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Infobright DB vs SQL Server comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

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

Infobright DB
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
38th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (20th)
SQL Server
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
276
Ranking in other categories
Database Management Systems (DBMS) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of Infobright DB is 1.4%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SQL Server is 10.2%, down from 14.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SQL Server10.2%
Infobright DB1.4%
Other88.4%
Relational Databases Tools
 

Q&A Highlights

it_user104457 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Apr 14, 2014
 

Featured Reviews

it_user708987 - PeerSpot reviewer
MySQL DBA at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Excellent reporting server that is compatible with MySQL
We ran into some quirks that Infobright had. We interacted with Infobright's support and were able to resolve them. There still are issues with data replication - Infobright is currently for one server (unless you buy the Infobright appliance). This would mean that redundancy is something you need to implement yourself.
Shakti Gupta - PeerSpot reviewer
SQL server database administrator at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Hybrid data platform has strengthened performance, security, and incident response for production
SQL Server is very mature, but I see areas for improvement, especially in performance tuning, troubleshooting, and automation. Although tools such as Query Store and dynamic management views are powerful, some troubleshooting tasks still require senior SQL Server database administrator expertise. It would be valuable to have more intelligent, built-in recommendations for root cause analysis, indexing, blocking, and query optimization. I would also like to see simplified and consistent management across on-premises SQL Server and Azure SQL services, as managing hybrid environments sometimes requires different tools and approaches. Finally, improved patching, updates, monitoring, and cost and license transparency could make SQL Server easier to manage at the enterprise scale. One area I would improve in SQL Server is its documentation and troubleshooting guidance. SQL Server documentation is comprehensive, but for complex production issues, I would like to see more real-world troubleshooting examples, especially for scenarios such as Always On synchronization issues, blocking and deadlocks, performance degradation, and upgrade features.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Infobright allowed us to reduce the number of moving parts and complexity that we had while providing good performance to produce our reports."
"It has very amazing smart grid query feature for very fast aggregate queries across millions of rows"
"Infobright gave us the ability to avoid significant changes in our data structure and just use Infobright like BigDataMySql."
"It is very straightforward and easy to work with."
"We now have multiple times faster queries in comparison to MS SQL."
"A valuable feature was the use of a columnar database for large, ever-growing, big datasets."
"The high compression and the relatively fast load for a free product."
"The performance of ad hoc aggregation queries is superior to any RDBMS that I have used and I have used them all."
"I find query optimization to be highly valuable for data management. Additionally, drag-and-drop query creation greatly facilitates data management tasks."
"It is a very user-friendly solution. It is easy to manage the databases and troubleshoot any issue. It is a perfect solution for the volume or transactions that we need to manage."
"A great DBMS for organizations of all sizes."
"The performance of the SQL Server is very good."
"SQL Server is an inexpensive solution. I recommend it if the project isn't sensitive. SQL is similar to Oracle and integrates well with tools in the cloud environment. The difference is that Oracle is for data solutions where there is replication and moderation."
"The solution's most valuable feature is that we can set up redundant databases and replication in the databases."
"The solution is highly scalable; you are able to implement a SQL cluster mechanism for replicating the data between two nodes of the SQL Server so if one of the nodes is down the second node becomes active."
"It provides the ability to create an end-to-end automated BI platform through data management and provisioning, transformation and publication."
 

Cons

"Only the data from the columns that reached 2GB will actually decrease. Other columns below 2GB in size do not leave the disk."
"MPP, distributed processing!!! And better integration with Hadoop."
"On the contrary, we have switched back to the MS SSAS Tabular Model, because of pricing policy."
"There was no scalability at all. Infobright didn't permit any changes in tables."
"There still are issues with data replication - Infobright is currently for one server (unless you buy the Infobright appliance)."
"After all the re-work to our product to remove as much reliance on Infobright, and the extra hardware costs we had to absorb, there was definitely a negative return on investment."
"When running a complex subquery, the system hangs without giving the user any response."
"We didn’t purchase the Enterprise Edition because it was too expensive for a product that wasn’t going to replace our main DWH database (Oracle), but was, somehow, only an addition for it."
"The solution’s pricing is high."
"The interface of the tool has certain shortcomings, making it an area where improvements are required."
"The backup capacity needs to be bigger."
"Occasionally the performance, as good as it is, is a bit off."
"Integration Services: There is a great deal of room for improvement here in that the packages are the least extensible part of the platform."
"We would like to have a common storage option in the SQL Server. This option is available in Oracle Database. It would be great if Microsoft could create something like a columnstore that has not only indexing but also tables for common storage."
"I would like to have the option to use fewer processors for certain tasks, thus reducing the licensing fee."
"It would be ideal if the solution offered better integration capabilities."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Our pricing was based on server instances and it was actually very cheap compared to Oracle. I guess you get what you pay for."
"The enterprise-level license agreement is very complicated."
"Pricing for this product is very reasonable."
"There is a subscription that needs to be purchased to use the solution."
"SQL Server has the best licensing price."
"Pricing is reasonable for small organizations, but the scaling increases the price."
"Its licensing is yearly. There are no additional costs. There is only the subscription license."
"The setup cost is high, but it will return every penny."
"The price could always be lower."
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Answers from the Community

it_user104457 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Apr 14, 2014
Apr 14, 2014
Would be happy to discuss and help. I am only aware of InfoBright from what has been written publicly, however, MS SQL (and associated tools) I've used rather extensively.
2 out of 8 answers
it_user73359 - PeerSpot reviewer
Architect at a tech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Apr 10, 2014
Hi Pankaj, do I know you and from where?
it_user95526 - PeerSpot reviewer
Works with 10,001+ employees
Apr 10, 2014
Sorry but my skills are in the SAP space ..SQL server 2005 seems a very old version to compare to anything? Regards, Roger Loe Technology Principal Consultant SAP South Africa, 4 Waterford Place | Century City | Cape Town 7441 | South Africa
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
22%
Construction Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
34%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Construction Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business119
Midsize Enterprise60
Large Enterprise122
 

Questions from the Community

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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...
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...
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...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Infobright
Microsoft SQL Server, MSSQL, MS SQL
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

REZ-1, SonicWALL, IntegriChain, Fuseforward International Inc., Polystar, Live Rail, Mavenir Systems, JDSU Partners, Bango
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.
Find out what your peers are saying about Infobright DB vs. SQL Server and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.