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Google Cloud Spanner vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB comparison

Google and Microsoft are both solutions in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category. Google is ranked #8 with an average rating of 9.0, while Microsoft is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.2. Google holds a 4.7% mindshare in DS, compared to Microsoft’s 2.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.
Google Cloud Spanner
Read 5 Google Cloud Spanner reviews
  • 753 Views
  • 526 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB
Read 99 Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB reviews
  • 372 Views
  • 131 Comparison Views
94% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB and Google Cloud Spanner are products in the scalable and globally distributed database services category. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB has an edge in user satisfaction concerning pricing and support, while Google Cloud Spanner leads in features and performance.

Features: Azure Cosmos DB offers a multi-model database service that supports NoSQL databases, worldwide distribution, and guaranteed low latency. Key features of Google Cloud Spanner include horizontal scaling without sacrificing consistency, support for SQL queries, and robust architecture for transactional workloads.

Room for Improvement: Azure Cosmos DB could enhance its consistency mechanisms for more robust transactional support and optimize SQL-based operations for greater efficiency. An extension of database engines and improvements in the query performance for complex operations could also be beneficial. Google Cloud Spanner might improve cost-effectiveness by offering lower entry pricing and enhance flexibility in NoSQL database handling. Further simplification in integration with non-Google cloud ecosystems and optimizing resource utilization could help users manage costs better.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB ensures a straightforward deployment model with multi-region distribution and extensive customer support, which makes integration and management seamless. Google Cloud Spanner's automated scaling approach and seamless maintenance cater well to globally distributed applications. However, Google Spanner's customer service is noted for its reliability, supporting large, consistent workloads with ease.

Pricing and ROI: Azure Cosmos DB features a flexible pricing model tailored to specific read/write and storage needs, benefiting businesses focused on cost-effectiveness in initial setups. Google Cloud Spanner, while having a higher upfront setup cost, offers strong ROI through reduced operational overheads in large-scale applications. The key difference is Cosmos DB’s affordability at the entry point, whereas Cloud Spanner’s higher initial costs are offset by long-term operational savings.

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Buyer's Guide
Google Cloud Spanner vs. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB
June 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

Google Cloud Spanner
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
8th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
99
Ranking in other categories
NoSQL Databases (5th), Managed NoSQL Databases (1st), Vector Databases (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Google Cloud Spanner is 4.7%, up from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is 2.4%. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database as a Service (DBaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

Ethan Lo - PeerSpot reviewer
A stable and scalable relational database that ensures a return on investment for its users
The most valuable feature of the solution is its scalability. Scalability comes with two options, among which Google Cloud Spanner can scale horizontally, compared to other relational databases that scale vertically. You can change Google Cloud Spanner's resource configuration, which is done through processing units. Suppose you set up Google Cloud Spanner initially with a hundred processing units, and then you run out of resources since your database used too much CPU. In the aforementioned scenario, you can scale up or down and face no downtime in the production phase. The solution's features are important when running a company twenty-four hours, seven days a week.
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MichaelJohn - PeerSpot reviewer
Very efficient for application-facing scenarios
There are several areas for improvement. Firstly, having a local development emulator or simulator for Azure Cosmos DB would be beneficial. It would be very handy to have a Docker container that developers can use locally. Although, I know there is a free tier and so on and so forth, having a local environment would be nice. For example, SQL Server is very portable. You can even install it on your machine. That is the number one thing that is missing in Azure Cosmos DB. The second improvement area is the IDE of choice. That means how you interact with Azure Cosmos DB. For example, with SQL Server, you have SQL Server Management Studio. I know there is a little bit of support for Azure Cosmos DB in Azure Data Studio, but it is not heavily advertised or it does not feel like first-class citizen support. Developer experience or developer tooling is missing in terms of interacting with the database. Better developer tools or an IDE for interacting with Azure Cosmos DB would enhance the developer experience. Lastly, there is some mixed messaging about what Azure Cosmos DB is, given its multiple APIs. There are so many Azure Cosmos DB APIs available. There is NoSQL. There are MongoDB, Gremlin, and others. There is still some mixed messaging for others who are new to Azure Cosmos DB about what Azure Cosmos DB is. Is this like MongoDB, but then there is also MongoDB in Azure Cosmos DB? I know it well, and I know that the default one is just NoSQL, but others I have interacted with over the last ten years or so get confused.
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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is a very scalable solution."
"We can scale the solution if we need to."
"The application deployment in the cloud is the best feature of the infrastructure."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is its scalability. Scalability comes with two options, among which Google Cloud Spanner can scale horizontally, compared to other relational databases that scale vertically."
"Google Cloud Spanner is stable."
"The graphical representation of data is the most valuable feature of the solution."
"It is a scalable product."
"Cosmos DB's greatest strengths are its easy setup and affordability, especially for those who understand its usage."
"It handles large-scale operations efficiently, such as tracking views, logs, or events."
"The high speed of Azure Cosmos DB compared to other competitors is remarkable."
"Change notification works well, and the ability to process documents in a scalable way is important. This means we can efficiently thread out different operations and meet our organizational performance and scalability needs."
"The efficiency of search capabilities is significant, particularly when it comes to the flexibility of conducting in-depth, almost recursive searches that are both efficient and cost-effective."
"I would rate Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB a ten out of ten."
More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB pros
 

Cons

"The tool needs to improve horizontal scaling."
"Google came up with something called Cloud Spanner Emulator, which fails to work like the real product if I want to develop some code and run a database locally on my machine."
"The cost can be a bit high."
"I want to improve the deployment of cameras and surveillance infrastructure."
"The tool lacks to offer AI features."
"The first one is the ability to assign role-based access control through the Azure portal for accounts to have contributor rights."
"The model with autoscaling for RU is complicated to optimize RU consumption."
"The customer service is lacking. We have a premier support agreement, but support is hit and miss."
"I would give a low rating to Microsoft support, as whenever I talked to them, I never got a solution. I had to guide them."
"There are no specific areas I believe need improvement as I am happy with what I am getting currently. However, I am open to new features in future versions, like possibly integrating AI features natively into Cosmos DB. Any improvement would be beneficial."
"We'd like to avoid full DR replication if possible, as this would result in significant cost savings."
"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 current data analytics of Cosmos DB is inefficient for large-scale queries due to its transactional design."
More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Google Cloud Spanner is an expensive solution."
"Price-wise, I heard that Google Cloud Spanner is on the higher side."
"The solution is expensive."
"It is expensive."
"I would rate Cosmos DB's cost at seven out of ten, with ten being the highest."
"With heavy use, like a large-scale IoT implementation, you could easily hit a quarter of a million dollars a month in Azure charges if Cosmos DB is a big part of it."
"Its pricing structure is quite flexible."
"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB's licensing costs are monthly."
"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is moderately priced, where it is neither expensive nor cheap."
"Right now, I have opted for the student subscription plan, for which Microsoft charges me around 100 USD. The pricing of the solution depends on the solution's usage."
"The cost is the biggest limitation of this solution."
"When we've budgeted for our resources, it's one of the more expensive ones, but it's still not very expensive per month."
More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB pricing and cost advice
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
22%
Computer Software Company
13%
Retailer
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Legal Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your primary use case for Google Cloud Spanner?
Google Cloud Spanner has all the features of a traditional relational database, including schemas, SQL queries, ACID transactions, and provides excellent integration and monitoring tools as well as...
See all answers
What do you like most about Google Cloud Spanner?
Google Cloud Spanner is stable.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud Spanner?
Price-wise, I heard that Google Cloud Spanner is on the higher side. I am not sure if this is a rumor or if it's fake news, but I believe that having BigQuery and GCP together could be a little cos...
See all answers
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.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
We are not consuming so much yet since we are at the beginning of using this solution. I would rate the pricing of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB a six out of ten.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
We are at the beginning of production, and everything is working very well. The price can always be lower, but currently, it's not a problem.
See all answers
 

Comparisons

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Compared 12% of the time
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Compared 10% of the time
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Amazon DynamoDB vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB
Compared 7% of the time
Neo4j Graph Database vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB Logo
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Compared 5% of the time
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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Database as a Service (DBaaS)
June 2025
Google Cloud Spanner reportDownload Google Cloud Spanner product report
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB
June 2025
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB reportDownload Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB product report
 

Also Known As

Google Spanner
Microsoft Azure DocumentDB, MS Azure Cosmos DB
 

Overview

Cloud Spanner is the first and only relational database service that is both strongly consistent and horizontally scalable. With Cloud Spanner you enjoy all the traditional benefits of a relational database: ACID transactions, relational schemas (and schema changes without downtime), SQL queries, high performance, and high availability. But unlike any other relational database service, Cloud Spanner scales horizontally, to hundreds or thousands of servers, so it can handle the highest of transactional workloads. With automatic scaling, synchronous data replication, and node redundancy, Cloud Spanner delivers up to 99.999% (five 9s) of availability for your mission critical applications. In fact, Google’s internal Spanner service has been handling millions of queries per second from many Google services for years.

Google

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is a globally distributed, multi-model database service providing scalability, user-friendliness, and seamless integration, suitable for managing large volumes of structured and unstructured data across diverse applications.

Azure Cosmos DB is renowned for its scalability, stability, and ease of integration, offering robust support for multiple data models and APIs. Its capacity for handling unstructured data efficiently and providing real-time analytics makes it ideal for applications requiring high performance and global distribution. With features like automatic failover and integration with Microsoft products, users benefit from cost optimization and secure data handling. Enhancement opportunities include simplifying queries, improving documentation, and expanding backup and analytics functionalities.

What are the most important features of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
  • Scalability and Autoscaling: Efficiently handles growing data and user demands.
  • Multi-Model Support: Adapts to different data models seamlessly.
  • Global Distribution: Provides low-latency access across multiple regions.
  • Automatic Failover: Ensures high availability and reliability.
  • Integration with Microsoft Products: Offers seamless connectivity with Azure services.
What benefits should users look for in Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB reviews?
  • Performance and Speed: Exceptionally fast processing for real-time data analytics.
  • Cost Optimization: Tools for managing expenses effectively.
  • Secure Data Handling: Implements strong data security measures.
  • Flexible Data Ingestion: Supports diverse data ingestion methods.

Azure Cosmos DB is frequently used in sectors like web, mobile, IoT, and analytics. It supports applications as a key-value store, processes real-time data, and enables global scalability with low-latency access. Its big data management capabilities and integration with Azure services enhance its utility across industries.

Microsoft
 

Sample Customers

Streak, Optiva, Mixpanel
TomTom, KPMG Australia, Bosch, ASOS, Mercedes Benz, NBA, Zero Friction, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Kinectify
Buyer's Guide
Google Cloud Spanner vs. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB
June 2025
Free Report: Google Cloud Spanner vs. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB
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