Citus Data vs SAP IQ comparison

Citus Data and SAP are both solutions in the Relational Databases Tools category. Citus Data is ranked #18 with an average rating of 7.5, while SAP is ranked #26 with an average rating of 6.8. Citus Data holds a 2.7% mindshare in SQL, compared to SAP’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Citus Data users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of SAP users who would recommend it.

Citus Data

Read 3 Citus Data reviews

1,308 Views
1,230 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SAP IQ

Read 23 SAP IQ reviews

1,076 Views
452 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Citus Data

SAP IQ

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

SAP IQ and Citus Data compete in data management and analytics. Citus Data appears to have the upper hand due to its stronger PostgreSQL integration and deployment flexibility.

Features: SAP IQ offers high-speed analytics, superior data compression, and scalability for large-scale data tasks. Citus Data provides distributed SQL capabilities, real-time analytics, and seamless PostgreSQL integration.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Citus Data’s cloud-native deployment and managed services make it flexible for cloud migrations. Its customer service is known for speed and responsiveness. SAP IQ offers a traditional deployment approach with strong on-premise support but receives lower customer service ratings for speed.

Pricing and ROI: SAP IQ's pricing is often prohibitive, impacting ROI if not fully utilized. Citus Data presents a competitive pricing model and transparency, enhancing ROI for businesses moving to distributed databases.

To learn more, read our detailed Citus Data vs. SAP IQ Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Citus Data vs. SAP IQ

September 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 867,676 peers since 2012

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

Citus Data

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

18th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SAP IQ

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

26th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Warehouse (14th)

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of Citus Data is 2.7%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP IQ is 1.0%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Relational Databases Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Citus Data	2.7%
SAP IQ	1.0%
Other	96.3%

Relational Databases Tools

Featured Reviews

Arucy Lionel

Co-Founder at Afriziki

Efficiently handles high-traffic scenarios and compatible with PostgreSQL extensions, offering flexibility in database management

There are many areas of improvement , especially in terms of DDL query routing. Even though it's masterless, DDL queries need to be sent to the coordinator node. Also, setting up a multi-node environment could be more straightforward. Currently, setting up a multi-node environment is challenging. It's a bit tricky. Installation on each PostgreSQL node can lead to communication issues between nodes. An automatic rebalancing feature would be a significant improvement. Currently, I have to manually command the rebalance. It would be more convenient if it was rebalanced automatically. The dashboard and monitoring capabilities are good, but it would be helpful to have an integrated availability dashboard.

Read full review

Tejas Raj

Manager at Capgemini

Columnar database, so pulling records is easy but there isn't enough documentation for installation

I've seen very few SAP IQ systems in recent years. So people are moving away from SAP IQ In the last three years, I've rarely encountered customers using it. Fewer systems with SAP IQ usage among our customers. Most of them have moved on to HANA. There are parallel products, and there are also viable alternatives from AWS, so many have migrated to those.

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

"You can use Citus Data to write complex scripts. I like its version upgrades and disaster recovery as well."

"Its distributed processing capabilities are a standout feature. It requires minimal changes to get up and running if you already have a system on PostgreSQL. Citus can run in its natural state."

"It's very straightforward to implement the solution. It took us two days to set up everything."

"The product is easy to learn."

"Columnar storage allows high compression, high load rates and high query performance."

"SAP IQ is actually quite effective when it comes to scalability; we have a setup that's built with multiple servers involved and that seems to be working fairly efficiently, and if we wanted to add more servers into this entire setup, that would be fairly easy."

"The column-based technologies (basically all the database for ITP) are used for SAP IQ. It is used as a column-based solution."

"IQ is a very high-performance and high-transaction database."

"The initial setup is easy."

"Valuable features for us include the compression, speed, fast response time, and easy object maintenance."

"All data is compressed and indexed, allowing for fast execution of transactions."

More SAP IQ pros

Cons

"More features in monitoring and the reporting could make it better."

"Citus Data needs to improve its stability. Do not consider this product if you have the budget. It is still developing and has a lot of issues."

"There are many areas of improvement , especially in terms of DDL query routing. Even though it's masterless, DDL queries need to be sent to the coordinator node. Also, setting up a multi-node environment could be more straightforward."

"The solution works best when combined with other SAP solutions. If the environment has other systems other options might be better."

"There is very little documentation available."

"The downside I see is that it doesn't allow most integrated backups; many of the marketplace players such as NetBackup or Veritas, those software integrated backups are not available."

"Multiplex is very problematic. There are consistency problems in the metadata, meaning it is possible to lose metadata consistency. You should make sure you have healthy backups."

"The tool gets stuck sometimes."

"I think the universe should be part of the Sybase IQ tool set."

"Concurrency and functional error messaging."

"The room for improvement would be the marketing of the product, because this product is much better than advertised."

More SAP IQ cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Citus Data is an open-source product."

"It's not that costly. So, the pricing is cheap."

"Evaluate all options; check to see if you need expensive add-ons."

"The only costs after standard licensing fees are for add-ons and upgrades."

"The cost of implementation is about $3,000."

"Negotiation is very important."

"Negotiate based on the features required."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Relational Databases Tools solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

867,676 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

22%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Consumer Goods Company

Financial Services Firm

36%

Outsourcing Company

Comms Service Provider

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	15

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Citus Data?

You can use Citus Data to write complex scripts. I like its version upgrades and disaster recovery as well.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Citus Data?

Citus Data needs to improve its stability. Do not consider this product if you have the budget. It is still developing and has a lot of issues.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Citus Data?

I rate the product a seven out of ten.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP IQ?

IQ implementation costs about three thousand dollars. It's less expensive compared to alternatives like Teradata Base in terms of transactional efficiency.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SAP IQ?

When it comes to SAP IQ, the areas that could be improved or enhanced include the error messaging and the locking capabilities, as that's where we often encounter problems. When there is an issue, ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SAP IQ?

Our usual use cases for SAP IQ is that we have a Software-as-a-Service architecture where this database is the foundation for our SAP BusinessObjects platform. This is where it's getting its data f...

See all answers

Comparisons

CockroachDB vs Citus Data

Compared 26% of the time

YugabyteDB vs Citus Data

Compared 20% of the time

Neon vs Citus Data

Compared 19% of the time

Amazon Aurora vs Citus Data

Compared 7% of the time

SQL Server vs Citus Data

Compared 7% of the time

More Citus Data Competitors

Snowflake vs SAP IQ

Compared 19% of the time

SAP HANA vs SAP IQ

Compared 17% of the time

SQL Server vs SAP IQ

Compared 14% of the time

SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise vs SAP IQ

Compared 8% of the time

OpenText Analytics Database (Vertica) vs SAP IQ

Compared 8% of the time

More SAP IQ Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Relational Databases Tools

August 2025

Download Citus Data product report

Buyer's Guide

SAP IQ

August 2025

Download SAP IQ product report

Also Known As

No data available

Sybase IQ

Overview

Citus is a distributed database that extends PostgreSQL, allowing you to continue using all the powerful Postgres features while still scaling.

Whether you're running into a ceiling on a single node, or need more performance for real-time analytical queries Citus can help.

Citus Data

SAP® IQ software delivers speed and power for extreme-scale enterprise data warehousing and analytics. Its column-oriented, grid-based massively parallel processing (MPP) architecture and patented data compression and indexing technologies enable companies to exploit the value of huge amounts of data at the speed of business.

SAP

Sample Customers

Cloud Flare, Agari, Mix Rank, Heap

ASR Group, Citrix, State of Indiana, PocketCard Co. Ltd.

Buyer's Guide

Citus Data vs. SAP IQ

September 2025

Free Report: Citus Data vs. SAP IQ

Find out what your peers are saying about Citus Data vs. SAP IQ and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

867,676 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Citus Data vs. SAP IQ report.

See our list of best Relational Databases Tools vendors.

We monitor all Relational Databases Tools 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.