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DuckDB vs SAP HANA comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

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
3rd
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) (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Embedded Database category, the mindshare of DuckDB is 10.3%, down from 12.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP HANA is 13.3%, up from 8.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Embedded Database Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP HANA13.3%
DuckDB10.3%
Other76.4%
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."
"It's very convenient and very innovative."
"Previously we were using MySQL, but due to the fast performance of SAP HANA, we switched approximately three years ago."
"This solution did improve my organization, as we had some changes to better our organization, especially in the procurement process."
"Anyone currently using SAP will be transitioning to HANA."
"One feature I find very valuable, is the response time of the application on the database memory."
"It has a very huge bandwidth and data transfer."
"It's easy to use, and the Hana Studio is pretty good."
"In comparison with other DMS solutions, it offers good performance."
 

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."
"Ease of use could be improved in SAP HANA. I like SAP because SAP solutions can be used by anyone, which means even laymen can start working on SAP tools, but in SAP HANA modeling, you'll need to know some other technologies and sequel scripting, and you need a separate skillset, so if you don't have the skillset, you won't be able to work on SAP HANA. Making SAP HANA low-code would make it even better."
"Because SAP HANA is completely in-memory, it requires the use of bigger systems which have a higher amount of RAM. If the system does go down then coming back up is difficult and can take 30 to 40 minutes."
"I would have rated the solution higher if this version was not missing some key features the newer version has."
"I would like more technical documentation. I would like it to be easier to find online help or have a better launch-based service. SAP has a lot of functions, so we need more best practices and more detailed documentation on industry solutions. For example, it would be good to have documentation on why a certain process needs to be set up and which kinds of configurations need to be set up."
"There are a few areas wherein there could be a patch upgrade, and that can cover up the country-specific payroll areas."
"Licensing costs with SAP HANA are very high. Due to high pricing, many clients are moving from BW on SAP HANA and S/4HANA to Azure SQL."
"In practice, SAP HANA is very powerful, but I see areas where it could be improved to make life easier for users and teams, such as having too many Fiori apps with overlapping functionality, navigation not being intuitive for finance users, and users still needing to switch between Fiori and SAP GUI."
"Technical support could be better. When we have requested this, the tendency has been to instruct us to implement a note and keep them apprised."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The price of SAP HANA is very expensive and it is paid annually."
"The price of the solution could be reduced, it is expensive."
"There is an annual license to use SAP HANA."
"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."
"There is an annual payment needed to use the solution."
"The pricing for SAP HANA is high. You pay a lot for the license, and you also have to pay for some add-ons."
"Its licensing is expensive for SMEs and large enterprises alike."
"The cost of SAP HANA is high, and I would rate the price at eight out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

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 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 advice do you have for others considering DuckDB?
I have worked with DuckDB. I'm not doing much with DuckDB directly anymore as it's now implemented, so I'm not dealing with it. DuckDB is implemented as a team-wide workflow, but no one works on it...
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: November 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.