SAP SQL Anywhere vs SQL Server comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between SAP SQL Anywhere and SQL Server based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Relational Databases Tools solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed SAP SQL Anywhere vs. SQL Server Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The auto-backup replication is a perfect feature. That is the feature I liked the most.""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.""SAP SQL Anywhere is very helpful.""It works well in general."

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"This solution is user-friendly and easy to understand.""It is a typical database solution, and it is working well so far. It is easy to use, and it is also very common and popular, which makes it easy to find a support partner.""The solution is stable. It's reliable.""SQL Server is quite stable. And now we are using the Lattice 2017 version.""SQL Server has good performance. It is one of the best features.""Microsoft is less demanding because everything is GUI, unlike Oracle, where you need to use command lines.""The solution is stable.""It is easy to manage for the administrator. It is also easy to use for applications that are Windows-based. It is a very stable product, and it has got backup and recovery tools."

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Cons
"The interface is not easy in comparison to the SQL Server. It could be more user-friendly.""A problem we are experiencing now is when doing a backup in SQL 2012 and 14.""SAP SQL Anywhere needs to incorporate functionalities like SAP S/4HANA.""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. We sometimes have a large amount of data being queried and it cannot handle it."

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"SQL is a highly unstable server - there are patch updates on the Windows server every week, which is why we only use it for non-critical systems.""The user interface and the reporting could also be improved.""In my experience, I've found that scalability can be improved.""There is a lot of room for improvement when it comes to limited compatibility across the platform and restricted performance with massive data sets.""In terms of exceptionally large databases, it doesn't scale as well as Oracle.""I would say that people should know how to get a SQL setup in place since it might be an area where they lack when it comes to the solution.""SQL Server could improve by enhancing the integration abilities, adding more inbuilt data security features, and simplifying the maintenance.""There is room for improvement in terms of pricing for SQL Server."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "SQL Anywhere cost us about $400."
  • "SAP SQL Anywhere is affordable."
  • More SAP SQL Anywhere Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The free version is cumbersome to use and maintain. But $5000 for a licence is more expense than the benefit I would get from a licensed version. A licence might be worth the price to simplify management and speed up searches."
  • "​We are a Microsoft shop, so we use Active Directory. That integrates well with this product, but we did look at Oracle. We also looked at IBM. This was the best price point for us for what we were getting.​"
  • "​It has the easiest licensing."
  • "This is a downside of enterprise Microsoft products."
  • "Currently, almost all of my machines are in Azure and I think it is the best way of licensing now (VM+software)."
  • "The price has been going higher and higher. The market is quite price sensitive."
  • "My advice is quite straightforward. If you know the number of users who really and truly need access to the Server then it is a no-brainer. If you do not know, then get the basic package and minimum licenses and start from there. Needless to say, users can develop/use data structures outside and then deploy onto the Server."
  • "The setup cost is high, but it will return every penny."
  • More SQL Server Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:SAP SQL Anywhere needs to incorporate functionalities like SAP S/4HANA.
    Top Answer:SQL Server is fairly priced because it has various editions, depending on the number of users, servers, or core packs you are using. If you compare the product to others in this category, the prices… more »
    Top Answer:SQL Server has helped my organization through partitioning to distribute the workload, as it splits them up into smaller pieces so the machines can easily deal with it. However, this comes with a high… more »
    Top Answer:My company connects through SQL Server authentication. We have company Windows accounts, but we do not want to connect the two, out of security concerns and to keep things separated for our own… more »
    Ranking
    Views
    1,373
    Comparisons
    925
    Reviews
    3
    Average Words per Review
    288
    Rating
    7.7
    Views
    33,485
    Comparisons
    25,100
    Reviews
    26
    Average Words per Review
    361
    Rating
    8.6
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Sybase SQL Anywhere
    Microsoft SQL Server, MSSQL, MS SQL
    Learn More
    Overview

    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.

    SQL Server is a relational database management system (RDBMS) by Microsoft. The product's main purposes are to store data and retrieve it as requested by other software applications - on the same computer or on another computer across a shared network. The solution is built on top of Structured Query Language (SQL), which is a standardized programming language used for relational database management.

    The product is tied to Transact-SQL (T-SQL), which is an implementation of SQL from Microsoft that adds several proprietary programming extensions to the standard language. SQL Server is built similarly to other RDBMS products, as its structure is a row-based table that connects related data elements in different tables to one another. One of its most important components is the SQL Server Database Engine, as it controls data processing, storage, and security. Beneath the Database Engine is the SQL Server Operating System, which is used for memory and I/O management, locking data to avoid unneeded upgrades, and job scheduling.

    The solution has four editions with different sets of services and tools. They include:

    • SQL Server Developer
    • SQL Server Expression
    • SQL Server Standard 
    • SQL Server Enterprise

    The first two are available for free and are typically utilized by smaller companies, as they work with fewer functions and storage. The second two editions are generally used by bigger organizations and enterprises and offer more features.

    The solution has several functions through which users can facilitate different data-related processes. These include:

    • Aggregate functions: These functions are used to calculate one or more values and return a single value.

    • Window functions: Window functions calculate an aggregate value based on a group of rows and return multiple rows for each involved group.

    • Date functions: These functions allow clients to handle data and time data efficiently.

    • String functions: Through the string functions, SQL Server processes an input string and returns a string or numeric value.

    • System functions: The system functions of the product return objects, values, and settings.

    SQL Server Services

    SQL Server has a wide range of add-on services that provide additional benefits beyond database management. These services include:

    • Machine learning: SQL Server machine learning services allow users to do machine learning and data analytics within the product.
       
    • Service broker: This feature is a part of the database engine and offers messaging and message queuing for applications on the platform.

    • Replication: This feature consists of transaction replication, merge replication, and snapshot replication. 

    • Analysis: SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) adds online analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining capabilities to SQL Server databases.

    • Reporting: This feature supports the development of custom reporting applications.

    • Notifications: This feature generates data-driven notifications which are sent to subscribers of Notification Services.

    • Integration: This SQL Server feature provides capabilities for data integration, data import, and data warehousing.

    • Full-text search: Through this feature, users can utilize specialized indexing and query for unstructured text stored in the solution.

    • Visual studio: This feature supports data programming with SQL Server.

    • Azure Data Studio: This is a cross-platform query editor that can be downloaded and used alongside SQL Server.

    SQL Server Benefits

    The solution has many benefits for users. These include the following:

    • The platform ensures a consistent experience across other platforms while being fast and agile.

    • Through the built-in intelligence features, users can understand their data better.

    • The solution has enterprise-level security, which ensures the smooth and safe performance of users' data.

    • SQL Server offers the ability to retrieve large amounts of data quickly and efficiently.

    • The product installation process is fairly easy, and it offers a user-friendly interface.

    • SQL Server offers improved data storage and retrieval functions through frequent upgrades.

    • The solution reduces the risk of database server attacks, since it is not an open-source database.

    Reviews from Real Users

    A president at a consultancy evaluates SQL Server as a veteran solution with critical log shipping feature

    Harkamal S., a user at a manufacturing company, rates SQL Server with a high mark because it is a stable, scalable, and easy-to-deploy solution that pretty much covers everything.

    Sample Customers
    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
    Microsoft SQL Server is used by businesses in every industry, including Great Western Bank, Aviva, the Volvo Car Corporation, BMW, Samsung, Principality Building Society, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario.
    Top Industries
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company19%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    Construction Company9%
    Healthcare Company7%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm18%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Comms Service Provider5%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization42%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    Computer Software Company8%
    Manufacturing Company5%
    Company Size
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business35%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise52%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business41%
    Midsize Enterprise21%
    Large Enterprise39%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business13%
    Midsize Enterprise48%
    Large Enterprise39%
    Buyer's Guide
    SAP SQL Anywhere vs. SQL Server
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about SAP SQL Anywhere vs. SQL Server and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    SAP SQL Anywhere is ranked 20th in Relational Databases Tools with 6 reviews while SQL Server is ranked 1st in Relational Databases Tools with 245 reviews. SAP SQL Anywhere is rated 7.6, while SQL Server is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of SAP SQL Anywhere writes "Reliable and able to expand but needs to be more secure". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SQL Server writes "A stable, scalable, and easy-to-deploy solution that pretty much covers everything". SAP SQL Anywhere is most compared with SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise, MySQL, Oracle Database, MariaDB and SAP HANA, whereas SQL Server is most compared with MariaDB, SAP HANA, Oracle Database, IBM Db2 Database and QlikView. See our SAP SQL Anywhere vs. SQL Server report.

    See our list of best Relational Databases Tools vendors.

    We monitor all Relational Databases Tools reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.