SAP HANA vs SAP SQL Anywhere comparison

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SAP HANA and SAP SQL Anywhere are both solutions in the Relational Databases Tools category. SAP HANA is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.1, while SAP SQL Anywhere is ranked #35. SAP HANA holds a 6.2% mindshare in SQL, compared to SAP SQL Anywhere’s 1.6% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of SAP HANA users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 83% of SAP SQL Anywhere users who would recommend it.

SAP HANA

Read 93 SAP HANA reviews

12,604 Views
9,327 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

SAP SQL Anywhere

Read 6 SAP SQL Anywhere reviews

1,887 Views
1,736 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

SAP HANA

SAP SQL Anywhere

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

SAP SQL Anywhere and SAP HANA are competing in the database management systems category. SAP HANA tends to have the upper hand due to its advanced features and scalability, making it suitable for businesses with high data processing needs.

Features: SAP SQL Anywhere offers robust mobile and embedded database capabilities, ideal for remote work. It also facilitates offline usage and has a user-friendly interface. SAP HANA, however, provides advanced real-time data processing, in-memory computing, and strong integration capabilities. Its architecture allows effective large-scale data analytics.

Room for Improvement: SAP SQL Anywhere could improve in handling larger data sets, offering more advanced analytics, and enhancing integration capabilities with other software. SAP HANA may improve by reducing its complexity for initial setup, making it more cost-effective for smaller businesses, and offering more straightforward deployment options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SAP SQL Anywhere is easier to deploy due to straightforward procedures and low hardware requirements, making it suitable for smaller operations. SAP HANA provides more advanced deployment options, including cloud, on-premise, and hybrid installations, and it is supported by comprehensive support and service offerings.

Pricing and ROI: SAP SQL Anywhere is cost-effective, offering a quick return on investment for small to medium-sized businesses. SAP HANA may have a higher initial setup cost but potentially delivers significant long-term ROI through its advanced data processing capabilities, which help optimize operations and derive insights.

To learn more, read our detailed SAP HANA vs. SAP SQL Anywhere Report (Updated: November 2026).

Buyer's Guide

SAP HANA vs. SAP SQL Anywhere

November 2026

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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

SAP HANA

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

3rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Virtualization (2nd), Embedded Database (1st), Database Management Systems (DBMS) (3rd)

SAP SQL Anywhere

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

35th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of SAP HANA is 6.2%, down from 8.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP SQL Anywhere is 1.6%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Relational Databases Tools Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
SAP HANA	6.2%
SAP SQL Anywhere	1.6%
Other	92.2%

Relational Databases Tools

Featured Reviews

Bassem Mohammed

IT Application Manager at TBTD

Integrated business processes have improved real-time analytics and financial performance

Whether I or my customers utilize SAP HANA's real-time analytics depends on the data needed to be displayed, and then choosing how to transfer the data to the analytic object, data source, or database to be displayed in the reports. It may be near real-time, real-time, or running batch every day. There are tools for integration between third-party systems, such as OData or APIs from SAP to get in or push data to other systems. Support for both structured and unstructured data helps organizations unify data sources depending on the needed data to be displayed. There are many ways to store it for report displays, but structured data will be better than unstructured data.

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Mehak TAlwar

Automation Project Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Scalable, easy to use, but stability could improve

We use SAP SQL Anywhere because we have a lot of Power BI reports that connect with the SQL database that we have for our robotic process automation data. We create procedures and other elements within the solution The most valuable features of SAP SQL Anywhere are the ease of use and the user…

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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

"The solution is marvelous because it controls everything including workflow and that makes our company more productive."

"Implementing SAP HANA offers financial benefits to the organization."

"SAP HANA is a cost-saving solution that helps save money and serves as a time-saving solution that helps save time."

"The solution is currently very stable."

"It's made everything faster."

"SAP saves you from asking to bring an entire assembly with a lot of parts."

"What I like most are the dashboards and pervasive analytics."

"Its in-memory capabilities are good, which is why many companies still use it."

More SAP HANA pros

"SQL Anywhere is easy and it did not cost as much as SQL Microsoft."

"The most valuable features of SAP SQL Anywhere are the ease of use and the user interface is intuitive."

"It's a great product to use if you are already have an integration with SAP's ERP/CRM systems."

"SAP SQL Anywhere is very helpful."

"We've found the solution very reliable overall. It's very fast."

"It works well in general."

"The auto-backup replication is a perfect feature. That is the feature I liked the most."

Cons

"The initial setup of SAP HANA is complex. We did the implementation of one site, and a global deployment will take another three to four years."

"The deployment of SAP HANA is far too complicated and takes far too long. The typical implementation time is between six months and two years."

"The performance and integration with other products are areas in need of improvement."

"The inclusion of a well-performing Time Machine is vital."

"The user experience should be better. Its user interface is not good. I also don't like the transition concept."

"Customer service can be improved. While issues are resolved eventually, the first level of support is not as good as we would like. Getting assistance from skilled support takes time."

"I'd just like to see some more improvements done on the training, both on the functional training and technical training sides as a part of the complete solution."

"Ease of use could be improved in SAP HANA. I like SAP because SAP solutions can be used by anyone, which means even laymen can start working on SAP tools, but in SAP HANA modeling, you'll need to know some other technologies and sequel scripting, and you need a separate skillset, so if you don't have the skillset, you won't be able to work on SAP HANA. Making SAP HANA low-code would make it even better."

More SAP HANA cons

"We have had some stability issues with SAP SQL Anywhere, but I am not sure if it is an application or network issue. We sometimes have a large amount of data being queried and it cannot handle it."

"SAP SQL Anywhere needs to incorporate functionalities like SAP S/4HANA."

"Performance issues when syncing the MBO packages to the server."

"The interface is not easy in comparison to the SQL Server. It could be more user-friendly."

"A problem we are experiencing now is when doing a backup in SQL 2012 and 14 there's a problem with the license."

"It is not as secure as it could be; there needs to be more encryption and we can find passwords very easily."

"It is not as secure as it could be."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay annually for the license of the solution."

"I would rate the pricing of the solution a ten on ten. The pricing for on-prem SAP HANA is on a yearly basis and expensive. I am not aware of the actual pricing but it is based on 64 Gigabytes. For instance, if you consider $10,000 for 64 Gigabytes, then you can calculate the cost for Terabytes in case you have one. You will have to buy expensive hardware as well which is quite a lot."

"The price of the solution could be reduced, it is expensive."

"SAP HANA is expensive, but unfortunately, we do not have any alternatives."

"The pricing is relatively high for both customers and partners."

"SAP HANA is affordable. I rate it a seven out of ten."

"SAP HANA is an expensive product."

"We pay for a maintenance license, and the licensing cost is high. In general, it is a very expensive solution."

More SAP HANA pricing and cost advice

"SAP SQL Anywhere is affordable."

"SQL Anywhere cost us about $400."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Outsourcing Company

Comms Service Provider

13%

Construction Company

University

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	26
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	64

No data available

Questions from the Community

What are the biggest benefits of using SAP HANA?

Based on my work with SAP HANA, the biggest benefit that it can bring to your business is total data management. This product is by SAP - a company that serves almost all needs a client may have co...

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Is SAP HANA’s customer and technical support reliable?

We have been using SAP HANA for a fairly short period of time and have only taken advantage of their customer support. So far, we have not had issues that required specialized help from technical s...

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Is SAP HANA difficult to set up and start using?

SAP HANA is fairly easy to set up, however, I do not think a complete beginner can do it. You certainly need some preparation - either you need to have experience with similar solutions, or with ot...

See all answers

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Comparisons

Oracle Database vs SAP HANA

Compared 34% of the time

SQL Server vs SAP HANA

Compared 7% of the time

MySQL vs SAP HANA

Compared 5% of the time

IBM Db2 Database vs SAP HANA

Compared 4% of the time

Oracle Database In-Memory vs SAP HANA

Compared 4% of the time

More SAP HANA Competitors

SQL Server vs SAP SQL Anywhere

Compared 16% of the time

MySQL vs SAP SQL Anywhere

Compared 14% of the time

Oracle Database vs SAP SQL Anywhere

Compared 12% of the time

OpenText Analytics Database (Vertica) vs SAP SQL Anywhere

Compared 10% of the time

IBM solidDB vs SAP SQL Anywhere

Compared 4% of the time

More SAP SQL Anywhere Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

SAP HANA

October 2026

Download SAP HANA product report

Buyer's Guide

Relational Databases Tools

October 2026

Download SAP SQL Anywhere product report

Also Known As

SAP High-Performance Analytic Appliance, HANA

Sybase SQL Anywhere

Overview

SAP HANA is a high-speed in-memory data platform providing real-time analytics and quick data retrieval while supporting enterprise scalability and integration.

Designed for efficient data processing, SAP HANA offers robust security, ease of use, and advanced analytics through an architecture that ensures flexibility and stability. This allows seamless integration with third-party systems, significantly improving data management and decision-making capabilities. Enterprises benefit from data modeling, compression, comprehensive dashboards, and real-time insights. However, users have noted high costs, speed, and scalability issues, as well as complexity in interface and customizations. There's also a need for better integration with third-party tools, clearer documentation, and enhanced connectivity with Java and other platforms.

What are the key features of SAP HANA?

In-memory Processing: Delivers rapid data retrieval and analytics.
Data Modeling and Compression: Enhances storage efficiency and speed.
Advanced Analytics: Offers comprehensive insights for strategic decisions.
Seamless Integration: Integrates with third-party systems effectively.
Real-time Insights: Supports real-time analytics across data sets.

What benefits should users expect when evaluating SAP HANA?

Improved Decision-making: Informs strategic business choices with advanced analytics.
Operational Efficiency: Enhances productivity by streamlining data management.
Scalability: Supports growth and evolving data needs effectively.
Security: Protects data integrity with robust mechanisms.

SAP HANA is deployed for enterprise resource planning across industries, notably in finance, HR, and sales. It supports real-time analytics, business intelligence, and integrates with SAP ERP and S/4HANA, offering tailored solutions for sectors like supply chain management, CRM, procurement, and financial analysis.

SAP

SAP SQL Anywhere provides rugged database management for diverse environments, efficiently handling data synchronization and processing for embedded and mobile applications. Its flexibility and reliability make it suitable for enterprises needing robust data solutions.

SAP SQL Anywhere is known for its ability to run in resource-constrained environments, supporting mobile and remote database access without sacrificing performance. It offers comprehensive data management capabilities, ensuring seamless data integration and synchronization across varying platforms. This scalability complements business growth and evolving data needs, providing a cost-effective way to manage data across mobile and embedded applications.

What are the noteworthy features of SAP SQL Anywhere?

SQL Database Server: Efficiently manages data with full support for SQL standards.
Data Synchronization: Ensures consistent data across multiple devices in real-time.
Cross-platform Support: Operates on multiple operating systems, enhancing versatility.
Security Features: Provides encryption and authentication for data protection.

Why choose SAP SQL Anywhere for your business?

Cost Efficiency: Reduces IT overhead with minimal maintenance requirements.
Adaptability: Fits seamlessly into existing infrastructures, reducing integration costs.
Scalability: Grows with business needs without requiring substantial reinvestment.
Reliability: Offers high performance even in offline settings, ensuring continuous access.

Industries such as retail, healthcare, and manufacturing use SAP SQL Anywhere to support mobile field operations, enabling data access and updates in remote locations. This adaptability enhances operational efficiency, providing crucial support in environments where real-time data handling is critical.

SAP

Sample Customers

Unilever, NHS 24, adidas Group, CHIO Aachen, Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited

AOK Bundesverband, Surgutneftegas Open Joint Stock Company, Molson Coors Brewing Company, City of Buenos Aires, ASR Group, Citrix, EarlySense, Usha International Limited, Automotive Resources International, Wªrth Group, Takisada-Osaka Co. Ltd., Coelba, RZD Russian Railways, National Basketball Association, TALLY WEiJL

Buyer's Guide

SAP HANA vs. SAP SQL Anywhere

November 2026

Free Report: SAP HANA vs. SAP SQL Anywhere

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