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Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs Oracle Database as a Service 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.2
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB reduces total cost through dynamic scaling, eliminating dedicated admins, and offering global distribution efficiency.
Sentiment score
7.2
Oracle Database as a Service offers productivity and security benefits, despite high costs, with strong preference in regions like APAC.
Getting an MVP of that project would have taken six to eight months, but because we had an active choice of using Azure Cosmos DB and other related cloud-native services of Azure, we were able to get to an MVP stage in a matter of weeks, which is six weeks.
You can react quickly and trim down the specs, memory, RAM, storage size, etc. It can save about 20% of the costs.
When I have done comparisons or cost calculations, I have sometimes personally seen as much as 25% to 30% savings.
In Bangladesh, digital banking is becoming prominent within a couple of years, so all banking systems will be digital.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.7
Feedback on Azure Cosmos DB's support varies, highlighting fast assistance with premium plans but inconsistency and delays otherwise.
Sentiment score
8.3
Oracle Database support is responsive but needs better communication, efficiency, multilingual resources, and support team segmentation.
Premier Support has deteriorated compared to what it used to be, especially for small to medium-sized customers like ours.
The response was quick.
I would rate customer service and support a nine out of ten.
Oracle provides expert support globally, not just in South Asia -- also in Europe and America.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB offers scalable solutions with auto-scaling and partitioning, managing large workloads efficiently while reducing costs.
Sentiment score
6.6
Oracle Database as a Service is highly scalable, supporting numerous users and servers, but scaling costs could improve.
The system scales up capacity when needed and scales down when not in use, preventing unnecessary expenses.
We like that it can auto-scale to demand, ensuring we only pay for what we use.
We have had no issues with its ability to search through large amounts of data.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is highly stable, reliable, and globally robust, offering strong performance and low latency despite minor issues.
Sentiment score
7.1
Oracle Database as a Service is praised for its strong stability, reliability, and smooth integration, despite some scalability concerns.
We have multiple availability zones, so nothing goes down.
Azure Cosmos DB would be a good choice if you have to deploy your application in a limited time frame and you want to auto-scale the database across different applications.
I would rate it a ten out of ten in terms of availability and latency.
The solution is stable, resilient, and doesn't crash under pressure.
 

Room For Improvement

Azure Cosmos DB needs better cost models, performance, documentation, query capabilities, integration, analytics, security, and operational features.
Oracle Database as a Service needs complexity reduction, enhanced integration, improved usability, security, automation, and flexible licensing to boost adoption.
We must ensure data security remains the top priority.
You have to monitor the Request Units.
The dashboard could include more detailed RU descriptions, IOPS, and compute metrics.
With the advent of generative AI, adding functionality where current administrative activities could be automated would be beneficial.
It would be beneficial if Oracle could offer features similar to those provided by open-source platforms like Postgres, such as a multi-core-based platform and a shared node database.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB's pricing is complex yet flexible, offering scalability and cost-effectiveness with efficient resource management.
Oracle Database as a Service is costly, includes licenses and support, with high technical support quality but added fees.
Initially, it seemed like an expensive way to manage a NoSQL data store, but so many improvements that have been made to the platform have made it cost-effective.
Cosmos DB is expensive, and the RU-based pricing model is confusing.
Cosmos DB is great compared to other databases because we can reduce the cost while doing the same things.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB offers scalable, secure, and high-performance features with seamless integration, enhancing application efficiency and global user satisfaction.
Oracle Database as a Service is praised for its multitenancy, scalability, security, analytics, and seamless integration with Oracle applications.
The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is its real-time analytics capabilities, which allow for turnaround times in milliseconds.
Performance and security are valuable features, particularly when using Cosmos DB for MongoDB emulation and NoSQL.
The performance and scaling capabilities of Cosmos DB are excellent, allowing it to handle large workloads compared to other services such as Azure AI Search.
The encryption level, resilience, and secure features from both clients, particularly the resilience aspect of Oracle Database, are highly valuable.
The valuable features include availability, agility, and scalability.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
102
Ranking in other categories
NoSQL Databases (3rd), Managed NoSQL Databases (1st), Vector Databases (1st)
Oracle Database as a Service
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
68
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is 2.8%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Database as a Service is 9.1%, up from 8.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database as a Service (DBaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

MichaelJohn - PeerSpot reviewer
Very efficient for application-facing scenarios
There are several areas for improvement. Firstly, having a local development emulator or simulator for Azure Cosmos DB would be beneficial. It would be very handy to have a Docker container that developers can use locally. Although, I know there is a free tier and so on and so forth, having a local environment would be nice. For example, SQL Server is very portable. You can even install it on your machine. That is the number one thing that is missing in Azure Cosmos DB. The second improvement area is the IDE of choice. That means how you interact with Azure Cosmos DB. For example, with SQL Server, you have SQL Server Management Studio. I know there is a little bit of support for Azure Cosmos DB in Azure Data Studio, but it is not heavily advertised or it does not feel like first-class citizen support. Developer experience or developer tooling is missing in terms of interacting with the database. Better developer tools or an IDE for interacting with Azure Cosmos DB would enhance the developer experience. Lastly, there is some mixed messaging about what Azure Cosmos DB is, given its multiple APIs. There are so many Azure Cosmos DB APIs available. There is NoSQL. There are MongoDB, Gremlin, and others. There is still some mixed messaging for others who are new to Azure Cosmos DB about what Azure Cosmos DB is. Is this like MongoDB, but then there is also MongoDB in Azure Cosmos DB? I know it well, and I know that the default one is just NoSQL, but others I have interacted with over the last ten years or so get confused.
Duy AnhMai - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers security and good performance
Price-wise, the tool is expensive, and I feel it is an area where improvements are needed. Oracle Database as a Service is not as popular as other tools because we use AWS and GCP. Oracle is okay in terms of performance for banking businesses and some big companies. As I use the tool in Heineken, I know Oracle is an okay security solution. We use and deploy some applications and features from Oracle that are better than what others offer. The data in the tool is actually stored in the production part, so it is always kept a secret. I don't think that AI has been integrated into the tool. The AI used by Oracle is not as strong as that used by AWS. I recommend the tool to others, especially banking, finance, and insurance companies where the security needs to be better. There is maintenance for the tool required, but I don't know which company does it for our organization. I rate the tool a ten out of ten.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Legal Firm
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
22%
Computer Software Company
11%
Retailer
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
The initial setup is simple and straightforward. You can set up a Cosmos DB in a day, even configuring things like availability zones around the world.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
The pricing for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is good, but there is a developer factor to consider. It could be economical or expensive depending on usage. Guidance about query consumption of Request U...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
The only area Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB can improve on is its documentation; while it is solid and very useful, enhancements in the indexing documentation would help users save costs and make it mo...
What do you like most about Oracle Database as a Service?
It has significantly enhanced our application development process by introducing substantial time savings and streamlining routine tasks.
What needs improvement with Oracle Database as a Service?
With the advent of generative AI, adding functionality where current administrative activities could be automated would be beneficial. This would help accelerate processes.If we are able to add thi...
 

Also Known As

Microsoft Azure DocumentDB, MS Azure Cosmos DB
Oracle DBaaS, Oracle Database Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

TomTom, KPMG Australia, Bosch, ASOS, Mercedes Benz, NBA, Zero Friction, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Kinectify
Solution-Soft, DX Marketing, Suredell and Partners, Frontiers, SettleOurEstate.com, Demand Analysis Ltd, endlich IT & Projekt Service OHG
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. Oracle Database as a Service and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,140 professionals have used our research since 2012.