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MySQL vs SAP SQL Anywhere vs SQL Server 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:
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of MySQL is 7.5%, down from 7.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP SQL Anywhere is 1.1%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SQL Server is 15.5%, down from 22.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SQL Server15.5%
MySQL7.5%
SAP SQL Anywhere1.1%
Other75.9%
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Prabir Kumar Kundu - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers robust security and availability with impressive replication capabilities
Regarding their documentation and interface, there is room for improvement. Documentation is definitely required when running multiple databases on a cluster system. The load balancer, MySQL LB, which is used to connect to the application, lacks clear documentation. When there are multiple application servers connecting to the MySQL cluster and going through the MySQL load balancer, the documentation is not user-friendly. It's there, but only technical persons with deep knowledge of the MySQL database can implement it. Most of the community users or ISVs who use MySQL don't have many technical persons or DBA experts, so they face some challenges for the high availability of connecting high available databases from high available applications. That documentation should be simplified.
Crewmem67 - PeerSpot reviewer
Reliable and able to expand but needs to be more secure
It is not as good as a SQL Server. I prefer to work with the SQL Server for Microsoft or Oracle. These are better as there are some comments on SQL Anywhere that makes me feel that I'm blocked. We'd like to have them update to a new version. They should update more often. I find I can't move to a new version without running tests as there are chances of bugs that can get into my system. The initial setup is not simple or straightforward, and it took a while to deploy. It is not as secure as it could be. This is an aspect they need to improve. There needs to be more encryption.
Gus Mtz - PeerSpot reviewer
Availability and financial reporting thrive with robust integration tools
The best features of SQL Server are availability and stability. We never have concerns about the database. The ability of SQL Server to integrate with other Microsoft services, such as Azure for supporting business intelligence or data analytics, is primarily through Power BI for analytics tools. We use Power BI, but not in the cloud. We have interfaces with other databases. We extensively use the ETL tools of SQL Server for integrating with other databases or text files. The ETL tools are excellent for making jobs that run daily or hourly. For disaster recovery features supporting mission-critical applications in our organization, we have implemented the high availability feature of SQL Server. The always-on feature provides high availability in SQL Server. We use this tool daily for our risk management application.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The way that MySQL has improved my organization is that it comes free and also works fine on the technical side."
"MySQL's clustering features are very strong, and you can automate scripting, so that helps. We wrote a Terraform script and ran it."
"The initial setup was pretty straightforward. I would have worked with our IT team in terms of the initial setup."
"However, it is easy to scale MySQL using the functions provided with the product."
"The main advantage is the very large user base. This enables users to fix about any issue by answering any question."
"It's a good tool, a good database platform."
"The solution helps us perform with our databases and extract data."
"The connectivity with PHP is quite good."
"We've found the solution very reliable overall. It's very fast."
"The most valuable features of SAP SQL Anywhere are the ease of use and the user interface is intuitive."
"The auto-backup replication is a perfect feature. That is the feature I liked the most."
"It works well in general."
"SAP SQL Anywhere is very helpful."
"Without any doubt the Integration Services and Analysis Services are the most widely used. These are the basis for data quality, data gathering, ETL process, as well as collation for the data warehouse, Cube-generation, and ad-hoc processes. The ease in which you may mold a process flow or even modularly add in new structures is something which is much needed in my job."
"I use the menu on the management view credit section to get information from the database."
"SQL Server is similar to other Microsoft products, such as BI, they are easy to use. You do not need to have an expensive BD to maintain them. All the useful intuitive features you find in Microsoft solutions you will find in SQL Server."
"The solution is stable."
"Enables us to convert to bigger DBs and more easily move or upgrade between branches."
"Its security is good. The GUI of SQL Server is also very good."
"Tuning Advisor suggests where to add indexes and from where to remove them. It works like an adviser."
"The solution is stable. It's reliable."
 

Cons

"The backup methods need improvement."
"I would like to improve the solution’s pricing for licenses."
"We require more ease of use, scalability, and high availability. These are some of the critical features that we use and look for in a product. It should be easier to manage clusters. Scalability is very important for us because our projects and concurrency requirements are quite big. We also require high availability of the server, application, and other things. It should also have more performance-based features or enhancements from the performance point of view. When we divide a database, it should be able to handle the queries very fast."
"The product is a little bit complex and it is difficult to find sufficient documentation."
"There should be more tools to manage the on-premises version and more automation features."
"Since we upgraded from 8.0.12 to 8.0.22, it has had some slowness-related issues. Some of the queries that were fast previously are quite slow now. I did some research, and I found many people complaining about it."
"In an upcoming release, there should be something added similar to EPL. For example, when using the flow diagram, we can create a schema. We have two useful features to add or create the table, but there should be some UI features to allow us to drag and drop to create other schemas. This would be very helpful."
"The GUI could improve to make MySQL better."
"It is not as secure as it could be."
"A problem we are experiencing now is when doing a backup in SQL 2012 and 14."
"SAP SQL Anywhere needs to incorporate functionalities like SAP S/4HANA."
"We have had some stability issues with SAP SQL Anywhere, but I am not sure if it is an application or network issue. We sometimes have a large amount of data being queried and it cannot handle it."
"The interface is not easy in comparison to the SQL Server. It could be more user-friendly."
"The performance is not always the best."
"The documentation could be much better. It's lacking right now. If there are better help pages, for even complicated queries and stuff like that that would be quite a help for users."
"The only item which I can list is application failure during Integration Services debugging, when restarting a process flow. In a number of instances the solutions fails. I have not given this much thought and simply stop and start the debugging service rather than restarting."
"They have too many licensing options. They may want to simplify its licensing and bring it down to two, three, or four categories from ten to fifteen categories. Having so many different licensing options makes it difficult to decide which one to choose from. They can club things together. This is an area where they can make things easier for customers."
"There is a lot of room for improvement when it comes to limited compatibility across the platform and restricted performance with massive data sets."
"Additional interfaces would be an improvement."
"There is room for improvement in performance when managing a large quality of data and a high number of active users."
"More things in SQL Server need to be automated."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is open source. We prefer it for POCs because it saves the license cost."
"The pricing is not much expensive, it's cheap."
"​Enterprise editions and support are definitely needed for the heavy users who need direct support. ​"
"It has a community version."
"MySQL is a cheap solution."
"There is a licensing cost because we are going for a proprietary product. There are some other versions for which there is no licensing cost."
"MySQL Enterprise Support is not cheap, though might still be cheaper than Oracle or SQL Server. They may not have local support depending on where you’re based, but there are many smaller agencies out there that will readily provide support. You’ll need to spend some time looking around."
"The price of the solution is good because we have a good partner."
"SQL Anywhere cost us about $400."
"SAP SQL Anywhere is affordable."
"We did a one-time payment. Its price, in general, can be reduced."
"For licensing, we pay yearly. The licensing is very expensive, and it should be cheaper."
"There is a license required for the use of SQL Server and we are on an annual subscription."
"The setup cost is high, but it will return every penny."
"It is expensive, but you get what you pay for."
"We are on an annual enterprise license for the solution and the cost of the license could be reduced."
"For a brief period, approximately one year before 2018, I had experience working with the open-source version of SQL Server. During that time, I found SQL Server to be the preferred choice, in my opinion."
"The price of the solution is fine."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
6%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business73
Midsize Enterprise31
Large Enterprise61
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business121
Midsize Enterprise58
Large Enterprise112
 

Questions from the Community

Why are MySQL connections encrypted and what is the biggest benefit of this?
MySQL encrypts connections to protect your data and the biggest benefit from this is that nobody can corrupt it. If y...
Considering that there is a free version of MySQL, would you invest in one of the paid editions?
I may be considered a MySQL veteran since I have been using it since before Oracle bought it and created paid version...
What is one thing you would improve with MySQL?
One thing I would improve related to MySQL is not within the product itself, but with the guides to it. Before, when ...
What needs improvement with SAP SQL Anywhere?
SAP SQL Anywhere needs to incorporate functionalities like SAP S/4HANA.
Would you say the price of SQL Server is high compared to that of similar products?
SQL Server is fairly priced because it has various editions, depending on the number of users, servers, or core packs...
Has using SQL Server helped your organization in any way?
SQL Server has helped my organization through partitioning to distribute the workload, as it splits them up into smal...
Which authentication mode is best for SQL Server?
My company connects through SQL Server authentication. We have company Windows accounts, but we do not want to connec...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Sybase SQL Anywhere
Microsoft SQL Server, MSSQL, MS SQL
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Facebook, Tumblr, Scholastic, MTV Networks, Wikipedia, Verizon Wireless, Sage Group, Glassfish Open Message Queue, and RightNow Technologies.
AOK Bundesverband, Surgutneftegas Open Joint Stock Company, Molson Coors Brewing Company, City of Buenos Aires, ASR Group, Citrix, EarlySense, Usha International Limited, Automotive Resources International, Wªrth Group, Takisada-Osaka Co. Ltd., Coelba, RZD Russian Railways, National Basketball Association, TALLY WEiJL
Microsoft SQL Server is used by businesses in every industry, including Great Western Bank, Aviva, the Volvo Car Corporation, BMW, Samsung, Principality Building Society, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and others in Relational Databases Tools. Updated: September 2025.
869,832 professionals have used our research since 2012.