No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

SAP HANA vs SQL Server 2014 Express 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
6.1
SAP HANA offers time and cost savings, with notable ROI and customization benefits, though integration costs challenge some companies.
Sentiment score
7.2
SQL Server 2014 Express boosted ROI with cost savings and efficiency by enhancing performance, reducing costs, and improving data handling.
We do not feel we're getting value for the investment due to the additional resources needed for integration and maintenance.
Director of Infrastructure at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
I have seen a return on investment with SAP HANA as it typically delivers measurable ROI, especially in finance and month-end close processes.
Finance Analyst at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
SAP HANA is a cost-saving solution that helps save money and serves as a time-saving solution that helps save time.
Senior Manager at PwC
After migrating to SQL Server 2014 Express, the use of Power BI reports has drastically improved performance; for instance, a report that took 20 minutes to refresh in Excel now takes only a few seconds with the direct connection to SQL Server 2014 Express.
Manager - Projects at Cognizant
Since SQL Server 2014 Express is free, it helped save software licensing costs while still providing reliable database functionality.
Operations Analyst at a non-profit with 51-200 employees
I have definitely seen a return on investment with SQL Server 2014 Express, particularly in terms of time savings.
Specialist software engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.1
SAP HANA offers high-quality 24/7 customer service, but experiences vary, with concerns over slow responses and complex issue handling.
Sentiment score
6.3
SQL Server 2014 Express users leverage community resources and forums with praised support when direct assistance is needed.
The community support is better than the official SAP support.
SAP Analytics Lead at Miracle Software Systems, Inc
While issues are resolved eventually, the first level of support is not as good as we would like.
Sup-basis consultant at a security firm with 51-200 employees
When we raise a ticket for AWS or Azure issues, we find their support is very proactive, while SAP's support is quite passive.
Senior SAP Basis Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Enterprise-level support is available only with the paid edition.
Senior Rpa Consultant at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Microsoft responds effectively when I face issues.
Senior Consultant at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Since SQL Server 2014 Express is widely used, there are many helpful community resources available online, including Microsoft documentation, forums, and developer communities.
Operations Analyst at a non-profit with 51-200 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
SAP HANA provides scalable enterprise-level solutions, allowing seamless vertical and horizontal expansion to efficiently handle substantial data volumes.
Sentiment score
6.5
SQL Server 2014 Express excels in cost-effective lightweight applications but faces scalability limitations with larger data environments.
SAP HANA handles large data volumes efficiently, allowing for adding more modules or users without performance issues.
Finance Analyst at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Our operations have grown from a hundred data operations a day to as many in a couple of seconds.
Director of Infrastructure at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
It depends on what needs to change in the structure, as some entities cannot be changed and require a new implementation, while others can be modified.
IT Application Manager at TBTD
SQL Server 2014 Express is fast, but it is not perfectly scalable because it provides only 10 GB per database size.
Database developer at a university with 501-1,000 employees
It operates quickly when managing less than 50 GB of data.
Senior Consultant at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The Express edition has limits on the database size, memory, and CPU usage.
Operations Analyst at a non-profit with 51-200 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
SAP HANA is praised for its stability, reliability, and efficiency, with improvements seen in version 2.0 and initial configurations.
Sentiment score
8.6
SQL Server 2014 Express is stable and reliable for small to medium workloads, excelling in read/write operations with minimal downtime.
We recently faced customer data loss during the cluster handover or failover fallback.
Senior SAP Basis Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
We have not had any problems in the last seven to eight years.
Sup-basis consultant at a security firm with 51-200 employees
Regarding stability, they are using legacy systems and have implemented SAP HANA.
SAP Analytics Lead at Miracle Software Systems, Inc
In my experience, it runs reliably with minimal downtime when properly configured.
Senior Rpa Consultant at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
It is completely free and has a rich feature set.
Database developer at a university with 501-1,000 employees
SQL Server 2014 Express was quite stable and reliable for day-to-day operations.
Operations Analyst at a non-profit with 51-200 employees
 

Room For Improvement

SAP HANA needs improvements in interface, scalability, integration, and cost efficiency, with enhanced support, training, and mobile integration.
SQL Server 2014 Express needs scalability, modern features, improved interface, and updated tools for better performance and user experience.
The main issue is the ecosystem, which lacks the widespread support that SQL enjoys.
Director of Infrastructure at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
The setup process and deployment process for SAP HANA is complex.
Program manger at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Licensing costs with SAP HANA are very high.
SAP Analytics Lead at Miracle Software Systems, Inc
My suggestion is that we could have a way where multiple windows can be open at a time so that we can switch between and access them and help us create the stored procedures in a much better way while comparing.
Technical Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
For enterprise-level and modern high-performance applications, newer SQL Server versions are more suitable.
Quality Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It is not suitable for enterprise scale due to the restrictions on high volume or mission-critical enterprise workloads.
Senior Rpa Consultant at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
 

Setup Cost

SAP HANA is costly due to licensing, setup, and hardware expenses, affecting affordability for smaller businesses despite robust capabilities.
SQL Server 2014 Express offers a free solution for small projects but may involve costs for setup, storage, and support.
It's a recurring subscription model, which is expensive compared to legacy systems with just a maintenance fee.
Director of Infrastructure at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
SAP is not a cheap company, and its licenses are expensive.
Sup-basis consultant at a security firm with 51-200 employees
I would rate the price for SAP HANA as high.
Senior SAP Basis Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
My experience with pricing and licensing was positive because SQL Server 2014 Express is free to use, which made it very cost-effective for small projects and internal applications.
Operations Analyst at a non-profit with 51-200 employees
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for SQL Server 2014 Express was that licensing was set up by one of my IT team members, but it was very smooth.
Technical Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

SAP HANA offers real-time processing, integration, scalability, and user-friendly interface, enhancing speed, reporting, and diverse business adaptability.
SQL Server 2014 Express is free, lightweight, and enhances performance, ideal for budget-conscious organizations needing efficient database management.
This architecture allows for faster data processing and real-time analytics that were not possible with traditional databases.
Director of Infrastructure at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
The concept enhances speed, allowing the database to serve and move data quickly.
Sup-basis consultant at a security firm with 51-200 employees
One of our dashboards using Excelsius was previously developed on normal BW on Oracle data, which took 10 minutes to open. After developing the same calculation views using those tables and replacing them with calculation views in Excelsius, the dashboard opened in seconds.
SAP Analytics Lead at Miracle Software Systems, Inc
The best features of SQL Server 2014 Express are that it can be downloaded, it is open source, can be downloaded on any desktop, and it is a free version with no charge for downloads, making it highly useful for students and developers building applications for standalone or enterprise applications.
Associate Technology Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The best features SQL Server 2014 Express offers are that it is free and perfect for students.
Database developer at a university with 501-1,000 employees
We can store all our data inside a particular database and group it, ensuring that each project has its own SQL database without overlapping with others.
Senior Consultant at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

SAP HANA
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
93
Ranking in other categories
Data Virtualization (2nd), Embedded Database (1st), Database Management Systems (DBMS) (4th)
SQL Server 2014 Express
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
9th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of SAP HANA is 6.1%, down from 9.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SQL Server 2014 Express is 0.4%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP HANA6.1%
SQL Server 2014 Express0.4%
Other93.5%
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Bassem Mohammed - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Application Manager at TBTD
Integrated business processes have improved real-time analytics and financial performance
Whether I or my customers utilize SAP HANA's real-time analytics depends on the data needed to be displayed, and then choosing how to transfer the data to the analytic object, data source, or database to be displayed in the reports. It may be near real-time, real-time, or running batch every day. There are tools for integration between third-party systems, such as OData or APIs from SAP to get in or push data to other systems. Support for both structured and unstructured data helps organizations unify data sources depending on the needed data to be displayed. There are many ways to store it for report displays, but structured data will be better than unstructured data.
Shubham-Agarwal - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager - Projects at Cognizant
Migration to structured data has improved security and performance and enables faster insights
SQL Server 2014 Express could be improved by addressing its data limitations, especially for users with larger datasets that may not be suitable for production environments. Compared to the Enterprise or Standard versions, SQL Server 2014 Express does not provide the same functionalities or performance, so organizations with rapidly growing data should seek those options instead. Regarding needed improvements, I can say that integration with various ETL tools is essential, as we often need to use SSIS or other ETL tools to pull and transform data. It would be greatly beneficial if SQL Server 2014 Express could include functionality to integrate directly with APIs or other databases rather than relying on external ETL tools.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Relational Databases Tools solutions are best for your needs.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Construction Company
6%
Construction Company
28%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Healthcare Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise64
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What needs improvement with SQL Server 2014 Express?
SQL Server 2014 Express can be improved in terms of scalability, as it has CPU and memory restrictions and a 10 GB limit for the free version, which can lead to performance issues as the organizati...
What is your primary use case for SQL Server 2014 Express?
The main use case for SQL Server 2014 Express is to create the database architecture for my work and during SQL Server 2014 Express interactions, which adds to my code level. I use Entity Framework...
What advice do you have for others considering SQL Server 2014 Express?
My advice to others considering SQL Server 2014 Express is that for small businesses, it is suitable for inventory tracking, simple reporting, product development, and test environments because it ...
 

Comparisons

No data available
 

Also Known As

SAP High-Performance Analytic Appliance, HANA
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Unilever, NHS 24, adidas Group, CHIO Aachen, Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP HANA vs. SQL Server 2014 Express and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.