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Exasol Data Warehouse vs SAP HANA comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 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
24th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SAP HANA
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
89
Ranking in other categories
Data Virtualization (2nd), Embedded Database (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of Exasol Data Warehouse is 0.9%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP HANA is 10.5%, down from 11.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Shubham-Agarwal - PeerSpot reviewer
Fast query processing and easy-to-store all the data
There are very few companies that are using Exasol, but the majority of companies are using SQL Server, Cloud or IBM Db2 Database, or any other databases. Therefore, the resources are limited, which is my only concern. So if I face any issues, limited resources are available to help me resolve the issue with Exasol. From that perspective, it can be a bit of a struggle for me to find a solution. In the next release, I would like to see better compatibility issues. Currently, Exasol has limited compatibility with other software like Python and R. For example, If I talk about SQL Server, we can connect it to big data or Python, which is also compatible with different servers.
Dhiraj Jankar - PeerSpot reviewer
Users appreciate the mix of in-memory architecture and ease of backend management
The most valuable SAP HANA features are that, compared to Oracle, there is less administrative work and less complex work to handle, making it very straightforward. The tool itself takes care of the backend work. The main benefits SAP HANA provides to users include its architecture, which combines both column store and row store capabilities. Some places find the row feature important, whereas others find column store important. It allows some tables to be stored in a column base, others in a row base, and the In-Memory functionalities are mostly the highlight of SAP HANA, especially compared to disk-based memory users. This was the main reason SAP HANA was introduced initially.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature of Exasol is its speed."
"The solution is hands-off; you set it up insert your data and it self tunes queries."
"It is easy to scale."
"Performance is a top priority, and it excels in this aspect."
"The speed is very good compared to other databases, like SQL Server or Oracle."
"We can quickly scale the solution as it works on an MPP system."
"We mainly chose Exasol for its performance reasons."
"Its speed is great."
"The main feature is that the processes are very flexible, they are able to be adapted to the business and their departments."
"If you want to scale with new processes and new reports, that's fairly easy."
"The most valuable features are the flexibility and the integration with other solutions in data quality."
"The memory is the solution's most valuable feature. It's the main feature of HANA. Others are still the regular IT databases that are on storage and are therefore much slower than HANA. The solution is quite fast."
"The solution is very stable."
"Probably the main feature is its in-memory database."
"This is a feature-rich product and I like all of them."
"This solution is very fast."
 

Cons

"There are limited resources available to help me resolve the issue with Exasol."
"It's not cloud-native so many maintenance operations require downtime."
"They don't talk very well to with other products when it comes to connectivity. Integration is lacking."
"The only area where we found it could improve was in custom role creation and security, and it was difficult to work with."
"They should improve the security features for MPP processing."
"It would be beneficial if the updates would occur more often."
"You have to install Exasol drivers, and it's not easy to find or implement a driver into different systems."
"Lacks a cloud-based platform."
"Unlike other databases, it lacks management features that legacy databases like Oracle or SQL servers have. They need to make the solution easier to manage and offer tools that make management more effective. A lot of things you have on traditional databases you have to develop into HANA."
"The performance and integration with other products are areas in need of improvement."
"Uses a large amount of RAM and is costly."
"I would like to see improvements in the connectivity of the solution with other BI software. Not every software can connect to it natively."
"The worst thing about SAP HANA is the price; it's very expensive. The licensing cost, implementation cost, hosting cost, and appliance cost are all high."
"There are a few areas wherein there could be a patch upgrade, and that can cover up the country-specific payroll areas."
"In a future release, SAP HANA should add a module for taxation, such as income tax and withholding tax."
"There's an issue in the partition. When you record more than two million records, partitioning does not work well. In Oracle it's easy. SAP must resolve this issue in order to be more competitive with Oracle."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's cost is mid-ranged."
"We are spending about 20,000 to 30,000 euros on the solution."
"There is an annual license to use SAP HANA."
"The tool has a high price. I rate the solution’s pricing, one on a scale of ten, where one is expensive and ten is cheap."
"The tool is expensive compared to other products, like Oracle R or Microsoft, but it offers a range of all the company's functions."
"There is a yearly subscription to use SAP HANA. There is a fee for maintenance."
"We pay annually for the license of the solution."
"The pricing is a bit on the high side."
"The solution's license is very expensive so I rate pricing a one out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Retailer
18%
Logistics Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Exasol?
The most valuable feature of Exasol is its speed.
What needs improvement with Exasol?
You have to use upper-column names in Exasol, which is strange. You have to install Exasol drivers, and it's not easy to find or implement a driver into different systems.
What is your primary use case for Exasol?
We implemented our data problem issues from Tableau. We inserted the data into the Exasol database in order to run 10 to 20 reports from Tableau. This was just a small but problematic report for us.
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

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
Unilever, NHS 24, adidas Group, CHIO Aachen, Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited
Find out what your peers are saying about Exasol Data Warehouse vs. SAP HANA and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
862,514 professionals have used our research since 2012.