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DuckDB vs SAP HANA comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

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

DuckDB
Ranking in Embedded Database
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SAP HANA
Ranking in Embedded Database
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
93
Ranking in other categories
Data Virtualization (2nd), Relational Databases Tools (3rd), Database Management Systems (DBMS) (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Embedded Database category, the mindshare of DuckDB is 11.5%, down from 12.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP HANA is 11.9%, up from 9.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Embedded Database Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP HANA11.9%
DuckDB11.5%
Other76.6%
Embedded Database
 

Featured Reviews

MC
Senior Analytics Engineer at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
Caching analytics queries has reduced repeated compute and supports faster embedded reporting
The use of DuckDB as a cache for analytics in an embedded analytics product is a valuable feature. It helps manage compute resources efficiently by preventing repeated computations of the same query. This has made it quite handy and quick to implement, which aligns with the fast-paced needs of our engineering team.
Bassem Mohammed - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Application Manager at TBTD
Integrated business processes have improved real-time analytics and financial performance
Whether I or my customers utilize SAP HANA's real-time analytics depends on the data needed to be displayed, and then choosing how to transfer the data to the analytic object, data source, or database to be displayed in the reports. It may be near real-time, real-time, or running batch every day. There are tools for integration between third-party systems, such as OData or APIs from SAP to get in or push data to other systems. Support for both structured and unstructured data helps organizations unify data sources depending on the needed data to be displayed. There are many ways to store it for report displays, but structured data will be better than unstructured data.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"DuckDB is very fast."
"The use of DuckDB as a cache for analytics in an embedded analytics product is a valuable feature."
"SAP saves you from asking to bring an entire assembly with a lot of parts."
"We use SAP HANA for Master Data Governance."
"The in-memory database is a good and valuable feature."
"We appreciate that the current, redesigned version of this solution that is much more straightforward for new users, and has been well thought out with industry best practice standards in mind."
"What I like best about SAP HANA is that it's faster than Microsoft SQL Server."
"It is very stable and very innovative. You can integrate many applications with it."
"The data in HANA is stored in columns rather than rows, which speeds up searches and aggregations."
"We are using the solution for the DW system. The primary function of the solution is for the database in memory."
 

Cons

"Sometimes we have memory issues that cause job failures, which we don't fully understand why, but we can rerun the jobs without problems."
"The documentation can be improved in the future."
"The initial setup of SAP HANA is complex. We did the implementation of one site, and a global deployment will take another three to four years."
"While SAP HANA is good, it would be better if it comes at a more affordable price."
"The releases need to be more stable. It's surprising to still encounter significant bugs after ten years of the product being available."
"I would not recommend SAP HANA because it has some issues with the speed and scalability of the size. It's also extremely expensive."
"Uses a large amount of RAM and is costly."
"The SAP ERP processes are quite complex and it can be challenging."
"When we are using SAP HANA we have some difficulty with the customization. We would like to be able to add and make customized menus."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"SAP HANA is very expensive here in China. My company bought the SAP ERP suite, which includes SAP HANA. For others who use SAP HANA as an analytical database, CPU numbers will affect the pricing, so as a solution, it's costly."
"We pay annually for the license of the solution."
"We pay for a maintenance license, and the licensing cost is high. In general, it is a very expensive solution."
"SAP HANA is an expensive product."
"The price of licensing is dependent on the size of the project, however, we have found that there is scope to negotiate the cost. If the solution is implemented on-premises there may be some extra costs for hosting etc."
"SAP HANA is very expensive for small to medium businesses."
"There is an annual license to use SAP HANA."
"The solution's license is very expensive so I rate pricing a one out of ten."
report
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Construction Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise64
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for DuckDB?
We use the open-source version of DuckDB and don't have costs associated with it. There is a company that provides commercial software, but we use the open-source library, not the services.
What needs improvement with DuckDB?
Sometimes we have memory issues that cause job failures, which we don't fully understand why, but we can rerun the jobs without problems. There were also problems with binary formats in the previou...
What is your primary use case for DuckDB?
My main use case for DuckDB is that we're using it as a cache for analytics. We have an embedded analytics product, and in order to manage our compute resources, we are using DuckDB so that we do n...
What are the biggest benefits of using SAP HANA?
Based on my work with SAP HANA, the biggest benefit that it can bring to your business is total data management. This product is by SAP - a company that serves almost all needs a client may have co...
Is SAP HANA’s customer and technical support reliable?
We have been using SAP HANA for a fairly short period of time and have only taken advantage of their customer support. So far, we have not had issues that required specialized help from technical s...
Is SAP HANA difficult to set up and start using?
SAP HANA is fairly easy to set up, however, I do not think a complete beginner can do it. You certainly need some preparation - either you need to have experience with similar solutions, or with ot...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
SAP High-Performance Analytic Appliance, HANA
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Unilever, NHS 24, adidas Group, CHIO Aachen, Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited
Find out what your peers are saying about DuckDB vs. SAP HANA and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.