SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise vs SAP IQ comparison

SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise and SAP IQ are both solutions in the Relational Databases Tools category. SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise is ranked #20 with an average rating of 7.5, while SAP IQ is ranked #26 with an average rating of 6.8. SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise holds a 1.0% mindshare in SQL, compared to SAP IQ’s 1.1% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of SAP IQ users who would recommend it.

SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise

Read 12 SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise reviews

883 Views
857 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

SAP IQ

Read 23 SAP IQ reviews

1,073 Views
461 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise

SAP IQ

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise and SAP IQ compete in database management, where ASE shines in transactional processing, while SAP IQ is optimized for analytical workloads. SAP IQ often holds an advantage due to its specialized features for analytics.

Features: SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise provides capabilities for handling high-volume transactions, robust security features, and high availability. SAP IQ enhances data compression, rapid query processing, and scalability for handling large data volumes. SAP IQ's ability to handle analytical queries efficiently distinguishes it for businesses focused on data insights.

Room for Improvement:SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise could improve by offering more modern features, better learning resources, and enhancing cloud integration. SAP IQ would benefit from simplified reporting tools, enhanced support for non-SAP data sources, and improved user-friendliness for beginners.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise might require extensive configuration but offers comprehensive support for smooth implementation. SAP IQ provides a streamlined deployment process with its focus on analytical performance, allowing businesses to integrate solutions with minimal overhead.

Pricing and ROI: SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise offers cost efficiency in managing extensive transactional operations, potentially providing lower long-term investments. SAP IQ, with a higher initial setup cost, justifies its price through significant returns from optimized data analysis capabilities, providing higher ROI for analytics-focused companies.

To learn more, read our detailed SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise vs. SAP IQ Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise vs. SAP IQ

September 2025

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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

SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

20th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SAP IQ

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

26th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Warehouse (14th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise is 1.0%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP IQ is 1.1%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Relational Databases Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise	1.0%
SAP IQ	1.1%
Other	97.9%

Relational Databases Tools

Featured Reviews

Tejas Raj

Manager at Capgemini

Offers cost-efficiency as it needs a very small amount of RAM to function

SAP is least bothered about Adaptive Server Enterprise nowadays since it wants to focus on promoting its new product, which is S/4HANA. If SAP gives out new releases and a patch upgrade to improve performance and provide additional options, then SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise can compete with other relational database systems in the market. The overall performance of the product is an area where the tool has certain shortcomings and needs to improve. I work in a very stable environment, and I prefer a very stable replication and database management system. Most of our company's customers do not want to opt out of SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise, but SAP has announced that it will be ending its support for it in 2027, and though I feel SAP might extend it, I feel SAP will want to promote its new product. Previously, I heard that SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise's end-of-support dates were announced for 2025, but now I think that they have extended it to 2027 or 2030.

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Tejas Raj

Manager at Capgemini

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.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Provides very good integration."

"It's pretty good at handling a large number of transactions, which is critical for a banking client."

"I like that SAP ASE can match code and the database index to index data in the programming language. There are many other valuable features, such as the table buffer, tuning, and various control agents like dispatcher. SAP ASE can handle many different data types, including views, domains, data elements, structures, objects, and various table types that are most useful in the application. Its modularization technique is also handy."

"They provide easy integration with other systems."

"SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise is a good transactional database."

"The actual interface is good."

"It's user-friendly, especially in the logistics field."

"This is a wonderful database that is, in my opinion, underrated. Users are able to get the most out of my experience by taking advantage of its centralized environment."

More SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise pros

"Unbeatable speed and compression with a colummn-structured relational database."

"It is very robust for ad hoc DW queries and its columnar compression is unique and valuable."

"IQ is a very high-performance and high-transaction database."

"The feature I appreciate the most about SAP IQ is the compression, which is very good; we cannot compare with any other type of EDW."

"Valuable features for us include the compression, speed, fast response time, and easy object maintenance."

"The product is easy to learn."

"All data is compressed and indexed, allowing for fast execution of transactions."

"The initial setup is easy."

More SAP IQ pros

Cons

"Cost-wise, SAP is still expensive compared to other available products."

"I think that the solution needs to be positioned better within the market as it appears as though the Adaptive Server is being left out of the SAP scope."

"There could be some improvements in barcode scanning and RFID access."

"Because the solution is customized. we do occasionally face unique bugs. There are always some changes that need to be made here and there."

"SAP should refine its debugging method, and the process needs to be a little faster. It should use more Pragmas and fewer pseudocomments. I would like if SAP added more features based on advanced technologies, like artificial intelligence and voice control. The modularization and if-else techniques could also incorporate the latest technology to code and solve complex problems. The SAP Editor should be more elaborative, and it should allow many more types of statements for all uses."

"User interface could be more user friendly."

"The solution should improve view partitioning. The documentation is very confined and available only for users. Distributors also would like access to it."

"The overall performance of the product is an area where the tool has certain shortcomings and needs to improve."

More SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise cons

"In my interaction with SAP IQ's technical support, the people we are talking to don't know this application very thoroughly."

"The only negative aspect of IQ is the cost, which can be challenging for companies in Peru."

"The solution works best when combined with other SAP solutions. If the environment has other systems other options might be better."

"The room for improvement would be the marketing of the product, because this product is much better than advertised."

"The tool gets stuck sometimes."

"The downside I see is that it doesn't allow most integrated backups; many of the marketplace players such as NetBackup or Veritas, those software integrated backups are not available."

"The organization who owns the product does not support it well and appears not to be doing significant development for the future."

"Concurrency and functional error messaging."

More SAP IQ cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing cost for ASE is pretty low."

"I rate SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise's pricing a six out of ten."

"Price-wise, the product is worth it since one needs very less infrastructure to use it."

"The cost of implementation is about $3,000."

"Negotiation is very important."

"It's not that costly. So, the pricing is cheap."

"The only costs after standard licensing fees are for add-ons and upgrades."

"Negotiate based on the features required."

"Evaluate all options; check to see if you need expensive add-ons."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

18%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

36%

Outsourcing Company

Healthcare Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Large Enterprise	9

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	15

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise?

SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise is a good transactional database.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise?

The licensing cost for ASE is pretty low when you compare it with Microsoft SQL Server. If you compare it with SQL Server, it is pretty low.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise?

The main thing is it's not getting upgraded to meet today's needs. It's not upgrading at the level of transaction needs. For example, PostgreSQL or Oracle, these are pretty good databases. They can...

See all answers

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 in terms of transactional efficiency.

See all answers

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 capabilities, as that's where we often encounter problems. When there is an issue, ...

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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 foundation for our SAP BusinessObjects platform. This is where it's getting its data f...

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Comparisons

SAP HANA vs SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise

Compared 36% of the time

Oracle Database vs SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise

Compared 14% of the time

SQL Server vs SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise

Compared 13% of the time

SAP SQL Anywhere vs SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise

Compared 12% of the time

IBM Netezza Performance Server vs SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise

Compared 10% of the time

More SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise Competitors

SAP HANA vs SAP IQ

Compared 18% of the time

Snowflake vs SAP IQ

Compared 16% of the time

SQL Server vs SAP IQ

Compared 15% of the time

OpenText Analytics Database (Vertica) vs SAP IQ

Compared 9% of the time

Exasol Data Warehouse vs SAP IQ

Compared 7% of the time

More SAP IQ Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise

October 2025

Download SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise product report

Buyer's Guide

SAP IQ

October 2025

Download SAP IQ product report

Also Known As

SAP ASE

Sybase IQ

Overview

SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) is a high-performance relational database management system designed for mission-critical, data-intensive environments. It provides a centralized environment for storing and managing data, with the ability to handle a wide range of data types and a modularization technique allowing easy customization.

SAP ASE is particularly valuable for financial operations, as it offers integrated financial features. The solution also offers various control agents and the ability to match code and database index. SAP ASE has improved daily data collection and program functionality for many organizations.

SAP

SAP® IQ software delivers speed and power for extreme-scale enterprise data warehousing and analytics. Its column-oriented, grid-based massively parallel processing (MPP) architecture and patented data compression and indexing technologies enable companies to exploit the value of huge amounts of data at the speed of business.

SAP

Sample Customers

City of Buenos Aires, ASR Group, Citrix, EarlySense, Usha International Limited, Automotive Resources International (ARI), Takisada-Osaka Co. Ltd., Coelba (Grupo Neoenergia), RZD Russian Railways, National Basketball Association - NBA, TALLY

ASR Group, Citrix, State of Indiana, PocketCard Co. Ltd.

Buyer's Guide

SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise vs. SAP IQ

September 2025

Free Report: SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise vs. SAP IQ

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