Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs PostgreSQL comparison

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

PostgreSQL and Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB are both key players in the database solutions market, each offering distinct benefits and challenges. PostgreSQL is noted for its cost-effectiveness and comprehensive features, while Cosmos DB excels in scalability and NoSQL support, albeit at a higher price.

Features: PostgreSQL boasts strong support for SQL standards, asynchronous commit, and ACID compliance. Its powerful indexing and wide programming language support enhance its performance, particularly in data-heavy tasks and intricate queries. On the other hand, Azure Cosmos DB is praised for its high scalability, multi-model database support, low-latency access, and integration with various APIs. It is valued for its data handling versatility and seamless Azure services integration.

Room for Improvement: PostgreSQL faces difficulties with large-scale operations, challenges in handling read-only and COUNT(*) queries, and a complex setup process. Improvements could be made in partitioning and replication. Azure Cosmos DB is hindered by its high cost and intricate pricing structure. Users also seek better analytics capabilities and support for complex queries and integrations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: PostgreSQL is frequently deployed in on-premises or hybrid cloud environments, offering flexibility but often requiring significant expertise due to limited centralized customer support. Community support is robust, with active forums and extensive online resources. Azure Cosmos DB, designed for public cloud deployment, offers more streamlined setup and management but at higher costs. While Microsoft provides extensive support, its proprietary nature may pose interoperability challenges compared to open-source options.

Pricing and ROI: PostgreSQL is a cost-efficient solution, offering no licensing fees and promoting high ROI via its open-source model. It provides businesses with a powerful database solution with minimal financial investment. Conversely, Azure Cosmos DB requires careful management of its consumption-based pricing model. Though it offers significant features, its high operational costs are justifiable in large-scale operations where its performance and scalability benefits outweigh the expense.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. PostgreSQL Report (Updated: April 2025).

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. PostgreSQL

April 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

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Ranking in Vector Databases

3rd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Database as a Service (DBaaS) (6th), NoSQL Databases (3rd), Managed NoSQL Databases (1st)

PostgreSQL

Ranking in Vector Databases

9th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

125

Ranking in other categories

Open Source Databases (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Vector Databases category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is 3.0%. The mindshare of PostgreSQL is 4.9%, up from 3.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Vector Databases

Featured Reviews

MichaelJohn

Director | Data & AI at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

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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PavithrarajShetty

Software Architect at Tetherfi

Offers simplicity and is cheaply priced

I haven't gone through the scalability aspect since I was using MySQL Server. I haven't worked to a high level in PostgreSQL, but with MySQL Server, I have managed clustering and partitioning. I think I haven't put much focus on PostgreSQL, so I am not sure how it behaves or how it works.

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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

"We chose Azure Cosmos DB initially because of the type of data that we needed to store. We have a schema that is very nondeterministic and flexible. It is always changing based on whatever data we need to acquire from different devices, so we needed a document store with a flexible schema."

"Azure Cosmos DB's resiliency is valuable. It is available in every Azure region, allowing quick information storage and retrieval. We can partition it to improve indexing, enabling us to retrieve information and recreate website content quickly."

"The best feature is the velocity to make a query."

"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB's most valuable feature is latency."

"Our team has found the vCore index to be one of the most valuable features. We have tokenized and vectorized our entire database and stored this data in MongoDB collections with a vCore index, which works like magic for keyword selection."

"The solution is used because we get faster response times with large data sets than with SQL."

"I would rate it a ten out of ten for stability."

"As a NoSQL database, it offers schema flexibility which simplifies design and reduces initial engineering overhead."

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB pros

"Postgres is rock solid when deployed according to best practices as documented by the PostgreSQL community. When it's installed correctly, PostgreSQL is an enterprise-grade solution."

"With the database, you can provide a multi-component at the same service with the same performance, scalability, or all those things."

"The initial setup is quick and easy."

"The solution is quite stable."

"I like that you can move any relational database from Oracle to PostgreSQL. I also like that it's pretty stable."

"PostgreSQL has complete SQL dialects and is useful for writing sophisticated and complex queries. We have experience with Oracle database. My partner is experienced in DDA and he writes sophisticated SQL queries. The solution helps to get the job done in the best possible way. In today’s age, most developers do not have strong SQL knowledge or language command. They find it difficult to write even a SQL statement. These developers write cool queries which perform badly on the database end. As DBAs, we constantly urge the developers not to write bad queries, help them learn more, and write placebo commands."

"It's a transactional database, so we use Postgres for most of our reporting. That's where it's helping."

"The solution is scalable, it is very good."

Cons

"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."

"The integration with other solutions needs to improve because Cosmos DB's interoperability is lacking in some scenarios. For example, I'm currently implementing Fabric. That involves migrating from environments without apps, processing data and users, and taking them to Fabric."

"One area of improvement for Cosmos database is the auto-scaling of RUs during high loads. It would be beneficial if the database could automatically scale resources rather than requiring manual adjustments."

"Slight enhancements in integration interfaces, expanded dashboard functionalities, and broader use-case support would be beneficial."

"The challenge for us is always scale."

"Areas of improvement for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB include indexing. While it makes data retrieval easier, it also increases costs."

"The cost can sometimes be high, especially during cross-partition queries with large data amounts."

"Once you create a database, it calls the container, and then items show up. A better description and more guidance would help because the first time I created it, I didn't understand that a container is similar to a table in SQL."

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB cons

"There are some products out there that have a slightly different method of implementation for the SQL language. Some of those are slightly better in some areas, and PostgreSQL is slightly better in some areas. I would probably like to match all of those products together. It is just down to the functionality. For example, Oracle has a number of options within SQL that are outside of what you would class as the SQL standard. PostgreSQL misses some of those, but PostgreSQL does other things that are better than what Oracle does. I would like to merge those two products so that there is a certain amount of functionality in a single product."

"The user interface for the clients could be easier to use as they are small businesses. From a technical support perspective, the documentation could be improved."

"When you get a large number of records in a database and start doing various queries, it can adversely impact the performance of the live running systems. That's an area we continue to look at and mean to improve, but it is not only because of PostgreSQL. It is also because of the way the schemas are put together, and certain events are triggered. So, it is because of both parties."

"I find it difficult to get connectors on the tool. For example, .NET has only one free provider in PostgreSQL. I need to pay the provider if I need something more sophisticated features. Other languages like PHP and Java have good community support. We need community support for .NET."

"We have to set up event API, which takes a lot of events from the user."

"PostgreSQL is a stable system, but from a security point of view, it still needs improvement."

"The interface climate could be better."

"The solution needs to improve the query, documentation, and JSON data functionality."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Cosmos DB is a managed offering, so its cost is understandably higher."

"Azure is a pay as you go subscription."

"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."

"It seems to have helped significantly. We were using a different database system previously, and one of the reasons for acquiring Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB was cost."

"Its pricing is not bad. It is good."

"Cosmos DB is cost-effective when starting but requires careful management."

"The customer had a high budget, but it turned out to be a little bit cheaper than what they expected. I am not sure how much they have spent so far, but they are satisfied with the 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."

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB pricing and cost advice

"PostgreSQL is a free and open-source database."

"The need for our customers to pay for licences is contingent on their projects and budgets."

"We do not pay for licensing."

"Our company pays for it. There are free versions available, but for advanced features, you obviously have to pay."

"It is open source. There is no licensing."

"There is an annual license."

"PostgreSQL is open-source, so if capable admins are available then the setup cost can be $0."

"The licensing model is good."

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Legal Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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?

It is cost-efficient as long as you understand the right setup to optimize usage. Knowing the data needs of the organization and adjusting the Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB usage accordingly helps save...

What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?

What is missing in Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is definitely cold storage. We know it's coming, but that's currently what is missing—the possibility to park older data in a cold tier. Aside from the ...

How does Firebird SQL compare with PostgreSQL?

PostgreSQL was designed in a way that provides you with not only a high degree of flexibility but also offers you a cheap and easy-to-use solution. It gives you the ability to redesign and audit yo...

What do you like most about PostgreSQL?

It's a transactional database, so we use Postgres for most of our reporting. That's where it's helping.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PostgreSQL?

The tool is free of cost. For now, it's not about making money. But once we perfect it, we can offer it to customers willing to pay for support and other services. Most of my deployments are free.

Chroma vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

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Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB Competitors

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Compared 36% of the time

MySQL vs PostgreSQL

Compared 12% of the time

EDB Postgres Advanced Server vs PostgreSQL

Compared 11% of the time

MariaDB vs PostgreSQL

Compared 8% of the time

Chroma vs PostgreSQL

Compared 7% of the time

Product Reports

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

May 2025

Download Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB product report

Download PostgreSQL product report

May 2025

Also Known As

Microsoft Azure DocumentDB, MS Azure Cosmos DB

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Overview

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

PostgreSQL is a versatile and reliable database management system commonly used for web development, data analysis, and building scalable databases.

It offers advanced features like indexing, replication, and transaction management. Users appreciate its flexibility, performance, and ability to handle large amounts of data efficiently. Its robustness, scalability, and support for complex queries make it highly valuable.

Additionally, PostgreSQL's extensibility, flexibility, community support, and frequent updates contribute to its ongoing improvement and stability.

Sample Customers

TomTom, KPMG Australia, Bosch, ASOS, Mercedes Benz, NBA, Zero Friction, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Kinectify

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