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Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs Redis comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.7
Organizations using Azure SQL Database report cost savings, enhanced efficiency, and reduced data center needs with pay-per-use models.
Sentiment score
7.2
Redis enhances ROI by improving performance, reducing costs, increasing productivity, and ensuring reliable, scalable, and efficient service.
It is ensuring we receive what we pay for through the blend of price, performance, and features.
Senior Manager, Information Technology of Data Strategies at a hospitality company with 5,001-10,000 employees
If you're managing your own data center, you always have to overprovision your systems and pay for storage space you're not using.
Senior AI Specialist at Nedbank
We've reduced costs by about 20 percent after two or three years.
Azure Cloud Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
It improved API latency from two seconds to 450 milliseconds for P99.
Senior Software Developer at NIT
We reduced the database read load by around 30 to 40 percent and improved API response time by 20 to 30 percent, specifically for frequently accessed endpoints.
SDE 2 at Virtusa
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
Microsoft Azure SQL Database's customer service is effective but varies; larger accounts receive better support than smaller users.
Sentiment score
5.8
Redis is stable and reliable, with helpful support, strong documentation, and often minimal need for direct assistance.
Microsoft played a significant role, even from a training perspective, and provided resources that directed us toward the right deployment path.
Senior AI Specialist at Nedbank
Once I reach the right people, the support is incredibly knowledgeable and thorough.
CTO at 2W Technologies, INC
Microsoft provides excellent service and is always available to support us.
Sr. Principal Database at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The documentation and community support for Redis are very strong, making troubleshooting quicker.
Senior Software Developer at NIT
Since Redis is quite stable and well-documented, we have not needed much support, but when required, the response has been helpful.
SDE 2 at Virtusa
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.2
Microsoft Azure SQL Database offers flexible scalability, easy workload management, seamless tier transitions, and supports user expansion with robust infrastructure.
Sentiment score
7.8
Redis excels in horizontal and vertical scaling, offering clustering, sharding, and compatibility with Azure and AWS for enterprise adaptability.
Scaling the solution is incredibly simple and involves just clicking a button or dragging a slider.
Senior Manager, Information Technology of Data Strategies at a hospitality company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Azure's scalability features like Elasticity are essential.
Solutions Architect at ITCON SERVICES, LLC
Microsoft Azure SQL Database is cloud-based, so it's great for scaling workloads.
System Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Data migration and changes to application-side configurations are challenging due to the lack of automatic migration tools in a non-clustered legacy system.
Data Engineer at a photography company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I scale Redis horizontally using clustering and sharding, where data is distributed across multiple nodes to handle higher traffic and larger data sets.
Senior Software Developer at NIT
With features such as clustering and replication, it can handle high traffic and a large database very effectively.
SDE 2 at Virtusa
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
Microsoft Azure SQL Database is praised for reliability, excellent uptime, and improved performance, with minor latency issues reported.
Sentiment score
7.8
Redis is stable, handles heavy loads, offers high availability, and uses persistence mechanisms, making it a trusted choice.
We can't tell the difference between running on-prem or Azure because we no longer have those latency issues.
Senior AI Specialist at Nedbank
SQL never crashes or suddenly becomes unavailable.
Cloud Engineer at Med Tech Solutions
I would assess the reliability of Microsoft Azure SQL Database in terms of maintaining uptime and availability as being excellent with zero complaints.
Ai Team Lead at Phoenix Software
Redis is fairly stable.
Data Engineer at a photography company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Azure SQL Database needs enhanced security, scalability, clear pricing, better documentation, broader compatibility, and improved user interface and automation.
Redis users face challenges with scalability, GUI, documentation, security, and seek enhancements in monitoring, analytics, and multi-tenancy features.
It would be helpful if CPU performance were not pinned to the amount of storage you're using, and we could scale different properties of the Azure SQL database independently.
Azure Cloud Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
As a customer, I believe something which has been established, stable, and rugged for a very long time also needs cost optimization.
Assistant Vice President at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I could not get an accurate quote on what my monthly costs would be based on my needs.
Senior Manager, Information Technology of Data Strategies at a hospitality company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Data persistence and recovery face issues with compatibility across major versions, making upgrades possible but downgrades not active.
Data Engineer at a photography company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Redis itself does not enforce consistency with the primary database, so developers need to carefully design cache invalidation strategies.
Software Engineer at ValueMomentum
One issue is cache invalidation. Keeping cache data consistent with the source of truth can be tricky, especially in distributed systems.
Senior Software Developer at NIT
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Azure SQL Database offers flexible pricing but is perceived as moderately expensive, requiring careful budget considerations.
Redis pricing depends on memory, cluster size, and infrastructure, with higher costs than SQL due to RAM usage.
Azure Hybrid Benefit reduced costs by facilitating an easy transition of on-premises databases to the cloud.
Data Platform Specialist at QS2 AG - Quality Software Solutions
Microsoft Azure SQL Database is not cheap.
Software Architect at Dynaxti
It greatly reduces the total cost of ownership through efficient licensing depending on the client, the cost savings, and hybrid benefits.
Cloud Engineer at Med Tech Solutions
Since we use an open-source version of Redis, we do not experience any setup costs or licensing expenses.
Data Engineer at a photography company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The costs are primarily driven by memory consumption and cluster size, since Redis operates in-memory.
Senior Software Developer at NIT
The pricing is reasonable for the performance provided.
SDE 2 at Virtusa
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Azure SQL Database provides seamless scalability, dynamic resource management, high efficiency, and cost-effective integration with Microsoft applications.
Redis offers low latency, high throughput, and scalability with rich data structures, ideal for real-time applications and caching.
The simplicity in usability, along with improved organizational productivity where we no longer need to maintain on-premises SQL servers, is invaluable.
Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
The Software as a Service model is more effective and easier to access in terms of security, as Azure provides security at the security layer, reducing the risk of breach.
Specialist Datacenter and Server at IHS Towers
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.
Executive Director, Platform Architecture at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation – SMBC Group
It functions similarly to a foundational building block in a larger system, enabling native integration and high functionality in core data processes.
Data Engineer at a photography company with 1,001-5,000 employees
First is its in-memory preference, as Redis is extremely fast, making it ideal for caching and session management where low latency is critical.
Software Engineer at ValueMomentum
Real API latency improved from around two seconds to approximately 450 milliseconds for P99.
Senior Software Developer at NIT
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
134
Ranking in other categories
Database as a Service (DBaaS) (1st)
Redis
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
NoSQL Databases (3rd), Managed NoSQL Databases (6th), In-Memory Data Store Services (1st), Vector Databases (2nd), AI Software Development (12th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Database Services solutions, they serve different purposes. Microsoft Azure SQL Database is designed for Database as a Service (DBaaS) and holds a mindshare of 9.5%, down 15.6% compared to last year.
Redis, on the other hand, focuses on In-Memory Data Store Services, holds 21.6% mindshare, up 17.8% since last year.
Database as a Service (DBaaS) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Azure SQL Database9.5%
MongoDB Atlas11.8%
Amazon RDS11.7%
Other67.0%
Database as a Service (DBaaS)
In-Memory Data Store Services Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Redis21.6%
Amazon ElastiCache16.6%
Google Cloud Memorystore12.8%
Other49.0%
In-Memory Data Store Services
 

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.
Varuns Ug - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Developer at NIT
Caching has accelerated complex workflows and delivers low latency for high-traffic microservices
A few features of Redis that I use on a day-to-day basis and feel are among the best are extremely low latency and high throughput. Since Redis is in-memory, it makes it ideal for cases such as caching and rate limiting where response time is critical. TTL expiry support is very useful in Redis as it allows me to automatically evict stale data without manual cleanup, which is something I use heavily in my caching strategy. Another point I can mention is that the rich data structures such as strings, hashes, and even sorted sets are very powerful. I have used strings for caching responses and counters, whereas I have used hashes for storing structured objects. One more feature I can tell you about is atomic operations. Redis guarantees atomicity for operations such as incrementing a counter, which is very useful for rate limiting and avoiding race conditions in distributed systems. Finally, I want to emphasize that Redis is easy to scale and integrate, whether through clustering or using a distributed cache across microservices. Redis has impacted my organization positively by providing default support that is very useful. For metrics, in one of my core systems, introducing Redis as a distributed cache helped me achieve around an 80% cache hit rate, which reduced repeated downstream services. Real API latency also improved from around two seconds to approximately 450 milliseconds for P99. It also helped reduce the load on dependent services and databases, which improved overall system reliability.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Construction Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
24%
Computer Software Company
10%
University
6%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

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 Business11
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise10
 

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 needs improvement with Redis?
Overall, Redis is a powerful and reliable tool, but there are a few areas for improvement. One limitation is that Redis is memory-based, so scaling can become expensive compared to disk-based syste...
What is your primary use case for Redis?
My main use case for Redis is caching frequently accessed data to improve performance and reduce database load. For example, I cache API responses and user-related data so that repeated requests ca...
What advice do you have for others considering Redis?
My main advice for those looking into using Redis is to focus on the use case; Redis excels where low latency is critical, such as caching, session management, or real-time features, rather than us...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Redis Enterprise
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH
1. Twitter 2. GitHub 3. StackOverflow 4. Pinterest 5. Snapchat 6. Craigslist 7. Digg 8. Weibo 9. Airbnb 10. Uber 11. Slack 12. Trello 13. Shopify 14. Coursera 15. Medium 16. Twitch 17. Foursquare 18. Meetup 19. Kickstarter 20. Docker 21. Heroku 22. Bitbucket 23. Groupon 24. Flipboard 25. SoundCloud 26. BuzzFeed 27. Disqus 28. The New York Times 29. Walmart 30. Nike 31. Sony 32. Philips
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), MongoDB and others in Database as a Service (DBaaS). Updated: May 2026.
900,125 professionals have used our research since 2012.