Chroma vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB comparison

Chroma and Microsoft are both solutions in the Vector Databases category. Chroma is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.5, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.3. Chroma holds a 12.5% mindshare in VD, compared to Microsoft’s 3.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Chroma users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Chroma

Read 2 Chroma reviews

3,810 Views
150 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Read 92 Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB reviews

1,580 Views
295 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Chroma

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB and Chroma are competing in the database management category. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB appears to have the upper hand due to its pricing and robust deployment capabilities.

Features: Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB includes global distribution, multi-model support, and integrated security. Chroma stands out for scalability, real-time analytics, and a focus on enhancing data analytics efficiency.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is noted for seamless cloud deployment and comprehensive support services. Chroma offers a simple deployment process but provides fewer customer service options compared to Azure Cosmos DB.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB offers an attractive pricing structure with flexible payment plans and strong ROI potential. Chroma, though possibly more expensive due to advanced features, provides good returns focused on efficiency-driven analytics enhancements.

To learn more, read our detailed Chroma vs. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Chroma vs. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

April 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:

Categories and Ranking

Chroma

Ranking in Vector Databases

9th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Ranking in Vector Databases

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Database as a Service (DBaaS) (6th), NoSQL Databases (5th), Managed NoSQL Databases (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Vector Databases category, the mindshare of Chroma is 12.5%, down from 15.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is 3.5%. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Vector Databases

Featured Reviews

Sameer Bhangale

Leader, Data Science Practice at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Used for RAG (Retrieval-augmented generation) and provides good documentation

If I have to deploy my application in a scalable environment with lots of data and users, I sometimes need to create multiple instances of my database or have a distributed database across different machines. Using Kubernetes, I can quickly increase the horizontal spread of Milvus because it is containerized and readily available. I don't have to do anything by myself. New users can go to Chroma's 'Get Started' page and follow it like a tutorial. Then, they will be ready to use the solution. Chroma has helped us reduce the overall project post production time. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Read full review

MichaelJohn

Director | Data & AI at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

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.

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

"It's very easy to set up and runs easily."

"The solution's most valuable feature is its documentation, which allows new users to easily learn, deploy, and use it."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is its ability to handle concurrency and consistency."

"The best features of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB include the speed to query data; as long as you index properly, retrieving data is fast and lightweight."

"Cosmos DB has helped our organization handle large amounts of data."

"It is a cloud-based solution that is easy to deploy, easy to access, and provides users with more features compared to other clouds like AWS and GCP."

"Overall, I would rate Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB a nine out of ten."

"Cosmos DB is a pretty stable solution. I would rate it a ten out of ten."

"Cosmos DB's greatest strengths are its easy setup and affordability, especially for those who understand its usage."

"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is a good solution for distributed application requirements. We can perform multi-modeling."

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB pros

Cons

"I think Chroma doesn't have a ready-made containerized image available."

"The hybrid algorithm needs improvement."

"There are multiple approaches to implementing multitenant architecture on Azure Cosmos DB, but there is still no single or best-recommended approach when you have a big variance in the size of your tenants. That is something that still needs to be worked on."

"In that scenario, two things can be improved."

"They can implement a better backup system or alert system on Microsoft's end. We do receive notices for regular maintenance or updates, but sudden issues create significant problems."

"One of our biggest pain points is the backup and restore functionality needs improvement. They've gotten a little better in this area. SQL Server's long-term retention is amazing, and you can restore data from years ago. You need to open a support Microsoft ticket to restore your Cosmos DB backup, and it comes in on a different Cosmos account. It's just kind of a headache to restore data."

"There should be a simpler way for data migration."

"Cosmos DB should continue evolving in AI features. We expect Cosmos DB to lead on that. There is potential for improved security features, which is important for data storage, especially for Dell Technologies. We must ensure data security remains the top priority."

"A couple features that would help me in architectural solutions would be customizable architecture or customizable documentation, which both Microsoft Azure or Microsoft Teams can provide."

"We'd like to avoid full DR replication if possible, as this would result in significant cost savings."

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The current version is an open-source."

"I would rate Cosmos DB's cost at seven out of ten, with ten being the highest."

"Azure Cosmos DB's pricing is competitive, though there is a need for more personalized pricing models to accommodate small applications without incurring high charges. A suggestion is to implement dynamically adjustable pricing that accounts for various user needs."

"Right now, I have opted for the student subscription plan, for which Microsoft charges me around 100 USD. The pricing of the solution depends on the solution's usage."

"Pricing, at times, is not super clear because they use the request unit (RU) model. To manage not just Azure Cosmos DB but what you are receiving for the dollars paid is not easy. It is very abstract. They could do a better job of connecting Azure Cosmos DB with the value or some variation of that."

"The tool is not expensive."

"The RU's use case determines our license fees."

"Its pricing is not bad. It is good."

"Its price is in the middle, neither too low nor too high."

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

University

Legal Firm

13%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Chroma?

The solution's most valuable feature is its documentation, which allows new users to easily learn, deploy, and use it.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Chroma?

The hybrid algorithm needs improvement.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Chroma?

We collect customer's feedback, and then we present it to the clients.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?

It is cost-efficient as long as you understand the right setup to optimize usage. Knowing the data needs of the organization and adjusting the Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB usage accordingly helps save...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?

What is missing in Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is definitely cold storage. We know it's coming, but that's currently what is missing—the possibility to park older data in a cold tier. Aside from the ...

See all answers

Comparisons

LanceDB vs Chroma

Compared 27% of the time

PostgreSQL vs Chroma

Compared 12% of the time

OpenSearch vs Chroma

Compared 12% of the time

Redis vs Chroma

Compared 11% of the time

Supabase Vector vs Chroma

Compared 6% of the time

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Pinecone vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Compared 12% of the time

Neo4j Graph Database vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Compared 5% of the time

Amazon Neptune vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Compared 5% of the time

Amazon DynamoDB vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Compared 5% of the time

Qdrant vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Vector Databases

May 2025

Download Chroma product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

May 2025

Download Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB product report

Also Known As

No data available

Microsoft Azure DocumentDB, MS Azure Cosmos DB

Overview

Chroma is a versatile tool that enhances visual display quality, offering features such as color accuracy improvement, brightness adjustment, and image settings fine-tuning.

It creates vibrant and immersive visual experiences, making it valuable for content creators, gamers, and design professionals.

Chroma's customizable lighting options and seamless integration with other devices are highly praised, allowing users to personalize their setups and create visually stunning effects.

Its compatibility with various devices ensures a cohesive and immersive user experience.

Chroma

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is a globally distributed, multi-model database service providing scalability, user-friendliness, and seamless integration, suitable for managing large volumes of structured and unstructured data across diverse applications.

Azure Cosmos DB is renowned for its scalability, stability, and ease of integration, offering robust support for multiple data models and APIs. Its capacity for handling unstructured data efficiently and providing real-time analytics makes it ideal for applications requiring high performance and global distribution. With features like automatic failover and integration with Microsoft products, users benefit from cost optimization and secure data handling. Enhancement opportunities include simplifying queries, improving documentation, and expanding backup and analytics functionalities.

What are the most important features of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?

Scalability and Autoscaling: Efficiently handles growing data and user demands.
Multi-Model Support: Adapts to different data models seamlessly.
Global Distribution: Provides low-latency access across multiple regions.
Automatic Failover: Ensures high availability and reliability.
Integration with Microsoft Products: Offers seamless connectivity with Azure services.

What benefits should users look for in Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB reviews?

Performance and Speed: Exceptionally fast processing for real-time data analytics.
Cost Optimization: Tools for managing expenses effectively.
Secure Data Handling: Implements strong data security measures.
Flexible Data Ingestion: Supports diverse data ingestion methods.

Azure Cosmos DB is frequently used in sectors like web, mobile, IoT, and analytics. It supports applications as a key-value store, processes real-time data, and enables global scalability with low-latency access. Its big data management capabilities and integration with Azure services enhance its utility across industries.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

1. Google 2. Netflix 3. Amazon 4. Facebook 5. Microsoft 6. Apple 7. Twitter 8. Spotify 9. Adobe 10. Uber 11. Airbnb 12. LinkedIn 13. Pinterest 14. Snapchat 15. Dropbox 16. Salesforce 17. IBM 18. Intel 19. Oracle 20. Cisco 21. HP 22. Dell 23. Samsung 24. Sony 25. LG 26. Panasonic 27. Philips 28. Toshiba 29. Nokia 30. Motorola 31. Xiaomi 32. Huawei

TomTom, KPMG Australia, Bosch, ASOS, Mercedes Benz, NBA, Zero Friction, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Kinectify

Buyer's Guide

Chroma vs. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

April 2025

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