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Azure Database for PostgreSQL vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

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
7.6
Azure Database for PostgreSQL offers significant cost savings and efficiency improvements, reducing ownership costs by eliminating expensive licenses.
Sentiment score
7.2
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB reduces costs and streamlines operations with auto-scaling, aiding quick deployment and effective performance management.
It offers at least 25 percent cost savings compared to maintaining on-premises databases.
Now, we use embedded PostgreSQL vectors, which will undoubtedly reduce the TCO by using a much more cost-effective solution.
We've reduced our total ownership cost because we are not spending on expensive SQL server licenses.
Getting an MVP of that project would have taken six to eight months, but because we had an active choice of using Azure Cosmos DB and other related cloud-native services of Azure, we were able to get to an MVP stage in a matter of weeks, which is six weeks.
You can react quickly and trim down the specs, memory, RAM, storage size, etc. It can save about 20% of the costs.
When I have done comparisons or cost calculations, I have sometimes personally seen as much as 25% to 30% savings.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.4
Users praise Microsoft Learn's documentation, benefit from fast support response, and find engineering engagement insightful for urgent issues.
Sentiment score
7.3
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB support varies, with premium users satisfied but others find responsiveness and expertise inconsistent and variable.
Once we open a support case, we have people engaged within about 20 minutes, especially for a Sev 1 issue.
The documentation and training we've received through Microsoft Learn on how to migrate, deploy, and manage the solution is exceptional.
We handle most implementations in-house, without extensive reliance on Microsoft's technical support.
Premier Support has deteriorated compared to what it used to be, especially for small to medium-sized customers like ours.
The response was quick.
I would rate customer service and support a nine out of ten.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Azure Database for PostgreSQL efficiently scales workloads with FlexServer, offering easy resizing for large enterprises and government projects.
Sentiment score
7.9
Azure Cosmos DB efficiently scales to meet diverse industry needs, optimizing cost and resources, with manageable configuration challenges.
However, we can see how well it scales after we deploy it for some large enterprise customers or big government organizations.
The scaling options with FlexServer provide us with the flexibility we need based on application complexity.
We can scale up compute and scale it down, but once storage is allocated, there is no way to scale it back down.
The system scales up capacity when needed and scales down when not in use, preventing unnecessary expenses.
We like that it can auto-scale to demand, ensuring we only pay for what we use.
We have had no issues with its ability to search through large amounts of data.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
Azure Database for PostgreSQL is stable with no latency issues, though it may crash during peak usage without auto-healing.
Sentiment score
8.0
Azure Cosmos DB is highly reliable with 99.99% availability, low latency, efficient auto-failover, and excellent user ratings.
There is a stability issue where, if the database usage peaks quickly, it may crash and require intervention to restore functionality.
We have generative AI applications, and we have not noticed any latency.
Overall, I have not encountered any real latency issues or stability concerns.
We have multiple availability zones, so nothing goes down.
Azure Cosmos DB would be a good choice if you have to deploy your application in a limited time frame and you want to auto-scale the database across different applications.
I would rate it a ten out of ten in terms of availability and latency.
 

Room For Improvement

Azure Database for PostgreSQL needs faster scaling, better reliability, extensions, user management, cost efficiency, support, and error detection.
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB requires improvements in query complexity, integration, documentation, pricing clarity, performance, support, and backup solutions.
It does not presently support knowledge graph functionalities as Neo4j does.
Azure Database for PostgreSQL can be improved by allowing quicker scaling without blips.
I believe there could be improvements in the mirroring part and Change Data Capture (CDC).
We must ensure data security remains the top priority.
You have to monitor the Request Units.
The first one is the ability to assign role-based access control through the Azure portal for accounts to have contributor rights.
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise buyers appreciate Azure's cost-efficient, pay-as-you-go pricing for PostgreSQL, reducing on-premises database costs significantly.
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB's flexible pricing model balances potential high costs with discounts and optimized configurations for enterprise needs.
We've reduced costs by 60 percent compared to maintaining on-premises solutions.
The pay-as-you-go pricing model positively affects database-related costs by allowing us to start small and scale as needed.
The pay-as-you-go model works well for us.
Initially, it seemed like an expensive way to manage a NoSQL data store, but so many improvements that have been made to the platform have made it cost-effective.
Cosmos DB is expensive, and the RU-based pricing model is confusing.
Cosmos DB is great compared to other databases because we can reduce the cost while doing the same things.
 

Valuable Features

Azure Database for PostgreSQL offers seamless integration, robust networking, efficient AI tools, and strong security with a positive cost-benefit ratio.
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB offers enhanced performance, scalability, and flexibility, making it ideal for diverse applications and seamless data management.
My takeaway as a CTO is that they're comfortable with the security posture, the features, the observability, alerts, and now it integrates into the rest of the Azure landscape.
The query analyzers help me find out what's happening in each of the queries.
The most valuable features of Azure Database for PostgreSQL are its networking capabilities, which allow for integration with other Azure services.
The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is its real-time analytics capabilities, which allow for turnaround times in milliseconds.
Performance and security are valuable features, particularly when using Cosmos DB for MongoDB emulation and NoSQL.
The performance and scaling capabilities of Cosmos DB are excellent, allowing it to handle large workloads compared to other services such as Azure AI Search.
 

Categories and Ranking

Azure Database for PostgreSQL
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
8th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Open Source Databases (10th)
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
89
Ranking in other categories
NoSQL Databases (3rd), Managed NoSQL Databases (1st), Vector Databases (3rd)
 

Featured Reviews

Daniel Amini - PeerSpot reviewer
An incredibly powerful industry leader that enabled us to build critical pieces of national infrastructure
Azure Database is simple and easy to use. We followed the prescribed training and upskilled 10 engineers. They think it's straightforward. They've already got PostgreSQL skills to optimize the solution, so they know what to do. It was easy to get started quickly and become effective. My team speaks highly of the platform's observability and monitoring features. It's as efficient as an enterprise needs it to be and. has all of the tooling and telemetry necessary to run an enterprise database. We take security seriously. The team has looked at the security features, and nothing has been flagged to us. My takeaway as a CTO is that they're comfortable with the security posture, the features, the observability, alerts, and now it integrates into the rest of the Azure landscape. The OpenAI integration and extensions have massively simplified integrating AI into a database. PostgreSQL's native vector capabilities are also incredibly powerful.
MichaelJohn - PeerSpot reviewer
Very efficient for application-facing scenarios
There are several areas for improvement. Firstly, having a local development emulator or simulator for Azure Cosmos DB would be beneficial. It would be very handy to have a Docker container that developers can use locally. Although, I know there is a free tier and so on and so forth, having a local environment would be nice. For example, SQL Server is very portable. You can even install it on your machine. That is the number one thing that is missing in Azure Cosmos DB. The second improvement area is the IDE of choice. That means how you interact with Azure Cosmos DB. For example, with SQL Server, you have SQL Server Management Studio. I know there is a little bit of support for Azure Cosmos DB in Azure Data Studio, but it is not heavily advertised or it does not feel like first-class citizen support. Developer experience or developer tooling is missing in terms of interacting with the database. Better developer tools or an IDE for interacting with Azure Cosmos DB would enhance the developer experience. Lastly, there is some mixed messaging about what Azure Cosmos DB is, given its multiple APIs. There are so many Azure Cosmos DB APIs available. There is NoSQL. There are MongoDB, Gremlin, and others. There is still some mixed messaging for others who are new to Azure Cosmos DB about what Azure Cosmos DB is. Is this like MongoDB, but then there is also MongoDB in Azure Cosmos DB? I know it well, and I know that the default one is just NoSQL, but others I have interacted with over the last ten years or so get confused.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
20%
Marketing Services Firm
17%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Educational Organization
8%
Legal Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Database for PostgreSQL?
Pricing is affordable for us. PostgreSQL is good and affordable for our needs.
What needs improvement with Azure Database for PostgreSQL?
While the flexibility of the server for financial reasons is understandable, better switching between primary and backup would make transitions smoother. I noticed an issue where the primary refuse...
What is your primary use case for Azure Database for PostgreSQL?
We started using Azure Database for PostgreSQL ( /products/azure-database-for-postgresql-reviews ) about five to six years ago. Initially, we were doing an on-premises Kubernetes ( /products/kubern...
What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
The initial setup is simple and straightforward. You can set up a Cosmos DB in a day, even configuring things like availability zones around the world.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
Its cost is transparent. Pricing depends on the transaction and data size, but overall, it is cheaper compared to hosting it on your corporate network due to other factors like power consumption. C...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
I had a challenging experience implementing the emulator with a Mac. I had to install the emulator in a Docker container because it is not natively compatible. A significant amount of time was spen...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Microsoft Azure DocumentDB, MS Azure Cosmos DB
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
TomTom, KPMG Australia, Bosch, ASOS, Mercedes Benz, NBA, Zero Friction, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Kinectify
Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Database for PostgreSQL vs. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
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