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MariaDB 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

MariaDB
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
60
Ranking in other categories
Open Source Databases (5th)
SAP HANA
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
91
Ranking in other categories
Data Virtualization (2nd), Embedded Database (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of MariaDB is 5.7%, down from 8.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP HANA is 9.6%, down from 11.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SAP HANA9.6%
MariaDB5.7%
Other84.7%
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

KumarManish - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to deploy, cost-effective, and integrates seamlessly with other products
We had planned for an RDBMS version and not NoSQL. We use MariaDB Galera Cluster. It's a good product. It is cheap, scalable, performs well, and is efficient. We use GCP’s BigQuery for machine learning. We must follow the best practices of the tool. We missed some best practices like the storage engine and InnoDB. It was very difficult to identify why we were having performance issues. Then, we realized that some of our tables were still on MyISAM, the default storage engine. When we switched it back to the InnoDB, it was very smooth. InnoDB is the recommended one. We must follow the best practices given in the documentation during the initial setup. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.
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 MariaDB is the power it provides. It is a powerful solution."
"The documentation is quite straightforward."
"It delivers fast processing times, particularly for frequent select queries and insert/update operations."
"MariaDB is stable and the initial setup is straightforward."
"I am editing."
"Great monitoring and performance stability."
"It is an absolutely stable solution."
"The most valuable features of the solution stem from the fact that it is a cloud-based tool, so it is pretty fast."
"The solution is easy to scale."
"It's easy to use, and the Hana Studio is pretty good."
"SAP HANA's best features are its programmability and extensibility - you can size and shape the software however you need."
"The most valuable features of SAP HANA include its user-friendliness, flexibility, and extensive support for various functionalities like finance, logistics, and workforce processes."
"The speed at which it gets the data is great."
"The tool is an in-memory database that stores and retrieves data very quickly. This speed makes it faster to use and maintain data, as no additional processes move data between memory and disk."
"It is very stable and very innovative. You can integrate many applications with it."
"We like that the product is both vertically and horizontally scalable, allowing us to do around 86 percent compression of documentation from 50 to seven terabytes."
 

Cons

"The solution is not scalable."
"I would like to see more compatibility going forward. This would help if there is a need to change databases."
"The GUI could be improved a bit. The user interface needs to be improved."
"It should work across all fields like SQLite, as it is the basis of any application, even apps for phones and the like."
"Could have more integration with user platforms."
"The difficult part related to the product stems not from the tool itself but is related to learning how to implement the product in the right way without creating any wrong configuration that could cause security issues or performance issues."
"The license should be cheaper and closer to that offered by MySQL, Oracle and other products."
"MariaDB could improve by adding support for non-relational structures and new data types."
"I would like more technical documentation. I would like it to be easier to find online help or have a better launch-based service. SAP has a lot of functions, so we need more best practices and more detailed documentation on industry solutions. For example, it would be good to have documentation on why a certain process needs to be set up and which kinds of configurations need to be set up."
"The solution is very expensive, however. The pricing depends on the number of users and many other factors that affect licensing."
"If the developers were to enhance or improve the application logic while processing the transactions, that would be great."
"There are a few areas wherein there could be a patch upgrade, and that can cover up the country-specific payroll areas."
"Technical support should be more customer-friendly."
"The product is very demanding on memory requirements."
"SAP HANA is a very proprietary tool and there's not as much support available for it as there is for an SQL Server (which is more popular)."
"When you do a report on a non-SAP platform, you face some compatibility problems."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the product's price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price, and ten is high price since there are some support costs involved, even though it isn't an open-source solution."
"The price could be less expensive."
"The licensing cost is approximately $4000.00 per year and the licensing is based on the software and the number of posts that you make."
"This is an open-source product, which can be used free of charge."
"There is a monthly subscription to use MariaDB."
"We pay for a yearly license."
"I used the open-source version, which is available free of charge."
"When it comes to MariaDB, it should have a more cost-effective license."
"There is an annual license to use SAP HANA."
"We pay for a maintenance license, and the licensing cost is high. In general, it is a very expensive solution."
"The licensing could improve."
"The solution's license is very expensive so I rate pricing a one out of ten."
"It is expensive."
"The pricing is relatively high for both customers and partners."
"It is expensive, which isn't a problem for us because SAP HANA is processing the data so fast."
"We are spending about 20,000 to 30,000 euros on the solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
University
8%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business27
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise25
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise61
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about MariaDB?
The integration with other products is seamless.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MariaDB?
I have found the price of commercial MariaDB to be pretty steep, although not as high as Oracle. Customers often prefer the Community Edition because it's free.
What needs improvement with MariaDB?
The only potential area for improvement could be the pricing model, which might benefit from being more flexible or a bit cheaper.
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

Google, Wikipedia, Tencent, Verizon, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, Telefónica, Huatai Securities
Unilever, NHS 24, adidas Group, CHIO Aachen, Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited
Find out what your peers are saying about MariaDB vs. SAP HANA and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
868,759 professionals have used our research since 2012.