SAP IQ vs SAP SQL Anywhere comparison

SAP IQ and SAP SQL Anywhere are both solutions in the Relational Databases Tools category. SAP IQ is ranked #23 with an average rating of 6.8, while SAP SQL Anywhere is ranked #31. SAP IQ holds a 1.8% mindshare in SQL, compared to SAP SQL Anywhere’s 1.3% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of SAP IQ users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 83% of SAP SQL Anywhere users who would recommend it.

SAP IQ

Read 22 SAP IQ reviews

2,252 Views
1,036 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

SAP SQL Anywhere

Read 6 SAP SQL Anywhere reviews

910 Views
883 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

SAP IQ

SAP SQL Anywhere

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

SAP IQ and SAP SQL Anywhere cater to different business areas. SAP IQ excels in analytics and large data handling, while SAP SQL Anywhere is more versatile for mobile and embedded applications. In terms of features, SAP IQ provides advanced data analytics capabilities, making it more suitable for complex analytical tasks.

Features: SAP IQ offers advanced in-memory analytics, superior data warehousing, and high-speed processing. SAP SQL Anywhere features mobile and remote data management, portability, and robust synchronization support.

Room for Improvement: SAP IQ could benefit from simplified deployment and reduced initial setup complexity. Enhancing its customer support services might also be beneficial. SAP SQL Anywhere may improve by offering extended analytical capabilities, optimizing its performance for large-scale applications, and enhancing security features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SAP IQ requires a more complex setup, though it provides high-performance scalability. SAP SQL Anywhere is noted for its straightforward deployment and efficient system integration, backed by strong customer service.

Pricing and ROI: SAP IQ involves higher initial investments justified by its analytics capabilities, offering significant ROI through enhanced data insights. SAP SQL Anywhere's lower setup cost and quicker deployment present an attractive ROI for businesses focused on general database solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed SAP IQ vs. SAP SQL Anywhere Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

SAP IQ vs. SAP SQL Anywhere

April 2026

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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 IQ

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

23rd

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Warehouse (14th)

SAP SQL Anywhere

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

31st

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of SAP IQ is 1.8%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP SQL Anywhere is 1.3%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Relational Databases Tools Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
SAP IQ	1.8%
SAP SQL Anywhere	1.3%
Other	96.9%

Relational Databases Tools

Featured Reviews

Reviewer302462

Tech Director at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Works well with existing platform integration but could improve error messaging and technical support

I do not use SAP IQ's machine learning capabilities. I cannot assess the benefit of SAP IQ's distributed query processing for complex queries, as I am a non-technical operator. I am not sure if we use SAP IQ's data compression features. I think the compression we are doing is on the data storage level and not on the database level. I believe we do not use it, but I'm not certain. We do not utilize SAP IQ's support for unstructured data, as we do not have unstructured data. I do not have any strong opinions on SAP IQ's security features such as data encryption. It's not been something that has been much in focus, neither in our choice of the platform, nor in our daily operations. I guess they're satisfactory as they have not been a problem. I am not aware of the pricing and licensing of SAP IQ, as it's part of a bigger agreement, and I'm not the owner of that agreement. My impression is that SAP IQ is a rather expensive tool in terms of value for money. On a scale of 1-10, I rate SAP IQ a 7.

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Mehak TAlwar

Automation Project Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Scalable, easy to use, but stability could improve

We use SAP SQL Anywhere because we have a lot of Power BI reports that connect with the SQL database that we have for our robotic process automation data. We create procedures and other elements within the solution The most valuable features of SAP SQL Anywhere are the ease of use and the user…

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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

"With IQ, a transaction that previously took three days to execute can now be completed in thirty seconds."

"The product is easy to learn."

"It’s the central component of our enterprise data warehouse."

"The column-based technologies (basically all the database for ITP) are used for SAP IQ. It is used as a column-based solution."

"IQ has enabled our company to load data from our data vendors in under one hour and eliminated multiple copies and hours of processing time."

"But I do not think that other products really have an advantage for warehousing over the SAP IQ solution."

"Sybase IQ is a column based database, used for business intelligence, data warehousing, and data marts."

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

More SAP IQ pros

"The auto-backup replication is a perfect feature."

"It's a great product to use if you are already have an integration with SAP's ERP/CRM systems."

"The auto-backup replication is a perfect feature. That is the feature I liked the most."

"It works well in general."

"SQL Anywhere is easy and it did not cost as much as SQL Microsoft."

"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."

More SAP SQL Anywhere pros

Cons

"Multiplex is very problematic. There are consistency problems in the metadata, meaning it is possible to lose metadata consistency."

"I think the universe should be part of the Sybase IQ tool set."

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

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

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

"Customer Service: It has been good, but more can be done in this area."

"Multiplex is very problematic. There are consistency problems in the metadata, meaning it is possible to lose metadata consistency. You should make sure you have healthy backups."

"It's too complex. This is concerning something that will change immediately."

More SAP IQ cons

"It is not as secure as it could be."

"We have had some stability issues with SAP SQL Anywhere, but I am not sure if it is an application or network issue."

"Performance issues when syncing the MBO packages to the server."

"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."

"SAP SQL Anywhere needs to incorporate functionalities like SAP S/4HANA."

"A problem we are experiencing now is when doing a backup in SQL 2012 and 14 there's a problem with the license."

"It is not as secure as it could be; there needs to be more encryption and we can find passwords very easily."

More SAP SQL Anywhere cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Negotiation is very important."

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

"Negotiate based on the features required."

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

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

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

"SQL Anywhere cost us about $400."

"SAP SQL Anywhere is affordable."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

32%

Comms Service Provider

Healthcare Company

Outsourcing Company

Computer Software Company

10%

Retailer

University

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	16

No data available

Questions from the Community

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, ...

See all answers

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

SQL Server vs SAP IQ

Compared 9% of the time

Oracle Database vs SAP IQ

Compared 8% of the time

OpenText Analytics Database (Vertica) vs SAP IQ

Compared 6% of the time

SAP HANA vs SAP IQ

Compared 5% of the time

Oracle Big Data Appliance vs SAP IQ

Compared 3% of the time

More SAP IQ Competitors

SQL Server vs SAP SQL Anywhere

Compared 19% of the time

MySQL vs SAP SQL Anywhere

Compared 18% of the time

Oracle Database vs SAP SQL Anywhere

Compared 15% of the time

SAP HANA vs SAP SQL Anywhere

Compared 8% of the time

OpenText Analytics Database (Vertica) vs SAP SQL Anywhere

Compared 7% of the time

More SAP SQL Anywhere Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

SAP IQ

March 2026

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Buyer's Guide

Relational Databases Tools

April 2026

Download SAP SQL Anywhere product report

Also Known As

Sybase IQ

Sybase SQL Anywhere

Overview

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

SAP SQL Anywhere enables companies to develop custom mobile and IoT application and rapidly design and deploy embedded database applications. The RDBMS solutions can provide secure, reliable data management and synchronization for thousands of mobile devices, Internet of Things (IoT) systems, and remote environments. They let business users work uninterrupted, even without a network connection.

SAP

Sample Customers

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

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

Buyer's Guide

SAP IQ vs. SAP SQL Anywhere

April 2026

Free Report: SAP IQ vs. SAP SQL Anywhere

Find out what your peers are saying about SAP IQ vs. SAP SQL Anywhere and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.

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