LocalDB vs SAP IQ comparison

Microsoft and SAP are both solutions in the Relational Databases Tools category. Microsoft is ranked #14 with an average rating of 10.0, while SAP is ranked #27 with an average rating of 7.0. Microsoft holds a 2.3% mindshare in SQL, compared to SAP’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 84% of SAP users who would recommend it.

LocalDB

Read 6 LocalDB reviews

1,830 Views
1,336 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SAP IQ

Read 21 SAP IQ reviews

378 Views
147 Comparison Views

84% willing to recommend

LocalDB

SAP IQ

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

SAP IQ and LocalDB are prominent database solutions focusing on data warehousing and smaller applications, respectively. SAP IQ holds a competitive edge in data compression and scalability, while LocalDB leads in affordability and ease of deployment.

Features: SAP IQ ensures superior query speed, impressive data compression, and scalability due to its columnar architecture, which provides enhanced performance for business intelligence tasks. It excels in handling extensive data warehousing tasks with optimized storage performance. LocalDB shines with its seamless application integration, affordability, and ease of operation, making it a solid choice for smaller-scale applications.

Room for Improvement: SAP IQ could improve its training resources and marketing strategies to better showcase its strengths. Users also see areas for enhancement in backup solutions and metadata consistency. LocalDB is mostly limited by its lightweight design, though there's user demand for better management tools to improve customization.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SAP IQ typically suits on-premises deployment, receiving mixed feedback on its technical support. LocalDB, however, provides flexible deployment options, supporting both on-premises and public cloud environments. It is rated higher in customer service and quick technical support.

Pricing and ROI: SAP IQ's pricing aligns with its feature-rich, enterprise-grade capabilities, including additional costs for features like partitioning. Conversely, LocalDB offers a highly cost-effective pricing model with minimal initial costs and no licensing fees, appealing mainly to users with smaller implementations due to its affordability.

To learn more, read our detailed LocalDB vs. SAP IQ Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

LocalDB vs. SAP IQ

June 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

LocalDB

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

14th

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SAP IQ

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

27th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Warehouse (16th)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of LocalDB is 2.3%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP IQ is 0.8%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Relational Databases Tools

Featured Reviews

Srini-Dhanaraj

Founder & CEO at imfine.club

The database always has structured data, like rows, columns, and bases

LocalDB is an excellent solution for learners, beginners, and projects of negligible size; it is very good. Any startup can use a local database to start. Once they grow beyond its limits, they can migrate to a MS SQL server that's also available on-premises. I rate it ten out of ten.

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Tejas Raj

Manager at Capgemini

Columnar database, so pulling records is easy but there isn't enough documentation for installation

I've seen very few SAP IQ systems in recent years. So people are moving away from SAP IQ In the last three years, I've rarely encountered customers using it. Fewer systems with SAP IQ usage among our customers. Most of them have moved on to HANA. There are parallel products, and there are also viable alternatives from AWS, so many have migrated to those.

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 initial setup is very straightforward. The guidelines are very easy to follow. Maintenance is very easy and requires very little manpower."

"LocalDB is an excellent solution for learners, beginners, and projects of negligible size; it is very good."

"The solution is fast."

"The initial setup was simple."

"The most valuable feature of LocalDBis the connection between the application and DB."

"The product is easy to learn."

"Valuable features for us include the compression, speed, fast response time, and easy object maintenance."

"All data is compressed and indexed, allowing for fast execution of transactions."

"The column-based technologies (basically all the database for ITP) are used for SAP IQ. It is used as a column-based solution."

"The initial setup is easy."

"The primary benefit of SAP IQ is its ability to limit the expansion of the costly SAP HANA database, which has limited storage capacity. This necessitates a form of data management that involves moving data from SAP HANA to SAP NLS, which is essentially archiving. This allows us to retain access to the data via a link whenever it is required."

"It is very robust for ad hoc DW queries and its columnar compression is unique and valuable."

"IQ is a very high-performance and high-transaction database."

More SAP IQ pros

Cons

"The solution needs to create a management tool. Right now, the solution has tools for creating a local installation, but it's too simplistic. We need something that's a bit more complex so that we can extend the tools with our scripts."

"It is only for a small amount of data. Local DB is made for the purpose of small-volume optics."

"The internal connection features of LocalDB could improve."

"The initial setup is complex and requires a skilled person."

"The ALM features can be improved, but the database by itself is reliable."

"The room for improvement would be the marketing of the product, because this product is much better than advertised."

"I think the universe should be part of the Sybase IQ tool set."

"There is very little documentation available."

"The organization who owns the product does not support it well and appears not to be doing significant development for the future."

"Concurrency and functional error messaging."

"The tool gets stuck sometimes."

"Multiplex is very problematic. There are consistency problems in the metadata, meaning it is possible to lose metadata consistency. You should make sure you have healthy backups."

"The primary negative aspect is the cost, which can be a challenge due to the economic conditions in Peru."

More SAP IQ cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The fees are fair."

"The licensing cost is too high for LocalDB."

"The cost of implementation is about $3,000."

"Evaluate all options; check to see if you need expensive add-ons."

"The only costs after standard licensing fees are for add-ons and upgrades."

"It's not that costly. So, the pricing is cheap."

"Negotiation is very important."

"Negotiate based on the features required."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

42%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for LocalDB?

It's free of cost.

See all answers

What needs improvement with LocalDB?

Technically speaking, you don't need to get any updates because it's not online. It's on-premise. So once it is installed, then you get a desktop-grade version. But the purpose of LocalDB is not th...

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What is your primary use case for LocalDB?

There were multiple systems, some planned, like the mainframe, the gold database, a website, and a manual Excel spreadsheet. These were the various data sources, and we wanted to bring everything i...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP IQ?

IQ implementation costs about three thousand dollars. It's less expensive compared to alternatives like Teradata Base in terms of transactional efficiency.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SAP IQ?

The primary negative aspect is the cost, which can be a challenge due to the economic conditions in Peru.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SAP IQ?

I worked on implementing new databases, migration data in production, and developer environments with SAP IQ.

See all answers

Comparisons

SQL Server vs LocalDB

Compared 79% of the time

MySQL vs LocalDB

Compared 12% of the time

MariaDB vs LocalDB

Compared 5% of the time

Oracle Database In-Memory vs LocalDB

Compared 4% of the time

More LocalDB Competitors

Snowflake vs SAP IQ

Compared 24% of the time

SAP HANA vs SAP IQ

Compared 16% of the time

SQL Server vs SAP IQ

Compared 12% of the time

Apache Hadoop vs SAP IQ

Compared 8% of the time

OpenText Analytics Database (Vertica) vs SAP IQ

Compared 8% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Relational Databases Tools

June 2025

Download LocalDB product report

Buyer's Guide

SAP IQ

May 2025

Download SAP IQ product report

Also Known As

No data available

Sybase IQ

Overview

LocalDB is a lightweight version of the SQL Server Express Database Engine that is targeted for program development. LocalDB starts on demand and runs in user mode, so there is no complex configuration.

Microsoft

SAP® IQ software delivers speed and power for extreme-scale enterprise data warehousing and analytics. Its column-oriented, grid-based massively parallel processing (MPP) architecture and patented data compression and indexing technologies enable companies to exploit the value of huge amounts of data at the speed of business.

SAP

Sample Customers

AstraZeneca, Kienzle Automotive GmbH, Kodak Alaris, Unilever, Floatel International and Kongsberg Maritime, MyHero

ASR Group, Citrix, State of Indiana, PocketCard Co. Ltd.

Buyer's Guide

LocalDB vs. SAP IQ

June 2025

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