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 #24 with an average rating of 6.8, while SAP SQL Anywhere is ranked #31. SAP IQ holds a 1.5% 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 23 SAP IQ reviews

1,362 Views
640 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

SAP SQL Anywhere

Read 6 SAP SQL Anywhere reviews

703 Views
689 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

SAP IQ

SAP SQL Anywhere

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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: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

SAP IQ vs. SAP SQL Anywhere

December 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 IQ

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

24th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Warehouse (15th)

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 January 2026, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of SAP IQ is 1.5%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP SQL Anywhere is 1.3%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Relational Databases Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
SAP IQ	1.5%
SAP SQL Anywhere	1.3%
Other	97.2%

Relational Databases Tools

Featured Reviews

Akhilesh Narayanan

Tech Lead, Database Section. at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Compression performance gets high marks but user-friendly interface needs improvement

The downside of SAP IQ, from what I understood from the management side, is that the front end for the DBA, for the admin, is not that user-friendly. If you compare it with SQL Server Management Studio, it is not that user-friendly GUI for the admin. But the engine is very strong and powerful. It is easy to deploy SAP IQ; the implementation and installation are easy. The downside I see is that it doesn't allow most integrated backups; many of the marketplace players such as NetBackup, those software integrated backups are not available. So, if you want to take a backup, you need to take it locally, and then only you can back it up to any storage or anything. Those features such as integrated backup, which would allow it to stripe into an appliance or something similar, are not present. One thing I notice as a downside is that if the CPU utilization is very high, there is no direct way we can find out which query is taking the most CPU. In any other RDBMS, there are DMVs available to find out which query is taking most of the CPU, but those features are not present in SAP IQ. If our CPU is hitting at 100%, it is not easy to identify which connection is taking the most CPU.

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Crewmem67

IT Consultant at College Notre Dame de Nazareth

Reliable and able to expand but needs to be more secure

It is not as good as a SQL Server. I prefer to work with the SQL Server for Microsoft or Oracle. These are better as there are some comments on SQL Anywhere that makes me feel that I'm blocked. We'd like to have them update to a new version. They should update more often. I find I can't move to a new version without running tests as there are chances of bugs that can get into my system. The initial setup is not simple or straightforward, and it took a while to deploy. It is not as secure as it could be. This is an aspect they need to improve. There needs to be more encryption.

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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

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

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

"The initial setup is easy."

"SAP IQ is actually quite effective when it comes to scalability; we have a setup that's built with multiple servers involved and that seems to be working fairly efficiently, and if we wanted to add more servers into this entire setup, that would be fairly easy."

"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."

"The primary benefit of SAP IQ is its ability to limit the expansion of the costly SAP HANA database, which has limited storage capacity. This necessitates a form of data management that involves moving data from SAP HANA to SAP NLS, which is essentially archiving. This allows us to retain access to the data via a link whenever it is required."

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

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

More SAP IQ pros

"SAP SQL Anywhere is very helpful."

"It works well in general."

"We've found the solution very reliable overall. It's very fast."

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

"The most valuable features of SAP SQL Anywhere are the ease of use and the user interface is intuitive."

Cons

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

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

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

"The primary negative aspect is the cost, which can be a challenge due to the economic conditions in Peru."

"The tool gets stuck sometimes."

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

"There is very little documentation available."

"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."

More SAP IQ cons

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

"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."

"The interface is not easy in comparison to the SQL Server. It could be more user-friendly."

"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."

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

"Negotiate based on the features required."

"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."

"SAP SQL Anywhere is affordable."

"SQL Anywhere cost us about $400."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

36%

Comms Service Provider

Outsourcing Company

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

University

Manufacturing 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 12% of the time

SAP HANA vs SAP IQ

Compared 9% of the time

Snowflake 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

More SAP IQ Competitors

SQL Server vs SAP SQL Anywhere

Compared 30% of the time

Oracle Database vs SAP SQL Anywhere

Compared 20% of the time

SAP HANA vs SAP SQL Anywhere

Compared 20% of the time

MySQL vs SAP SQL Anywhere

Compared 20% of the time

MariaDB vs SAP SQL Anywhere

Compared 8% of the time

More SAP SQL Anywhere Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

SAP IQ

December 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Relational Databases Tools

January 2026

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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

December 2025

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: December 2025.

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