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DuckDB vs SAP HANA comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

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

DuckDB
Ranking in Embedded Database
5th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SAP HANA
Ranking in Embedded Database
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
93
Ranking in other categories
Data Virtualization (2nd), Relational Databases Tools (3rd), Database Management Systems (DBMS) (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Embedded Database category, the mindshare of DuckDB is 11.9%, up from 11.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP HANA is 11.1%, up from 9.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Embedded Database Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP HANA11.1%
DuckDB11.9%
Other77.0%
Embedded Database
 

Featured Reviews

AM
Head of Data Science center of excellence at Ameriabank CJSC
Highly efficient data processing, optimizes infrastructure, and offers good integrations
DuckDB is very fast. If we don't have enough memory, we can use swap. For instance, if we use a fast storage space, the system volume in Kubernetes could be a fast swap for DuckDB if we have memory limits. In our framework, DuckDB is five times faster than Spark in some cases. It has an extensive SQL dialect, many SQL Windows functions, and good integration with Polars. We can easily use SQL and Pandas framework in Python to process data.
HP
SAP Analytics Lead at Miracle Software Systems, Inc
Performs well with high database and reporting performance
We face difficulties replicating the AC DOCA table, which is a huge table, from S/4HANA to SAP HANA BAS, Business Application Studio, or HANA Studio using SLT. For developing Power BI reports using the AC DOCA table, we are replicating full data daily. We want to implement delta load, and while we used OData service for one client, the delta OData service link is not properly updating delta records. Licensing costs with SAP HANA are very high. Due to high pricing, many clients are moving from BW on SAP HANA and S/4HANA to Azure SQL. I have worked with several clients who have moved all data flows to Azure and developed Power BI queries on top of Azure. Many clients are also using Google Cloud Platform (GCP). The certification costs are also very high, more than ₹1,40,000 INR. Previously, it was ₹30,000 to ₹40,000. I want to pursue three certifications but am unable to do so due to the cost.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"DuckDB is very fast."
"SAP HANA is a cost-saving solution that helps save money and serves as a time-saving solution that helps save time."
"The data in HANA is stored in columns rather than rows, which speeds up searches and aggregations."
"We appreciate that the current, redesigned version of this solution that is much more straightforward for new users, and has been well thought out with industry best practice standards in mind."
"This product covers almost everything, and it's scalable and very innovative."
"The main feature is that the processes are very flexible, they are able to be adapted to the business and their departments."
"SAP HANA's interface is pretty user-friendly."
"It's one of the best databases in the world."
"This solution is very fast."
 

Cons

"Sometimes we have memory issues that cause job failures, which we don't fully understand why, but we can rerun the jobs without problems."
"The performance and integration with other products are areas in need of improvement."
"The setup process and deployment process for SAP HANA is complex."
"SAP HANA is not perfect and they could improve by having more options and more integration."
"Needs graphical programming without coding."
"The interface is a little bit hard to customize. You almost have to consult the SAP original developer to change it."
"FI, or the financial module of SAP, has room for improvement. It has to have some better localization for the Middle East, especially in regards to taxes and the letter of credit cycle."
"The releases need to be more stable. It's surprising to still encounter significant bugs after ten years of the product being available."
"The initial setup was pretty complex, considering the enormous amount of data they had from an Oracle ERP."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"We pay for a maintenance license, and the licensing cost is high. In general, it is a very expensive solution."
"While the cost of the license may seem high, it is important to note that the benefits of the solution far outweighs the cost."
"The price of the solution could be reduced, it is expensive."
"The solution's license is very expensive so I rate pricing a one out of ten."
"The price is on the expensive side, at eight out of ten, with ten being expensive."
"Setup and licensing require planning and proper budgeting, as it is not cheap."
"Price-wise, the product falls on the higher side of the spectrum. There is no need to pay for maintenance and support additionally. Support is available for bug fixes in the product."
"The price of SAP HANA is very expensive and it is paid annually."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Government
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise62
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for DuckDB?
We use the open-source version of DuckDB and don't have costs associated with it. There is a company that provides commercial software, but we use the open-source library, not the services.
What needs improvement with DuckDB?
Sometimes we have memory issues that cause job failures, which we don't fully understand why, but we can rerun the jobs without problems. There were also problems with binary formats in the previou...
What is your primary use case for DuckDB?
We use the concept of a feature store. We need the engine, and we use Feast as our feature store framework to build our feature store. We use the DuckDB engine as a data engine, which helps us move...
What are the biggest benefits of using SAP HANA?
Based on my work with SAP HANA, the biggest benefit that it can bring to your business is total data management. This product is by SAP - a company that serves almost all needs a client may have co...
Is SAP HANA’s customer and technical support reliable?
We have been using SAP HANA for a fairly short period of time and have only taken advantage of their customer support. So far, we have not had issues that required specialized help from technical s...
Is SAP HANA difficult to set up and start using?
SAP HANA is fairly easy to set up, however, I do not think a complete beginner can do it. You certainly need some preparation - either you need to have experience with similar solutions, or with ot...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
SAP High-Performance Analytic Appliance, HANA
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Unilever, NHS 24, adidas Group, CHIO Aachen, Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP, SQLite, Oracle and others in Embedded Database. Updated: April 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.