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Google Cloud SQL vs Google Cloud Spanner vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Google Cloud Spanner is 4.5%, up from 3.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Cloud SQL is 16.2%, down from 18.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is 15.9%, down from 18.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database as a Service (DBaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

Ethan Lo - PeerSpot reviewer
A stable and scalable relational database that ensures a return on investment for its users
The most valuable feature of the solution is its scalability. Scalability comes with two options, among which Google Cloud Spanner can scale horizontally, compared to other relational databases that scale vertically. You can change Google Cloud Spanner's resource configuration, which is done through processing units. Suppose you set up Google Cloud Spanner initially with a hundred processing units, and then you run out of resources since your database used too much CPU. In the aforementioned scenario, you can scale up or down and face no downtime in the production phase. The solution's features are important when running a company twenty-four hours, seven days a week.
Prathap Sankar - PeerSpot reviewer
Gain control and flexibility with customizable tools but has slower performance
I am majorly working in Google Cloud SQL for building my applications Google Cloud SQL provides complete customization options, along with a dashboarding tool and a comprehensive suite of tools that can be used to customize and build any application needed. The deployment model allows for…
Charley Hanania - PeerSpot reviewer
It is very easy to implement, manage, and offers great insights into what is happening inside the engine
Microsoft Azure SQL Database is integrated into other Azure capabilities and has a great foundation being on SQL Server with a long history of security, performance, and usability from a DBA perspective. Once you've set up a server, adding databases is easy. There's a minor challenge with having data in separate databases that you want to connect like we do on premises. I'm looking forward to using some of these new AI-driven functions that have come out around vectorization. Having the data closer to my transactional databases or data makes it easy to augment and enhance the Database and applications I currently use. It's great that Azure SQL now seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Fabric. It's a first-tier service in the cloud that connects to web applications and other databases. The data transformation orchestration capabilities within Database Factory and similar capabilities make it effortless to move that stuff forward.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is a very scalable solution."
"Google Cloud Spanner is stable."
"We can scale the solution if we need to."
"The application deployment in the cloud is the best feature of the infrastructure."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is its scalability. Scalability comes with two options, among which Google Cloud Spanner can scale horizontally, compared to other relational databases that scale vertically."
"The setup was straightforward. Just a couple of clicks, and we were done."
"Google Cloud SQL enhances our AI-driven projects by providing features like query optimization and scalability for efficiently processing large datasets."
"It supports different databases, like Postgres and MySQL."
"The most valuable features are that it's easy to use, simple, and user-friendly."
"This is a stable solution and offers good performance."
"My suggestion to anyone thinking about this solution is to jump into it head-first!"
"Its most valuable feature is that it's scalable. I can start off with a base of a lot of data and move as much as I want and it's the same as if asked to do a lot of infrastructure changes."
"The valuable feature of Google Cloud SQL is its high availability option. The product is stable."
"Since SQL Azure is a stable solution, you do not need to spend time to maintain it."
"The integration with Azure Data Factory is seamless and straightforward, described as just a click away."
"SQL is easy to use and easily integrates with many systems. There aren't many code changes needed when you're using SQL databases. Integrating Azure SQL with other Microsoft applications is instant because they're all Microsoft solutions."
"The backup solution in Azure is great, the firewall settings in SQL are very easy to use and work very well. Additionally, the turning process is very good and has improved the SQL services and queries."
"The initial setup was straightforward. Deployment takes about one hour."
"The stability of the solution is very good."
"We've cut costs by around 70 percent."
"It has significantly streamlined our disaster recovery plans, making it much more straightforward to spin up new instances as opposed to setting up a new VM with all necessary packages. The normal cost of our VMs with storage has been significantly reduced."
 

Cons

"The tool lacks to offer AI features."
"The tool needs to improve horizontal scaling."
"I want to improve the deployment of cameras and surveillance infrastructure."
"The cost can be a bit high."
"Google came up with something called Cloud Spanner Emulator, which fails to work like the real product if I want to develop some code and run a database locally on my machine."
"I am yet to explore a lot of features that are present in this solution. However, it would be good if more documentation is available for this solution. This would help us in preparing for the certification exam and understand it better. Currently, we don't have much documentation. We do the labs for 20 or 25 minutes, but we can't capture and download anything."
"Google's technical support is good, but they tend to never reopen a case and to send us snippets from the publicly available documentation. It's not as helpful as you would expect, not just for Google Cloud SQL but for all of Google Cloud products."
"It is hard to do logging with the solution."
"For data analysis, the AI area of the product has certain shortcomings where improvements are required."
"The most vulnerable problem with Google SQL is that while you can customize your access control list, it provides you with a public IP address."
"The product's user interface could be more user-friendly to improve the overall user experience."
"In the case of Google, they need to work on a more easy interface for users."
"The monitoring part could be better."
"SQL Azure's performance monitoring features need to be improved. It has a pricing calculator, but it would be great if we could get a rough estimate of the pricing based on fewer parameters, like the data size and the scale of the company."
"The user interface (UI) could be more flexible."
"They could improve Azure SQL by adding some of the features available on-prem, such as cross-database queries and the ability to run particular jobs. We need to migrate those to something else, like a function or logic app."
"It's a little bit limited in terms of functionality."
"There is a need for dynamic scaling support without losing current transactions. That should be part of the standard offering to SKUs. It doesn't have Auto SQL. We have HyperSQL, but there are limitations on the Elastic Pool. It only allows 25 databases. It would help if we could automatically analyze and optimize long-running queries instead of handling these tasks manually."
"We've had many concurrency issues with it, particularly with applications that do a lot of parallel processing. We noticed that sometimes the Azure SQL databases would spike and peak their CPU units, causing some performance issues for us. It would be helpful if CPU performance were not pinned to the amount of storage you're using, and we could scale different properties of the Azure SQL database independently."
"Their availability in the Middle East and Asia regions needs to improve."
"One area for improvement is setting up logs, especially for servers like VM SQL. It was also tricky to connect services on VNets to on-premise."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Google Cloud Spanner is an expensive solution."
"Price-wise, I heard that Google Cloud Spanner is on the higher side."
"The solution is expensive."
"It is expensive."
"The pricing is very much an important factor as to why we use this solution."
"It's really cheap. It wouldn't be more than, I believe it's around 50 euro per month for running a cloud SQL."
"While the platform’s pricing may be higher, it aligns with industry standards, considering the quality of service and features provided."
"The solution is affordable."
"From a financial perspective, Google Cloud SQL is on the cheaper side."
"It is not expensive, especially considering the significant reduction in database management time."
"You need to pay extra costs for backup and replication."
"Compared to other providers, the pricing is definitely on the affordable side."
"The cost is around $2,000 per month."
"When looking at the long-term expenses associated with running software on an on-premises server, the costs are almost equivalent but when we include insurance for devices, onsite fees for servers, and other related costs, we may find that this is a cost-effective solution."
"SQL Azure's licensing cost is expensive."
"I'm not sure what the exact price is, but it's a moderate amount. It's not too expensive."
"I would like it to be cheaper, but comparatively, it is reasonably priced."
"The solution is expensive."
"Offers options for paying the license on a yearly or a monthly basis."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
15%
Retailer
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
13%
University
8%
Retailer
8%
Educational Organization
72%
Computer Software Company
4%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Manufacturing Company
2%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your primary use case for Google Cloud Spanner?
Google Cloud Spanner has all the features of a traditional relational database, including schemas, SQL queries, ACID ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud Spanner?
Price-wise, I heard that Google Cloud Spanner is on the higher side. I am not sure if this is a rumor or if it's fake...
What do you like most about Google Cloud SQL?
The implementation part of the product was easy.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud SQL?
The cost is expensive, especially for services like BigQuery, which charge based on query operations. We pay as we us...
What needs improvement with Google Cloud SQL?
Google Cloud SQL needs to improve its support for high-end I/O operations. On-prem systems with high I/O capabilities...
What do you like most about SQL Azure?
The automated scalability feature of SQL Azure has proven to be highly beneficial, particularly when deployed in the ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SQL Azure?
The pricing of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is not cheap, affecting user uptake. A gradual reduction in price could i...
What needs improvement with SQL Azure?
Pricing could be improved to make Microsoft Azure SQL Database ( /products/microsoft-azure-sql-database-reviews ) mor...
 

Also Known As

Google Spanner
No data available
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Streak, Optiva, Mixpanel
BeDataDriven, CodeFutures, Daffodil, GenieConnect, KiSSFLOW, LiveHive, SulAm_rica, Zync
adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), MongoDB and others in Database as a Service (DBaaS). Updated: March 2025.
849,963 professionals have used our research since 2012.