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Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service comparison

 

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
134
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Oracle Exadata Express Clou...
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
13th
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 May 2026, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is 9.9%, down from 15.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service is 1.8%, up from 0.4% 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 Database9.9%
Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service1.8%
Other88.3%
Database as a Service (DBaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

Thomas Sawyer - PeerSpot reviewer
Executive Director, Platform Architecture at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation – SMBC Group
Automatic tuning and multi-region availability have reduced manual workloads and improved performance management
The features of Microsoft Azure SQL Database that I like the most are easy scaling and high availability. I appreciate those features because it's easy to make Microsoft Azure SQL Database readily available in a multi-region infrastructure. Using Microsoft Azure SQL Database is very easy; it's much easier than SQL on-premise because I don't have to worry about deploying infrastructure, and I can rapidly deploy via infrastructure as code. I am using the automatic tuning feature in Microsoft Azure SQL Database. We are using the new feature of data encryption in Microsoft Azure SQL Database with customer-managed keys only. The reliability and stability of Microsoft Azure SQL Database platform are rock-solid; it's as good, if not better, than what our on-premise stability has been from an uptime perspective.
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

"Cost savings are the most valuable. The DR/high availability is also valuable. The failover group with the built-in DR/high availability features is probably one of the easiest things."
"The backup solution in Azure is great, the firewall settings in SQL are very easy to use and work very well. Additionally, the turning process is very good and has improved the SQL services and queries."
"The scalability is good, as we have 100 users and one can upgrade the system by performance and by the size of the storage, moving between different types of storage using block or docket in any way you choose without losing data, so the scalability is very good and we plan to increase our usage."
"Customers can benefit from a lot of cost savings if they go for Azure."
"That's why Microsoft has delivered their dream cloud promise with the zero cost alternative of community edition."
"I rate Microsoft Azure SQL Database nine out of 10."
"Azure Portal is most valuable."
"It is quick to set up and easy to scale."
"It is a scalable product."
"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."
"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."
"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 would rate Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service ten out of ten for its overall solution."
"What is most valuable about this solution is there is no comparative solution by any other vendors."
"Exadata is a highly stable and mature solution."
 

Cons

"The solution’s visibility could 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."
"Microsoft Azure SQL Database is one of those solutions that helps consolidate our infrastructure, though unfortunately it is not the only solution we use."
"We've had many concurrency issues with it, particularly with applications that do a lot of parallel processing."
"Service Broker should be added in Azure Cloud. Service Broker is currently available only in the on-premises version."
"If it's a transitional system, there is a lot of reporting, so the solution becomes a bit slow when it's churning out tons of data, but it's good for a mid-sized application"
"The pricing is actually complicated, and that is probably one downside of it."
"We've noticed an unexpected increase in the cost of running the server over the past few months."
"The solution's pricing could be improved."
"We use artificial intelligence for deep learning, and it would be a huge benefit to implement this in Oracle Exadata."
"Customer Service: I had no answer when asking why the Customer Support Identifier is invalid Technical Support: The Customer Support Identifier provided was invalid. This means that I had no support, unfortunately."
"The support must be faster."
"The customer's default choice is the on-premise version of this solution. Oracle needs to market the cloud version better."
"The only downside is the difficulty in monitoring, and that's why I would like to implement MySQL database."
"Oracle's support could be better."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have a three-year contract. The cost was somewhere around $70-80,000 for the original deployment, which was about two years ago"
"It is quite expensive. I would definitely recommend not using the pay-as-you-go model because this will just mean all your money will go to Microsoft. So, really make sure to control resource usage as much as possible."
"The cost is around $2,000 per month."
"It is expensive for us. We are looking for something less expensive and thinking of migrating the whole system."
"Microsoft Azure SQL Database is not cheap."
"SQL Azure is an expensive solution."
"There is a license required to use the solution and it cost $30 to do the installation."
"It only has a subscription-based license."
"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
15%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Recruiting/Hr Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Educational Organization
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business60
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise61
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?
I would say I am at a basic experience level with the pricing, setup costs and licensing because while I am the administrator for the service, I do not provision the services and worry about the co...
What needs improvement with SQL Azure?
I have no comments at the moment on how Microsoft Azure SQL Database can be improved. I have no comments on additional features that I would like to see released in the next release. I do not have ...
What is your primary use case for SQL Azure?
My main use cases for Microsoft Azure SQL Database are third-party applications.
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
TAFEL LEIPZIG, AS ONE
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs. Oracle Exadata Express Cloud Service and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.