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Exasol Data Warehouse vs SQL Server comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

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

Exasol Data Warehouse
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
31st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SQL Server
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
274
Ranking in other categories
Database Management Systems (DBMS) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of Exasol Data Warehouse is 1.5%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SQL Server is 10.7%, down from 17.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SQL Server10.7%
Exasol Data Warehouse1.5%
Other87.8%
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2132565 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Of Engineering Commercial Planning & Trading Data Platform at Zalando SE
Fast, reliable, and rock solid
The solution is intended as the backend for our reporting solution MicroStrategy. It's also used for ad-hoc analysis or to fuel other tools with data as it's the only place where some of the data points are available within an acceptable SLO We used it to decouple ETL and reporting databases. The…
Peter Larsson - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Warehouse Lead at Resurs Bank AB (publ.)
Ledger and seamless integrations have strengthened trusted analytics and unified workloads
SQL Server's high availability and disaster recovery features work for supporting mission-critical applications, but there is much more to wish for. These features are not quite ready yet, although they do function. However, they could be significantly better. High availability and disaster recovery features should be improved in the next releases. I have noticed that everything could be improved or enhanced in the future, particularly temporal tables and window functions. Sometimes, I believe Microsoft releases features to stay ahead of competitors, but they do not make them feature-rich or feature-complete. They release something to be ahead of leaders and then seem to forget to maintain and upgrade them. I want Microsoft to pay more attention and be more mindful about the things they implement. It is fine to do a first release that works, but you cannot simply abandon it in the following years without service packs and improvements. You must continue to build on features rather than forgetting about them.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We can quickly scale the solution as it works on an MPP system."
"The speed is very good compared to other databases, like SQL Server or Oracle."
"The speed is very good compared to other databases, like SQL Server or Oracle."
"The most valuable feature of Exasol is its speed."
"Performance is a top priority, and it excels in this aspect."
"Its speed is great."
"The solution is hands-off; you set it up insert your data and it self tunes queries."
"This solution is extremely fast and very stable; you set it up and put your data on it and as long as it's structured, it self-tunes queries and doesn't require a database administrator."
"The most valuable feature of the solution, compared to other RDBMS solutions, such as Oracle MySQL or IBM DB2, is that it is more user-friendly and has backward compatibility."
"Very stable relational database management system that offers ease of management, querying, and scaling. It has well-designed databases."
"Its availability for a secured server is one of its most valuable features, and its replication features are valuable because we can manage eight replicas, while their clustering and availability groups are also valuable."
"It's a flexible solution."
"SQL Server is a good mainstream application that has been around for quite some time, and I like when things are around for a while."
"You could have an offsite and an onsite, and if the onsite goes down, the offsite picks it up. I like that flexibility to provide continuing operations."
"The analytics are pretty good."
"It is a stable product, and it runs seamlessly. It is not complex."
 

Cons

"It's not cloud-native so many maintenance operations require downtime."
"Lacks a cloud-based platform."
"The only area where we found it could improve was in custom role creation and security, and it was difficult to work with."
"They don't talk very well to with other products when it comes to connectivity. Integration is lacking."
"There are limited resources available to help me resolve the issue with Exasol."
"It would be beneficial if the updates would occur more often."
"They should improve the security features for MPP processing."
"The price is quite expensive relative to other similar solutions, it could be more accessible in that sense."
"We occasionally face or encounter a problem with the database table itself. Some tables and their flyers, as well as the content's data, must be truncated."
"While using it, we really didn't experience any pain points."
"Since this is a relational order system, scalability has a limit. If your system is very big, you need bigger servers and you have to spend more money. We scale a system up to a certain level, and then we move or shift data to the warehouse, which is NoSQL. We then do not have any bottleneck in scaling. For using this technique we are happy with it."
"The solution could offer more integration with other platforms."
"Every good tool has its own limitations. First of all its cost. It is very high."
"SQL Server database capacities could be further increased to be more accessible for larger data requirements."
"We're paying too much for licensing at this time. They need to work on the pricing."
"An area for improvement would be the SQL Server process monitoring, which is quite basic and could sustain more information."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's cost is mid-ranged."
"For smaller companies, they find this solution expensive."
"It costs a lot."
"The solution is on a pay-per-use pricing model."
"There is a license required for this solution. One of the problems is for smaller businesses to purchases a license because it is expensive for a lot of them to afford."
"SQL Server is an expensive solution."
"My advice is quite straightforward. If you know the number of users who really and truly need access to the Server then it is a no-brainer. If you do not know, then get the basic package and minimum licenses and start from there. Needless to say, users can develop/use data structures outside and then deploy onto the Server."
"Licensing fees increase depending on size and performance. If you want higher performance, you should go for a different course."
"There is an annual license and it is priced reasonably."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
8%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Financial Services Firm
40%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Comms Service Provider
4%
Computer Software Company
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business119
Midsize Enterprise60
Large Enterprise119
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
Would you say the price of SQL Server is high compared to that of similar products?
SQL Server is fairly priced because it has various editions, depending on the number of users, servers, or core packs you are using. If you compare the product to others in this category, the price...
Has using SQL Server helped your organization in any way?
SQL Server has helped my organization through partitioning to distribute the workload, as it splits them up into smaller pieces so the machines can easily deal with it. However, this comes with a h...
Which authentication mode is best for SQL Server?
My company connects through SQL Server authentication. We have company Windows accounts, but we do not want to connect the two, out of security concerns and to keep things separated for our own pur...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Microsoft SQL Server, MSSQL, MS SQL
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

1&1 Internet SE 11880 Internet Services AG AB Svenska Spel Accarda AG Aera Technology Inc. AGRAVIS Raiffeisen AG Apotheken-Rechen-Zentrum GmbH AQR Capital Management, LLC arvato distribution GmbH ARZ Allgemeines Rechenzentrum GmbH Badoo Limited Baur Versand (GmbH & Co. KG) BIScience Ltd Blocket Blue Yonder GmbH Codilink UK Ltd T/A Coniq crealytics GmbH dailyme TV GmbH Dailymotion S.A. Dataforce Verlagsgesellschaft für Business Information mbH Deutsche Postbank AG Digitales Rezept Zentrum GmbH DIKW Groep direct services Gütersloh GmbH DR Technologies Ltd. dress-for-less GmbH econda GmbH emetriq GmbH empiriecom GmbH & Co. KG Flaconi GmbH Fresenius Netcare GmbH Fyber GmbH GfK SE Grant Street Group, Inc. Gruner + Jahr GmbH Gymshark UK Hahn Air Lines GmbH Hermes Einrichtungs Service GmbH & Co. KG INNOVATIVE SCHEDULING, LLC internetstores GmbH INTERSPORT Deutschland eG IQVIA Commercial GmbH & Co. OHG IQVIA Commercial Sp. z o.o. IQVIA Incorporated iVantage Health Analytics K - Mail Order GmbH & Co. KG LIQ CORP SA Manor AG Basel Match2Lists Limited MEDION AG Midasplayer AB Monsoon Accessorize Limited m-pathy GmbH msales Ltd. MTG Modern Services AB MW Aviation GmbH & Co. KG Myntra Designs Pvt Ltd Netzeffekt GmbH New Company Services Ltd. NOVENTI HealthCare GmbH Olympus Europa SE & Co. KG Operation Fistula OpsDataStore OTTO (GmbH & Co KG) Panda Retail Co. PAPSTAR GmbH Piedmont Healthcare, Inc. Questback GmbH RatePAY GmbH Revolut Ltd. Saarland-Sporttoto GmbH Sagarmatha Ltd. SIA Damara Technologies Supermärkte Nord Vertriebs GmbH & Co. KG The National Research Center for College & University Admissions, Inc. United Utilities Water Ltd. Verlag C.H. Beck oHG Vocal Planet Ltd. Vodafone Group Services GmbH Webtrekk GmbH wer liefert was? GmbH Windeln.de SE Wooga GmbH XING SE Zalando SE
Microsoft SQL Server is used by businesses in every industry, including Great Western Bank, Aviva, the Volvo Car Corporation, BMW, Samsung, Principality Building Society, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario.
Find out what your peers are saying about Exasol Data Warehouse vs. SQL Server and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
894,807 professionals have used our research since 2012.