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Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 12, 2024

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 SQL Database
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
138
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Oracle Exadata Express Clou...
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
12th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is 9.1%, down from 13.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service is 2.1%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database as a Service (DBaaS) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Azure SQL Database9.1%
Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service2.1%
Other88.8%
Database as a Service (DBaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

Matthew Parker - PeerSpot reviewer
Ai Team Lead at Phoenix Software
Integrates with familiar tools and supports reliable data storage for AI applications
Microsoft Azure SQL Database can be improved overall by being able to compete with some of the features that come from things such as PostgreSQL. From my team's perspective in terms of building AI applications, more native integrations with some of the newer AI data types, such as vectors for storing embeddings, would be beneficial. I think all of that is coming. It is just a big product, so I think it is naturally a little bit behind the curve. However, that is not necessarily a bad thing because a lot of customers, because it has been around for so long, they trust it and they are willing to wait until those features become available.
Shrikant Navelkar - PeerSpot reviewer
Director at Clover Infotech
Have achieved excellent performance and seamless integration with effective cost control in cloud solutions
When customers are migrating from Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service and need to remove some of their test and development environment, what happens in normal virtualization is that they can just switch it off, but in ExaCS, they need to terminate the entire thing. Most of the customers are not aware of this, so they keep spending money even if they want to shut down their UAT environment or development environment, so Oracle needs to make it simpler in terms of reducing the bill on ExaCS when customers want to shut down certain environments. Today, you have to terminate the entire VM, and only then your billing will stop. The only functionality I would expect from Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service is that if Oracle is able to support Oracle MySQL Enterprise also on Exadata, that will solve a lot of problems.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Transitioning from a traditional on-premise SQL database to Microsoft Azure SQL Database is beneficial because features such as auto-indexing allow us to scale during peak seasons and scale back on demand, which is very useful for handling our spiky peak traffic based on seasonal factors, avoiding the need to purchase more hardware as required with traditional setups."
"The scalability is probably the biggest feature that we are benefiting from by being in the cloud."
"We've cut costs by around 70 percent."
"In my current role, I consider SQL Azure the leader for cloud-based RDBMS solutions, far ahead of any other cloud-based RBMS offering."
"I rate Microsoft Azure SQL Database 10 out of 10."
"Its technical support team is good."
"I am very happy with this solution; right now, I don't think there is anything I would change."
"The main advantage of it is that there is no infrastructure cost; we don't have to host it here, and we can grow it or shrink it depending on the demand with no restraint on capacity."
"Exadata is a highly stable and mature solution."
"One of the most valuable parts of the solution is the high availability within the system and the performance enhancement without making any changes or fine-tuning the databases."
"The performance of the tool is valuable."
"Having the prediction happen in the modular format allows you to start with a lower version of Exadata and then you can keep on upgrading it as per your requirement."
"I highly recommend Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service as a very good solution if you can afford it."
"With this cloud service, a development team can get a database immediately, without long negotiation with other services."
"The solution is very stable and offers great performance."
"I would rate Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service ten out of ten for its overall solution."
 

Cons

"We need improvement in the latency between availability zones. The managed SQL MI does not allow us to control the zone it runs in, which affects latency."
"Support isn't that great. They need to work on this aspect of their service. It can be challenging to reach them."
"If the product could support applications requiring an SQL server for installation, by using SQL Azure as a backend, that would be useful."
"The concurrency between the amount of the transactional replications and the logging needs to be improved."
"Price definitely may be a negative point. As for most of cloud based solution, certain cost components as CPU and IO usage may cause extremely hi costs."
"In terms of improvement, making Microsoft Azure SQL Database faster would cater to big companies that require speed."
"The solution has to scale up its expertise for hosting Oracle."
"The problem is the automated configuration."
"The customer's default choice is the on-premise version of this solution. Only when Oracle or the partners like us, can explain to customers the cloud value proposition, and if the compliance authorities allow, they can look into this cloud solution. It will take some time for Oracle to change its perception of customers' de-facto standards. Exadata used to be treated as a black box, which is not the case now. The customer is aware of what is happening inside, how the configurations have been made, and what patching has been applied. Oracle needs to market the cloud version better."
"Scaling Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service can be done, but the process is a little tedious, which could be an area for improvement in the solution."
"We use artificial intelligence for deep learning, and it would be a huge benefit to implement this in Oracle Exadata."
"The product's installation process needs improvement. It could be more accessible."
"I feel there is a need for better integration with Google Maps and Google Earth. This is crucial for me in the geographical facilities of the environment."
"The solution's pricing could be improved."
"The only downside is the difficulty in monitoring, and that's why I would like to implement MySQL database."
"The support must be faster."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"SQL Azure is an expensive solution."
"We have a three-year contract. The cost was somewhere around $70-80,000 for the original deployment, which was about two years ago"
"If we use a smaller or free-sized Microsoft Azure SQL Database, it is extremely cost-effective and much cheaper than on-premise enterprise licenses, which are expensive."
"Offers options for paying the license on a yearly or a monthly basis."
"When you go with SQL Azure Database, you can create a small database, which is around $4 to $5 per month for development purposes."
"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"It is expensive for us. We are looking for something less expensive and thinking of migrating the whole system."
"It is expensive. Snowflake and PostgreSQL are cheaper than this. Google is also cheaper than Azure. Its licensing is on a pay-as-you-go basis. It is based on usage and storage."
"The tool is not cheap, but it is not really expensive."
"The price of this solution is very comparative to others on the market. There is no direct comparison between this solution and with something else because I do not see any other similar product."
"I think Oracle pricing is usually above average market price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Recruiting/Hr Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business62
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise65
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise8
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SQL Azure?
For pricing, it is a good benefit. You can decrease the price by approximately 25% or 30% maximum. It is a good opportunity for us. Software Assurance and Azure Hybrid Benefit is a good opportunity...
What needs improvement with SQL Azure?
This question is complicated. Some developers know the SQL language, but they are not database managers. They can develop with some queries, which is acceptable for us, but management of SQL engine...
What is your primary use case for SQL Azure?
We work in Azure on our applications. We work with SQL, Cosmos DB, PostgreSQL, and we work with some services: AKS, Kubernetes services, managed Kubernetes, which we use in our applications. We use...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service?
Oracle is quite expensive here in Brazil. Pricing is the primary challenge we face with Oracle.
What needs improvement with Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service?
When customers are migrating from Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service and need to remove some of their test and development environment, what happens in normal virtualization is that they can just...
What is your primary use case for Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service?
We have been implementing Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service for our customers for more than 10 to 12 years for our various customers through the on-premise Exadata offerings Oracle has.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH
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Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs. Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
914,322 professionals have used our research since 2012.