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Amazon RDS vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft are both solutions in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.2, while Microsoft is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.7. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 23.4% mindshare in DS, compared to Microsoft’s 15.4% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.
Amazon RDS
Read 56 Amazon RDS reviews
  • 4,051 Views
  • 4,010 Comparison Views
98% willing to recommend
Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Read 117 Microsoft Azure SQL Database reviews
  • 4,217 Views
  • 4,175 Comparison Views
96% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 12, 2024

Amazon RDS and Microsoft Azure SQL Database are strong players in the cloud database market. Based on the comparisons, each product has distinct advantages that cater to different needs.

Features: Amazon RDS offers automated backups, ease of scalability, and high availability. Microsoft Azure SQL Database has advanced machine learning capabilities, integration with other Azure services, and built-in security features.

Room for Improvement: Amazon RDS could improve its support, reduce downtime during maintenance, and enhance its performance analytics. Microsoft Azure SQL Database needs better performance analytics, improved documentation for complex setups, and more intuitive user interfaces.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Amazon RDS is easier to deploy and integrates well with AWS services, but its customer service receives mixed reviews. Microsoft Azure SQL Database has a straightforward deployment process and an effective support team, especially for enterprises already using Azure.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon RDS offers competitive pricing with good ROI for small and medium businesses, but costs can increase with higher usage. Microsoft Azure SQL Database is more expensive but the added features and integration justify the cost, providing good ROI for enterprises needing comprehensive solutions.

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To learn more, read our detailed Amazon RDS vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database Report (Updated: July 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Amazon RDS vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database
July 2025
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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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
5.8
Amazon RDS reduces costs and enhances agility with scalable pay-as-you-go solutions, offering varied ROI based on usage.
Sentiment score
7.4
Microsoft Azure SQL Database reduces total cost with pay-per-use, hybrid licensing, enhancing ROI through scalability and security.
No quotes available
For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon RDS report
It is ensuring we receive what we pay for through the blend of price, performance, and features.
If you're managing your own data center, you always have to overprovision your systems and pay for storage space you're not using.
We've reduced costs by about 20 percent after two or three years.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure SQL Database report
Michael Hamlett - PeerSpot reviewerMaanda Ambani - PeerSpot reviewerreviewer2595777 - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.8
Amazon RDS support varies; premium users receive better service, while free-tier users face limitations and slower response times.
Sentiment score
6.9
Microsoft Azure SQL Database provides comprehensive support, but service quality varies by support tier and client size.
The documentation is quite good.
The official AWS technical support for Amazon RDS is helpful, providing 24/7 assistance for all business support cases with tools such as the health dashboard and AWS trusted advisor.
For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon RDS report
Microsoft played a significant role, even from a training perspective, and provided resources that directed us toward the right deployment path.
Once I reach the right people, the support is incredibly knowledgeable and thorough.
Microsoft provides excellent service and is always available to support us.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure SQL Database report
Kenan Çiftçi - PeerSpot reviewer
BS
Maanda Ambani - PeerSpot reviewer
TG
reviewer2595303 - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
Amazon RDS is praised for scalable performance, though some users note limitations with large datasets and prefer alternative features.
Sentiment score
7.3
Microsoft Azure SQL Database offers flexible scalability, handling large data environments and adapting easily to varying workloads.
Its automated scaling, both in storage and instances, is vital as it eliminates manual interventions.
Despite being a strong feature, scalability could be improved due to the lack of full functionality in autoscaling.
For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon RDS report
Scaling the solution is incredibly simple and involves just clicking a button or dragging a slider.
Azure's scalability features like Elasticity are essential.
Microsoft Azure SQL Database is cloud-based, so it's great for scaling workloads.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure SQL Database report
Samuel Ebite - PeerSpot reviewerreviewer2668191 - PeerSpot reviewerMichael Hamlett - PeerSpot reviewer
KC
reviewer2595312 - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Amazon RDS is praised for its stability and reliability, with effective failure handling and strong backup features.
Sentiment score
7.4
Microsoft Azure SQL Database is highly reliable and stable, with minimal latency issues, especially in well-designed, cloud-utilized systems.
Amazon RDS is very stable when deployed correctly across different zones with the right configurations.
It is a stable product overall, with very few issues.
For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon RDS report
We can't tell the difference between running on-prem or Azure because we no longer have those latency issues.
SQL never crashes or suddenly becomes unavailable.
Therefore, it is preferable to provision an instance local to the connection point to optimize performance and minimize latency.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure SQL Database report
Samuel Ebite - PeerSpot reviewerreviewer2668191 - PeerSpot reviewerMaanda Ambani - PeerSpot reviewer
FW
Jason McCullagh - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon RDS users desire better migration tools, database support, customization, scalability, security, cost management, and user-friendly interfaces.
Azure SQL Database needs better security, pricing, documentation, integration, support, and scalability, with enhanced analytics and management tools.
Simplifying migration for those transitioning from on-premises to cloud environments.
Having native Change Data Capture (CDC) support would be beneficial, allowing for seamless integration with Kafka without relying on external technologies like Debezium.
Enabling performance insights to view query formats where the bottlenecks occur, identifying the fixes, slow queries, and missing indexes.
For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon RDS report
It would be helpful if CPU performance were not pinned to the amount of storage you're using, and we could scale different properties of the Azure SQL database independently.
I could not get an accurate quote on what my monthly costs would be based on my needs.
To overcome this, we collaborated with the network team to develop alternative solutions.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure SQL Database report
Samuel Ebite - PeerSpot reviewerreviewer2668191 - PeerSpot reviewer
BS
reviewer2595777 - PeerSpot reviewerMichael Hamlett - PeerSpot reviewerreviewer2595303 - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Setup Cost

Amazon RDS offers flexible pricing but requires careful provisioning for cost-effectiveness and improved pricing predictability and alerts.
Azure SQL Database pricing is complex, perceived as costly, but offers elasticity and cost-saving via Azure Hybrid Benefit.
While Azure provides great services, long-term plans on AWS are 20% to 30% cheaper.
I find the pricing of Amazon RDS fair, as AWS operates on a pay-for-what-you-use model.
I rate the price for Amazon as eight on a scale from one to ten.
For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon RDS report
Azure Hybrid Benefit reduced costs by facilitating an easy transition of on-premises databases to the cloud.
Microsoft Azure SQL Database is not cheap.
It greatly reduces the total cost of ownership through efficient licensing depending on the client, the cost savings, and hybrid benefits.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure SQL Database report
Karthikeyan Katkam - PeerSpot reviewerSamuel Ebite - PeerSpot reviewerKenan Çiftçi - PeerSpot reviewerCharley Hanania - PeerSpot reviewerFabricio Noriega - PeerSpot reviewer
FW
 

Valuable Features

Amazon RDS offers a fully managed, scalable service with multiple database support, backup automation, and AWS integration for efficiency.
Microsoft Azure SQL Database offers scalable, cost-effective database management with seamless integration, global accessibility, security, and efficient automation.
Amazon RDS provides data encryption using services like KMS, crucial for securing high-sensitive data and meeting compliance requirements such as HIPAA or PCI DSS.
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.
Amazon RDS makes it easier for me to manage databases compared to traditional databases like MongoDB or local host servers.
For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon RDS report
The simplicity in usability, along with improved organizational productivity where we no longer need to maintain on-premises SQL servers, is invaluable.
The Software as a Service model is more effective and easier to access in terms of security, as Azure provides security at the security layer, reducing the risk of breach.
Some of the best features of Microsoft Azure SQL Database are its scalability, pricing, and ease of setup.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure SQL Database report
Samuel Ebite - PeerSpot reviewer
BS
Karthikeyan Katkam - PeerSpot reviewerreviewer2596431 - PeerSpot reviewerFatai Akinwande - PeerSpot reviewerMichael Hamlett - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon RDS
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
117
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Amazon RDS is 23.4%, down from 26.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is 15.4%, down from 18.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database as a Service (DBaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

Samuel Ebite - PeerSpot reviewer
Ensure high availability with robust encryption and seamless backups
Amazon RDS provides data encryption using services like KMS, crucial for securing high-sensitive data and meeting compliance requirements such as HIPAA or PCI DSS. The best practices we've employed with RDS help design a well-architected framework, encompassing security, encryption, scalability with multi-availability zone deployment, and operational excellence with automated backups. RDS features, such as reserved instances, storage auto-scaling, monitoring with technologies like CloudWatch, and proxies, contribute to cost optimization. The solution enhances security with IAM authentication and offers high availability to end users.
Read full review
Charley Hanania - PeerSpot reviewer
It is very easy to implement, manage, and offers great insights into what is happening inside the engine
Microsoft Azure SQL Database is integrated into other Azure capabilities and has a great foundation being on SQL Server with a long history of security, performance, and usability from a DBA perspective. Once you've set up a server, adding databases is easy. There's a minor challenge with having data in separate databases that you want to connect like we do on premises. I'm looking forward to using some of these new AI-driven functions that have come out around vectorization. Having the data closer to my transactional databases or data makes it easy to augment and enhance the Database and applications I currently use. It's great that Azure SQL now seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Fabric. It's a first-tier service in the cloud that connects to web applications and other databases. The data transformation orchestration capabilities within Database Factory and similar capabilities make it effortless to move that stuff forward.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
6%
University
6%
Educational Organization
27%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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?
User interface needs improvement for using IPS and cloud watch to scale and utilize read replicas, enabling performance insights to view query formats where the bottlenecks occur, identifying the f...
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 cloud.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SQL Azure?
The pricing of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is not cheap, affecting user uptake. A gradual reduction in price could improve accessibility and user numbers, making it easier for users to adopt the s...
See all answers
What needs improvement with SQL Azure?
Pricing could be improved to make Microsoft Azure SQL Database ( /products/microsoft-azure-sql-database-reviews ) more accessible. A reduction in price might encourage more users and bring more pro...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

MongoDB Atlas vs Amazon RDS Logo
MongoDB Atlas vs Amazon RDS
Compared 25% of the time
Google Cloud SQL vs Amazon RDS Logo
Google Cloud SQL vs Amazon RDS
Compared 21% of the time
Oracle Database as a Service vs Amazon RDS Logo
Oracle Database as a Service vs Amazon RDS
Compared 19% of the time
Google Cloud Spanner vs Amazon RDS Logo
Google Cloud Spanner vs Amazon RDS
Compared 6% of the time
Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer vs Amazon RDS Logo
Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer vs Amazon RDS
Compared 5% of the time
More Amazon RDS Competitors
Google Cloud SQL vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database Logo
Google Cloud SQL vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Compared 32% of the time
MongoDB Atlas vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database Logo
MongoDB Atlas vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Compared 15% of the time
Oracle Database as a Service vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database Logo
Oracle Database as a Service vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Compared 7% of the time
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database Logo
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Compared 5% of the time
vCloud Air vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database Logo
vCloud Air vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Compared 4% of the time
More Microsoft Azure SQL Database Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Amazon RDS
July 2025
Amazon RDS reportDownload Amazon RDS product report
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure SQL Database
June 2025
Microsoft Azure SQL Database reportDownload Microsoft Azure SQL Database product report
 

Also Known As

RDS
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)

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
adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH
Buyer's Guide
Amazon RDS vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database
July 2025
Free Report: Amazon RDS vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon RDS vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
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We monitor all Database as a Service (DBaaS) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.