Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service comparison

Microsoft and Oracle are both solutions in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category. Microsoft is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.6, while Oracle is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.7. Microsoft holds a 13.0% mindshare in DS, compared to Oracle’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of Oracle users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Read 118 Microsoft Azure SQL Database reviews

3,204 Views
3,172 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Oracle Exadata Express Clou...

Read 12 Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service reviews

417 Views
150 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Oracle Exadata Express Clou...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 12, 2024

Microsoft Azure SQL Database and Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service are two prominent cloud-based database solutions. Microsoft Azure SQL Database appears to have the upper hand in pricing and deployment based on user reviews, while Oracle Exadata is recognized for its superior features that justify its higher cost.

Features: Microsoft Azure SQL Database offers scalability, integration with Microsoft tools, and AI-driven performance insights. Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service stands out with robust analytics, high availability, and extensive support for complex queries.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Azure SQL Database users suggest improvements in automated backups, advanced query optimization, and better user interface design. Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service users express the need for a more user-friendly setup process, better documentation, and enhanced customer support options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Azure SQL Database is praised for its simpler, faster deployment process and responsive support. Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service, although having a steeper learning curve and slower deployment times, provides knowledgeable support.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Azure SQL Database is generally viewed as cost-effective with straightforward pricing and positive ROI. Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service, while more expensive, is considered worth the investment by users who need its advanced capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs. Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs. Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service

September 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 SQL Database

Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)

2nd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

118

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Oracle Exadata Express Clou...

Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)

10th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is 13.0%, down from 18.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service is 1.0%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Database as a Service (DBaaS) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Azure SQL Database	13.0%
Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service	1.0%
Other	86.0%

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

Featured Reviews

Charley Hanania

Data Platform Specialist at QS2 AG - Quality Software Solutions

It is very easy to implement, manage, and offers great insights into what is happening inside the engine

Microsoft Azure SQL Database is integrated into other Azure capabilities and has a great foundation being on SQL Server with a long history of security, performance, and usability from a DBA perspective. Once you've set up a server, adding databases is easy. There's a minor challenge with having data in separate databases that you want to connect like we do on premises. I'm looking forward to using some of these new AI-driven functions that have come out around vectorization. Having the data closer to my transactional databases or data makes it easy to augment and enhance the Database and applications I currently use. It's great that Azure SQL now seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Fabric. It's a first-tier service in the cloud that connects to web applications and other databases. The data transformation orchestration capabilities within Database Factory and similar capabilities make it effortless to move that stuff forward.

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Shrikant Navelkar

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.

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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

"The most valuable aspect of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is its accessibility."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that our customers do not have to manage the solution."

"Azure SQL Database is very quick and easy to use."

"It has significantly streamlined our disaster recovery plans, making it much more straightforward to spin up new instances as opposed to setting up a new VM with all necessary packages. The normal cost of our VMs with storage has been significantly reduced."

"Its cost benefit is most valuable because you are charged per data unit instead of licensing. You can easily migrate your on-premise SQL to the cloud with a managed instance. That's what it is designed to do. It is easy to take your on-premise or older SQL instance and move it to the cloud. It makes it easy to get off your on-premise SQL and start utilizing the cost benefit of the cloud."

"Coding does not require much effort."

"Its easy usage is the most valuable."

"Emergency mode is quite useful."

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database pros

"I would rate Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service ten out of ten for its overall solution."

"The performance of the tool is valuable."

"It is a scalable product."

"In the cloud, Exadata is more scalable. The on-prem version was limited. It wasn't that scalable because it only came in a quarter rack, half rack, and full rack. In the cloud, it scales to what you need."

"The solution is very stable and offers great performance."

"I highly recommend Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service as a very good solution if you can afford it."

"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."

"I like that Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service is easier to use and is a cost-saving solution because you won't need to hire people to run and maintain it."

More Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service pros

Cons

"The customer support is hard to reach, with Microsoft’s technical support being difficult to get in touch with."

"Its automation can be improved. SQL Server Agent was a very big part of the on-prem tools. While moving from on-prem to the cloud, redoing some of such tools was very cumbersome in Azure. There was a whole new set of technologies and methodologies. It should have easier automation-type features to be able to implement such tools. It should have almost a SQL agent type of substance built into that."

"There are certain shortcomings when it comes to the stability of the product, especially if I consider the fact that there can always be some bug-related issues in the tool."

"They could improve Azure SQL by adding some of the features available on-prem, such as cross-database queries and the ability to run particular jobs. We need to migrate those to something else, like a function or logic app."

"The solution requires familiarity with its language so can be tricky."

"There are some limitations for cross-database queries and features. The migration of data from older systems should be easier. For deployment, there are too many options, which sometimes makes it difficult to figure out the best option. There is not enough information to help you to find the best option for deployment. There should be more documentation about this."

"Microsoft Azure SQL Database would benefit from enhanced documentation, along with ongoing improvements to scalability and cost-effectiveness."

"Some issues with scalability."

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database cons

"Oracle's support could be better."

"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 support must be faster."

"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."

"The solution's pricing could be improved."

"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."

"We use artificial intelligence for deep learning, and it would be a huge benefit to implement this in Oracle Exadata."

"The only downside is the difficulty in monitoring, and that's why I would like to implement MySQL database."

More Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"In terms of the cost, SQL Azure is a pay-per-use solution, particularly because it's a cloud subscription, so you pay as much as you use it."

"I find that they are relatively expensive, especially when compared to AWS, where the prices are notably lower."

"There is a license required to use the solution and it cost $30 to do the installation."

"The pricing is actually complicated, and that is probably one downside of it. In some respects, although we can plan for the costs on a month-by-month basis, we are finding it hard to project our costings for it. Fundamentally, Microsoft is offering two pricing models, and it is challenging to understand the differences between the two. We're basically on the DTU model at the moment. That may change in the future as the size grows, but it is one of those things that we'll end up monitoring as we progress. At the moment, to get a reasonable response, generally, the price is a little high for us, but it is one of those things for which we know that we can do improvements on our code. So, it is not just the service that's the problem; it is some of the things that we need to do as well."

"The solution is more cost-effective than Google BigQuery. Compared to Google BigQuery, downloading data can be more expensive."

"The price in general of Azure SQL could improve."

"I recommend considering a pay-as-you-go pricing model initially."

"With one being expensive and five being competitive, I would give the product a four out of five as it's relatively competitive. It is also important to note that pricing is based on usage."

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database pricing and cost advice

"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."

"The tool is not cheap, but it is not really expensive."

"I think Oracle pricing is usually above average market price."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	55
Midsize Enterprise	15
Large Enterprise	50

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	8

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SQL Azure?

The automated scalability feature of SQL Azure has proven to be highly beneficial, particularly when deployed in the cloud.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SQL Azure?

The pricing of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is not cheap, affecting user uptake. A gradual reduction in price could improve accessibility and user numbers, making it easier for users to adopt the s...

See all answers

What needs improvement with SQL Azure?

I have used the Microsoft Azure SQL Database for two years now, and I don't find it satisfactory. It's slow and expensive. The Microsoft Azure SQL Database is not the latest version of Microsoft SQ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service?

The performance of the tool is valuable.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service?

See all answers

Comparisons

Google Cloud SQL vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 27% of the time

Amazon RDS vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 20% of the time

MongoDB Atlas vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 17% of the time

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 7% of the time

Oracle Database as a Service vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 6% of the time

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database Competitors

Oracle Database Appliance vs Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service

Compared 100% of the time

More Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure SQL Database

August 2025

Download Microsoft Azure SQL Database product report

Buyer's Guide

Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service

August 2025

Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service report

Download Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service product report

Overview

Microsoft Azure SQL Database is a relational database-as-a-service that delivers predictable performance, scalability, business continuity, data protection, and near-zero administration to cloud developers and solution architects. This is the deep technical library for Azure SQL Database.

Microsoft

Oracle Database Exadata Express Cloud Service delivers a managed Oracle Database 12c Release 2 Enterprise Edition with options, running on Oracle Exadata engineered systems – all at a highly affordable entry-level price. It is a full Oracle Database experience, compatible with what you get on-premises or in other Oracle Database Cloud Services, provisioned within minutes, and suitable for small to medium sized data.

Oracle

Sample Customers

adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH

TAFEL LEIPZIG, AS ONE

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs. Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service

September 2025

Free Report: Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs. Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service

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