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SAP IQ 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

SAP IQ
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
23rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (14th)
SQL Server 2014 Express
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
24th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of SAP IQ is 2.0%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SQL Server 2014 Express is 0.4%. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP IQ2.0%
SQL Server 2014 Express0.4%
Other97.6%
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

KK
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.
reviewer2805456 - PeerSpot reviewer
Student at a university with 501-1,000 employees
Practical database projects have strengthened my query skills and improved real data handling
However, I also realized its limitation when I tried working on a large database. It is not perfect because it provides 10 GB per database. If we are storing a large database or large data, 10 GB is not proper for storing. Overall, I would recommend SQL Server 2014 Express for a student and as a free version you can use it, but not for a large database or a company database. There are also performance issues. SQL Server 2014 Express is fast, but it is not perfectly scalable because it provides only 10 GB per database size. However, it has proper error handling. I think SQL Server 2014 Express can be improved by first improving the database size. Making the maximum size a user can have per database is needed. Right now it is 10 GB. Increase it to a maximum so a user can save as much data as they want, approaching unlimited data storage. Additionally, the operating system should be supported on every Windows variation, including Linux and every other operating system. A backup option is also needed because SSMS is not providing built-in backup features.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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 column-based technologies (basically all the database for ITP) are used for SAP IQ. It is used as a column-based solution."
"But I do not think that other products really have an advantage for warehousing over the SAP IQ solution."
"Columnar storage allows high compression, high load rates and high query performance."
"Sybase IQ is a column based database, used for business intelligence, data warehousing, and data marts."
"It’s the central component of our enterprise data warehouse."
"Valuable features for us include the compression, speed, fast response time, and easy object maintenance."
"We can now have over one billion rows in a table for semi-real trans-national querying."
"SQL Server 2014 Express has impacted my organization positively because it is time-saving."
"SQL Server 2014 Express has positively impacted my organization by improving my knowledge in SQL coding and making my work faster."
"SQL Server 2014 Express has provided a return on investment by saving money and time compared to other SQL servers such as MySQL and PostgreSQL, which are similar but more expensive and less user-friendly for non-technical clients."
"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."
"SQL Server 2014 Express helped me gain a real-world application and practical database skills."
 

Cons

"There could be more documentation and training."
"I think the universe should be part of the Sybase IQ tool set."
"The room for improvement would be the marketing of the product, because this product is much better than advertised."
"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."
"There is very little documentation available."
"The only negative aspect of IQ is the cost, which can be challenging for companies in Peru."
"Technical support for the product has become almost nonexistent for this product."
"It's too complex. This is concerning something that will change immediately."
"SQL Server 2014 Express can be improved by increasing the maximum 10 gigabytes for a database, as it would be better if this limit were increased."
"SQL Server 2014 Express can be improved as there are some resource limits. There are limitations on database size, memory, and CPU usage which restrict scalability."
"However, I also realized its limitation when I tried working on a large database. It is not perfect because it provides 10 GB per database."
"SQL Server 2014 Express could be improved by offering multiple authentication methods."
"Whenever we put more data, the query time is more because it is not an Enterprise version and the data storage is limited to 10 GB, which is the only drawback I can identify."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Negotiation is very important."
"Negotiate based on the features required."
"The only costs after standard licensing fees are for add-ons and upgrades."
"It's not that costly. So, the pricing is cheap."
"Evaluate all options; check to see if you need expensive add-ons."
"The cost of implementation is about $3,000."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
30%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
6%
Construction Company
38%
Healthcare Company
12%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise16
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
 

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 SQL Server 2014 Express?
However, I also realized its limitation when I tried working on a large database. It is not perfect because it provides 10 GB per database. If we are storing a large database or large data, 10 GB i...
What is your primary use case for SQL Server 2014 Express?
My main use case for SQL Server 2014 Express is that I use it for my internship. In the company, I am also working with SQL Server 2014 version, and I also use it for my academic project. As a stud...
What advice do you have for others considering SQL Server 2014 Express?
Overall, I would recommend SQL Server 2014 Express for a student. I advise others looking into using SQL Server 2014 Express that if you are storing a structured database, then you have to use SQL ...
 

Comparisons

No data available
 

Also Known As

Sybase IQ
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ASR Group, Citrix, State of Indiana, PocketCard Co. Ltd.
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP IQ vs. SQL Server 2014 Express and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
894,738 professionals have used our research since 2012.