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

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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:
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Amazon RDS is 12.8%, down from 20.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Cloud SQL is 6.4%, down from 11.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is 9.1%, down from 13.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database as a Service (DBaaS) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Azure SQL Database9.1%
Amazon RDS12.8%
Google Cloud SQL6.4%
Other71.7%
Database as a Service (DBaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2592669 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director Software Engineer at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Positive experiences with database services, with minor room for feature enhancements observed
I don't really see any disadvantages of Amazon RDS. With Oracle, I think AWS doesn't provide the RAC stability. If you have Oracle installed in your own data centers, you can set up various clusters and we can set up the RACs, but in Amazon RDS, we cannot have the RAC feature of Oracle. They could add that feature. Amazon RDS has limitations regarding RAC. If we talk about installing Oracle in RDS, we cannot have the RAC, but if you deploy Oracle on GCP, then there is probably the RAC feature available. I observed that around two or three years back, but I'm not sure whether they have added the RAC feature in AWS. Amazon RDS is expensive compared to GCP. GCP also has the same features, and although it is quite extensive and feature-rich, I see Amazon RDS as slightly expensive compared to other clouds.
RituRaj - PeerSpot reviewer
SDE 2 at Virtusa
Drag and drop workflows have simplified data mapping and currently improve my cloud database work
The IPaaS Connector, which I have found most valuable, is part of Google Cloud SQL. Google Cloud's user interface is really good, which improves efficiency in my database operations. The UI is excellent, making it easier to understand what we are doing. Currently, I am working on IPaaS Connector, so it is really just a clickable interface without writing any code. I simply use drag and drop and connecting lines, and it is working. Google Cloud SQL's global infrastructure improves our database's latency metrics because we are using Gemini in our project. Since both are products of Google, it makes our product faster.
Thomas Sawyer - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Amazon RDS is easy to maintain and easy to deploy."
"One of the most valuable features is that it is serverless, so we don't have to worry about scaling."
"The most valuable feature is that it is a fully managed database, where they handle most of the administrative tasks and leaves the users more time to concentrate on business."
"The tool is very easy to use and configure."
"Maintenance is fully automatic (backups, monitoring, and patches)."
"Aurora, the RDS product, is excellent."
"The product solved our DevOps and admin problems."
"Based on my experience, I would rate this solution a nine out of ten."
"It is not the cool features that I find valuable, it is the stability of Google Cloud Platform."
"It's all built into the web browser, so any operating system will work."
"What I like the most about Google Cloud SQL is that it handles the management, which allows us to concentrate on our applications."
"They have good multi-region failure support, and we can just set up there and read replicas directly and we can fall back."
"It directly provides robust data safety. It also offers various other storage options, such as Google Cloud Storage. These services ensure data security and redundancy. Furthermore, it includes different storage classes, allowing flexible data management tailored to specific needs."
"It's SQL. SQL is so easy if you know something about databases. It's easy to learn."
"Google Cloud SQL provides complete customization options, along with a dashboarding tool and a comprehensive suite of tools that can be used to customize and build any application needed."
"The solution is easy to use. I am impressed with the tool's features and functionality."
"The most valuable feature of SQL Azure is centralized authentication because I'm using the domain, user name, and password, for Microsoft 365 account with multifactor authentication and the security has been working well."
"I like that Microsoft Azure SQL Database is almost identical to an on-premise SQL Server except for a few things, like how you edit rows and some jobs that you can't run."
"Cost savings are the most valuable. The DR/high availability is also valuable. The failover group with the built-in DR/high availability features is probably one of the easiest things."
"The impact of the automatic tuning feature on my database performance has increased performance while keeping costs at realistic levels, and it has removed some of the engineering workloads for our DBAs who would have had to worry about manually performing tuning."
"SQL Azure is efficient and very easy to use, the programming facility is very good and the solution is great at solving problems."
"It is easily scalable, and it is faster than SQL Server. It is also less expensive than using SQL Server. It has the pay-as-you-go model, and the charges are based on the usage."
"Azure SQL Database is very quick and easy to use. It certainly makes my infrastructure and development teams more efficient."
"The scalability and simple management of the infrastructure are the most valuable features."
 

Cons

"I feel Amazon RDS should have a lot of functionalities to make monitoring within the database easier."
"Amazon has a policy of automatically restarting the server every seven days."
"They should add a feature for manual SQL patching in RDS."
"In the next release, it would be great to see RDS provide connection pooling out of the box."
"The support team of Amazon RDS provides us with some links to go through whenever we face some issues, but it doesn't work for us."
"Amazon RDS should have a more user-friendly graphical user interface and include better database management options."
"I also don't think it's very scalable."
"Some features are disabled, like running "alter system/database". There are Amazon alternatives, but it is not transparent to the application."
"Google Cloud SQL still needs better connectivity to outside, existing data sources."
"The purging of the data could be better."
"For data analysis, the AI area of the product has certain shortcomings where improvements are required."
"Google Cloud SQL needs to improve its support for high-end I/O operations. On-prem systems with high I/O capabilities perform better, as Google Cloud SQL takes more time to handle the same tasks."
"I am yet to explore a lot of features that are present in this solution. However, it would be good if more documentation is available for this solution. This would help us in preparing for the certification exam and understand it better. Currently, we don't have much documentation. We do the labs for 20 or 25 minutes, but we can't capture and download anything."
"The monitoring part could be better."
"Sometimes the sharing with third parties or configuring that in Google Cloud SQL is not the most intuitive."
"There are a few UI glitches that I have noticed recently, specifically something called data mapping in IPaaS Connector. When I click a button such as open configuration on data map configuration, the UI becomes totally white, no text is visible clearly, and it is very frustrating."
"The latency and availability of Microsoft Azure SQL Database can be problematic when connecting to an instance in a geographically distant location."
"Some data types are not available on SQL Azure while it's available on SQL Server."
"Microsoft Azure SQL Database can be improved by making the interface a little easier for users to manage. A lot of the configuration has to be done through PowerShell, but perhaps they could include some more enhancements and settings to do through the portal."
"SQL Azure could offer a lot more services and applications."
"In terms of improvement, making Microsoft Azure SQL Database faster would cater to big companies that require speed."
"I need Microsoft to allow their network to access open source technologies."
"SQL Azure's performance monitoring features need to be improved."
"Microsoft doesn't provide technical support, the support structure is not good."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."
"On a scale from one to ten, where ten is the most expensive, and one is the cheapest, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."
"The substantial initial credit and cost-effectiveness make Amazon an attractive option."
"By using a combination of Reserve Instances and On-Demand pricing, you can reduce the cost."
"if you don't know how to optimize and use your tool properly, the cost might hurt you."
"The price of Amazon RDS is reasonable."
"The cost depends on the kind of instance we use."
"The platform pricing is on the higher side, but given its capabilities and ease of use, it remains competitive."
"The pricing is very much an important factor as to why we use this solution."
"You need to pay extra costs for backup and replication."
"The solution is affordable."
"It's really cheap. It wouldn't be more than, I believe it's around 50 euro per month for running a cloud SQL."
"From a financial perspective, Google Cloud SQL is on the cheaper side."
"While the platform’s pricing may be higher, it aligns with industry standards, considering the quality of service and features provided."
"It is not expensive, especially considering the significant reduction in database management time."
"There is a license required to use the solution and it cost $30 to do the installation."
"It is expensive for us. We are looking for something less expensive and thinking of migrating the whole system."
"From a licensing benefit standpoint, we have clients who are coming with their own SQL licensing with Software Assurance, and they are able to use those licenses for their Azure SQL and reduce costs."
"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."
"Compared to other providers, the pricing is definitely on the affordable side."
"The licensing for this solution is based on subscription."
"I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten."
"I have an annual spend number, and it is in the hundred thousand dollar range. There are no additional costs to the standard licensing fees. Even though you have to look at the cost numbers of what you're going to be charged on a monthly basis, what you have to also remember is that your application may need a lot of rewriting and things like that. You get charged not just for the monthly costs but also for the transactions that occur. If your access to the data layer is not so efficient, your costs will go up because you're pulling far more data than you potentially need. These are hidden costs that nobody ever considers. If your application is not written very efficiently, you may actually increase your costs over on-prem versus cloud."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Educational Organization
12%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business62
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise65
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Amazon RDS?
I think Amazon RDS can be improved or enhanced if it can be implemented with other monitoring tools such as Percona. ...
What is your primary use case for Amazon RDS?
Amazon RDS is typically used for AI applications. I am developing it for an AI recruitment agent and for collecting d...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud SQL?
We have set up automated patch management for Google Cloud SQL, and it does on a daily basis what needs to be done, s...
What needs improvement with Google Cloud SQL?
I would to improve a few glitches in Google Cloud SQL that I have recently noticed. There are a few UI glitches that ...
What is your primary use case for Google Cloud SQL?
I am not working with Oracle; everything I am working on is on Google. I would like to improve a few glitches in Goog...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SQL Azure?
I am not involved in the pricing part of Microsoft Azure SQL Database, so I have not heard anything.
What needs improvement with SQL Azure?
I have not worked much on Microsoft Azure SQL Database's ability to power next-generation AI applications. I cannot s...
What is your primary use case for SQL Azure?
I find the data migration part for Microsoft Azure SQL Database very good for connecting one database to another data...
 

Also Known As

RDS
No data available
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Edmodo
BeDataDriven, CodeFutures, Daffodil, GenieConnect, KiSSFLOW, LiveHive, SulAm_rica, Zync
adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), MongoDB and others in Database as a Service (DBaaS). Updated: September 2026.
913,349 professionals have used our research since 2012.