Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

SAP IQ vs SAP SQL Anywhere comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

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
26th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (14th)
SAP SQL Anywhere
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
17th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of SAP IQ is 1.0%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP SQL Anywhere is 1.1%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SAP SQL Anywhere1.1%
SAP IQ1.0%
Other97.9%
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Crewmem67 - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The initial setup is easy."
"All data is compressed and indexed, allowing for fast execution of transactions."
"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."
"Unbeatable speed and compression with a colummn-structured relational database."
"IQ is a very high-performance and high-transaction database."
"Columnar storage allows high compression, high load rates and high query performance."
"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."
"Valuable features for us include the compression, speed, fast response time, and easy object maintenance."
"SAP SQL Anywhere is very helpful."
"The auto-backup replication is a perfect feature. That is the feature I liked the most."
"It works well in general."
"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."
 

Cons

"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 only negative aspect of IQ is the cost, which can be challenging for companies in Peru."
"There is very little documentation available."
"The tool gets stuck sometimes."
"The organization who owns the product does not support it well and appears not to be doing significant development for the future."
"In my interaction with SAP IQ's technical support, the people we are talking to don't know this application very thoroughly."
"Concurrency and functional error messaging."
"The primary negative aspect is the cost, which can be a challenge due to the economic conditions in Peru."
"A problem we are experiencing now is when doing a backup in SQL 2012 and 14."
"It is not as secure as it could be."
"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."
"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

"Negotiate based on the features required."
"The cost of implementation is about $3,000."
"Negotiation is very important."
"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."
"It's not that costly. So, the pricing is cheap."
"SQL Anywhere cost us about $400."
"SAP SQL Anywhere is affordable."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Relational Databases Tools solutions are best for your needs.
867,497 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
36%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Healthcare Company
6%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise15
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.
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, ...
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...
What needs improvement with SAP SQL Anywhere?
SAP SQL Anywhere needs to incorporate functionalities like SAP S/4HANA.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Sybase IQ
Sybase SQL Anywhere
 

Overview

 

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
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP IQ vs. SAP SQL Anywhere and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
867,497 professionals have used our research since 2012.