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Citus Data vs SQL Server 2014 Express comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
29th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SQL Server 2014 Express
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
9th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of Citus Data is 2.1%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SQL Server 2014 Express is 0.4%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SQL Server 2014 Express0.4%
Citus Data2.1%
Other97.5%
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Arucy Lionel - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Shubham-Agarwal - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager - Projects at Cognizant
Migration to structured data has improved security and performance and enables faster insights
SQL Server 2014 Express could be improved by addressing its data limitations, especially for users with larger datasets that may not be suitable for production environments. Compared to the Enterprise or Standard versions, SQL Server 2014 Express does not provide the same functionalities or performance, so organizations with rapidly growing data should seek those options instead. Regarding needed improvements, I can say that integration with various ETL tools is essential, as we often need to use SSIS or other ETL tools to pull and transform data. It would be greatly beneficial if SQL Server 2014 Express could include functionality to integrate directly with APIs or other databases rather than relying on external ETL tools.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The solution is competitive with Mongo, MySQL, and maybe even Oracle."
"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."
"You can use Citus Data to write complex scripts. I like its version upgrades and disaster recovery as well."
"SQL Server 2014 Express helped me gain a real-world application and practical database skills."
"SQL Server 2014 Express has positively impacted my organization by improving my knowledge in SQL coding and making my work faster."
"SQL Server 2014 Express has impacted my organization positively because it is time-saving."
"Using SQL Server 2014 Express is very simple, and the queries run very fast."
"SQL Server 2014 Express has positively impacted my organization because it is good for small clients, allowing us to save on licensing costs, and clients could later migrate to Standard or Enterprise solutions if needed as they scale."
"The best features of SQL Server 2014 Express are that it can be downloaded, it is open source, can be downloaded on any desktop, and it is a free version with no charge for downloads, making it highly useful for students and developers building applications for standalone or enterprise applications."
"SQL Server 2014 Express has provided a return on investment by saving money and time compared to other SQL servers such as MySQL and PostgreSQL, which are similar but more expensive and less user-friendly for non-technical clients."
"SQL Server 2014 Express has impacted my organization positively because earlier I was using SharePoint, and in Power Apps, whenever we fetched the data, it took quite an ample amount of time to show the details from the back end, but when I started using SQL Server 2014 Express, it was much faster and helped me fetch more records at a time compared to the other data sources because of the indexing and primary keys."
 

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."
"However, I also realized its limitation when I tried working on a large database. It is not perfect because it provides 10 GB per database."
"The Express edition has limitations in database size and system resource usage, so performance may be reduced with large data volumes or heavy workloads."
"There are a few features in SQL Server 2014 Express that could be improved."
"SQL Server 2014 Express can be improved as there are some resource limits. There are limitations on database size, memory, and CPU usage which restrict scalability."
"Additionally, SQL Server Management Studio takes a lot of time to start compared to the latest version."
"SQL Server 2014 Express's scalability has limitations for growth in data and users."
"Whenever we put more data, the query time is more because it is not an Enterprise version and the data storage is limited to 10 GB, which is the only drawback I can identify."
"Regarding improvements for SQL Server 2014 Express, I believe it is quite helpful, but I suggest enhancing security since it involves customer data and we do not want to lose data or have it misused."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Citus Data is an open-source product."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Construction Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
28%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Healthcare Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

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What needs improvement with SQL Server 2014 Express?
SQL Server 2014 Express can be improved in terms of scalability, as it has CPU and memory restrictions and a 10 GB limit for the free version, which can lead to performance issues as the organizati...
What is your primary use case for SQL Server 2014 Express?
The main use case for SQL Server 2014 Express is to create the database architecture for my work and during SQL Server 2014 Express interactions, which adds to my code level. I use Entity Framework...
What advice do you have for others considering SQL Server 2014 Express?
My advice to others considering SQL Server 2014 Express is that for small businesses, it is suitable for inventory tracking, simple reporting, product development, and test environments because it ...
 

Comparisons

No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Cloud Flare, Agari, Mix Rank, Heap
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Find out what your peers are saying about Citus Data vs. SQL Server 2014 Express and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.