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SAP IQ vs Vertica comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

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 Data Warehouse
13th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Relational Databases Tools (26th)
Vertica
Ranking in Data Warehouse
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
86
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Data Warehouse (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of SAP IQ is 2.8%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Vertica is 8.5%, down from 8.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Warehouse
 

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.
T Venkatesh - PeerSpot reviewer
Processes query faster through multiple systems simultaneously, but it could support different data types
We use the solution for various tasks, including preparing data marts and generating offers. It helps extract data based on rules from the policy team and provides insights to enhance business operations. We also analyze transactions to target customers and improve business performance The…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Unbeatable speed and compression with a colummn-structured relational database."
"All data is compressed and indexed, allowing for fast execution of transactions."
"The column-based technologies (basically all the database for ITP) are used for SAP IQ. It is used as a column-based solution."
"IQ is a very high-performance and high-transaction database."
"Columnar storage allows high compression, high load rates and high query performance."
"It is very robust for ad hoc DW queries and its columnar compression is unique and valuable."
"The product is easy to learn."
"The initial setup is easy."
"Partition and join back to node are easy and simple for DBAs."
"Bulk loads, batch loads, and micro-batch loads have made it possible for our organization to process near real-time ingestions and faster analytics."
"The feature of the product that is most important is the speed. I needed a columnar database, and its speed is what it's built to do, and so that's what really does differentiate Vertica from its competitors."
"Vertica gives knowledgeable users and DBAs excellent tools for tuning."
"The initial setup was straightforward."
"The hardware usage and speed has been the most valuable feature of this solution. It is very fast and has saved us a lot of money."
"Vertica is easy to use and provides really high performance, stability, and scalability."
"Vertica is a great product because customers can compress and code data. The infrastructure that data warehouse solutions need is a commodity server so that customers don't have to invest in infrastructure."
 

Cons

"The organization who owns the product does not support it well and appears not to be doing significant development for the future."
"The primary negative aspect is the cost, which can be a challenge due to the economic conditions in Peru."
"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."
"Concurrency and functional error messaging."
"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."
"In our company, we have faced difficulties in scaling the solution for certain use cases."
"There are a lot of limitations within this product and it makes things extremely hard for developers. It lacks Stored Procedure, packages, and triggers like other RDBMs."
"Fact-to-fact joins on multi-billion record tables perform poorly."
"The documentation of Vertica is an area with shortcomings where improvements are required."
"It would be great if this were a managed service in AWS."
"It should provide a GUI interface for data management and tuning."
"They could improve on customer service."
"Promotion/marketing must be improved, even though it is a very useful product at very good price, it is not as "popular" as it should be."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost of implementation is about $3,000."
"Negotiation is very important."
"Evaluate all options; check to see if you need expensive add-ons."
"The only costs after standard licensing fees are for add-ons and upgrades."
"Negotiate based on the features required."
"It's not that costly. So, the pricing is cheap."
"Vertica is an expensive tool."
"Vertica has a perpetual license, but they are currently trying to convert all those licenses to subscription-based licenses on a yearly basis."
"It is fast to purchase through the AWS Marketplace."
"From a cost perspective, the software is less than most of its competitors."
"It's difficult today to compete with open-source solutions. In these areas, there is a lot of competition and the price of this solution is a bit pricy."
"I think it's starting to get a little expensive. Open source products are starting to get more robust, so I think that's something that they need to start looking at in terms of licensing."
"It's an expensive product"
"The pricing and licensing depend on the size of your environment and the zone where you want to implement."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
46%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
7%
University
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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?
The primary negative aspect is the cost, which can be a challenge due to the economic conditions in Peru.
What is your primary use case for SAP IQ?
I worked on implementing new databases, migration data in production, and developer environments with SAP IQ.
What do you like most about Vertica?
Vertica is easy to use and provides really high performance, stability, and scalability.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Vertica?
The solution is relatively cost-effective. Pricing and licensing are reasonable compared to other solutions.
What needs improvement with Vertica?
The product could improve by adding support for a wider variety of data types and enhancing features to better compete with other databases.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Sybase IQ
Micro Focus Vertica, HPE Vertica, HPE Vertica on Demand
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ASR Group, Citrix, State of Indiana, PocketCard Co. Ltd.
Cerner, Game Show Network Game, Guess by Marciano, Supercell, Etsy, Nascar, Empirix, adMarketplace, and Cardlytics.
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP IQ vs. Vertica and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.