Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs ScyllaDB comparison

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB and ScyllaDB are leading competitors in the database management system category. Azure Cosmos DB seems to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive ecosystem for diverse use cases and vast API support, as highlighted in user reviews.

Features: Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB offers scalability, support for multiple data models, and real-time analytics capabilities. It also supports wide API options, including SQL, MongoDB, and Cassandra, and features like multi-region replication and flexible schema design. ScyllaDB stands out for its speed and reliability, especially in handling high-volume data ingestion, and it offers efficient resource consumption.

Room for Improvement: For Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, areas requiring improvement include complex query options, better integration with Microsoft components, and cost considerations. Users desire enhanced API compatibility and more intuitive querying features. ScyllaDB users note the setup's complexity, challenges in handling deletions, and a need for improvements in transaction handling and documentation.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB primarily operates in public cloud environments, simplifying deployment through Azure’s managed services, though its customer service receives mixed feedback about responsiveness. ScyllaDB offers on-premises and hybrid deployment options, requiring more technical expertise, with users appreciating the direct support from ScyllaDB’s team but suggesting improvements in response time.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB uses a pay-as-you-go model perceived as complex and sometimes costly for large-scale operations. However, careful resource management can provide value through its comprehensive features and scalability. ScyllaDB is noted for potentially higher expenses due to computing resources and setup complexity, but both databases offer ROI via efficient data processing and scalability, with cost considerations varying based on specific enterprise needs.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. ScyllaDB Report (Updated: July 2025).

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. ScyllaDB

July 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

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Ranking in NoSQL Databases

3rd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

102

Ranking in other categories

Database as a Service (DBaaS) (6th), Managed NoSQL Databases (1st), Vector Databases (1st)

ScyllaDB

Ranking in NoSQL Databases

2nd

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the NoSQL Databases category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is 5.1%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ScyllaDB is 10.0%, down from 10.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

NoSQL Databases

Featured Reviews

MichaelJohn

Director | Data & AI at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

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.

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Uttam Giri

Lead Network Engineer at First Orion

Offers encryption and supports APIs, making it great for distributed systems

The best features of ScyllaDB are how it synchronizes data and its failover system. There's a unique formula to decide the number of nodes you need and the minimum required, which I find helpful. It also offers encryption and supports APIs, making it great for distributed systems and scaling databases across different regions. While it's easy to use, having prior experience helps configure it properly. There are many configurations; if you don't understand them, you might mess up the design. So, understanding your system's needs, like whether it requires more read or write operations, is crucial for setting up the correct configuration.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is one of the simpler databases to work with in terms of code management, tracking, and debugging due to its straightforward data storage and retrieval mechanisms."

"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is a good solution for distributed application requirements. We can perform multi-modeling."

"The solution is used because we get faster response times with large data sets than with SQL."

"The product has a lot of useful features that are there and ready to use, it's also very easy to use."

"The most valuable aspect of Cosmos DB is its performance."

"The global synchronization feature of Azure Cosmos DB stands out as the most valuable for me."

"Cosmos DB has helped us by providing faster response times for everything, which significantly improved our search results quality."

"I truly recommend Cosmos DB because it is a serverless product."

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB pros

"The performance aspects of Scylla are good, as always... A good point about Scylla is that it can be used extensively."

"The best features of ScyllaDB are how it synchronizes data and its failover system. There's a unique formula to decide the number of nodes you need and the minimum required, which I find helpful. It also offers encryption and supports APIs, making it great for distributed systems and scaling databases across different regions. While it's easy to use, having prior experience helps configure it properly. There are many configurations; if you don't understand them, you might mess up the design. So, understanding your system's needs, like whether it requires more read or write operations, is crucial for setting up the correct configuration."

"ScyllaDB is very fast, and I can use it for so many things."

"The performance and scalability are good, and we hardly see any major issues with ScyllaDB."

"ScyllaDB allows fine-tuning of the table structure. Speed is probably the most critical factor because we perform a lot of heavy data ingestion. One of its core features is its ability to handle high volumes and maintain speed when accessing data. Additionally, high availability and partitioning are built-in features of ScyllaDB."

"The product's most valuable features are efficiency and reliability."

"Firstly, if I update something, it's most likely to finish within milliseconds."

"I like how fast it is to query data from the ScyllaDB node!"

More ScyllaDB pros

Cons

"For streaming platforms, Azure Cosmos DB could improve efficiency in data storage. Indexing can also be better. Enhanced capabilities are necessary to manage increased data amounts more effectively during searches."

"The topic of RU consumption needs better documentation. Now that Microsoft has partnered with different LLM organizations, such as OpenAI, a bot could guide us through different metrics present in Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB."

"The size of the continuation token in Azure Cosmos DB should be static rather than increasing with more data, as it can lead to application crashes."

"Azure Cosmos DB is generally a costly resource compared to other Azure resources. It comes with a high cost."

"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB's pricing model is complicated, which people don't understand."

"Currently, it doesn't support cross-container joins, forcing developers to retrieve data from each container separately and combine it using methods like LINQ queries."

"I am disappointed with the lack of compatibility of the Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB emulator with Mac."

"The biggest problem is the learning curve and other database services like RDS."

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB cons

"The documentation of Scylla is an area with shortcomings and needs to be improved."

"From a sales pitch standpoint, it needs to deliver on promises of better ROI and compaction."

"Some of the regular commands in NoSQL do not work."

"It seems we have better options available. So probably don't go for ScyllaDB. The reason is, first, it's very high. It's not as straightforward as, like, Postgres or ClickHouse to set up. It requires a complex setup."

"ScyllaDB needs to improve its handling of transactions."

"Data export, along with how we can purchase the data periodically, needs to be improved so that the storage is within control. Then, we could optimize it even better."

"The product needs to add more features and improve the response time of the support team."

"We faced several challenges while integrating ScyllaDB into our AWS environment. One common issue was that a security port wasn’t opened on one node, preventingdata synchronization across clusters. We noticed the data wasn’t syncing correctly when we saw different record counts in other regions. After investigating, we found that the port was closed in one AWS region. Once we opened the port, the data synchronization across all nodes resumed as expected."

More ScyllaDB cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If you are a small organization or startup building from scratch without the Microsoft Startup Founder Club support, it could be expensive."

"The pricing for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is good. 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."

"Microsoft provides fair pricing."

"Its pricing is higher compared to solutions like Aerospike. However, it is justified because of the out-of-the-box features that are provided. The availability and resiliency that we have make it worth the price."

"The tool is not expensive."

"The pricing model of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is a bit complex."

"From a startup point of view, it appears to be expensive. If I were to create my startup, it would not have the pricing appeal compared to the competition, such as Supabase. All those other databases are well-advertised by communities. I know there is a free tier with Azure Cosmos DB. It is just not well advertised."

"When we've budgeted for our resources, it's one of the more expensive ones, but it's still not very expensive per month."

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB pricing and cost advice

"It's free."

"It is an expensive tool compared to its competitor."

"I believe that there is a yearly licensing cost and that it's expensive."

"It's a bit expensive."

"The paid version of ScyllaDB is not that expensive. The main advantage of the paid version is direct support from the ScyllaDB team, which can resolve issues faster—typically within a day, compared to two to three days with the free version. The paid version also offers better guidance and support, while the free version has good documentation and is more high-level. I’d rate their support team nine out of ten because of the quick responses from their community."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Legal Firm

13%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Comms Service Provider

Hospitality Company

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Scylla?

The enterprise version comes with a cost of about $300,000 per year, however, we did not experience the promised compaction benefits.

What needs improvement with Scylla?

From a sales pitch standpoint, it needs to deliver on promises of better ROI and compaction. Additionally, ticketing and support systems could be improved due to the time it takes to get answers. T...

What is your primary use case for Scylla?

We dump a lot of our data, such as every entry created with respect to when a user rides a scooter, every record gets updated to ScyllaDB. It is used as a single source of truth and it manages mass...

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Product Reports

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

August 2025

Download Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB product report

Download ScyllaDB product report

July 2025

Also Known As

Microsoft Azure DocumentDB, MS Azure Cosmos DB

No data available

Overview

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is a globally distributed, multi-model database service providing scalability, user-friendliness, and seamless integration, suitable for managing large volumes of structured and unstructured data across diverse applications.

Azure Cosmos DB is renowned for its scalability, stability, and ease of integration, offering robust support for multiple data models and APIs. Its capacity for handling unstructured data efficiently and providing real-time analytics makes it ideal for applications requiring high performance and global distribution. With features like automatic failover and integration with Microsoft products, users benefit from cost optimization and secure data handling. Enhancement opportunities include simplifying queries, improving documentation, and expanding backup and analytics functionalities.

What are the most important features of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?

Scalability and Autoscaling: Efficiently handles growing data and user demands.
Multi-Model Support: Adapts to different data models seamlessly.
Global Distribution: Provides low-latency access across multiple regions.
Automatic Failover: Ensures high availability and reliability.
Integration with Microsoft Products: Offers seamless connectivity with Azure services.

What benefits should users look for in Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB reviews?

Performance and Speed: Exceptionally fast processing for real-time data analytics.
Cost Optimization: Tools for managing expenses effectively.
Secure Data Handling: Implements strong data security measures.
Flexible Data Ingestion: Supports diverse data ingestion methods.

Azure Cosmos DB is frequently used in sectors like web, mobile, IoT, and analytics. It supports applications as a key-value store, processes real-time data, and enables global scalability with low-latency access. Its big data management capabilities and integration with Azure services enhance its utility across industries.

Microsoft

ScyllaDB is an open-source, distributed NoSQL wide-column datastore (a highly scalable NoSQL database), known for its compatibility with Apache Cassandra, and for supporting the same protocols as Cassandra (CQL and Thrift) and the same file formats (SSTable). ScyllaDB is designed for high throughput and low latency, making it suitable for data-intensive applications. Its architecture allows it to deliver remarkable performance on a massive scale, utilizing modern multi-core servers to their fullest potential

ScyllaDB utilizes a similar architecture, data format, and query language as Apache Cassandra, providing compatibility while dramatically improving speed and scalability.

The key advantages of ScyllaDB include its rewritten C++ implementation that eliminates Cassandra's expensive Java garbage collection pauses, built-in caching for fast access to frequently used data, and shard-aware drivers for direct routing of requests. This enables it to fully leverage modern multi-core servers for massive parallelism. The community is active and the latest major release, ScyllaDB Enterprise 2023.1.0 LTS, incorporates over 5,000 code commits focused on enhancing capabilities.

ScyllaDB supports wide-column data modeling for fast read performance at scale. It includes integrated monitoring and management tools to track database health and performance. For organizations looking to boost speed and reduce costs for NoSQL workloads, ScyllaDB offers a drop-in replacement for Cassandra that delivers lower latency, higher throughput, and increased scalability with fewer nodes. Its seamless migration path makes switching from Cassandra seamless, requiring minimal code changes.

Sample Customers

TomTom, KPMG Australia, Bosch, ASOS, Mercedes Benz, NBA, Zero Friction, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Kinectify

IBM, Investing.com, mParticle, Comcast, GE, Fanatics, Ola, CERN, adgear, Samsung