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Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs SingleStore 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
4th
Ranking in Vector Databases
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
109
Ranking in other categories
NoSQL Databases (2nd), Managed NoSQL Databases (1st)
SingleStore
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
11th
Ranking in Vector Databases
15th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
6
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 SingleStore is 3.0%, up from 1.5% 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 Cosmos DB4.1%
SingleStore3.0%
Other92.9%
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.
VK
Solution Architect at Wipro Limited
An excellent choice for diverse data processing needs with exceptional in-memory capabilities, robust failover mechanisms, easy scalability and high performance
Scalability is its key strength. Adding servers for scalability is a straightforward process involving simply incorporating a few additional servers and recycling the cluster triggers automatic repartitioning and redistribution of data. For instance, if the initial database creation involved a hundred servers and later, four more servers are added, specific commands can be executed to increase the partitions to one hundred twenty. The data is then efficiently redistributed across the expanded partitions without the need for manual data movement, ensuring a seamless and efficient scalability process. In my current organization, approximately three projects involve the usage of SingleStore, with a team size ranging from ten to twenty individuals.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Latency and availability are incredible."
"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB simplifies the process of saving and retrieving data."
"Some of the best features of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB are that it could scale, and we could still use SQL language."
"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB offers the response times needed for advanced analytics applications."
"The availability and latency of Azure Cosmos DB are excellent."
"Cosmos DB performs exceptionally well and has not caused any issues that necessitate adjustments in nodes for improved performance."
"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 autoscale feature is the most useful for us."
"It's a distributed relational database, so it does not have a single server, it has multiple servers. Its architecture itself is fast because it has multiple nodes to distribute the workload and process large amounts of data."
"MemSQL supports the MySQL protocol, and many functions are similar, so the learning curve is very short."
"The ability to store data in memory is a standout feature, enhanced by robust failover mechanisms."
"The paramount advantage is the exceptional speed."
"The product can automatically reinstall and reconfigure in case of a shutdown."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to create pipelines, streamline and extract data from the pipelines."
 

Cons

"Azure Cosmos DB could be better for business intelligence and analytical queries."
"Its stability can be further improved."
"The biggest problem is the learning curve and other database services like RDS."
"The only area Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB can improve on is its documentation; while it is solid and very useful, enhancements in the indexing documentation would help users save costs and make it more cost-effective."
"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."
"I would like to see Cosmos DB introduce a feature that would convert machine language to human-readable queries."
"Better documentation on how to integrate with other components would be helpful because I was struggling with this."
"I had a challenging experience implementing the emulator with a Mac. I had to install the emulator in a Docker container because it is not natively compatible. A significant amount of time was spent researching how to enable HTTPS communication when connecting the container and the emulator."
"For new customers, it's very tough to start. Their documentation isn't organized, and there's no online training available. SingleStore is working on it, but that's a major drawback."
"Having the ability to migrate servers using a single command would be extremely beneficial."
"There should be more pipelines available because I think that if MemSQL can connect to other services, that would be great."
"We don't get good discounts in Pakistan."
"Poor key distribution can significantly impact performance, requiring a backward approach in design rather than adding tables incrementally."
"It is not the optimal choice for direct data collection through queries, and it's more suited for aggregation tasks."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing model of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is a bit complex."
"Cosmos DB is expensive compared to any virtual machine based on conventional RDBMS like MySQL or PostgreSQL."
"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."
"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."
"The pricing for Cosmos DB has improved, particularly with the new pricing for Autoscale."
"Its price is in the middle, neither too low nor too high."
"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB's licensing costs are monthly."
"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."
"They have two main options: cloud installation and bare-metal installation, each with different pricing models."
"SingleStore is a bit expensive."
"I would advise users to try the free 128GB version."
"Using it for analytical purposes can be cost-effective in the long run, especially in terms of infrastructure."
"The product's licensing is not expensive. It is comparable."
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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
30%
Computer Software Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Retailer
5%
 

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 Business4
Large Enterprise3
 

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...
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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
400+ customers including: 6sense, Adobe, Akamai, Ant Money, Arcules, CARFAX, Cigna, Cisco, Comcast, DELL, DBS Bank, Dentsu, DirectlyApply, EY, Factors.AI, Fathom Analytics, FirstEnergy, GE, Goldman Sachs, Heap, Hulu, IMAX, impact.com, Kroger, LG, LiveRamp, Lumana, Nvidia, OpenDialog, Outreach, Palo Alto Networks, PicPay, RBC, Samsung, SegMetrics, Siemens, SiteImprove, SiriusXM, SK Telecom, SKAI, SONY, STC, SunRun, TATA, Thorn, ZoomInfo.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. SingleStore and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.