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Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs SingleStore 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
4th
Ranking in Vector Databases
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
109
Ranking in other categories
NoSQL Databases (2nd), Managed NoSQL Databases (1st)
SingleStore
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
11th
Ranking in Vector Databases
15th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is 3.9%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SingleStore is 3.0%, up from 1.3% 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 DB3.9%
SingleStore3.0%
Other93.1%
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.
reviewer2321985 - PeerSpot reviewer
Database Administrator at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Supports in-memory data types, storing data on RAM for high performance
For new customers, it's very tough to start. Their documentation isn't organized, and there's no online training available. SingleStore is working on it, but that's a major drawback. Also, technically, SingleStore needs more features on the SQL part. Most SQL boards work in MySQL, and SingleStore integrated all its sequel with MySQL, so nearly 99% of MySQL code runs on SingleStore. But features like TVF and UDL lack depth. Users have to walk into it, and SingleStore has minimal features there. IUDF, TVF, and stored procedures are not as advanced as SQL Server's. That's one thing I would like to see improved.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is scalable with multiple master files."
"It gives us a lot of flexibility. The scaling is instantaneous as well. You immediately have all the resources available."
"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is a Microsoft solution specifically, but we can develop with different developer kits for different databases."
"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."
"We chose Azure Cosmos DB initially because of the type of data that we needed to store. We have a schema that is very nondeterministic and flexible. It is always changing based on whatever data we need to acquire from different devices, so we needed a document store with a flexible schema."
"The dynamic autoscale or serverless model of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB has indeed helped reduce our costs and operational effort by allowing us to scale horizontally in a straightforward manner according to our needs."
"Cosmos is preferred because of its speed, robustness, and utilization."
"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is a good solution for distributed application requirements. We can perform multi-modeling."
"The paramount advantage is the exceptional speed."
"It's a distributed relational database, so it does not have a single server, it has multiple servers. Its architecture itself is fast because it has multiple nodes to distribute the workload and process large amounts of data."
"The product can automatically reinstall and reconfigure in case of a shutdown."
"The ability to store data in memory is a standout feature, enhanced by robust failover mechanisms."
"MemSQL supports the MySQL protocol, and many functions are similar, so the learning curve is very short."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to create pipelines, streamline and extract data from the pipelines."
 

Cons

"We should have more freedom to tweak it and make our own queries for non-traditional use-cases."
"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."
"There's a little bit of a learning curve because I was new to Azure. But once you learn the tool, it's pretty straightforward."
"The main area of improvement is the cost, as the expense is high. Also, when writing processes into Cosmos, sometimes the threshold is met, which can be a problem if developers have not written the code properly, limiting calls to five thousand. These aspects need addressing."
"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB's pricing model is complicated, which people don't understand."
"Cosmos DB should continue evolving in AI features. We expect Cosmos DB to lead on that. There is potential for improved security features, which is important for data storage, especially for Dell Technologies. We must ensure data security remains the top priority."
"The initial setup was difficult."
"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."
"It is not the optimal choice for direct data collection through queries, and it's more suited for aggregation tasks."
"We don't get good discounts in Pakistan."
"For new customers, it's very tough to start. Their documentation isn't organized, and there's no online training available. SingleStore is working on it, but that's a major drawback."
"Having the ability to migrate servers using a single command would be extremely beneficial."
"There should be more pipelines available because I think that if MemSQL can connect to other services, that would be great."
"Poor key distribution can significantly impact performance, requiring a backward approach in design rather than adding tables incrementally."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is cost-efficient as long as you understand the right setup to optimize usage. Knowing the data needs of the organization and adjusting the Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB usage accordingly helps save costs, but if you don't know, you could end up spending more than necessary."
"I would rate Cosmos DB's cost at seven out of ten, with ten being the highest."
"Pricing, at times, is not super clear because they use the request unit (RU) model. To manage not just Azure Cosmos DB but what you are receiving for the dollars paid is not easy. It is very abstract. They could do a better job of connecting Azure Cosmos DB with the value or some variation of that."
"Cosmos DB's pricing structure has significantly improved in recent months, both in terms of its pricing model and how charges are calculated."
"Azure is a pay as you go subscription."
"Because of the lack of understanding about RUs, the costs become unpredictable. It sometimes goes over the budget."
"Its cost is transparent. Pricing depends on the transaction and data size, but overall, it is cheaper compared to hosting it on your corporate network due to other factors like power consumption."
"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB's licensing costs are monthly."
"I would advise users to try the free 128GB version."
"They have two main options: cloud installation and bare-metal installation, each with different pricing models."
"SingleStore is a bit expensive."
"Using it for analytical purposes can be cost-effective in the long run, especially in terms of infrastructure."
"The product's licensing is not expensive. It is comparable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Legal Firm
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
31%
Computer Software Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business33
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise58
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Large Enterprise3
 

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SingleStore DB?
Using it for analytical purposes can be cost-effective in the long run, especially in terms of infrastructure. While building an on-premise cluster incurs an initial cost for servers with ample RAM...
 

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
400+ customers including: 6sense, Adobe, Akamai, Ant Money, Arcules, CARFAX, Cigna, Cisco, Comcast, DELL, DBS Bank, Dentsu, DirectlyApply, EY, Factors.AI, Fathom Analytics, FirstEnergy, GE, Goldman Sachs, Heap, Hulu, IMAX, impact.com, Kroger, LG, LiveRamp, Lumana, Nvidia, OpenDialog, Outreach, Palo Alto Networks, PicPay, RBC, Samsung, SegMetrics, Siemens, SiteImprove, SiriusXM, SK Telecom, SKAI, SONY, STC, SunRun, TATA, Thorn, ZoomInfo.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. SingleStore and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,310 professionals have used our research since 2012.