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Google Cloud Bigtable vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 15, 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

Google Cloud Bigtable
Ranking in Managed NoSQL Databases
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Non-Relational Databases (5th)
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB
Ranking in Managed NoSQL Databases
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
109
Ranking in other categories
Database as a Service (DBaaS) (4th), NoSQL Databases (2nd), Vector Databases (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Managed NoSQL Databases category, the mindshare of Google Cloud Bigtable is 5.9%, down from 6.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is 16.5%, down from 16.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed NoSQL Databases Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB16.5%
Google Cloud Bigtable5.9%
Other77.6%
Managed NoSQL Databases
 

Featured Reviews

AS
Team Lead at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Consistent performance and seamless cloud integration enhance analytics capabilities while reducing management complexity
One point for improvement in Google Cloud Bigtable is that people have confusion in mapping. There are many similar products available, and Google has managed services for similar products as well. It would be easier if the journey of knowing when to use Google Cloud Bigtable versus other Cloud SQL and alternates such as Cloud Spanner is made clearer for users. Regarding additional functionality for Google Cloud Bigtable, I am uncertain if LLMs can be integrated or if Google Cloud Bigtable can act as a vector store for LLM-specific use cases where we are interacting or using generative AI capabilities.
reviewer2724105 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Director of Product Management at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Provides super sharp latency, excellent availability, and the ability to effectively manage costs across different tenants
For integrating Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB with other Azure products or other products, there are a couple of challenges with the current system. Right now, the vectors are stored as floating-point numbers within the NoSQL document, which makes them inefficiently large. This leads to increased storage space requirements, and searching through a vast number of documents in the vector database becomes quite costly in terms of RUs. While the integration works well, the expense associated with it is relatively high. I would really like to see a reduction in costs for their vector search, as it is currently on the expensive side. The areas for improvement in Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB are vector pricing and vector indexing patterns, which are unintuitive and not well described. I would also like to see the parameters of Fleet Spaces made more powerful, as currently, it's somewhat lightweight. I believe they've made those changes intentionally to better understand the cost model. However, we would like to take a more aggressive approach in using it. One of the most frustrating aspects of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB right now is that you can only store one vector per document. Additionally, you must specify the configuration of that vector when you create an instance of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB. Once the database is set up, you can't change the vector configuration, which is incredibly limiting for experimentation. You want the ability to try different settings and see how they perform, as there are numerous use cases for storing more than one vector in a document. While interoperability within the vector database is acceptable—for example, I can search for vectors—I still desire a richer set of configuration options.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Stability-wise, it is a simple solution. I rate the solution's stability a ten out of ten."
"The solution is very convenient."
"I like the drive and the support of this program."
"The main benefit I receive from Google Cloud Bigtable is the managed service part."
"The main benefit I receive from Google Cloud Bigtable is the managed service part."
"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"This solution is much more scalable than more traditional databases - at least the ones we are aware of."
"Bigtable is faster than other competitors in the market. It helps us collate all the data, and the security features are great. The latency is low, and the computation speed is fantastic. Bigtable is also a managed service, so you don't have to worry about anything aside from analyzing the data ingested."
"Our customer is very satisfied with it."
"The standout features are its ability to do data compression easily and the ability to scale horizontally."
"The best part of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is that with the default configuration and the Azure functional pipeline, if your go-to cloud provider is Microsoft Azure, the whole integration is seamless."
"Cosmos DB has helped us by providing faster response times for everything, which significantly improved our search results quality."
"The solution is user friendly and Microsoft's technical support is good."
"In Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, one valuable feature is its ability to store data in multiple regions. If one region fails, it automatically switches to a healthy region, ensuring minimal latency and disaster recovery without impacting data latency in applications."
"I would rate Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB a ten out of ten."
"I would rate it a ten out of ten for stability."
 

Cons

"The lagging problem of the product I face is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"Improvement should be made as per customer recommended and requirements."
"The cost of this product is too expensive."
"The pricing of the solution needs to be improved."
"When it comes to complex queries, a user can't get any help from a drop-down box and pick columns. It would be great if some improvements could be made in the aforementioned area concerning the solution."
"This product needs better security and transparency, and the price should be reduced."
"I've used Bigtable for about three or four years."
"The solution cannot join two databases like Oracle or SQL Server."
"From about half a billion rows, we're returning maybe 20,000 in two or three minutes. We don't know why, but we are working with Microsoft and a third party to figure that out."
"The only area Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB can improve on is its documentation; while it is solid and very useful, enhancements in the indexing documentation would help users save costs and make it more cost-effective."
"It would be ideal if we could integrate Cosmos DB with our Databricks. At this point, that's not possible."
"There are some disadvantages as it is costly compared to other NoSQL databases."
"Customer service and technical support from Microsoft have been all right. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give them probably a six, maybe a hard seven at most."
"The UI needs enhancement. Unlike SQL, Cosmos DB's UI is not as straightforward, making it a bit challenging to use efficiently."
"Currently, it doesn't support cross-container joins, forcing developers to retrieve data from each container separately and combine it using methods like LINQ queries."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would like to see better pricing. It is not too expensive, but it isn't cheap either."
"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB pricing is based on RUs. Reading 1 KB document costs one RU, whereas writing one document costs five RUs. Pricing for querying depends on the complexity of the query. If you increase the document size, it will automatically increase the RU cost."
"The customer had a high budget, but it turned out to be a little bit cheaper than what they expected. I am not sure how much they have spent so far, but they are satisfied with the pricing."
"Cosmos DB is a highly cost-optimized solution when used correctly."
"The pricing model of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is a bit complex."
"When we've budgeted for our resources, it's one of the more expensive ones, but it's still not very expensive per month."
"There is a licensing fee."
"The cost is the biggest limitation of this solution."
"You need to understand exactly the details of how the pricing works technically to stay within reasonable pricing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Legal Firm
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business33
Midsize Enterprise22
Large Enterprise58
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Google Cloud Bigtable?
One point for improvement in Google Cloud Bigtable is that people have confusion in mapping. There are many similar products available, and Google has managed services for similar products as well....
What is your primary use case for Google Cloud Bigtable?
My main use case for Google Cloud Bigtable is mainly for advertisement-related analytics-related use cases.
What advice do you have for others considering Google Cloud Bigtable?
Regarding integration with Google Cloud Bigtable and other Google Cloud services such as Dataflow, Dataproc, and BigQuery, we have not done that integration, but there are connectors available. Som...
What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
The initial setup is simple and straightforward. You can set up a Cosmos DB in a day, even configuring things like availability zones around the world.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB's pricing model has aligned with my budget expectations because I can tune the RU as I need to, which helps a lot. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB's dynamic auto-scale or server...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
I have not utilized Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB multi-model support for handling diverse data types. I'm not in the position to decide if clients will use Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB or any other datab...
 

Also Known As

Google BigTable
Microsoft Azure DocumentDB, MS Azure Cosmos DB
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Cognite, Dow Jones, Loblaw Digital
TomTom, KPMG Australia, Bosch, ASOS, Mercedes Benz, NBA, Zero Friction, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Kinectify
Find out what your peers are saying about Google Cloud Bigtable vs. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
882,961 professionals have used our research since 2012.