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Oracle Database Cloud Service vs SQL Server comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

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

Oracle Database Cloud Service
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
15th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SQL Server
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
272
Ranking in other categories
Database Management Systems (DBMS) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of Oracle Database Cloud Service is 1.4%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SQL Server is 11.9%, down from 18.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SQL Server11.9%
Oracle Database Cloud Service1.4%
Other86.7%
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

BB
Senior Consultant at NewAge Consulting
Has improved data security and automation while supporting large-scale storage and migration
I do not use the Global Reach feature. Regarding metrics and performance, I don’t recall the exact performance metrics, but we use ETL processes to monitor and manage migration performance and data quality. Oracle Database Cloud Service is strong for data management and storage, as well as for its security features and automation of data dumps and archiving. Overall, Oracle Database Cloud Service is a solid product. It’s well-suited for financial platforms. Oracle provides both its on-premises and cloud-based suites, and the company continues to evolve, offering more components for data storage, data management, and integration with other tools and SaaS solutions. I plan to continue using Oracle Database Cloud Service, particularly for managing SaaS tools in financial contexts.
Peter Larsson - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Warehouse Lead at Resurs Bank AB (publ.)
Ledger and seamless integrations have strengthened trusted analytics and unified workloads
SQL Server's high availability and disaster recovery features work for supporting mission-critical applications, but there is much more to wish for. These features are not quite ready yet, although they do function. However, they could be significantly better. High availability and disaster recovery features should be improved in the next releases. I have noticed that everything could be improved or enhanced in the future, particularly temporal tables and window functions. Sometimes, I believe Microsoft releases features to stay ahead of competitors, but they do not make them feature-rich or feature-complete. They release something to be ahead of leaders and then seem to forget to maintain and upgrade them. I want Microsoft to pay more attention and be more mindful about the things they implement. It is fine to do a first release that works, but you cannot simply abandon it in the following years without service packs and improvements. You must continue to build on features rather than forgetting about them.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The self-maintenance features, auto maintenance, cleanup, and backup are the most valuable aspects of Oracle Database Cloud Service."
"Security is the most valuable feature provided by the product."
"The most valuable features of Oracle Database Cloud Service are its scalability, advanced technology, cost-effectiveness, and the flexibility it provides with licensing."
"Some advantages of Oracle Database Cloud Service are its availability, performance, and affordability."
"We really like the flexibility of adding more resources and the overall administration interface."
"The most valuable feature of Oracle Database Cloud Service is its cloud capabilities."
"Oracle DCS's most valuable features are its high availability and scalability."
"I am impressed with the product's partitioning and advanced data card."
"I have found that SQL Server works very well in the Microsoft Dynamics environment."
"We have found there are many useful features such as the solution is continually being upgraded, ETL capabilities for extracting and transformation, and it is very easy to use."
"SQL Server is similar to other Microsoft products, such as BI, they are easy to use. You do not need to have an expensive BD to maintain them. All the useful intuitive features you find in Microsoft solutions you will find in SQL Server."
"SQL Server is a good solution for me."
"We use SQL Server for various data management scenarios. It allows us to query data, some of which spans over twenty years. We generate reports and perform analyses using this tool. It also comes with backup and recovery tools, which are essential features of the database engine."
"The fact that SQL Server fully integrates within the entire Microsoft ecosystem is a plus."
"The product has been on the market for over 25 or 30 years. It's an extremely mature solution."
"SQL Server has good performance. It is one of the best features."
 

Cons

"In my opinion, the price of Oracle Database Cloud Service should be more affordable. Additionally, the interface of the application could be more user-friendly."
"The initial setup is a bit complex for the beginner, so you need a little technical experience to install it."
"We're actually going through licensing issues and are looking to perhaps changing to another solution, something that is perhaps open-source."
"The availability of different editions within Oracle Database Cloud Service could be improved."
"Oracle Cloud is very strong in the database, but it is not as comprehensive as AWS or Azure."
"Oracle Database Cloud Service is a good engine and at the moment, there isn't any new feature I can think of that I'd like added to the service. The only problem I see in Oracle Database Cloud Service is it's more commercial, so it has a relation to how it deals with customers. I don't feel secure in a deal with Oracle because that team changes the conditions each year, and there's no representative from the team that talks to my company about new needs. Oracle needs to improve its relationship with customers and partners in general."
"Oracle should work on the solution's compatibility issues with the operating system."
"We encountered connection failures for some of our sites."
"It will be very useful to have high-level database monitoring. It should also have built-in business intelligence reporting."
"Microsoft doesn't have active-active load balancing scenarios. It's always a failover cluster."
"It would be nice if they can reduce its price."
"SQL Server could be improved with cheaper licensing because it's very expensive."
"I would like the SQL Server to be able to provide cloud support. We use the solution with a Korean provider supporting only MySQL rather than Microsoft SQL Server, which would be preferable and cheaper. This would prevent us from having to pay for troubleshooting and hosting the server."
"The pricing and quality of the product could be improved."
"SQL Server database capacities could be further increased to be more accessible for larger data requirements."
"The documentation could be much better. It's lacking right now. If there are better help pages, for even complicated queries and stuff like that that would be quite a help for users."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I think the program is rather expensive, so I would like to see it becoming more affordable."
"Price is always higher for all Oracle products."
"Every year we are increasing the price of the solution. There is hardware licensing available. We pay approximately $20,000 monthly to use the solution."
"The tool is not cheap."
"Pricing for Oracle Database Cloud Service could be more competitive. Lately, pricing for it has been increasing, so my company may have to review different options to find a solution with competitive pricing. From what I know, there's no additional cost apart from the standard licensing fees for Oracle Database Cloud Service."
"The product has reasonable pricing. I rate its pricing a nine out of ten."
"It is expensive, especially when you have open-source products that are just about as functional and they're free. They might want to consider re-evaluating their pricing. We purchased it in retail. It was somewhere in the neighborhood of 9,000. There is just the standard licensing fee. If they migrate this product the way they're trying to do everything else, eventually, it is going to be subscription-based, which is going to suck, but that's the way the industry is going, so it is what it is."
"Cost is a major derivative for any organization. It has a reasonable cost value, and its cloud support is also better than others. Comparatively, Oracle can do the same things or is even better in certain areas, but it is expensive. The cost along with the support are the plus factors for SQL Server."
"We're looking at alternative solutions because we think Microsoft's licensing costs have been expensive."
"We pay approximately $12,000 USD per month for both the server and the license."
"It comes with the bundle package that we have. We have Microsoft Volume Licensing, so we don't have to pay for it separately. It is a part of the package."
"My advice is quite straightforward. If you know the number of users who really and truly need access to the Server then it is a no-brainer. If you do not know, then get the basic package and minimum licenses and start from there. Needless to say, users can develop/use data structures outside and then deploy onto the Server."
"There is a license required for servers and for the POS we use the free version. The free version allows you to have tables and a total database size of approximately 10 GB, which is enough for our requirements."
"The setup cost is high, but it will return every penny."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Non Profit
10%
Retailer
10%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
39%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
5%
Comms Service Provider
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business119
Midsize Enterprise59
Large Enterprise115
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Oracle Database Cloud Service?
Oracle Database Cloud Service could improve by adding a native iPaaS (integration platform as a service). While machine learning integration is available with Informatica, it’s not yet built into O...
What is your primary use case for Oracle Database Cloud Service?
I worked with Oracle Database on-premises as a developer for seven years at Sopra Banking. Later, I used Oracle Database Cloud Service together with Informatica for application and data integration...
What advice do you have for others considering Oracle Database Cloud Service?
I do not use the Global Reach feature. Regarding metrics and performance, I don’t recall the exact performance metrics, but we use ETL processes to monitor and manage migration performance and data...
Would you say the price of SQL Server is high compared to that of similar products?
SQL Server is fairly priced because it has various editions, depending on the number of users, servers, or core packs you are using. If you compare the product to others in this category, the price...
Has using SQL Server helped your organization in any way?
SQL Server has helped my organization through partitioning to distribute the workload, as it splits them up into smaller pieces so the machines can easily deal with it. However, this comes with a h...
Which authentication mode is best for SQL Server?
My company connects through SQL Server authentication. We have company Windows accounts, but we do not want to connect the two, out of security concerns and to keep things separated for our own pur...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Microsoft SQL Server, MSSQL, MS SQL
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Kagool, iPoint-Systems
Microsoft SQL Server is used by businesses in every industry, including Great Western Bank, Aviva, the Volvo Car Corporation, BMW, Samsung, Principality Building Society, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario.
Find out what your peers are saying about Oracle Database Cloud Service vs. SQL Server and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.