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Microsoft MDS vs Reltio Cloud comparison

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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 (14th), AI Customer Experience Personalization (20th)
 

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 9.9%, down 12.1% compared to last year.
Reltio Cloud, on the other hand, focuses on Cloud Master Data Management (MDM), holds 8.9% mindshare, down 16.1% since last year.
Master Data Management (MDM) Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft MDS9.9%
Semarchy xDM9.5%
TIBCO EBX9.0%
Other71.6%
Master Data Management (MDM) Software
Cloud Master Data Management (MDM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Reltio Cloud8.9%
Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC)18.4%
Semarchy xDM11.8%
Other60.900000000000006%
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

"I would recommend Microsoft MDS to companies that need a simple solution at no cost."
"The backup and restore functionality are the solution's most valuable aspects."
"It has been a long-standing tool in our organization since it was free."
"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 most valuable feature of Microsoft MDS is its compatibility with ETL tools like SSIS, which simplifies operations for end-users."
"The ROI is terrific and it means you can avoid building or purchasing a solution."
"It's very easy to use."
"It has been 200% useful in our organization."
"There are default limitations and considerations. For instance, Reltio can store a maximum of 200 values for a single attribute. If your data exceeds this limit, you can request Reltio support to increase the limit. However, be aware that increasing this limit may impact performance, potentially slowing down data loading times."
"The cloud feature is very beneficial, and the scalability performance feature is excellent."
"Reltio Cloud has positively impacted my organization because we were able to promote our data and sell data to our customers."
"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 most valuable feature of Reltio Cloud is the customization we can make in its functionality."
"It is very easy to learn. The"
"Reltio Cloud offers advantages over competitors, including a dashboard with a good amount of detail that looks significantly better than Informatica or Stibo."
"Reltio Cloud has introduced a single source of truth, a solution to issues caused by teams sharing data via email and losing track of the latest updates, and as a result, up to 97-78% of operations now have a clearer view, allowing us to focus more on enhancing our operations rather than rectifying data discrepancies, thus productivity has surged, leading to significant cost reductions, with my estimate being over a million dollars in savings within the last few months, enabling faster decision-making and real-time data access without the need for manual compilation."
 

Cons

"The duplication feature is not so good."
"Microsoft MDS is outdated and lacks modern capabilities."
"There are occasions when the solution maintains SD and we get duplications of MDS."
"If one system has reached capacity or has stopped, then the whole system stops and it is quite difficult to solve the problem."
"The version that I work with is on-premises and it required an additional virtual machine on the cloud. It would be a better option to have an on-cloud version."
"In my 30+ years in IT I've never experienced a tool that only allows you to create reactive rules that identify bad data but never prevent it from getting saved. In a large enterprise I would rule this as a show stopper."
"The future of the product is genuinely uncertain, and that's something any organization evaluating it needs to factor in seriously."
"The only drawback is that it does not have the matching, merging, and all true MDM components. For these, you have to use another competent called Data Quality Services (DQS). You need to plug it in and use it along with MDS for true MDM. Both of these are integrated together, but you have to do them separately, whereas, in Profisee, there are a couple of screens where you can configure the matching process, create matching rules, and other things, and everything is in one product, which is not the case with MDS. In order to implement a true MDM, you need MDS, DQS, and SSIS. You have to use MDS to store your golden records, DQS to configure and standardize all your rules and matching percentages, and SSIS to load the data to DQS and MDS. At the same time, you also need Melissa Data to clean up your addresses to validate and standardize the addresses. That's the main component of true MDM. It would be good if they can create a true matching component inside MDS and merge MDS and DQS."
"The download process can be quite slow"
"There is some lag in developing new features for specific business requirements. If a new feature is needed, we have to raise a request in the developer portal through the IDEA portal. This process takes time to develop, which can be a drawback when immediate business needs arise."
"Initially, the UI was limited in features."
"The solution's UI could be enhanced, and its record filtering could be expanded."
"What could be improved about Reltio Cloud was minimal."
"The support team is slow to respond when we need assistance with workflow deployments. We must rely on their availability and contact them to receive the required JAR files."
"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."
"We need manual data modeling and configuration to tailor the platform to our requirements."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Computer Software 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, Qlik, SAP and others in Master Data Management (MDM) Software. Updated: September 2026.
917,884 professionals have used our research since 2012.