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Oracle Berkeley DB vs SAP HANA comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

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

Oracle Berkeley DB
Ranking in Embedded Database
7th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Non-Relational Databases (1st)
SAP HANA
Ranking in Embedded Database
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
91
Ranking in other categories
Data Virtualization (2nd), Relational Databases Tools (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Embedded Database category, the mindshare of Oracle Berkeley DB is 4.3%, down from 4.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP HANA is 9.2%, down from 9.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Embedded Database Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SAP HANA9.2%
Oracle Berkeley DB4.3%
Other86.5%
Embedded Database
 

Featured Reviews

Emad Mokhatab - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to integrate and manage the setup phase
One of the things that I want to see in Oracle Berkeley DB is a driver for reactive programming. I think the tool's official driver for reactive programming, especially for Java, is the thing that Oracle needs to be more agile in, specifically in those areas of programming that other products are currently going into. Other tools have become more innovative in many areas. I know that Oracle has many responsibilities in maintaining the situation with the current projects and so on. I think it would be very cool if Oracle could make improvements to its projects, as it can help me with my current projects. One reason why I don't choose Oracle Berkeley DB is because we want to go for reactive programming, along with Project Reactor from Spring, but we don't have the official driver for it.
Dhiraj Jankar - PeerSpot reviewer
Users appreciate the mix of in-memory architecture and ease of backend management
The most valuable SAP HANA features are that, compared to Oracle, there is less administrative work and less complex work to handle, making it very straightforward. The tool itself takes care of the backend work. The main benefits SAP HANA provides to users include its architecture, which combines both column store and row store capabilities. Some places find the row feature important, whereas others find column store important. It allows some tables to be stored in a column base, others in a row base, and the In-Memory functionalities are mostly the highlight of SAP HANA, especially compared to disk-based memory users. This was the main reason SAP HANA was introduced initially.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The tool's performance is good, and I don't have any problems with it."
"The product meets all the essential business requirements."
"We appreciate that the current, redesigned version of this solution that is much more straightforward for new users, and has been well thought out with industry best practice standards in mind."
"Anyone currently using SAP will be transitioning to HANA."
"Its in-memory capabilities are good, which is why many companies still use it."
"The solution is easy to scale."
"The initial setup is straightforward. It usually takes around eight months but it depends on a customer's requirements. We can spend a month or two customizing."
"The feature that I like the most is that we can transport the data to our web data application. SAP HANA's performance is really perfect. We're working on big data, and SAP HANA is really working on high performance. We are happy working with it."
"Our operations have grown from a hundred data operations a day to as many in a couple of seconds."
"The UX experience is very good."
 

Cons

"I think the tool's official driver for reactive programming, especially for Java, is the thing that Oracle needs to be more agile in, specifically in those areas of programming that other products are currently going into."
"The product's interface could be more intuitive and user-friendly."
"The surface side or Attack dashboard needs improvement because there are some gaps after sales services."
"I cannot recommend this product to users. I feel that SAP's approach of mandating customers to go with SAP HANA is not a good point; they should make SAP HANA so good that customers willingly choose it."
"The high price of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"More standards would help in the future."
"Unlike other databases, it lacks management features that legacy databases like Oracle or SQL servers have. They need to make the solution easier to manage and offer tools that make management more effective. A lot of things you have on traditional databases you have to develop into HANA."
"There could be better management for faster updates, last year there were some changes in India to the e-invoicing feature."
"The solution could improve by having better migration flexibility. For example, it would be helpful if there was a way for customers could check their nonproduction and production deployments."
"The initial setup of SAP HANA is complex. We did the implementation of one site, and a global deployment will take another three to four years."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a need to pay for the licenses and features of the tool."
"I rate the product's pricing a five out of ten."
"The price of licensing is dependent on the size of the project, however, we have found that there is scope to negotiate the cost. If the solution is implemented on-premises there may be some extra costs for hosting etc."
"The licensing could improve."
"The cost of SAP HANA is high, and I would rate the price at eight out of ten."
"A monthly or yearly license must be purchased, although its utility will be based on the cost-benefit analysis that is reached by the individual customer."
"I would rate the pricing of the solution a ten on ten. The pricing for on-prem SAP HANA is on a yearly basis and expensive. I am not aware of the actual pricing but it is based on 64 Gigabytes. For instance, if you consider $10,000 for 64 Gigabytes, then you can calculate the cost for Terabytes in case you have one. You will have to buy expensive hardware as well which is quite a lot."
"The pricing is a bit on the high side."
"The pricing for SAP HANA is high. You pay a lot for the license, and you also have to pay for some add-ons."
"There is a yearly subscription to use SAP HANA. There is a fee for maintenance."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
16%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
10%
Educational Organization
10%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise61
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Berkeley DB?
There is a need to pay for the licenses and features of the tool. It can help other people use the tool properly.
What needs improvement with Oracle Berkeley DB?
One of the things that I want to see in Oracle Berkeley DB is a driver for reactive programming. I think the tool's official driver for reactive programming, especially for Java, is the thing that ...
What advice do you have for others considering Oracle Berkeley DB?
Giving out some free subscriptions and offering some premium plans for enterprise solutions that Oracle presents to the audience can help other people who want to use it. Being more agile in adapti...
What are the biggest benefits of using SAP HANA?
Based on my work with SAP HANA, the biggest benefit that it can bring to your business is total data management. This product is by SAP - a company that serves almost all needs a client may have co...
Is SAP HANA’s customer and technical support reliable?
We have been using SAP HANA for a fairly short period of time and have only taken advantage of their customer support. So far, we have not had issues that required specialized help from technical s...
Is SAP HANA difficult to set up and start using?
SAP HANA is fairly easy to set up, however, I do not think a complete beginner can do it. You certainly need some preparation - either you need to have experience with similar solutions, or with ot...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Berkeley DB
SAP High-Performance Analytic Appliance, HANA
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Safe Water Kenya
Unilever, NHS 24, adidas Group, CHIO Aachen, Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited
Find out what your peers are saying about Oracle Berkeley DB vs. SAP HANA and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,566 professionals have used our research since 2012.