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Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.2
Organizations report cost savings and efficiency with Azure Cosmos DB, but some experience complexity and difficulty achieving expected savings.
Sentiment score
6.7
Organizations using Azure SQL Database report cost savings, enhanced efficiency, and reduced data center needs with pay-per-use models.
Getting an MVP of that project would have taken six to eight months, but because we had an active choice of using Azure Cosmos DB and other related cloud-native services of Azure, we were able to get to an MVP stage in a matter of weeks, which is six weeks.
Director | Data & AI at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
You can react quickly and trim down the specs, memory, RAM, storage size, etc. It can save about 20% of the costs.
Co-Founder at arpa
When I have done comparisons or cost calculations, I have sometimes personally seen as much as 25% to 30% savings.
Solutions Architect at CompuNet
It is ensuring we receive what we pay for through the blend of price, performance, and features.
Senior Manager, Information Technology of Data Strategies at a hospitality company with 5,001-10,000 employees
If you're managing your own data center, you always have to overprovision your systems and pay for storage space you're not using.
Senior AI Specialist at Nedbank
We've reduced costs by about 20 percent after two or three years.
Azure Cloud Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.7
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB support is generally responsive, but experiences vary, with premium users often reporting better satisfaction.
Sentiment score
6.4
Microsoft Azure SQL Database's customer service is effective but varies; larger accounts receive better support than smaller users.
Premier Support has deteriorated compared to what it used to be, especially for small to medium-sized customers like ours.
Head of IT, Infrastructure, Operations & Applications Development at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees
The response was quick.
Lead Cloud Architect at Solliance, Inc
I would rate customer service and support a nine out of ten.
Director | Data & AI at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Microsoft played a significant role, even from a training perspective, and provided resources that directed us toward the right deployment path.
Senior AI Specialist at Nedbank
Once I reach the right people, the support is incredibly knowledgeable and thorough.
CTO at 2W Technologies, INC
Microsoft provides excellent service and is always available to support us.
Sr. Principal Database at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB offers scalable, flexible solutions with efficient cost management, ideal for large enterprises, despite partition size limits.
Sentiment score
6.2
Microsoft Azure SQL Database offers flexible scalability, easy workload management, seamless tier transitions, and supports user expansion with robust infrastructure.
The system scales up capacity when needed and scales down when not in use, preventing unnecessary expenses.
Associate Software Architect at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
We like that it can auto-scale to demand, ensuring we only pay for what we use.
CTO at Stellium Consulting
We have had no issues with its ability to search through large amounts of data.
Full Stack Software Developer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Scaling the solution is incredibly simple and involves just clicking a button or dragging a slider.
Senior Manager, Information Technology of Data Strategies at a hospitality company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Azure's scalability features like Elasticity are essential.
Solutions Architect at ITCON SERVICES, LLC
Microsoft Azure SQL Database is cloud-based, so it's great for scaling workloads.
System Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB offers high availability and reliability, with users praising its scalability, integration, and minimal downtime.
Sentiment score
7.2
Microsoft Azure SQL Database is praised for reliability, excellent uptime, and improved performance, with minor latency issues reported.
We have multiple availability zones, so nothing goes down.
Hands on user at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Azure Cosmos DB would be a good choice if you have to deploy your application in a limited time frame and you want to auto-scale the database across different applications.
Associate Data Analytics L1 at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
I would rate it a ten out of ten in terms of availability and latency.
Azure Consultant at Deloitte
We can't tell the difference between running on-prem or Azure because we no longer have those latency issues.
Senior AI Specialist at Nedbank
SQL never crashes or suddenly becomes unavailable.
Cloud Engineer at Med Tech Solutions
I would assess the reliability of Microsoft Azure SQL Database in terms of maintaining uptime and availability as being excellent with zero complaints.
Ai Team Lead at Phoenix Software
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB needs improvements in query complexity, API integration, performance, documentation, cost management, and user-interface enhancements.
Azure SQL Database needs enhanced security, scalability, clear pricing, better documentation, broader compatibility, and improved user interface and automation.
We must ensure data security remains the top priority.
Cloud Solutions Architect and Microsoft Principal Consultant for EMEA at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
You have to monitor the Request Units.
Co-Founder at arpa
The dashboard could include more detailed RU descriptions, IOPS, and compute metrics.
Architecte Cloud at Visiativ SA
It would be helpful if CPU performance were not pinned to the amount of storage you're using, and we could scale different properties of the Azure SQL database independently.
Azure Cloud Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
As a customer, I believe something which has been established, stable, and rugged for a very long time also needs cost optimization.
Assistant Vice President at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I could not get an accurate quote on what my monthly costs would be based on my needs.
Senior Manager, Information Technology of Data Strategies at a hospitality company with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Azure Cosmos DB pricing varies, appreciated for scalability but seen as costly with high demand and complex environments.
Microsoft Azure SQL Database offers flexible pricing but is perceived as moderately expensive, requiring careful budget considerations.
Initially, it seemed like an expensive way to manage a NoSQL data store, but so many improvements that have been made to the platform have made it cost-effective.
Lead Cloud Architect at Solliance, Inc
Cosmos DB is expensive, and the RU-based pricing model is confusing.
IT Data Architect & Manager at Ternium Mexico S.A. de C.V.
Cosmos DB is great compared to other databases because we can reduce the cost while doing the same things.
Lead Software Architect at CPower
Azure Hybrid Benefit reduced costs by facilitating an easy transition of on-premises databases to the cloud.
Data Platform Specialist at QS2 AG - Quality Software Solutions
Microsoft Azure SQL Database is not cheap.
Software Architect at Dynaxti
It greatly reduces the total cost of ownership through efficient licensing depending on the client, the cost savings, and hybrid benefits.
Cloud Engineer at Med Tech Solutions
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is valued for scalability, ease of integration, global distribution, security, and support for diverse applications.
Microsoft Azure SQL Database provides seamless scalability, dynamic resource management, high efficiency, and cost-effective integration with Microsoft applications.
The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is its real-time analytics capabilities, which allow for turnaround times in milliseconds.
Vice President, Machine Learning at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Performance and security are valuable features, particularly when using Cosmos DB for MongoDB emulation and NoSQL.
IT Data Architect & Manager at Ternium Mexico S.A. de C.V.
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.
CTO at Stellium Consulting
The simplicity in usability, along with improved organizational productivity where we no longer need to maintain on-premises SQL servers, is invaluable.
Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
The Software as a Service model is more effective and easier to access in terms of security, as Azure provides security at the security layer, reducing the risk of breach.
Specialist Datacenter and Server at IHS Towers
Using Microsoft Azure SQL Database is very easy; it's much easier than SQL on-premise because I don't have to worry about deploying infrastructure, and I can rapidly deploy via infrastructure as code.
Executive Director, Platform Architecture at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation – SMBC Group
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
109
Ranking in other categories
NoSQL Databases (2nd), Managed NoSQL Databases (1st), Vector Databases (1st)
Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
134
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is 4.1%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is 11.3%, down from 16.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database as a Service (DBaaS) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Azure SQL Database11.3%
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB4.1%
Other84.6%
Database as a Service (DBaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Thomas Sawyer - PeerSpot reviewer
Executive Director, Platform Architecture at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation – SMBC Group
Automatic tuning and multi-region availability have reduced manual workloads and improved performance management
The features of Microsoft Azure SQL Database that I like the most are easy scaling and high availability. I appreciate those features because it's easy to make Microsoft Azure SQL Database readily available in a multi-region infrastructure. Using Microsoft Azure SQL Database is very easy; it's much easier than SQL on-premise because I don't have to worry about deploying infrastructure, and I can rapidly deploy via infrastructure as code. I am using the automatic tuning feature in Microsoft Azure SQL Database. We are using the new feature of data encryption in Microsoft Azure SQL Database with customer-managed keys only. The reliability and stability of Microsoft Azure SQL Database platform are rock-solid; it's as good, if not better, than what our on-premise stability has been from an uptime perspective.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Legal Firm
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Retailer
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business33
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise58
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business59
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise61
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What do you like most about SQL Azure?
The automated scalability feature of SQL Azure has proven to be highly beneficial, particularly when deployed in the cloud.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SQL Azure?
I would say I am at a basic experience level with the pricing, setup costs and licensing because while I am the administrator for the service, I do not provision the services and worry about the co...
What needs improvement with SQL Azure?
I have no comments at the moment on how Microsoft Azure SQL Database can be improved. I have no comments on additional features that I would like to see released in the next release. I do not have ...
 

Also Known As

Microsoft Azure DocumentDB, MS Azure Cosmos DB
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

TomTom, KPMG Australia, Bosch, ASOS, Mercedes Benz, NBA, Zero Friction, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Kinectify
adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.