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Oracle Database vs SAP IQ 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.4
Despite high costs, Oracle Database offers strong ROI with robust performance attracting large businesses, especially in finance.
Sentiment score
6.2
SAP IQ boasts high ROI with substantial hardware savings, low maintenance costs, though some users lack authorization to confirm it.
Sentiment score
7.3
SQL Server offers high ROI through cost-effectiveness, automation, and ease of deployment, with returns often within a year.
All applications need our repository to provide services for our online business or our customers, so the return is good.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.1
Oracle Database's support quality varies, appreciated for fast responses but challenged by delays, cost, and expertise inconsistencies.
Sentiment score
5.6
Customer service is 24/7 but varies in quality; technical support lacks experts, causing slow escalation and limited advanced assistance.
Sentiment score
6.5
Microsoft support offers valuable online resources, but experiences vary with concerns about wait times and language issues.
Oracle's technical support is not very effective.
It seems very difficult to get proper advanced assistance on advanced or complicated problems.
The quality of support from SAP is very good; if it's a known problem, they will have a knowledge base, so we will get immediate assistance.
When we created support tickets, the experience was very positive.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Oracle Database is praised for its scalability, adaptability, and efficiency in handling large data volumes across various environments.
Sentiment score
7.4
SAP IQ offers scalable solutions with Simplex and Multiplex architectures, accommodating vast data volumes across PCs or servers.
Sentiment score
7.0
SQL Server is generally scalable and effective, but large datasets and costs pose challenges requiring maintenance and infrastructure adjustments.
The database regularly releases new versions with better performance and security features.
We can span the read and write load into multiple nodes, and that scalability is there.
If we wanted to add more servers into this entire setup, that would be fairly easy, so it's rather good when it comes to scalability.
The server where we installed it has grown from 64 gigabytes in RAM to 256 gigabytes, demonstrating significant scalability capabilities.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Oracle Database is praised for stability, reliability, performance, requires skilled admins, and shows improvements over previous versions despite occasional bugs.
Sentiment score
6.0
SAP IQ is stable, effectively managing complex transactions despite occasional issues, making it a reliable choice for implementations.
Sentiment score
7.6
SQL Server is highly stable and reliable, with most issues resolved by updates, receiving high satisfaction ratings.
Oracle Database is very robust, and I rate its stability nine out of ten.
It's usually something external, such as lack of disk space or problems arising from the integration to other systems.
 

Room For Improvement

Oracle Database users seek improved cost efficiency, integration, migration, support, user-friendliness, licensing flexibility, security, and reduced complexity.
SAP IQ faces challenges with high costs, inadequate training, stability issues, and integration limitations, impacting performance and adoption.
SQL Server needs better pricing, integration, security, performance, and support, with improvements in Management Studio, encryption, and cloud services.
Oracle Database needs improvement in data analytics capabilities, AI involvement, machine learning, and deep learning.
If the CPU utilization is very high, there is no direct way we can find out which query is taking the most CPU.
When there is an issue, the error messaging we get is not always sufficient to do a fast and solid fix.
I would appreciate using Microsoft Pro as it can integrate with Excel or, with a simple query, consume information from the database using Microsoft Excel.
When we consider the price for replication in another site, the pricing becomes prohibitive.
 

Setup Cost

Oracle Database is costly but valued for performance; negotiated discounts are common, appealing more to larger enterprises.
SAP IQ is cost-effective with various licensing models, though price understanding and negotiation are essential for optimal implementation.
SQL Server pricing is costly but cheaper than Oracle, with various licensing options and a free Developer Edition available.
For medium businesses, Oracle and IBM DB2 pricing are quite similar.
 

Valuable Features

Oracle Database excels in scalability, reliability, and security, offering seamless integration, high availability, and advanced enterprise features.
SAP IQ features column-based architecture, high compression, rapid queries, large-scale data handling, and integration with SAP BusinessObjects.
SQL Server offers dynamic resource allocation, high availability, performance, security, integration, ease of use, scalability, and extensive support.
Its data management capabilities include data quality, data integration, data architecture, modeling, and data security, which are very important for data-driven companies.
We can get historical data quickly, and you can fetch information very quickly because every column is indexed.
The most valuable feature of SAP IQ for us is that it works very effectively with the SAP BusinessObjects which we use it with.
For disaster recovery features supporting mission-critical applications in our organization, we have implemented the high availability feature of SQL Server.
I have been working with SQL Server for a long time, and it works well for me as I am using it in different applications, such as web applications, Windows applications, or the data warehouse reporting.
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of Oracle Database is 12.6%, down from 14.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP IQ is 1.0%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SQL Server is 15.8%, down from 22.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SQL Server15.8%
Oracle Database12.6%
SAP IQ1.0%
Other70.6%
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Ismail Aboulezz - PeerSpot reviewer
Continuous updates improve performance and add valuable features to meet workload demands
Oracle Database is easy to install, customize, troubleshoot, and maintain. Its data management capabilities include data quality, data integration, data architecture, modeling, and data security, which are very important for data-driven companies. Furthermore, Oracle Database's performance and scalability features meet workload demands, and its continuous updates improve performance and add valuable features.
Tejas Raj - PeerSpot reviewer
Columnar database, so pulling records is easy but there isn't enough documentation for installation
I've seen very few SAP IQ systems in recent years. So people are moving away from SAP IQ In the last three years, I've rarely encountered customers using it. Fewer systems with SAP IQ usage among our customers. Most of them have moved on to HANA. There are parallel products, and there are also viable alternatives from AWS, so many have migrated to those.
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
36%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business87
Midsize Enterprise64
Large Enterprise177
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise15
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business121
Midsize Enterprise58
Large Enterprise112
 

Questions from the Community

How do you run Oracle Database at your organization and why?
My company has been using Oracle Exadata Database Service for some years now, and we are happy with it. I will allow ...
Do you know of any disadvantages of Oracle Database?
Undoubtedly, Oracle Database is a top product in its category. But it does have its disadvantages, and for me and my ...
What is the best use for Oracle Database?
Oracle Database is flexible and can be used for many things. My company's main use case for this product is for stori...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP IQ?
IQ implementation costs about three thousand dollars. It's less expensive compared to alternatives like Teradata Base...
What needs improvement with SAP IQ?
When it comes to SAP IQ, the areas that could be improved or enhanced include the error messaging and the locking cap...
What is your primary use case for SAP IQ?
Our usual use cases for SAP IQ is that we have a Software-as-a-Service architecture where this database is the founda...
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

Oracle 12c, RDBMS
Sybase IQ
Microsoft SQL Server, MSSQL, MS SQL
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Agncia Nacional de guas, Anbima, Aria Systems, Asiana Airlines, Astelit LLC, Australian Finance Group, Banco Occidental de Descuento, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, BT, Caja de Seguros S.A., Casas GEO S.A.B. de C.V., Comic Relief UK, Corsair Components Inc., CSAM Health AS, CSOB Group, Datacraft Solutions, DenizBank A.S., Department of Treasury and Finance WA, Office of State Revenue, Deutsche B_rse AG, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Deutsche Messe AG, Digicel Haiti, DPR COSEA, Essar Group, Essatto Software Pty Ltd, Farmšcia e Drogaria Nissei Ltda., Fomento Econ‹mico Mexicano S.A.B. de C.V. (FEMSA), FundaÊo Petrobras de Seguridade Social, Future Group, GFKL Financial Services AG, Grupo Posadas S.A.B. de C.V., Grupo Sinosserra, Guerra S.A. Implementos Rodovišrios, Hanatour International Service, Hays plc, Henan Mobile Co. Ltd, Hochschule Hof, Hong Kong and China Technology (Wuhan) Co. Ltd (Towngas Technology), Industries Corpa_al C.A., Infrastructure Development Finance Company Limited, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatstica, Instituto Mexicano de la Propiedad Industrial, Kcell, LinkShare Corporation, MercadoLibre Inc., MetLife Inc., Nextgen Distribution, €BB-IKT GmbH, Octagon Research Solutions, Pacific Lutheran University, Paragon Data GmbH, Ping ltd., PJSC Trustbank, Prodaub _ Processamento de Dados de Uberl_ndia, Purdue University, Redknee Inc., Robi Axiata Limited, Shanghai Infoservice Technology Co. Ltd, Shanghai Sihua Technologies Co. Ltd, Sistema de Aguas de la Ciudad de M_xico, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, Suddenlink Communications, Suprajit Engineering Limited, Tallink Grupp, Terminales Ro de la Plata S.A., Therap Services LLC, Think Passenger Inc., Trafigura, Transmed S.A.L Lebanon, ValeShop, VelQuest Corporation, Vodafone Group plc, West Virginia Network, WIND Hellas Telecommunications S.A
ASR Group, Citrix, State of Indiana, PocketCard Co. Ltd.
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.
867,821 professionals have used our research since 2012.