Amazon RDS vs SQL Azure comparison

Amazon RDS

Read 46 Amazon RDS reviews

8,646 Views
7,060 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

SQL Azure

Read 90 SQL Azure reviews

10,573 Views
4,803 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Amazon RDS

SQL Azure

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 14, 2022

We performed a comparison between Amazon RDS and SQL Azure based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

Ease of Deployment: Users of both solutions relate that setup and deployment are easy and straightforward.

Features: Amazon RDS users like that the solution is easy to use and very stable, flexible, and robust. Users are able to select as many tools, replicas, regions, and zones as desired. Users tell us the Performance Monitor can be a bit clunky and an improved GUI would be welcomed. They would like better integration with Microsoft products and feel that many of the security features could be improved.

SQL Azure users like that the product integrates seamlessly with SQL Server on-premises, in addition to the darknet stack and table groups. The solution offers a very intuitive interface and easy to manage firewall settings. There are many functions available on-premises that are not currently available with Azure cloud.

Pricing: Users of both of these products feel that pricing is very high and that overall costs could be lower.

Service and Support: Users of both solutions are very satisfied with the service and support they have received.

Comparison Results: Based on the parameters we compared, SQL Azure nudges slightly ahead of Amazon RDS. SQL Azure is part of the Microsoft Azure ecosystem and offers huge benefits to Microsoft / Microsoft Azure, users which represents tremendous cost savings, great security, and seamless integrations with most Microsoft products.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon RDS vs. SQL Azure Report (Updated: July 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon RDS vs. SQL Azure

July 2024

Download the complete report

Helped 793,295 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

Amazon RDS

Ranking in Database as a Service

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SQL Azure

Ranking in Database as a Service

2nd

Average Rating

8.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2024, in the Database as a Service category, the mindshare of Amazon RDS is 25.9%, down from 30.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SQL Azure is 15.7%, down from 18.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Database as a Service

Unique Categories:

No other categories found

Featured Reviews

Jay Vekaria

Linux System Administrator at Ergode

May 29, 2023

A well-managed and stable service while also providing scalability

We use it in our organization since it is a managed database service. So we can manage our database within UAM My company decided to use the solution since it is a managed database service that provides control along with a UI for our databases. The performance insight is a valuable feature…

Read full review

reviewer1606569

Founder at a tech services company with self employed

Jun 22, 2021

Stable, easy to provision and administer, and natural progression to SQL Server

We are using it for business intelligence and analytics The ease of provisioning and administration is most valuable. It should have better profiling capabilities. Its price could also be lower. I have been using this solution for about two years. We haven't had any outages yet, so it is…

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

"The provisioning is much faster. You don't have to prepare hardware or install software. You just need to create an instance and you have a database."

"It is very easy to set up initially."

"Relational databases excel in extensive normalization, eliminating data redundancy and efficiently structuring tables which leads to a clear and efficient relationship between tables using primary keys."

"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."

"Amazon RDS is easy to manage, and it has customizable performance, high availability, and duality."

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

"I found it to be a stable solution."

"The product is very, very easy to use."

More Amazon RDS pros

"The initial setup was straightforward. It took less than one day for deployment."

"I am very happy with this solution; right now, I don't think there is anything I would change."

"The most valuable aspect of SQL Azure is the SQL language itself. It's open and everybody can use it at my company. Also, we thought in the beginning that the response time would be inadequate, but it's actually decent. It's much better than expected. Then again, I'm not a programmer, but that's what I hear from our development team."

"Great auto-scaling and security features."

"This solution offers high availability, and business continuity is in place."

"Database services and Active Directory related functions for this solution are good. Stable, scalable, and easy to install. Its technical support is good."

"One of the most valuable aspects is its seamless integration with Azure Data Factory."

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

More SQL Azure pros

Cons

"When you are using it for the first time, it is a little bit hard to configure. The first-time configuration is not very easy. It should be easier to configure. Its installation should also be simpler. Currently, its installation is very complex. With SQL Server, we have access to the SQL Server analysis services and reporting services, but such services are not available with Amazon RDS."

"A lot of the features are disabled by default. The solution should enable more features. I understand this could cause challenges to management for many clients using RDS, however."

"It would be helpful if they made it easier to migrate from an existing on-premises solution to the cloud-based service."

"It would be better if it integrated seamlessly with Microsoft products. Our clients use the Microsoft Tally application server. We already tried to create a reputation from, for example, an on-premises environment from our client to Amazon RDS using Microsoft Tally server, and we couldn't do that because we didn't have a strong user in RDS. We couldn't create a reputation from an on-premises environment from the Microsoft Tally server to RDS. I think that it would be a good implementation, and it would help us with this case."

"One of the challenges of AWS RDS is that it doesn't support performance insight. So we need to write our own script or use third-party tools."

"The only thing that needs improvement would be the pricing of the solution."

"Amazon RDS needs to have an overall dashboard where I can view all the tables in the form of pie charts and Gantt charts. The deployment is complex, and we would like to see automated scripts. It needs to incorporate performance insights."

"As a customer of Amazon RDS, you don't have super-user privileges, and that is the only drawback where improvements are required."

More Amazon RDS cons

"We have a very small database running on SQL Azure. We have not been able to load bigger systems on it. It is still not something that is feasible. All our heavy-duty systems are on SAP, and it should have more compatibility with other vendors such as SAP. Its price can definitely be lower. It is pretty pricey."

"They should include more accessible functions for image tooling."

"The problem is the automated configuration."

"The product could be more competitive in terms of features, security, and scalability."

"If the product could support applications requiring an SQL server for installation, by using SQL Azure as a backend, that would be useful."

"Integration needs to be improved for this solution."

"The solution could be less expensive. They need to work on their pricing model."

"Service Broker should be added in Azure Cloud. Service Broker is currently available only in the on-premises version."

More SQL Azure cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Amazon RDS is reasonable."

"The solution's pricing needs improvement."

"We are paying for a service license."

"The substantial initial credit and cost-effectiveness make Amazon an attractive option."

"The cost depends on the kind of instance we use."

"Amazon RDS is cheaper compared to other tools."

"AWS is becoming pretty expensive because cheap or absolutely free services have become paid services. Amazon RDS is not an expensive product, but Amazon's ecosystem is becoming increasingly expensive."

"Amazon RDS is not a very expensive solution."

More Amazon RDS pricing and cost advice

"Microsoft services are costly, which is the only problem we face. So, pricing is an area of improvement."

"It is reasonable."

"I recommend considering a pay-as-you-go pricing model initially."

"I find that they are relatively expensive, especially when compared to AWS, where the prices are notably lower."

"The solution is moderately expensive."

"The price could be slightly cheaper."

"I am not aware of the exact pricing, but our monthly bill for Azure is around 80,000. It is less expensive than using SQL Server. It has the pay-as-you-go model, and the charges are based on the usage."

"The licensing for this solution is based on subscription."

More SQL Azure pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Database as a Service solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

793,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

University

Educational Organization

65%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

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 product is expensive. If Cisco needs two servers, Amazon uses four.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon RDS?

The product's high price is an area of concern where improvements are required.

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?

I recommend considering a pay-as-you-go pricing model initially.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SQL Azure?

The product's pricing needs improvement.

See all answers

Comparisons

MongoDB Atlas vs Amazon RDS

Compared 31% of the time

Google Cloud SQL vs Amazon RDS

Compared 25% of the time

Oracle Database as a Service vs Amazon RDS

Compared 12% of the time

Google Cloud Spanner vs Amazon RDS

Compared 4% of the time

Yugabyte Platform vs Amazon RDS

Compared 2% of the time

More Amazon RDS Competitors

Google Cloud SQL vs SQL Azure

Compared 37% of the time

MongoDB Atlas vs SQL Azure

Compared 19% of the time

Oracle Database as a Service vs SQL Azure

Compared 9% of the time

Google Cloud Spanner vs SQL Azure

Compared 1% of the time

IBM Db2 on Cloud vs SQL Azure

Compared 1% of the time

More SQL Azure Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon RDS

July 2024

Download Amazon RDS product report

Buyer's Guide

SQL Azure

June 2024

Download SQL Azure product report

Also Known As

RDS

No data available

Learn More

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Microsoft

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.

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.

Sample Customers

Edmodo

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

Buyer's Guide

Amazon RDS vs. SQL Azure

July 2024

Free Report: Amazon RDS vs. SQL Azure

Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon RDS vs. SQL Azure and other solutions. Updated: July 2024.

DOWNLOAD NOW

793,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Amazon RDS vs. SQL Azure report.

See our list of best Database as a Service vendors.

We monitor all Database as a Service 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.