Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer comparison

Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs. Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer

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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 SQL Database

Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)

2nd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

117

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Oracle Exadata Cloud at Cus...

Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)

10th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is 15.4%, down from 18.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer is 4.2%, up from 3.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

Featured Reviews

Charley Hanania

Data Platform Specialist at QS2 AG - Quality Software Solutions

It is very easy to implement, manage, and offers great insights into what is happening inside the engine

Microsoft Azure SQL Database is integrated into other Azure capabilities and has a great foundation being on SQL Server with a long history of security, performance, and usability from a DBA perspective. Once you've set up a server, adding databases is easy. There's a minor challenge with having data in separate databases that you want to connect like we do on premises. I'm looking forward to using some of these new AI-driven functions that have come out around vectorization. Having the data closer to my transactional databases or data makes it easy to augment and enhance the Database and applications I currently use. It's great that Azure SQL now seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Fabric. It's a first-tier service in the cloud that connects to web applications and other databases. The data transformation orchestration capabilities within Database Factory and similar capabilities make it effortless to move that stuff forward.

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Wilfredo Silva Huaman

Senior Project Manager at Santander Bank, N.A.

Reduction in database creation time, provides good performance but challenges when interacting with the OCI console

Overall, I would rate the solution a seven out of ten. However, there are a few things to note. It's not just about being alert with Exadata, but also understanding the OCI console. For instance, companies need to create user group policies to protect against unauthorized access. If you are referencing a compromised system, there's no issue there, because the operating system is Linux. There's no problem when it comes to the basic operations of the database, such as creating, querying, and updating tables. However, we've adopted a new configuration where we're using Docker containers to deploy our applications. This is a new setup for us.

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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

"It is good for scalability and high availability. It is also secure because of Microsoft's cloud investment. It is easy to use because it is on the cloud. Creation or making it available through web services is super easy. Azure SQL can be quickly published as web services for APIs to connect with other applications. Because it is in Microsoft Cloud, you can easily integrate with Microsoft stack."

"Our migration to Azure for most databases has increased our organization's efficiency and reduced the maintenance required to manage on-premises infrastructure."

"The initial setup was straightforward. Deployment takes about one hour."

"This solution offers high availability, and business continuity is in place."

"We have multiple applications running for our customers that we can integrate into Azure SQL."

"The most valuable aspect of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is its accessibility."

"Their technical support is the most valuable."

"The main advantage of it is that there is no infrastructure cost. We don't have to host it here. So, there is no infrastructure cost."

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database pros

"The most valuable feature is that it is based on Exadata infrastructure, which is Oracle 's leading engineered system that is trusted, fault-tolerant, and has unique performance features."

"I am particularly fond of the intelligent capabilities that enhance the backend, utilizing technology to analyze SQL queries."

"I like that Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer is a stable, well-positioned product in the market today, and it's very scalable."

"Performance has significantly improved."

"Exporting and importing is easy because of its cleanliness, making the process easier. However, setting up the Data Guard was more difficult. Despite this, the client experienced lower downtime."

"The operation model is the most valuable feature."

Cons

"Microsoft Azure SQL Database would benefit from enhanced documentation, along with ongoing improvements to scalability and cost-effectiveness."

"I think that the cost management in SQL is not clear because we may use some tax to identify products, but in some cases identifying the transactions in SQL is not easy for some financial cost centers."

"The initial setup is complex."

"We've noticed an unexpected increase in the cost of running the server over the past few months."

"Some issues with scalability."

"The solution has to scale up its expertise for hosting Oracle."

"The solution needs to improve its customer network, including its online support."

"The user interface (UI) could be more flexible."

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database cons

"For the data migration, we used ZDM. It was not integrated with the databases, and the documentation lacks clarity."

"Scalability is not straightforward."

"We had some problems in the developer's environment. We had some problems with the initial installation environment."

"As a customer, you can't see the boot messages of your virtualized guest machines."

"The solution is expensive."

"A room for improvement in Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer is that they need to train more partners to gain more knowledge because currently, they are keeping a lot to themselves. For example, they are still keeping a lot of information on their campus, so information sharing is limited."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its price can definitely be lower. It is pretty pricey."

"It is expensive. Snowflake and PostgreSQL are cheaper than this. Google is also cheaper than Azure. Its licensing is on a pay-as-you-go basis. It is based on usage and storage."

"The solution is more cost-effective than Google BigQuery. Compared to Google BigQuery, downloading data can be more expensive."

"With one being expensive and five being competitive, I would give the product a four out of five as it's relatively competitive. It is also important to note that pricing is based on usage."

"We have a three-year contract. The cost was somewhere around $70-80,000 for the original deployment, which was about two years ago"

"The pricing is flexible and can be adapted based on our requirements but the pricing options are complex especially if we are using a VM."

"It is quite expensive. I would definitely recommend not using the pay-as-you-go model because this will just mean all your money will go to Microsoft. So, really make sure to control resource usage as much as possible."

"When you go with SQL Azure Database, you can create a small database, which is around $4 to $5 per month for development purposes."

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database pricing and cost advice

"The price is too much."

"The machine and the cloud model itself already have licensing advantages."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

45%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

35%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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?

The pricing of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is not cheap, affecting user uptake. A gradual reduction in price could improve accessibility and user numbers, making it easier for users to adopt the s...

What needs improvement with SQL Azure?

Pricing could be improved to make Microsoft Azure SQL Database ( /products/microsoft-azure-sql-database-reviews ) more accessible. A reduction in price might encourage more users and bring more pro...

What do you like most about Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer?

Exporting and importing is easy because of its cleanliness, making the process easier. However, setting up the Data Guard was more difficult. Despite this, the client experienced lower downtime.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer?

The pricing is reasonable due to a universal agreement, which often positions Oracle solutions better against others. I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten.

What needs improvement with Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer?

Scalability is not straightforward, as you can scale up and not down. Improvements could be made to make scalability more flexible.

Google Cloud SQL vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Comparisons

Compared 33% of the time

Amazon RDS vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 24% of the time

MongoDB Atlas vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 15% of the time

Oracle Database as a Service vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 7% of the time

vCloud Air vs Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compared 3% of the time

More Microsoft Azure SQL Database Competitors

Oracle Database as a Service vs Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer

Compared 35% of the time

Amazon RDS vs Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer

Compared 34% of the time

Google Cloud SQL vs Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer

Compared 9% of the time

MongoDB Atlas vs Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer

Compared 8% of the time

More Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer Competitors

Product Reports

Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Download Microsoft Azure SQL Database product report

Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer

Download Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer product report

Overview

Microsoft Azure SQL Database is a relational database-as-a-service that delivers predictable performance, scalability, business continuity, data protection, and near-zero administration to cloud developers and solution architects. This is the deep technical library for Azure SQL Database.

Microsoft

Oracle Cloud@Customer brings Oracle’s complete portfolio of public cloud infrastructure, fully managed cloud services, and Oracle Fusion SaaS applications into your data center. It enables you to run applications faster and lower your costs using the same high-performance capabilities, autonomous operations, and low-cost subscription pricing in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). You get all this while maintaining complete control of your data so you can address data residency, security, and connectivity concerns.

Oracle

Sample Customers

adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH

IBVI, illycaffe, Scottish Water, trueblue, AirAsia, droptank

Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs. Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer