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Google Cloud SQL vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database comparison

Google and Microsoft are both solutions in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category. Google is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.8, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.7. Google holds a 16.5% mindshare in DS, compared to Microsoft’s 15.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.
Google Cloud SQL
Read 22 Google Cloud SQL reviews
  • 3,161 Views
  • 2,874 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Read 117 Microsoft Azure SQL Database reviews
  • 6,648 Views
  • 2,858 Comparison Views
96% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

Microsoft Azure SQL Database and Google Cloud SQL both compete in the cloud database service category. Microsoft Azure SQL Database has a slight edge due to its seamless integration within the Azure ecosystem and flexible pricing models.

Features: Microsoft Azure SQL Database offers geographical replication, ease of scaling, and memory-optimized tables. Google Cloud SQL supports multiple database types such as PostgreSQL and MySQL, offers automatic scaling, and robust data security features.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Azure SQL Database could refine its security features and improve support for distributed transactions. Google Cloud SQL would benefit from better integration with other tools and enhanced documentation. Users find the complexity of managing extensions and high I/O operations challenging.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Azure SQL Database is praised for its ease of use and robust support system, although some experience delays with first-line support. Google Cloud SQL is adaptable across various environments and features strong customer service, though access to global support could be improved.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Azure SQL Database's flexible pricing models, although higher than some competitors, offer significant ROI and integration capabilities. Google Cloud SQL is considered cost-effective with no licensing fees and offers a straightforward cost model aligned with industry standards.

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To learn more, read our detailed Google Cloud SQL vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database Report (Updated: April 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Google Cloud SQL vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database
April 2025
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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 SQL
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
117
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Google Cloud SQL is 16.5%, down from 18.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is 15.9%, down from 18.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database as a Service (DBaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

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…
Read full review
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.
Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The deployment model allows for significant control and flexibility."
"It's SQL. SQL is so easy if you know something about databases. It's easy to learn."
"It is not the cool features that I find valuable, it is the stability of Google Cloud Platform."
"The implementation part of the product was easy."
"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 product is scalable."
"The setup was straightforward. Just a couple of clicks, and we were done."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
More Google Cloud SQL pros
"Coding does not require much effort."
"Its easy usage is the most valuable."
"I am very happy with this solution; right now, I don't think there is anything I would change."
"Customers can benefit from a lot of cost savings if they go for Azure."
"The most valuable feature of SQL Azure is the user-friendly VMs."
"The most valuable feature is PolyBase."
"The hardware is all managed by Microsoft."
"The scalability and simple management of the infrastructure are the most valuable features."
More Microsoft Azure SQL Database pros
 

Cons

"I would like to see better availability of the product in different regions. It should also improve the security with encryption."
"When discussing media files, such as images and audio files, stored in Google Cloud, concerns about handling large amounts of data arise."
"It is hard to do logging with the solution."
"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."
"They could improve documentation and dashboard stability for efficient user experience and database management."
"The overall documentation and the connectors need improvement."
"The product's user interface could be more user-friendly to improve the overall user experience."
"I would like to see better integration with all the different tools on the platform."
More Google Cloud SQL cons
"Operational cost needs improvement."
"We've had many concurrency issues with it, particularly with applications that do a lot of parallel processing."
"The default 1433 port for communication should be customizable because most hacks or attacks are attempted when creating any application or database on the default port."
"There isn't any new improvement that I can think of at the moment. We have different deployment choices, such as running SQL on an Azure VM or deploying SQL-managed instances. The managed instance is a significant improvement over running SQL in an Azure VM."
"One area for improvement is data virtualization. Companies use different data sources, creating a separate data virtualization layer, and there are more data sources behind that layer. For example, we have different data layers for Excel, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, etc. Creating a data virtualization layer would help because you retain the metadata of your source data."
"We haven't had any major issues that have prevented us from doing stuff fundamentally. For its implementation, sometimes, it is complicated to understand what your needs are. It would be good to have a few use cases that provide different cloud variations that match on-premise installations and show how they can be moved to the cloud a bit better."
"Some issues with scalability."
"The solution could be less expensive. They need to work on their pricing model."
More Microsoft Azure SQL Database cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is not expensive, especially considering the significant reduction in database management time."
"You need to pay extra costs for backup and replication."
"The solution is affordable."
"It's really cheap. It wouldn't be more than, I believe it's around 50 euro per month for running a cloud SQL."
"From a financial perspective, Google Cloud SQL is on the cheaper side."
"While the platform’s pricing may be higher, it aligns with industry standards, considering the quality of service and features provided."
"The pricing is very much an important factor as to why we use this solution."
"If we use a smaller or free-sized Microsoft Azure SQL Database, it is extremely cost-effective and much cheaper than on-premise enterprise licenses, which are expensive."
"The solution is moderately expensive."
"It is beneficial in terms of cost because you are charged per data unit instead of licensing."
"Its price can definitely be lower. It is pretty pricey."
"We pay less than $1000 monthly in licensing fees. There are no additional costs."
"We have a three-year contract. The cost was somewhere around $70-80,000 for the original deployment, which was about two years ago"
"The licensing for this solution is based on subscription."
"It is expensive for us. We are looking for something less expensive and thinking of migrating the whole system."
More Microsoft Azure SQL Database pricing and cost advice
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
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
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Google Cloud SQL?
The implementation part of the product was easy.
See all answers
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 use, with no fixed cost.
See all answers
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 perform better, as Google Cloud SQL takes more time to handle the same tasks. T...
See all answers
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 cloud.
See all answers
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 improve accessibility and user numbers, making it easier for users to adopt the s...
See all answers
What needs improvement with SQL Azure?
Pricing could be improved to make Microsoft Azure SQL Database ( /products/microsoft-azure-sql-database-reviews ) more accessible. A reduction in price might encourage more users and bring more pro...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

Amazon RDS vs Google Cloud SQL Logo
Amazon RDS vs Google Cloud SQL
Compared 36% of the time
MongoDB Atlas vs Google Cloud SQL Logo
MongoDB Atlas vs Google Cloud SQL
Compared 12% of the time
Oracle Database as a Service vs Google Cloud SQL Logo
Oracle Database as a Service vs Google Cloud SQL
Compared 6% of the time
Google Cloud Spanner vs Google Cloud SQL Logo
Google Cloud Spanner vs Google Cloud SQL
Compared 3% of the time
Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer vs Google Cloud SQL Logo
Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer vs Google Cloud SQL
Compared 2% of the time
More Google Cloud SQL Competitors
Amazon RDS vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database Logo
Amazon RDS vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Compared 26% of the time
MongoDB Atlas vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database Logo
MongoDB Atlas vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Compared 17% of the time
Oracle Database as a Service vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database Logo
Oracle Database as a Service vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Compared 7% of the time
vCloud Air vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database Logo
vCloud Air vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Compared 3% of the time
IBM Db2 on Cloud vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database Logo
IBM Db2 on Cloud vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Compared 2% of the time
More Microsoft Azure SQL Database Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Google Cloud SQL
April 2025
Google Cloud SQL reportDownload Google Cloud SQL product report
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure SQL Database
April 2025
Microsoft Azure SQL Database reportDownload Microsoft Azure SQL Database product report
 

Overview

Google Cloud SQL is a fully-managed database service that makes it easy to set up, maintain, manage, and administer your relational PostgreSQL and MySQL databases in the cloud. Google Cloud SQL offers high performance, scalability, and convenience. Hosted on Google Cloud Platform, Cloud SQL provides a database infrastructure for applications running anywhere.

Google

Microsoft Azure SQL Database is a relational database-as-a-service that delivers predictable performance, scalability, business continuity, data protection, and near-zero administration to cloud developers and solution architects. This is the deep technical library for Azure SQL Database.

Microsoft
 

Sample Customers

BeDataDriven, CodeFutures, Daffodil, GenieConnect, KiSSFLOW, LiveHive, SulAm_rica, Zync
adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH
Buyer's Guide
Google Cloud SQL vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database
April 2025
Free Report: Google Cloud SQL vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Find out what your peers are saying about Google Cloud SQL vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
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We monitor all Database as a Service (DBaaS) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.