MariaDB vs SAP IQ comparison

MariaDB and SAP are both solutions in the Relational Databases Tools category. MariaDB is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.8, while SAP is ranked #26 with an average rating of 6.8. MariaDB holds a 5.9% mindshare in SQL, compared to SAP’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of MariaDB users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of SAP users who would recommend it.

MariaDB

Read 59 MariaDB reviews

6,264 Views
3,884 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

SAP IQ

Read 23 SAP IQ reviews

1,076 Views
452 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

MariaDB

SAP IQ

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

SAP IQ and MariaDB are key players in the database domain, focusing on business intelligence and cloud applications respectively. SAP IQ appears stronger for enterprise-level data warehousing with its advanced column-based technology, while MariaDB's strengths in ease of use and cost-efficiency make it a popular choice for cloud deployments.

Features: SAP IQ leverages its column-based architecture, offering high compression and rapid query performance, essential for business intelligence tasks and large-scale data environments. With advanced indices and patented technologies, it stands out in performance management. On the other hand, MariaDB is valued for its open-source nature, ease of use, and reliable replication modes, making it suitable for flexible cloud and application development environments.

Room for Improvement: SAP IQ can enhance its marketing and documentation to boost visibility and adoption while improving backup and Hadoop integration. Its enterprise integration could also be matured. MariaDB would benefit from better complex query support, replication, and scaling capabilities. Enhanced automated optimization and integration with BI tools could yield additional value.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SAP IQ traditionally favors on-premises deployment with some public cloud support, and customer service has mixed reviews with noted gaps in technical expertise. MariaDB offers versatile deployment options across on-premises, public, and hybrid clouds, with generally satisfactory customer support driven by a strong open-source community, although response time improvements are desirable.

Pricing and ROI: SAP IQ is perceived as having a high upfront cost with valuable features offering substantial returns for large-scale operations, aided by hardware savings. Its pricing structure can be intricate, requiring careful review. In contrast, MariaDB presents a cost-effective, open-source model appealing to budget-conscious organizations with no licensing fees, resulting in a favorable ROI supported by active community engagement.

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

Buyer's Guide

MariaDB vs. SAP IQ

September 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

MariaDB

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

4th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Open Source Databases (4th)

SAP IQ

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

26th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Warehouse (14th)

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of MariaDB is 5.9%, down from 9.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP IQ is 1.0%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Relational Databases Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
MariaDB	5.9%
SAP IQ	1.0%
Other	93.1%

Relational Databases Tools

Featured Reviews

KumarManish

Senior Technical Manager at Johnson Controls, Inc.

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.

Read full review

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

"There is the need for a robust IDE for MongoDB. The existing PHP admin console doesn't meet the client's requirements effectively."

"MariaDB is a fast and flexible tool."

"A valuable feature is that we can use it for quite a few things, all the things you'd expect from a server—along the lines of Linux's Lightweight Directory."

"It delivers fast processing times, particularly for frequent select queries and insert/update operations."

"MariaDB is stable and the initial setup is straightforward."

"Installation is straightforward."

"It is an absolutely stable solution."

"The solution is very stable. It was originally built under MySQL. It has a similar level of stability."

More MariaDB pros

"The feature I appreciate the most about SAP IQ is the compression, which is very good; we cannot compare with any other type of EDW."

"SAP IQ is actually quite effective when it comes to scalability; we have a setup that's built with multiple servers involved and that seems to be working fairly efficiently, and if we wanted to add more servers into this entire setup, that would be fairly easy."

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

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

"Unbeatable speed and compression with a colummn-structured relational database."

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

"Columnar storage allows high compression, high load rates and high query performance."

"The initial setup is easy."

More SAP IQ pros

Cons

"We'd like more data intelligence."

"The dashboard and pricing need improvement."

"Could have more integration with user platforms."

"The license should be cheaper and closer to that offered by MySQL, Oracle and other products."

"I would like to see a better user interface which would make the tool less complex."

"Master-master replication is something that needs to be simplified."

"There could be a command-line prompt for repairing the database and fixing indexes, similar to what was available in the old MyISAM storage engine."

"When we have had issues with accidental computer shutdown or a power outage, our MariaDB database was corrupted."

More MariaDB cons

"There is very little documentation available."

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

"The downside I see is that it doesn't allow most integrated backups; many of the marketplace players such as NetBackup or Veritas, those software integrated backups are not available."

"Concurrency and functional error messaging."

"In my interaction with SAP IQ's technical support, the people we are talking to don't know this application very thoroughly."

"The only negative aspect of IQ is the cost, which can be challenging for companies in Peru."

"The solution works best when combined with other SAP solutions. If the environment has other systems other options might be better."

More SAP IQ cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is an open-source solution."

"MariaDB is available for free."

"MariaDB is open-source and self-hosted."

"This is an open source solution with no licensing fees."

"We use the solution's free version."

"It is free of charge."

"The price could be less expensive."

"I used the open-source version, which is available free of charge."

More MariaDB pricing and cost advice

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

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

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

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

"Negotiation is very important."

"Negotiate based on the features required."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

36%

Outsourcing Company

Comms Service Provider

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	26
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	25

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	15

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about MariaDB?

The integration with other products is seamless.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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?

When it comes to SAP IQ, the areas that could be improved or enhanced include the error messaging and the locking capabilities, as that's where we often encounter problems. When there is an issue, ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SAP IQ?

Our usual use cases for SAP IQ is that we have a Software-as-a-Service architecture where this database is the foundation for our SAP BusinessObjects platform. This is where it's getting its data f...

See all answers

Comparisons

Firebird SQL vs MariaDB

Compared 23% of the time

SQL Server vs MariaDB

Compared 22% of the time

PostgreSQL vs MariaDB

Compared 13% of the time

MySQL vs MariaDB

Compared 9% of the time

Oracle Database vs MariaDB

Compared 8% of the time

More MariaDB Competitors

Snowflake vs SAP IQ

Compared 19% of the time

SAP HANA vs SAP IQ

Compared 17% of the time

SQL Server vs SAP IQ

Compared 14% of the time

SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise vs SAP IQ

Compared 8% of the time

OpenText Analytics Database (Vertica) vs SAP IQ

Compared 8% of the time

More SAP IQ Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

MariaDB

August 2025

Download MariaDB product report

Buyer's Guide

SAP IQ

August 2025

Download SAP IQ product report

Also Known As

No data available

Sybase IQ

Overview

MariaDB is an open source relational database created by the original founders of MySQL. It is considered one of the most popular and trusted database servers throughout the world. MariaDB is a valued component found in most cloud offerings and is the default in many Linux tools. It is also widely used by Wikipedia, WordPress, and Google, among other well-known sites. Maria DB easily melds data into concise information from a vast array of applications, such as banking, online shopping, websites, and more.

MariaDB was originally created to improve MySQL performance. It is the most widely chosen database server due to the solution being super fast, robust, user-friendly, and easily scalable. MariaDB also offers a substantial ecosystem of plugins, storage engines, and numerous other valuable tools that make it very attractive for a significant offering of use cases.

The solution’s newest functionalities include compatibility with Oracle Database and Temporal Data Tables, and advanced clustering with Galera Cluster 4, which make it easier for users to research data history from any point in the past. Additionally, the most recent versions include JSON and GIS features. MariaDB is committed to staying an open source solution.

MariaDB Features

More storage: MariaDB works with more storage engines than MySQL and most other database servers available. Some storage options include, but are not limited to ARCHIVE, MERGE, CSV, MEMORY, BLACKHOLE, MyISAM, ColumnStore, MyRocks, and Cassandra.
Super fast: MariaDB offers faster authentication checks. The FlushSSL permits SSL certificates to be reloaded without a server restart, resulting in huge time savings.
Improved testing: MariaDB offers an extending testing suite that runs faster and can test more than ever before. Bugs can be easily fixed and invalid tests removed.
Genuinely open source: Every code in MariaDB is GPL, LGPL, or BSD. Client libraries [for Windows (ODBC), Java (JDBC), or C] allow linking to closed source software. All fixed bug cases and development plans are completely public. MariaDB is a community-developed solution representing the true spirit of open source products.

Reviews from Real Users

Faustine C., Engineering Supervisor- Corporate Data Solutions and Services at TZ Telecoms Corporation, shares, “The software provides a lot of information on what is happening inside the database. For most performance parameters it is easy to know if something is not right in the configuration or optimization which helps engineers take remedial fine-tuning measures. For example, if the database is underperforming it is easy to know which performance parameter can be adjusted to handle the workload. It is difficult to troubleshoot database issues if many performance parameters can not be monitored or debugged which is the case with some database management systems. It provides great monitoring of data storage, processing, and performance stability which is really important for real-time data storage and processing. It's a user-friendly product.”

A PeerSpot user who is a Senior Engineer at a tech services company relates, “ The solution's high availability is its most valuable aspect. We have found the product to be stable and the initial setup is pretty simple. I'd rate the solution at a ten out of ten. I'm very happy with it overall. I would recommend the solution to others. It's easy to find details about the product online and to learn about it.”

MariaDB

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

Google, Wikipedia, Tencent, Verizon, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, Telefónica, Huatai Securities

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

Buyer's Guide

MariaDB vs. SAP IQ

September 2025

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