Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs Redis comparison

Microsoft and RedisLabs are both solutions in the NoSQL Databases category. Microsoft is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.2, while RedisLabs is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.7. Microsoft holds a 4.6% mindshare in ND, compared to RedisLabs’s 8.4% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of RedisLabs users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Read 98 Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB reviews

743 Views
205 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Redis

Read 22 Redis reviews

529 Views
409 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Redis

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB and Redis are prominent competitors in the cloud database and cache management sectors. Azure Cosmos DB holds an advantage due to its versatility in supporting complex data models and scalability across global regions.

Features: Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB offers scalability, flexibility in data models, and global distribution capabilities that minimize latency. It supports various APIs, including MongoDB, which enhances developer flexibility. Redis excels in performance, operating in-memory for high-speed data retrieval, and offers a simple setup process ideal for caching and real-time applications.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is often critiqued for its complex query language and higher costs. Users suggest better integration with other Microsoft tools, a simpler interface, and improving documentation. Redis could improve in handling clustered environments and enhance its GUI tools to offer better monitoring capabilities. It also needs to improve scalability documentation and handling of larger datasets.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is mainly available through public cloud deployments, receiving positive feedback for customer support, though technical specialist availability can be a challenge. Redis is available on both public clouds and on-premises, supporting hybrid solutions. Its easy setup and satisfactory technical support are notable, though a more robust support system could bring improvements.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is generally seen as expensive, with a complicated usage-based pricing model, though it offers scalability and ROI benefits through pay-as-you-go management. Redis, being open-source, is cost-effective for basic operations with rising costs linked to high RAM usage. Without licensing fees, it provides favorable ROI emphasizing performance and efficiency, with predictable costs in managed services making it an attractive option for those prioritizing performance.

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

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. Redis

May 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 NoSQL Databases

5th

Ranking in Vector Databases

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

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

Redis

Ranking in NoSQL Databases

7th

Ranking in Vector Databases

4th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

In-Memory Data Store Services (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the NoSQL Databases category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is 4.6%. The mindshare of Redis is 8.4%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

NoSQL 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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Yaseer Arafat

.Net Developer at Freelance

Unmatched Performance and Scalability for Modern Applications

Redis has room for improvement in a few areas. Enhanced tools for managing and monitoring clusters would be beneficial, as would built-in security mechanisms like advanced encryption and granular access controls. Simplifying setup and configuration could make Redis more accessible to new users. Introducing more enterprise-grade features, such as better multi-tenancy support and improved backup and restore capabilities, would also be advantageous. For the next release, it would be great to see enhanced cluster management tools, native multi-region supports for better data redundancy, integrated analytics for deeper insights, AI and ML integration features, and improved developer experience through enhanced SDKs and tools.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB simplifies the process of saving and retrieving data."

"Cosmos DB performs exceptionally well and has not caused any issues that necessitate adjustments in nodes for improved performance."

"The standout features are its ability to do data compression easily and the ability to scale horizontally."

"The high speed of Azure Cosmos DB compared to other competitors is remarkable."

"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB has reduced our total cost of ownership by about half, allowing us to sell our product for about half of what we were selling it before, and Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is probably 70% of the reason why that's true."

"It is non-SQL and helps to manage and manipulate data from the coding, rather than direct data and complex queries."

"Azure Cosmos DB helped improve the quality of our search results."

"The most valuable features include the global write capability, which allows customers to read and write across different regions simultaneously, enhancing performance and availability."

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB pros

"The most valuable features of Redis are its ease of use and speed. It does not have access to the disc and it is fast."

"The ability to fetch and save data quickly is valuable."

"The online interface is very fast and easy to use."

"I find Redis valuable primarily for its caching capabilities, particularly in handling cache requests effectively. Its simplicity in managing key-value pairs for caching is one of its strengths, making it a preferred choice over more complex databases like MongoDB for specific use cases. However, I haven't explored Redis extensively for managing complex data structures beyond caching, as MongoDB might be more suitable for such scenarios."

"The in-memory data makes it fast."

"The product offers fast access to my database."

"Redis has multiple valuable features such as being a free and reliable open-source tool."

"Redis provides an easy setup and operation process, allowing users to quickly connect and use it without hassle."

More Redis pros

Cons

"I don't think Cosmos DB has improved our organization. People are using it, but I'm not sure it's the best solution. For one, it's costly. Also, there are other issues with it. You cannot get all the records simultaneously. You can only get it in chunks of 1,500 maximum."

"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB's performance could be better. In large volumes of documents, the querying process becomes slow and complicated."

"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."

"It would be nice to have more options to ingest the data, for example, more file options or more search options. Currently, you can use JSON, but if there were other file types you can use for data ingestion, that would be nice."

"From about half a billion rows, we're returning maybe 20,000 in two or three minutes. We don't know why, but we are working with Microsoft and a third party to figure that out."

"Microsoft's support services are inadequate, especially during critical incidents."

"There's a little bit of a learning curve because I was new to Azure. But once you learn the tool, it's pretty straightforward."

"I have to say technical support is not very good as it takes too long. Sometimes it can take them two or three days to respond to your ticket."

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB cons

"There is room for AWS to provide more options for server types or a way to configure more or less memory for them."

"The development of clusters could improve. Additionally, it would be helpful if it was integrated with Amazon AWS or Google Cloud."

"It's actually quite expensive."

"There are some features from MongoDB that I would like to see included in Redis to enhance its overall efficiency, such as the ability to perform remote behaviour. MongoDB is more efficient in handling updates than deletions and is quicker in processing updates, but it can be slower regarding deletions. This can sometimes pose a challenge, especially when dealing with large datasets or frequent data manipulations that involve deletions. In such cases, I often rewrite columns or update values instead of directly deleting data, as it can be more efficient."

"In future releases, I would like Redis to provide its users with an option like schema validation. Currently, the solution lacks to offer such functionality."

"Redis should have an option to operate without Docker on a local PC."

"Redis could improve its efficiency in handling locally stored data, not just Amazon Cloud or Google Cloud."

"The tool should improve by increasing its size limits and handling dynamic data better. We use the client ID or associate it with a key for static content. The solution will not be easy for a beginner. Unless you understand SQL data, it will be difficult to understand and use Redis. It also needs to be user-friendly."

More Redis cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"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."

"This cost model is beneficial because it allows for cost control by limiting resource units (RUs), which is ideal. However, for our needs, we can't engage with their minimum pricing, which ranges from 100 to 1,000 RUs. At the bare minimum, we need to use 4,000 RUs for a customer. I would like to find a way to gain some advantages from the lowest tier, particularly the ability to scale down if necessary. It would be helpful to have more flexibility in cost management at the lower end."

"The pricing and licensing model was initially difficult to understand, but as soon as I learned what was going on and how it was priced, it was pretty easy."

"Its pricing structure is quite flexible."

"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB pricing is based on RUs. Reading 1 KB document costs one RU, whereas writing one document costs five RUs. Pricing for querying depends on the complexity of the query. If you increase the document size, it will automatically increase the RU cost."

"The pricing for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is good. 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."

"Cosmos DB is expensive compared to any virtual machine based on conventional RDBMS like MySQL or PostgreSQL."

More Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB pricing and cost advice

"We saw an ROI. It made the processing of our transactions faster."

"The tool is open-source. There are no additional costs."

"Redis is an open-source product."

"Redis is an open-source solution. There are not any hidden fees."

"Redis is not an overpriced solution."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Legal Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Financial Services Firm

23%

Computer Software Company

13%

Educational Organization

Comms Service Provider

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.

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

What do you like most about Redis?

Redis is better tested and is used by large companies. I haven't found a direct alternative to what Redis offers. Plus, there are a lot of support and learning resources available, which help you u...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Redis?

There are a few areas where Redis could improve. The pub-sub capabilities could be optimized to handle network sessions better, as there are challenges with maintaining sessions between clients and...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Redis?

We use Redis ( /products/redis-reviews ) for several purposes, including ranking, counting, saving, sharing, caching, and setting time-to-live notifications. These functionalities are employed acro...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 13% of the time

Pinecone vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Compared 10% of the time

Amazon DynamoDB vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Compared 7% of the time

Neo4j Graph Database vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Compared 5% of the time

LanceDB vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

Compared 3% of the time

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Oracle Coherence vs Redis

Compared 11% of the time

Chroma vs Redis

Compared 11% of the time

Red Hat Data Grid vs Redis

Compared 10% of the time

Amazon SQS vs Redis

Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB

June 2025

Download Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB product report

Buyer's Guide

Redis

June 2025

Download Redis product report

Also Known As

Microsoft Azure DocumentDB, MS Azure Cosmos DB

Redis Enterprise

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

Redis is a high-performance, scalable, and easy-to-use caching solution that improves application performance. It is also used for session management, real-time analytics, and as a message broker.

Redis's valuable features include its ability to handle large amounts of data quickly, its simplicity and straightforward setup process, and its support for various data structures, providing flexibility for different use cases.

RedisLabs

Sample Customers

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

1. Twitter 2. GitHub 3. StackOverflow 4. Pinterest 5. Snapchat 6. Craigslist 7. Digg 8. Weibo 9. Airbnb 10. Uber 11. Slack 12. Trello 13. Shopify 14. Coursera 15. Medium 16. Twitch 17. Foursquare 18. Meetup 19. Kickstarter 20. Docker 21. Heroku 22. Bitbucket 23. Groupon 24. Flipboard 25. SoundCloud 26. BuzzFeed 27. Disqus 28. The New York Times 29. Walmart 30. Nike 31. Sony 32. Philips

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. Redis

May 2025

Free Report: Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. Redis

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