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Google Cloud Bigtable vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 15, 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

Google Cloud Bigtable
Ranking in Managed NoSQL Databases
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Non-Relational Databases (6th)
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB
Ranking in Managed NoSQL Databases
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
109
Ranking in other categories
Database as a Service (DBaaS) (4th), NoSQL Databases (2nd), Vector Databases (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Managed NoSQL Databases category, the mindshare of Google Cloud Bigtable is 5.2%, down from 6.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is 16.4%, down from 17.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed NoSQL Databases Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB16.4%
Google Cloud Bigtable5.2%
Other78.4%
Managed NoSQL Databases
 

Featured Reviews

AS
Team Lead at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Consistent performance and seamless cloud integration enhance analytics capabilities while reducing management complexity
One point for improvement in Google Cloud Bigtable is that people have confusion in mapping. There are many similar products available, and Google has managed services for similar products as well. It would be easier if the journey of knowing when to use Google Cloud Bigtable versus other Cloud SQL and alternates such as Cloud Spanner is made clearer for users. Regarding additional functionality for Google Cloud Bigtable, I am uncertain if LLMs can be integrated or if Google Cloud Bigtable can act as a vector store for LLM-specific use cases where we are interacting or using generative AI capabilities.
reviewer2724105 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Director of Product Management at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Provides super sharp latency, excellent availability, and the ability to effectively manage costs across different tenants
For integrating Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB with other Azure products or other products, there are a couple of challenges with the current system. Right now, the vectors are stored as floating-point numbers within the NoSQL document, which makes them inefficiently large. This leads to increased storage space requirements, and searching through a vast number of documents in the vector database becomes quite costly in terms of RUs. While the integration works well, the expense associated with it is relatively high. I would really like to see a reduction in costs for their vector search, as it is currently on the expensive side. The areas for improvement in Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB are vector pricing and vector indexing patterns, which are unintuitive and not well described. I would also like to see the parameters of Fleet Spaces made more powerful, as currently, it's somewhat lightweight. I believe they've made those changes intentionally to better understand the cost model. However, we would like to take a more aggressive approach in using it. One of the most frustrating aspects of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB right now is that you can only store one vector per document. Additionally, you must specify the configuration of that vector when you create an instance of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB. Once the database is set up, you can't change the vector configuration, which is incredibly limiting for experimentation. You want the ability to try different settings and see how they perform, as there are numerous use cases for storing more than one vector in a document. While interoperability within the vector database is acceptable—for example, I can search for vectors—I still desire a richer set of configuration options.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like the drive and the support of this program."
"The main benefit I receive from Google Cloud Bigtable is the managed service part."
"The main benefit I receive from Google Cloud Bigtable is the managed service part."
"It's very user-friendly where streaming data is required."
"The solution is very convenient."
"Stability-wise, it is a simple solution. I rate the solution's stability a ten out of ten."
"This solution is much more scalable than more traditional databases - at least the ones we are aware of."
"Bigtable is faster than other competitors in the market. It helps us collate all the data, and the security features are great. The latency is low, and the computation speed is fantastic. Bigtable is also a managed service, so you don't have to worry about anything aside from analyzing the data ingested."
"We value the replication and regional availability features that Cosmos DB provides. The replication includes read replicas and write replicas. The recent addition of vectorization and similarity comparisons add values for AI workloads. The performance and scaling capabilities of Cosmos DB are excellent, allowing it to handle large workloads compared to other services such as Azure AI Search."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is its ability to handle concurrency and consistency."
"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is easy to use and implement for application programmers."
"The searching capability is exceptional. It is very simple and incomparable to competitors."
"The speed is impressive, and integrating our power-up database with Kafka was an improvement."
"The best part of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is that with the default configuration and the Azure functional pipeline, if your go-to cloud provider is Microsoft Azure, the whole integration is seamless."
"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is very easy to use."
"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is very fast. Data retrieval and data storage are very quick."
 

Cons

"I've used Bigtable for about three or four years."
"When it comes to complex queries, a user can't get any help from a drop-down box and pick columns. It would be great if some improvements could be made in the aforementioned area concerning the solution."
"The pricing of the solution needs to be improved."
"The lagging problem of the product I face is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"This product needs better security and transparency, and the price should be reduced."
"Improvement should be made as per customer recommended and requirements."
"The cost of this product is too expensive."
"There are some disadvantages as it is costly compared to other NoSQL databases."
"The query searching functionality has some complexities and could be more user-friendly. Improvements in this area would be very helpful."
"There aren't any specific areas that need improvement, but if there were a way to achieve the right cosine similarity score without extensive testing, that would be very beneficial."
"One of the most frustrating aspects of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB right now is that you can only store one vector per document."
"It is not as easy to use as DynamoDB."
"A minor improvement would be enabling batch operations through the UI. Currently, to delete all documents in a collection, we must use an API, which some of my team finds inconvenient for admin tasks."
"I think it could be better if it included more in regards to AI or if it were more exposed to AI."
"The size of the continuation token in Azure Cosmos DB should be static rather than increasing with more data, as it can lead to application crashes. They should use a static key size."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would like to see better pricing. It is not too expensive, but it isn't cheap either."
"You need to understand exactly the details of how the pricing works technically to stay within reasonable pricing."
"The pricing is perceived as being on the higher side. However, if you have large data operations, it might reduce costs due to performance efficiencies."
"Its pricing is not bad. It is good."
"Pricing is one of the solution's main features because it is based on usage, scales automatically, and is not too costly."
"Cosmos DB is a PaaS, so there are no upfront costs for infrastructure. There are only subscriptions you pay for Azure and things like that. But it's a PaaS, so it's a subscription service. The license isn't perpetual, and the cost might seem expensive on its face, but you have to look at the upkeep for infrastructure and what you're saving."
"From a startup point of view, it appears to be expensive. If I were to create my startup, it would not have the pricing appeal compared to the competition, such as Supabase. All those other databases are well-advertised by communities. I know there is a free tier with Azure Cosmos DB. It is just not well advertised."
"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is moderately priced, where it is neither expensive nor cheap."
"Cost isn’t a big hurdle for us right now. The solution is not costly."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Educational Organization
7%
Legal Firm
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business33
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise58
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Google Cloud Bigtable?
Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.
What needs improvement with Google Cloud Bigtable?
One point for improvement in Google Cloud Bigtable is that people have confusion in mapping. There are many similar products available, and Google has managed services for similar products as well....
What is your primary use case for Google Cloud Bigtable?
My main use case for Google Cloud Bigtable is mainly for advertisement-related analytics-related use cases.
What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
The initial setup is simple and straightforward. You can set up a Cosmos DB in a day, even configuring things like availability zones around the world.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB's pricing model has aligned with my budget expectations because I can tune the RU as I need to, which helps a lot. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB's dynamic auto-scale or server...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
I have not utilized Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB multi-model support for handling diverse data types. I'm not in the position to decide if clients will use Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB or any other datab...
 

Also Known As

Google BigTable
Microsoft Azure DocumentDB, MS Azure Cosmos DB
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Cognite, Dow Jones, Loblaw Digital
TomTom, KPMG Australia, Bosch, ASOS, Mercedes Benz, NBA, Zero Friction, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Kinectify
Find out what your peers are saying about Google Cloud Bigtable vs. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.