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Microsoft MDS vs Reltio Cloud 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft MDS
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
Master Data Management (MDM) Software (4th)
Reltio Cloud
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Master Data Management (MDM) (4th), AI Data Analysis (13th), AI Customer Experience Personalization (18th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Data Integration and Access solutions, they serve different purposes. Microsoft MDS is designed for Master Data Management (MDM) Software and holds a mindshare of 9.1%, down 12.4% compared to last year.
Reltio Cloud, on the other hand, focuses on Cloud Master Data Management (MDM), holds 8.9% mindshare, down 17.3% since last year.
Master Data Management (MDM) Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft MDS9.1%
Semarchy xDM10.5%
TIBCO EBX9.3%
Other71.1%
Master Data Management (MDM) Software
Cloud Master Data Management (MDM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Reltio Cloud8.9%
Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC)19.0%
Semarchy xDM12.3%
Other59.8%
Cloud Master Data Management (MDM)
 

Featured Reviews

NA
Data Management Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Centralized master data has improved data quality but now requires a clearer future roadmap
An area where Microsoft MDS can be improved is that Microsoft has announced Microsoft MDS is being removed from SQL Server two thousand twenty-five. The future of the product is genuinely uncertain, and that's something any organization evaluating it needs to factor in seriously. Microsoft MDS is still supported on SQL Server two thousand twenty-two and earlier, but the trajectory is clear that Microsoft is not investing in Microsoft MDS going forward. I would also say that the cloud story is a gap because there's no native cloud version of Microsoft MDS. For clients who are moving workloads to Azure, that's an increasingly awkward conversation. Microsoft's direction for MDM in the cloud is through other capabilities like Azure Purview and Dataverse, but those are different products with different feature sets.
reviewer2826747 - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Domain Lead at a government with 10,001+ employees
Unified data has created trusted golden records but complex AI matching still needs clearer control
Reltio Cloud has greatly enhanced our data management, and I acknowledge there are areas where our team continues to face challenges. Specifically, the AI-based matching feature operates like a black box, making it difficult to understand why certain records are matched or not matched accurately. If there could be better visual debugging and clarity regarding why records are matched, it would significantly aid our decision-making process. The technical configuration, particularly regarding data models and rule matching, can be overly complex for business users, hence a more user-friendly approach, with simplified guidelines, would be incredibly beneficial. Additionally, data stewardship can present complexities, and clearer actions can facilitate addressing these challenges. Performance issues can arise with larger data models and numerous data sources impacting system use, hence enhancements in optimization and ready-to-use features for complex configurations are essential. Pricing can also be convoluted; therefore, a clearer cost model would aid users in comprehending the structure. While data lineage has its merits, it is complex to interpret; thus, improved visualization would greatly benefit users. Ultimately, technical complexity emerges as the primary challenge we face, revealing opportunities for improvement.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Enables non-technical people to directly interact with the BI system."
"I would recommend Microsoft MDS to companies that need a simple solution at no cost."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft MDS is its management."
"The zero incremental license cost plus the operational improvements from having clean, consistent master data, reduced errors, faster reporting, and cleaner compliance provide a solid ROI."
"The ROI is terrific and it means you can avoid building or purchasing a solution."
"This product provides a robust, flexible, and secure way for my organization and our customers to manage master data without the need to write code."
"One of the main features I have found useful is the integration with Azure active directory."
"Compared to other databases, it is easier to manage and administer."
"It is a scalable product, and the scalability is good. We can configure users."
"Reltio Cloud has positively impacted my organization because we were able to promote our data and sell data to our customers."
"We can store the data and enrich it from multiple sources."
"Reltio Cloud offers advantages over competitors, including a dashboard with a good amount of detail that looks significantly better than Informatica or Stibo."
"The matching feature of Reltio Cloud is highly effective compared to many other tools available. Additionally, it is almost ready to use out-of-the-box, reducing the implementation time."
"The cloud feature is very beneficial, and the scalability performance feature is excellent."
"The most valuable feature is real-time synchronization. You can see the events as soon as they are posted within a couple of fraction seconds."
"The survivorship feature is great because we can define it, prioritize the sources, and only allow those sources to survive when making the golden record."
 

Cons

"In the next version, I would like to see integration with Azure."
"Most of the Microsoft partners, especially digitally, are separate. Personnel are business people, and they do not have technical expertise, so you end up as a company spending a lot of money training your staff and your engineers."
"The Microsoft license cost could be lower."
"The price of the program has gone up, so I would like to see better pricing."
"It would be a better option to have an on-cloud version."
"From what we have seen, speaking to customers, Microsoft MDS was sometimes a bit slow."
"If one system has reached capacity or has stopped, then the whole system stops and it is quite difficult to solve the problem."
"The business rules definition interface could be improved."
"The solution's UI could be enhanced, and its record filtering could be expanded."
"Reltio Cloud can be improved by providing the possibility to connect with other connectors and databases such as Snowflake, Databricks, and eventually with Azure Data Factory."
"There are many issues. For example, sometimes, errors related to tokenization occur while creating a match rule."
"Reltio Cloud could be improved in two specific areas. Firstly, the API capability needs to be enhanced, as when utilizing the REST API and posting a significant amount of data, there are multiple rejections from the MDM side. This can be due to the MDM server not responding or being unable to process the request. Therefore, I suggest that the API capacity should be increased to handle larger amounts of data. Additionally, I have noticed that the response time from the servers can take up to a minute or a few seconds, which can be improved for a faster response time."
"Sometimes, the service goes down for maintenance or when we run a lot of jobs so things get pushed to the queue and results don't get delivered on time."
"Initially, the UI was limited in features."
"The customer support is adequate, but not exceptional."
"The deployment is difficult."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing of this solution is good."
"I would like to see better pricing."
"Product licensing is very complicated. It would be helpful to have an online calculator to estimate the cost of a license."
"With Microsoft, we buy everything though an agreement, so we purchase volume licensing every year."
"MDS is a part of the SQL Server enterprise license. I am not aware of any additional costs."
"SAP is more expensive than Microsoft."
"The solution does require a license and we have enterprise licenses."
"Microsoft MDS is an expensive solution."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Construction Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
9%
Healthcare Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise15
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise13
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft MDS?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing shows that the licensing is one of Microsoft MDS's genuine advantages, as it's included in SQL Server Enterprise Edition at no additional cost....
What needs improvement with Microsoft MDS?
An area where Microsoft MDS can be improved is that Microsoft has announced Microsoft MDS is being removed from SQL Server two thousand twenty-five. The future of the product is genuinely uncertain...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft MDS?
My main use case for Microsoft MDS is as a central master data repository for clients running SQL Server-based data environments. The typical scenario is a mid-sized organization that has product d...
What needs improvement with Reltio Cloud?
In future updates of Reltio Cloud, I would like to see features such as AI for match and merge, which can create predefined AI address doctors and match and merge for customer data, easily integrat...
What is your primary use case for Reltio Cloud?
I use Reltio Cloud for customer data management, specifically for C-MDM purposes.
What advice do you have for others considering Reltio Cloud?
Reltio Cloud was not purchased through AWS Marketplace or directly from the vendor. It was already available in my company at that time, so I used the system to showcase its capabilities. What coul...
 

Also Known As

Microsoft Master Data Services, Microsoft MDM, Microsoft SQL Server Master Data Services, MS MDS
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ETA a.s., Apeejay Surrendra Group, Blue Star Infotech, Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation, The Sydney Children's Hospitals Network, New Belgium Brewing
iMiDiA, Slalom, MeritDirect, Cognizant
Find out what your peers are saying about TIBCO, SAP, Qlik and others in Master Data Management (MDM) Software. Updated: August 2026.
910,956 professionals have used our research since 2012.