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CockroachDB 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.7
CockroachDB's serverless model provides cost-effective, versatile cloud solutions, offering significant savings and operational advantages over separate environments.
Sentiment score
7.2
SQL Server 2014 Express boosted ROI with cost savings and efficiency by enhancing performance, reducing costs, and improving data handling.
After migrating to SQL Server 2014 Express, the use of Power BI reports has drastically improved performance; for instance, a report that took 20 minutes to refresh in Excel now takes only a few seconds with the direct connection to SQL Server 2014 Express.
Manager - Projects at Cognizant
Since SQL Server 2014 Express is free, it helped save software licensing costs while still providing reliable database functionality.
Operations Analyst at a non-profit with 51-200 employees
I have definitely seen a return on investment with SQL Server 2014 Express, particularly in terms of time savings.
Specialist software engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.0
CockroachDB customer service is mixed; technical support quality varies, with users praising the AI chatbot, but responsiveness needs improvement.
Sentiment score
6.3
SQL Server 2014 Express users leverage community resources and forums with praised support when direct assistance is needed.
The issue was resolved efficiently.
Manager, Software Engineering at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Enterprise-level support is available only with the paid edition.
Senior Rpa Consultant at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Microsoft responds effectively when I face issues.
Senior Consultant at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Since SQL Server 2014 Express is widely used, there are many helpful community resources available online, including Microsoft documentation, forums, and developer communities.
Operations Analyst at a non-profit with 51-200 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
CockroachDB excels in scalability and resource management, praised for seamless scaling from small to large, supporting diverse needs efficiently.
Sentiment score
6.5
SQL Server 2014 Express excels in cost-effective lightweight applications but faces scalability limitations with larger data environments.
SQL Server 2014 Express is fast, but it is not perfectly scalable because it provides only 10 GB per database size.
Database developer at a university with 501-1,000 employees
It operates quickly when managing less than 50 GB of data.
Senior Consultant at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The Express edition has limits on the database size, memory, and CPU usage.
Operations Analyst at a non-profit with 51-200 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.6
CockroachDB is stable overall, highly rated for reliability but faces challenges with protocol issues and large, complex workloads.
Sentiment score
8.6
SQL Server 2014 Express is stable and reliable for small to medium workloads, excelling in read/write operations with minimal downtime.
In my experience, it runs reliably with minimal downtime when properly configured.
Senior Rpa Consultant at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
It is completely free and has a rich feature set.
Database developer at a university with 501-1,000 employees
SQL Server 2014 Express was quite stable and reliable for day-to-day operations.
Operations Analyst at a non-profit with 51-200 employees
 

Room For Improvement

CockroachDB requires improvements in documentation, compatibility, UI features, disaster recovery, latency optimization, integration, and cost efficiency for global deployment.
SQL Server 2014 Express needs scalability, modern features, improved interface, and updated tools for better performance and user experience.
For multi-region deployment, CockroachDB requires at least three plus replicas across data centers to achieve strong consistency across regions, which increases infrastructure costs including compute, storage, and networking.
Manager, Software Engineering at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
My suggestion is that we could have a way where multiple windows can be open at a time so that we can switch between and access them and help us create the stored procedures in a much better way while comparing.
Technical Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
For enterprise-level and modern high-performance applications, newer SQL Server versions are more suitable.
Quality Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It is not suitable for enterprise scale due to the restrictions on high volume or mission-critical enterprise workloads.
Senior Rpa Consultant at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise users find CockroachDB affordable and reliable, with flexible pricing options appealing despite some perceiving high costs.
SQL Server 2014 Express offers a free solution for small projects but may involve costs for setup, storage, and support.
My experience with pricing and licensing was positive because SQL Server 2014 Express is free to use, which made it very cost-effective for small projects and internal applications.
Operations Analyst at a non-profit with 51-200 employees
From a pricing perspective, SQL Server 2014 Express has minimal or zero software costs when used for small businesses.
Senior Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for SQL Server 2014 Express was that licensing was set up by one of my IT team members, but it was very smooth.
Technical Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

CockroachDB provides easy setup, fault tolerance, scalability, and security, while supporting PostgreSQL compatibility for optimal performance across regions.
SQL Server 2014 Express is free, lightweight, and enhances performance, ideal for budget-conscious organizations needing efficient database management.
CockroachDB's geo-distribution feature is superior to traditional databases.
Manager, Software Engineering at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
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.
Associate Technology Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The best features SQL Server 2014 Express offers are that it is free and perfect for students.
Database developer at a university with 501-1,000 employees
We can store all our data inside a particular database and group it, ensuring that each project has its own SQL database without overlapping with others.
Senior Consultant at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

CockroachDB
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
16th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
Vector Databases (19th), Database Management Systems (DBMS) (10th)
SQL Server 2014 Express
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
10th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of CockroachDB is 3.8%, down from 3.9% 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%
CockroachDB3.8%
Other95.8%
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

SC
Manager, Software Engineering at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Provides developer-friendly environment with robust security and cost-efficiency
The platform should provide a UI feature where users have the ability to manage it. The CockroachDB platform should have a chatbot where users can inquire about pricing or seek solutions for queries, rather than relying on email support. The current UI only provides SQL playground, which is technical. There should be a UI playground where users with limited technical knowledge can run and update queries, similar to phpMyAdmin or Adminer. Latency optimization could be improved for globally distributed applications, particularly in query routing. For multi-region deployment, CockroachDB requires at least three plus replicas across data centers to achieve strong consistency across regions, which increases infrastructure costs including compute, storage, and networking. The disadvantages include cost-efficiency with multi-region deployment and schema migration speed, which should be faster compared to other drivers. The query optimizer should handle complex queries better through the UI interface.
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Educational Organization
11%
University
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Construction Company
31%
Healthcare Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with CockroachDB?
The platform should provide a UI feature where users have the ability to manage it. The CockroachDB platform should have a chatbot where users can inquire about pricing or seek solutions for querie...
What is your primary use case for CockroachDB?
We have been using CockroachDB for the last two years. From 2023, we started working on a product similar to Google Capture. We decided to work with CockroachDB with Hasura. Hasura is a UI for the ...
What advice do you have for others considering CockroachDB?
The tech support deserves a rating of nine out of ten. My overall rating for CockroachDB is 8 out of 10.
What needs improvement with SQL Server 2014 Express?
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 misuse...
What is your primary use case for SQL Server 2014 Express?
As a campaign analyst, my role involves getting targeted list members to send offers to them via mail, so I obtain data of people from the database where I use SQL Server 2014 Express. A specific e...
What advice do you have for others considering SQL Server 2014 Express?
My advice for others looking into using SQL Server 2014 Express is that it has excellent performance, it is free, offers better reliability, and scalability, so I recommend using it to save time fo...
 

Comparisons

No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Baidu, Kindred, Tierion, Heroic Labs, Gorgias
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about CockroachDB vs. SQL Server 2014 Express and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,988 professionals have used our research since 2012.