I write a procedure and then when you describe a procedure, a dummy procedure will be written for you, and it will be available for you as a template in SQL Server, but such kind features are not there in Google Cloud Spanner.

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Thomas Sawyer

Executive Director, Platform Architecture at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation – SMBC Group

Automatic tuning and multi-region availability have reduced manual workloads and improved performance management

The features of Microsoft Azure SQL Database that I like the most are easy scaling and high availability. I appreciate those features because it's easy to make Microsoft Azure SQL Database readily available in a multi-region infrastructure. Using Microsoft Azure SQL Database is very easy; it's much easier than SQL on-premise because I don't have to worry about deploying infrastructure, and I can rapidly deploy via infrastructure as code. I am using the automatic tuning feature in Microsoft Azure SQL Database. We are using the new feature of data encryption in Microsoft Azure SQL Database with customer-managed keys only. The reliability and stability of Microsoft Azure SQL Database platform are rock-solid; it's as good, if not better, than what our on-premise stability has been from an uptime perspective.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Some thing which would have costed millions of dollars and nine DBAs could easily be replaced by Amazon RDS."

"Amazon RDS is easy to maintain and easy to deploy."

"The solution is good for on-premise deployments."

"I recommend RDS because it makes your life super easy."

"The most valuable features of the solution stem from the fact that it requires an easy setup phase, and it is also easy to use while not being too heavy on its users."

"Despite the issues around pricing and technical support, RDS is a good choice for organizations due to the fact that it's very easy to use."

"It's a fully managed database, so that makes our life easier from the operational standpoint. That is the key, basically."

"I found it to be a stable solution."

More Amazon RDS pros

"The application deployment in the cloud is the best feature of the infrastructure."

"Google Cloud Spanner is stable."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is its scalability. Scalability comes with two options, among which Google Cloud Spanner can scale horizontally, compared to other relational databases that scale vertically."

"The solution is stable and reliable."

"We can scale the solution if we need to."

"It is a very scalable solution."

"It's the type of product that doesn't need much technical support assistance as it works seamlessly."

"Performance of memory-optimized tables in SQL Azure exceeds that of an on premise SQL Server."

"In terms of ease of use, I found Microsoft Azure SQL Database as easy to use as the on-premises version; my experience was that it really was pretty seamless, I didn't have to learn any new SQL, and we're still able to access it using SSMS, the same similar interface, so it was a seamless transition."

"SQL Azure can integrate well with other Microsoft Windows services."

"The most valuable feature of SQL Azure is the user-friendly VMs."

"The product is quite stable. The performance is great and it's reliable."

"The Power Virtual Agents help us go through documents and load data into SQL."

"We don't have to manage it much. It is managed by Microsoft, which makes it easy for us because there is no admin overhead for managing the servers. It is also easily scalable. During peak hours, it can scale higher."

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database pros

Cons

"AWS support is decent, but it's not as good as before. Sometimes, we get junior staff who are unable to answer our questions. It also depends on the support team you get. Support based in Europe and Australia is better than US support. For example, European support is quick to deliver the right answer. US support handles routine maintenance issues, and it's mostly junior staff who don't know the product well."

"They should add a feature for manual SQL patching in RDS."

"The solution is a bit expensive."

"Sometimes the interface has many moving parts, which is a concern."

"If we do not keep track of our costs, we might face some problems."

"In the next release, it would be great to have access to core parameters to improve or tweak the performance."

"If Amazon RDS can be provided as a service platform, it would be beneficial for years. Instead of focusing on infrastructure, they can assist backend engineers and those with varying technical expertise in utilizing it effectively. It would be helpful if Amazon could provide a more predictable pricing strategy."

"Amazon has a policy of automatically restarting the server every seven days."

More Amazon RDS cons

"The cost can be a bit high."

"I want to improve the deployment of cameras and surveillance infrastructure."

"The cost can be a bit high."

"The tool needs to improve horizontal scaling."

"The tool lacks to offer AI features."

"Google came up with something called Cloud Spanner Emulator, which fails to work like the real product if I want to develop some code and run a database locally on my machine."

"The solution can be improved by reducing the constraints available."

"Pricing could be improved to make Microsoft Azure SQL Database more accessible."

"The power should increase more between each upgrade."

"Some data types are not available on SQL Azure while it's available on SQL Server."

"Microsoft Azure SQL Database would benefit from enhanced documentation, along with ongoing improvements to scalability and cost-effectiveness."

"I would like to the solutions scalability to be improved."

"Scalability Cost efficiency Business continuity"

"There is probably more functionality in our on-prem SQL Server than SQL Azure."

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Amazon RDS is not a very expensive solution."

"The solution is expensive."

"The cost of using this solution is similar to that of having your own data center."

"The solution’s pricing could be cheaper."

"The cost is manageable because you can see the expense associated with each instance and utilize tools for tagging and cost control."

"The solution is fairly priced."

"We are paying for a service license."

"Amazon RDS could improve by reducing the price."

More Amazon RDS pricing and cost advice

"The solution is expensive."

"Google Cloud Spanner is an expensive solution."

"It is expensive."

"Price-wise, I heard that Google Cloud Spanner is on the higher side."

"There is a license required to use the solution and it cost $30 to do the installation."

"It is beneficial in terms of cost because you are charged per data unit instead of licensing."

"If we use a smaller or free-sized Microsoft Azure SQL Database, it is extremely cost-effective and much cheaper than on-premise enterprise licenses, which are expensive."

"It is quite expensive. I would definitely recommend not using the pay-as-you-go model because this will just mean all your money will go to Microsoft. So, really make sure to control resource usage as much as possible."

"We have had some issues with the licensing of the solution."

"SQL Azure's licensing cost is expensive."

"It's reasonably priced and when you compare it with other products in the cloud environment, it's cheaper."

"The license is based on the number of users."

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

University

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

22%

Computer Software Company

11%

Healthcare Company

Media Company

Financial Services Firm

11%

Marketing Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Outsourcing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	22
Midsize Enterprise	16
Large Enterprise	22

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	60
Midsize Enterprise	17
Large Enterprise	61

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon RDS?

The product's installation phase is easy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon RDS?

The pricing for Amazon RDS is reasonable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon RDS?

Currently, I cannot think of any major improvements. Perhaps more platforms in terms of database engine versions woul...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Google Cloud Spanner?

Google Cloud Spanner has all the features of a traditional relational database, including schemas, SQL queries, ACID ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud Spanner?

Price-wise, I heard that Google Cloud Spanner is on the higher side. I am not sure if this is a rumor or if it's fake...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Google Cloud Spanner?

The tool lacks to offer AI features. In the future, I would like the product to offer AI features to users. Nowadays,...

See all answers

What do you like most about SQL Azure?

The automated scalability feature of SQL Azure has proven to be highly beneficial, particularly when deployed in the ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SQL Azure?

I would say I am at a basic experience level with the pricing, setup costs and licensing because while I am the admin...

See all answers

What needs improvement with SQL Azure?

I have no comments at the moment on how Microsoft Azure SQL Database can be improved. I have no comments on additiona...

See all answers

Comparisons

MongoDB Atlas vs Amazon RDS

Compared 16% of the time

Google Cloud SQL vs Amazon RDS

Compared 12% of the time

Oracle Database as a Service vs Amazon RDS

Compared 8% of the time

Yugabyte Cloud vs Amazon RDS

Compared 8% of the time

Azure Database for PostgreSQL vs Amazon RDS

Compared 4% of the time

More Amazon RDS Competitors

Oracle Database as a Service vs Google Cloud Spanner

Compared 22% of the time

Yugabyte Platform vs Google Cloud Spanner

Compared 15% of the time

MongoDB Atlas vs Google Cloud Spanner

Compared 13% of the time

Yugabyte Cloud vs Google Cloud Spanner

Compared 10% of the time

SingleStore vs Google Cloud Spanner

Compared 4% of the time

More Google Cloud Spanner Competitors

Google Cloud SQL vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 16% of the time

Azure Database for PostgreSQL vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 11% of the time

MongoDB Atlas vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 7% of the time

Oracle Database as a Service vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 5% of the time

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon RDS

March 2026

Download Amazon RDS product report

Buyer's Guide

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

March 2026

Download Google Cloud Spanner product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure SQL Database

March 2026

Download Microsoft Azure SQL Database product report

Also Known As

RDS

Google Spanner

No data available

Overview

Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) is a web service that makes it easier to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud. It provides cost-efficient, resizeable capacity for an industry-standard relational database and manages common database administration tasks.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Cloud Spanner is the first and only relational database service that is both strongly consistent and horizontally scalable. With Cloud Spanner you enjoy all the traditional benefits of a relational database: ACID transactions, relational schemas (and schema changes without downtime), SQL queries, high performance, and high availability. But unlike any other relational database service, Cloud Spanner scales horizontally, to hundreds or thousands of servers, so it can handle the highest of transactional workloads. With automatic scaling, synchronous data replication, and node redundancy, Cloud Spanner delivers up to 99.999% (five 9s) of availability for your mission critical applications. In fact, Google’s internal Spanner service has been handling millions of queries per second from many Google services for years.

Google

Microsoft Azure SQL Database is a relational database-as-a-service that delivers predictable performance, scalability, business continuity, data protection, and near-zero administration to cloud developers and solution architects. This is the deep technical library for Azure SQL Database.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Edmodo

Streak, Optiva, Mixpanel

adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH

Buyer's Guide

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

March 2026

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