Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs SAP HANA Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 28, 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

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
109
Ranking in other categories
NoSQL Databases (2nd), Managed NoSQL Databases (1st), Vector Databases (1st)
SAP HANA Cloud
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
10th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
3.3
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is 4.1%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP HANA Cloud is 1.6%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database as a Service (DBaaS) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB4.1%
SAP HANA Cloud1.6%
Other94.3%
Database as a Service (DBaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2724105 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Director of Product Management at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Provides super sharp latency, excellent availability, and the ability to effectively manage costs across different tenants
For integrating Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB with other Azure products or other products, there are a couple of challenges with the current system. Right now, the vectors are stored as floating-point numbers within the NoSQL document, which makes them inefficiently large. This leads to increased storage space requirements, and searching through a vast number of documents in the vector database becomes quite costly in terms of RUs. While the integration works well, the expense associated with it is relatively high. I would really like to see a reduction in costs for their vector search, as it is currently on the expensive side. The areas for improvement in Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB are vector pricing and vector indexing patterns, which are unintuitive and not well described. I would also like to see the parameters of Fleet Spaces made more powerful, as currently, it's somewhat lightweight. I believe they've made those changes intentionally to better understand the cost model. However, we would like to take a more aggressive approach in using it. One of the most frustrating aspects of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB right now is that you can only store one vector per document. Additionally, you must specify the configuration of that vector when you create an instance of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB. Once the database is set up, you can't change the vector configuration, which is incredibly limiting for experimentation. You want the ability to try different settings and see how they perform, as there are numerous use cases for storing more than one vector in a document. While interoperability within the vector database is acceptable—for example, I can search for vectors—I still desire a richer set of configuration options.
reviewer2686500 - PeerSpot reviewer
SAP BI Architect at a government with 10,001+ employees
Flexibility and performance meet real-time analytics but documentation needs improvement
Currently, we don't have any AI-driven features, but that's something we are exploring. SCC is one of the computers, and we are looking into Machine Learning and predictive analytics from the user-base perspective. Regarding SAP HANA Cloud, one significant pain point is the lack of access to the database from the HANA Studio for developers. HANA Studio allows us to work with tables, whereas with SAP HANA Cloud, there isn't direct visibility of any tables. Documentation is another concern. There isn't much documentation compared to what we used to get in the past, including best practices. In the last few years, their documentation has not been up to the mark at all.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The searching capability is exceptional. It is very simple and incomparable to competitors."
"I appreciate Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB's robust document management and consistent availability."
"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is fast, and its performance is good compared to normal SQL DB."
"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB has helped decrease my company's total cost of ownership; it's easier because we have less to maintain, we're not trying to set up multiple SQL servers with replication and everything, and centralization helps a lot."
"Cosmos DB has helped us by providing faster response times for everything, which significantly improved our search results quality."
"It is non-SQL and helps to manage and manipulate data from the coding, rather than direct data and complex queries."
"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB offers exceptional stability, boasting a reliability rating of 99.95 percent."
"Our customer is very satisfied with it."
"SAP HANA Cloud provides a single version of truth, automation, intelligence, process control, and best practices."
"Using SAP HANA Cloud, we can replicate the data into HANA and use live data, which improves our business decision-making."
"I would rate SAP HANA Cloud nine to ten out of ten."
"From my perspective, the best features of SAP HANA Cloud are that it's an ERP system connecting all departments together, making it a very smooth software for business operations."
"The real-time analytics feature is good; there is no doubt about it."
"The best features of SAP HANA Cloud are that its software is effective because it has tight integration between other functions, such as finance, materials, and sales."
"The solution has integrated many different value chains across the organization, as previously there were multiple systems managing those value chains."
 

Cons

"The initial setup was difficult."
"Because there is no local way of doing things, Azure Cosmos DB will always be considered expensive."
"What is missing in Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is definitely cold storage. We know it's coming, but that's currently what is missing—the possibility to park older data in a cold tier."
"It is not as easy to use as DynamoDB."
"Continuing to educate customers on how they can take better advantage of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB without having to completely rewrite their entire application paradigm would be beneficial."
"I would like to see Cosmos DB introduce a feature that would convert machine language to human-readable queries."
"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 more cost-effective."
"The tool's pricing is expensive."
"SAP HANA Cloud requires extensive documentation before connecting with a human being to troubleshoot an issue."
"Regarding SAP HANA Cloud, one significant pain point is the lack of access to the database from the HANA Studio for developers."
"The technical support from SAP is inadequate. We don't get timely responses, with support tickets taking more than 25 days to process."
"I see some weaknesses in SAP HANA Cloud regarding innovations, as they take their own time compared to what the market brings in with new features."
"In future updates of SAP HANA Cloud, I would suggest some changes in the user interfaces to make it more user-friendly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is cost-effective. They offer two pricing models. One is the serverless model and the other one is the vCore model that allows provisioning the resources as necessary. For our pilot projects, we can utilize the serverless model, monitor the usage, and adjust resources as needed."
"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is moderately priced, where it is neither expensive nor cheap."
"The pricing for Cosmos DB has improved, particularly with the new pricing for Autoscale."
"Cosmos DB is a PaaS, so there are no upfront costs for infrastructure. There are only subscriptions you pay for Azure and things like that. But it's a PaaS, so it's a subscription service. The license isn't perpetual, and the cost might seem expensive on its face, but you have to look at the upkeep for infrastructure and what you're saving."
"Azure is a pay as you go subscription."
"There is a licensing fee."
"Its price is very good for the basic stuff. When you go to a more complicated use case, especially when you need replication and availability zones, it gets a little costly."
"Everything could always be cheaper. I like that Cosmos DB allows us to auto-scale instead of pre-provisioning a certain capacity. It automatically scales to the demand, so we only pay for what we consume."
Information not available
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Database as a Service (DBaaS) solutions are best for your needs.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Legal Firm
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business33
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise58
No data available
 

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?
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB's pricing model has aligned with my budget expectations because I can tune the RU as I need to, which helps a lot. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB's dynamic auto-scale or server...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
I have not utilized Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB multi-model support for handling diverse data types. I'm not in the position to decide if clients will use Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB or any other datab...
What needs improvement with SAP HANA Cloud?
In future updates of SAP HANA Cloud, I would suggest some changes in the user interfaces to make it more user-friendly.
What is your primary use case for SAP HANA Cloud?
SAP HANA Cloud is used in many different organizations such as retail, manufacturing, and pharmacy; most businesses can use SAP HANA Cloud.
What advice do you have for others considering SAP HANA Cloud?
I am satisfied with SAP HANA Cloud and don't see any room for improvement. I don't use SAP HANA Cloud's machine learning feature at this moment. Currently, we don't use SAP HANA Cloud's ability to ...
 

Also Known As

Microsoft Azure DocumentDB, MS Azure Cosmos DB
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

TomTom, KPMG Australia, Bosch, ASOS, Mercedes Benz, NBA, Zero Friction, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Kinectify
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. SAP HANA Cloud and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.