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Actian ParAccel vs Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse comparison

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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

Actian ParAccel
Ranking in Data Warehouse
26th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Parallel Data War...
Ranking in Data Warehouse
9th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of Actian ParAccel is 1.8%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is 3.2%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Warehouse Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse3.2%
Actian ParAccel1.8%
Other95.0%
Data Warehouse
 

Featured Reviews

it_user263409 - PeerSpot reviewer
Business Intelligence Consultant at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
​The stability needs work and the leader node should be removed, but we can deliver results faster.
The speed of the application It has delivered results to our customers faster than we were able to previously. The stability needs work. I've used it for two years. It wasn't stable. There are issues. No issues yet. Customer Service: It's good. Technical Support: It's good. SQL Server…
HassanFatemi - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at Smart Data-Driven Solutions
Has handled large volumes of data effectively but still needs cost flexibility
There could be improvements on the cost side of Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse because it is still considered to be quite expensive by a lot of users, and many companies are not interested in solutions with parallel data warehousing due to this expense. Addressing the cost would be the number one area for improvement. Additionally, I have not worked recently with it, so I don't know if this feature already exists, but if it doesn't, having an elastic feature that adjusts the service's power dynamically based on the workload would be beneficial instead of fixing the power at a specific level.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It has delivered results to our customers faster than we were able to previously."
"The UI is very simple and functional for my clients, most of the clients that use the solution are not experts."
"One of the most important features is the ease of using MS SQL, as it is very easy to pull the data from it and also very easy to import data from CSV or Excel."
"Overall, I rate Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse a nine out of ten."
"It is very strong, scalable, and has tons of features."
"Collecting the data through SSIS packages from different sources and putting them all in one data repository is the most powerful thing. While others have this feature, they don't have the simplicity or ease of use when getting a resource and knowing everything about it."
"The biggest lessons I've learned through the years are that Microsoft is probably the largest research company there is, so people should stick to people that know what they're doing, and Microsoft definitely has some very, very capable people designing these products, and that's probably why I've stayed with Microsoft so long."
"This is a great product for big data analytics as it can challenge other MPPs quite well."
"It is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution."
 

Cons

"The stability needs work."
"Scalability can be improved because there are other tools that perform better with very large datasets."
"I would like to see better visualization features."
"It requires significant infrastructure expertise to implement."
"​Concurrent queries are limited to 32, making it more of a data storage mechanism instead of an active DWH solution."
"The patch releases are a concern. For a customer with tons of servers, frequent patches lead to required reboots, which interrupts business."
"It needs more compatibility with common BI tools."
"Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is excellent but very expensive. Working on the pricing could make it a better solution."
"Unlike other MPPs, such as Netezza, this requires excellent expertise in SQL to reap the benefits of using it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The solution's pricing is fairly decent for organizations with huge data sizes."
"All the features that we use do not require any additional subscription or yearly fees."
"They offer an annual subscription. The pricing depends on the size of the environments."
"Technical support is an additional fee and is expensive."
"Microsoft has an agreement with the government in our country, so our customers get their licensing costs from the Ministry. Whenever we work with any government, company, or government institute, which is mainly what we are doing, that license comes directly from the Ministry of Technology and Information."
"I think the program is well-priced compared to the other offerings that are out in the market."
"The tool could be expensive if we need to manage a lot of data."
"The solution is cost-effective."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Construction Company
23%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise22
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What needs improvement with Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse?
The pricing could be better; I think it actually just went up.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse?
The basic use case for us is virtual machines. In real estate, we use it for our operations. They handle large data sets well, and the performance is good during those times.
 

Also Known As

ParAccel
Microsoft PDW, SQL Server Data Warehouse, Microsoft SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse, MS Parallel Data Warehouse
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Amazon, The Royal Bank of Scotland, OfficeMax, MicroStrategy
Auckland Transport, Erste Bank Group, Urban Software Institute, NJVC, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, Tata Steel Europe
Find out what your peers are saying about Snowflake Computing, Teradata, Oracle and others in Data Warehouse. Updated: September 2026.
913,683 professionals have used our research since 2012.