SQL Server vs SingleStore comparison

The compared SingleStore and Microsoft solutions aren't in the same category. SingleStore is ranked #12 in DS , with an average rating of 8.3, and holds a 2.2% mindshare in the category. Microsoft is ranked #1 in SQL , with an average rating of 8.0, and holds a 16.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of SingleStore users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

SingleStore

Read 6 SingleStore reviews

2,242 Views
247 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SQL Server

Read 269 SQL Server reviews

12,555 Views
11,174 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

SingleStore

SQL Server

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Executive Summary

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

Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, MongoDB and others in Database as a Service (DBaaS).

To learn more, read our detailed Database as a Service (DBaaS) Report (Updated: August 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

August 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

SingleStore

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Database as a Service (DBaaS) (12th), Vector Databases (15th)

SQL Server

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

269

Ranking in other categories

Relational Databases Tools (1st)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Databases solutions, they serve different purposes. SingleStore is designed for Database as a Service (DBaaS) and holds a mindshare of 2.2%, up 0.9% compared to last year.
SQL Server, on the other hand, focuses on Relational Databases Tools, holds 16.6% mindshare, down 22.8% since last year.

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

Relational Databases Tools

Featured Reviews

Yasin Sarı

Senior Data Analyst at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees

High-speed data processing, seamless scalability, and excellent high availability making it an optimal choice for those prioritizing performance and efficiency in a database solution

There's a noteworthy consideration when it comes to collecting massive amounts of data. It is not the optimal choice for direct data collection through queries, and it's more suited for aggregation tasks. Attempting to use it for direct extraction, for instance, might lead to memory-related challenges. While MySQL version five might lack extensive SQL capabilities, SingleStore also has its constraints, requiring simpler SQL writing. This becomes evident when seeking advanced functionalities like window functions or JSON functions, where SingleStore doesn't offer an extensive toolkit, necessitating a more straightforward approach to SQL.

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Kapil Dev Khatri

Database administrator at K electric

Helps monitor queries and identify which indexes need to be created in the databases

SQL Server is very simple due to its GUI, which is available for users. It allows for modifications and has execution plans available, along with options such as activity monitoring. This helps monitor queries and identify which indexes need to be created in the databases, tables, or columns to improve performance.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The paramount advantage is the exceptional speed."

"The product can automatically reinstall and reconfigure in case of a shutdown."

"MemSQL supports the MySQL protocol, and many functions are similar, so the learning curve is very short."

"It's a distributed relational database, so it does not have a single server, it has multiple servers. Its architecture itself is fast because it has multiple nodes to distribute the workload and process large amounts of data."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to create pipelines, streamline and extract data from the pipelines."

"The ability to store data in memory is a standout feature, enhanced by robust failover mechanisms."

"I use it to fine tune my procedures and functions."

"The most valuable feature of SQL Server is that it is easy to set up."

"The scalability is very good."

"It is stable, and it works okay."

"It can go easily on a virtual machine and be accommodated by a virtual machine easily. That is a plus, as not all databases can handle that."

"The initial setup isn't overly complex."

"The initial setup is time-efficient and can be done independently."

"I've been using SQL Server for 20 years, and there is nothing that it can't do. It is awesome."

More SQL Server pros

Cons

"For new customers, it's very tough to start. Their documentation isn't organized, and there's no online training available. SingleStore is working on it, but that's a major drawback."

"Poor key distribution can significantly impact performance, requiring a backward approach in design rather than adding tables incrementally."

"There should be more pipelines available because I think that if MemSQL can connect to other services, that would be great."

"It is not the optimal choice for direct data collection through queries, and it's more suited for aggregation tasks."

"We don't get good discounts in Pakistan."

"Having the ability to migrate servers using a single command would be extremely beneficial."

"The integration could be better. They are not open-source, so the integration with other platforms is not that easy."

"Since this is a relational order system, scalability has a limit. If your system is very big, you need bigger servers and you have to spend more money. We scale a system up to a certain level, and then we move or shift data to the warehouse, which is NoSQL. We then do not have any bottleneck in scaling. For using this technique we are happy with it."

"Maintenance of the solution is an area of concern, and improvements can be helpful."

"Security is an issue."

"It would be nice if there was a feature to search for a specific value across multiple tables. This would save a lot of time for its users."

"I would like to see the performance improved. Migrating should be easier and the scalability needs improvement."

"The interface of the tool has certain shortcomings, making it an area where improvements are required."

"Microsoft could improve SQL Server by integrating the tools better."

More SQL Server cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Using it for analytical purposes can be cost-effective in the long run, especially in terms of infrastructure."

"They have two main options: cloud installation and bare-metal installation, each with different pricing models."

"I would advise users to try the free 128GB version."

"SingleStore is a bit expensive."

"The product's licensing is not expensive. It is comparable."

"For a brief period, approximately one year before 2018, I had experience working with the open-source version of SQL Server. During that time, I found SQL Server to be the preferred choice, in my opinion."

"Our customers do pay license fees for the MS SQL Server but the Rabbit is free, as it is open-source software."

"There is a license to use this solution. However, the model is not easy to understand. There is a guide you have to read about all the information on how it works. If you read this documentation, you can understand how it works. We are paying for our SQL Servers by CPU cores with an enterprise license."

"This solution is available at a much lower price point than Oracle."

"Cost is a major derivative for any organization. It has a reasonable cost value, and its cloud support is also better than others. Comparatively, Oracle can do the same things or is even better in certain areas, but it is expensive. The cost along with the support are the plus factors for SQL Server."

"Currently, almost all of my machines are in Azure and I think it is the best way of licensing now (VM+software)."

"On a scale of one to ten, when one is cheap and ten is an expensive solution, I rate the product price as seven. The product is expensive."

"There is a license required for servers and for the POS we use the free version. The free version allows you to have tables and a total database size of approximately 10 GB, which is enough for our requirements."

More SQL Server pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

32%

Computer Software Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

University

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SingleStore DB?

The paramount advantage is the exceptional speed.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SingleStore DB?

Using it for analytical purposes can be cost-effective in the long run, especially in terms of infrastructure. While building an on-premise cluster incurs an initial cost for servers with ample RAM...

See all answers

What needs improvement with SingleStore DB?

See all answers

Would you say the price of SQL Server is high compared to that of similar products?

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 price...

See all answers

Has using SQL Server helped your organization in any way?

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 h...

See all answers

Which authentication mode is best for SQL Server?

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 pur...

See all answers

Comparisons

ClickHouse vs SingleStore

Compared 13% of the time

Supabase Vector vs SingleStore

Compared 7% of the time

CockroachDB vs SingleStore

Compared 6% of the time

OpenText Analytics Database (Vertica) vs SingleStore

Compared 5% of the time

Oracle Database vs SingleStore

Compared 5% of the time

More SingleStore Competitors

IBM Db2 Database vs SQL Server

Compared 13% of the time

SAP HANA vs SQL Server

Compared 13% of the time

MariaDB vs SQL Server

Compared 13% of the time

Oracle Database vs SQL Server

Compared 10% of the time

IBM Cognos vs SQL Server

Compared 2% of the time

More SQL Server Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

SingleStore

July 2025

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Buyer's Guide

SQL Server

July 2025

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Also Known As

No data available

Microsoft SQL Server, MSSQL, MS SQL

Overview

SingleStore delivers the performance you need for enterprise AI, providing the most performant data platform for apps and analytics at scale. SingleStore enables organizations to scale from one to one million customers in one unified platform. SingleStore offers transparent pricing as shown here https://www.singlestore.com/pricing/

SingleStore caters to over 400 customers globally, including major banks and tech companies in 50+ countries and 40+ verticals. It offers seamless scaling for both transactional and analytical workloads, simplifying data management with its MySQL compatibility and real-time processing capabilities. SingleStore's distributed architecture ensures speed and reliability, efficiently handling large data volumes.

What are the key features of SingleStore?

MySQL Compatibility: Eases the learning curve for users.
Built-in Pipelines: Connects to S3, Kafka, and more.
High Concurrency: Processes billions of records swiftly.
Replication & Failover: Enhances speed and reliability.
In-memory Storage: Ensures data safety and quick access.

What benefits can users find in SingleStore reviews?

Automatic Reconfiguration: Simplifies management tasks.
Impressive SQL Performance: Supports complex queries efficiently.
Scalability: Handles large datasets with a multi-node setup.

Top banks and fintech companies leverage SingleStore for efficient management of financial data, while media and telecom industries use it for scalable metadata management and improved data processing. Retail and eCommerce sectors benefit from enhanced transactional capabilities, reducing the need for separate databases and optimizing reporting processes. SingleStore's capacity to unite diverse workloads makes it a strategic choice across many sectors.

SingleStore

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.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

400+ customers including: 6sense, Adobe, Akamai, Ant Money, Arcules, CARFAX, Cigna, Cisco, Comcast, DELL, DBS Bank, Dentsu, DirectlyApply, EY, Factors.AI, Fathom Analytics, FirstEnergy, GE, Goldman Sachs, Heap, Hulu, IMAX, impact.com, Kroger, LG, LiveRamp, Lumana, Nvidia, OpenDialog, Outreach, Palo Alto Networks, PicPay, RBC, Samsung, SegMetrics, Siemens, SiteImprove, SiriusXM, SK Telecom, SKAI, SONY, STC, SunRun, TATA, Thorn, ZoomInfo.

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.

Buyer's Guide

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

August 2025

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