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MariaDB vs SAP HANA comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 19, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.3
MariaDB offers high ROI with cost savings, robust features, and community support enhancing functionality and flexibility.
Sentiment score
6.3
SAP HANA users saw financial and speed benefits, but mid-sized businesses faced mixed feelings about integration costs and challenges.
We do not feel we're getting value for the investment due to the additional resources needed for integration and maintenance.
Director of Infrastructure at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
SAP HANA is a cost-saving solution that helps save money and serves as a time-saving solution that helps save time.
Senior Manager at PwC
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.2
MariaDB customer service is praised for support but some rely on community resources or find response times slow.
Sentiment score
6.0
SAP HANA customer service is well-received but varies; improvements needed in response speed, solution accuracy, and expert access.
Compared to MongoDB, there are some platform deficiencies, but the support team shouldn't bear that burden.
Co-Founder at Vsigma IT Labs Pvt Ltd
The community support is better than the official SAP support.
SAP Analytics Lead at Miracle Software Systems, Inc
While issues are resolved eventually, the first level of support is not as good as we would like.
Sup-basis consultant at a security firm with 51-200 employees
When we raise a ticket for AWS or Azure issues, we find their support is very proactive, while SAP's support is quite passive.
Senior SAP Basis Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
MariaDB is generally scalable, though challenges in larger environments require manual configuration and specific setups for optimal performance.
Sentiment score
7.8
SAP HANA efficiently scales for various user loads, supports growing data, and manages enterprise transactions across industries.
Our operations have grown from a hundred data operations a day to as many in a couple of seconds.
Director of Infrastructure at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
There is enough scalability offered by SAP to meet our deployment needs.
Sup-basis consultant at a security firm with 51-200 employees
The scalability rating is based on the ability to expand.
Program manger at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
MariaDB is stable with minimal maintenance needed but clustering can be challenging; separation from other systems is advisable.
Sentiment score
7.8
SAP HANA is generally stable and reliable, but some users face occasional performance issues linked to external factors.
We haven't found issues with the stability of MariaDB.
Co-Founder at Vsigma IT Labs Pvt Ltd
We recently faced customer data loss during the cluster handover or failover fallback.
Senior SAP Basis Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
We have not had any problems in the last seven to eight years.
Sup-basis consultant at a security firm with 51-200 employees
Regarding stability, they are using legacy systems and have implemented SAP HANA.
SAP Analytics Lead at Miracle Software Systems, Inc
 

Room For Improvement

MariaDB needs enhancements in integration, scalability, performance, security, and features like clustering and materialized views for enterprise use.
SAP HANA faces criticism for high cost, complex deployment, resource limitations, and a challenging interface, affecting adoption and usability.
MariaDB is scalable and easy to scale.
Co-Founder at Vsigma IT Labs Pvt Ltd
The main issue is the ecosystem, which lacks the widespread support that SQL enjoys.
Director of Infrastructure at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
The setup process and deployment process for SAP HANA is complex.
Program manger at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Licensing costs with SAP HANA are very high.
SAP Analytics Lead at Miracle Software Systems, Inc
 

Setup Cost

MariaDB's open-source nature minimizes costs, offering free and paid versions, making it budget-friendly compared to Oracle.
SAP HANA's high pricing favors larger enterprises, requiring careful budgeting, with some opting for alternatives due to costs.
MariaDB is in the pricey range, especially for huge databases handling terabytes of data.
Co-Founder at Vsigma IT Labs Pvt Ltd
It's a recurring subscription model, which is expensive compared to legacy systems with just a maintenance fee.
Director of Infrastructure at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
SAP is not a cheap company, and its licenses are expensive.
Sup-basis consultant at a security firm with 51-200 employees
I would rate the price for SAP HANA as high.
Senior SAP Basis Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

MariaDB is favored for its open-source, speed, scalability, advanced features, compatibility, tech integration, and strong community support.
SAP HANA offers real-time analytics, integration, scalability, and a user-friendly interface, supporting large enterprises with efficient data handling.
Configuration, setup, and schema design are good features in MariaDB.
Co-Founder at Vsigma IT Labs Pvt Ltd
This architecture allows for faster data processing and real-time analytics that were not possible with traditional databases.
Director of Infrastructure at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
The concept enhances speed, allowing the database to serve and move data quickly.
Sup-basis consultant at a security firm with 51-200 employees
One of our dashboards using Excelsius was previously developed on normal BW on Oracle data, which took 10 minutes to open. After developing the same calculation views using those tables and replacing them with calculation views in Excelsius, the dashboard opened in seconds.
SAP Analytics Lead at Miracle Software Systems, Inc
 

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 (7th)
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 (2nd), Database Management Systems (DBMS) (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of MariaDB is 5.3%, down from 8.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP HANA is 8.3%, down from 11.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SAP HANA8.3%
MariaDB5.3%
Other86.4%
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

AB
Co-Founder at Vsigma IT Labs Pvt Ltd
Has supported web application data needs but requires design adjustments to manage complex queries efficiently
Complex queries in MariaDB where the query needs to parse thousands of lines or data values face some performance issues. For small and medium-size volume, it is pretty good. If it goes beyond certain data and complex queries, we see performance issues. We tried the advanced replication feature between different regions, replicating data specifically residing on MariaDB to two different regions of MariaDB data, and there were some technical snags in terms of slowness and longer processing time. Point-in-time recovery in MariaDB is good for small databases. When data volume increases beyond 5 GB or 10 GB per day or runs into double-digit GBs, we found some performance issues. For data below 10 GB, it works fine. Performance is the primary focus area for MariaDB, particularly during transactions or complex query jobs where slow performance is observed. MariaDB is scalable and easy to scale.
HP
SAP Analytics Lead at Miracle Software Systems, Inc
Performs well with high database and reporting performance
We face difficulties replicating the AC DOCA table, which is a huge table, from S/4HANA to SAP HANA BAS, Business Application Studio, or HANA Studio using SLT. For developing Power BI reports using the AC DOCA table, we are replicating full data daily. We want to implement delta load, and while we used OData service for one client, the delta OData service link is not properly updating delta records. Licensing costs with SAP HANA are very high. Due to high pricing, many clients are moving from BW on SAP HANA and S/4HANA to Azure SQL. I have worked with several clients who have moved all data flows to Azure and developed Power BI queries on top of Azure. Many clients are also using Google Cloud Platform (GCP). The certification costs are also very high, more than ₹1,40,000 INR. Previously, it was ₹30,000 to ₹40,000. I want to pursue three certifications but am unable to do so due to the cost.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
11%
University
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

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?
MariaDB is in the pricey range, especially for huge databases handling terabytes of data. The cost depends on the volume of data and different features enabled during configuration, such as backup ...
What needs improvement with MariaDB?
Complex queries in MariaDB where the query needs to parse thousands of lines or data values face some performance issues. For small and medium-size volume, it is pretty good. If it goes beyond cert...
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: December 2025.
879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.