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SAP HANA vs Spark SQL comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
93
Ranking in other categories
Data Virtualization (2nd), Embedded Database (1st), Relational Databases Tools (3rd), Database Management Systems (DBMS) (5th)
Spark SQL
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Hadoop (5th)
 

Featured Reviews

HP
SAP Analytics Lead at Miracle Software Systems, Inc
Performs well with high database and reporting performance
We face difficulties replicating the AC DOCA table, which is a huge table, from S/4HANA to SAP HANA BAS, Business Application Studio, or HANA Studio using SLT. For developing Power BI reports using the AC DOCA table, we are replicating full data daily. We want to implement delta load, and while we used OData service for one client, the delta OData service link is not properly updating delta records. Licensing costs with SAP HANA are very high. Due to high pricing, many clients are moving from BW on SAP HANA and S/4HANA to Azure SQL. I have worked with several clients who have moved all data flows to Azure and developed Power BI queries on top of Azure. Many clients are also using Google Cloud Platform (GCP). The certification costs are also very high, more than ₹1,40,000 INR. Previously, it was ₹30,000 to ₹40,000. I want to pursue three certifications but am unable to do so due to the cost.
Kemal Duman - PeerSpot reviewer
Team Lead, Data Engineering at Nesine.com
Data pipelines have run faster and support flexible batch and streaming transformations
We do not have any performance problems, but we do have some resource problems. Spark SQL consumes so many resources that we migrated our streaming job from Spark to Apache Flink. Resource management in Spark SQL should be better. It consumes more resources, which is normal. The main reason we switched from Spark is memory and CPU consumption. The major reason is the resource problem because the number of streaming jobs has been increasing in our company. That is why we considered resource management as a priority. Because of the resource consumption, I would say the development of Spark SQL is better. For development purposes, it is a top product and not difficult to work with, but resources are the major problem. We changed to Flink regardless of development time. Development time is less in Spark compared with Flink.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The initial setup is straightforward. It usually takes around eight months but it depends on a customer's requirements. We can spend a month or two customizing."
"We can save data very easily."
"The user interface is very good. You can do any kind of reporting analytics from the platform."
"Technically it resembles Oracle, but as a somewhat lighter version."
"SAP HANA is very flexible and supports many different scenarios as it can work with analytics, GenAI use cases, and also supports transactional applications."
"A very feature-rich solution with excellent performance."
"The solution is very stable."
"The feature I found most valuable in SAP HANA is modeling. I also like that the solution has good integration and you can integrate it with any system, even third-party systems."
"I find the Thrift connection valuable."
"Spark SQL gives us a handful of methods to design queries based on its own syntax and also incorporates the regular SQL syntax within tasks."
"Spark SQL's efficiency in managing distributed data and its simplicity in expressing complex operations make it an essential part of our data pipeline."
"Speed is the major benefit of using Spark SQL."
"The scalability of the solution is good."
"Data validation and ease of use are the most valuable features."
"The stability was fine. It behaved as expected."
"The team members don't have to learn a new language and can implement complex tasks very easily using only SQL."
 

Cons

"The SAP ERP processes are quite complex and it can be challenging."
"I think that the pricing is high and it needs improvement."
"The surface side or Attack dashboard needs improvement because there are some gaps after sales services."
"In a future release, SAP HANA should add a module for taxation, such as income tax and withholding tax."
"What needs improvement in SAP HANA is its automation, in particular, it needs more enhancements in that area."
"The solution is very expensive, however. The pricing depends on the number of users and many other factors that affect licensing."
"The pricing could be better."
"If the developers were to enhance or improve the application logic while processing the transactions, that would be great."
"The initial setup is a bit complex."
"Spark SQL consumes so many resources that we migrated our streaming job from Spark to Apache Flink."
"There are many inconsistencies in syntax for the different querying tasks."
"The solution needs to include graphing capabilities. Including financial charts would help improve everything overall."
"This solution could be improved by adding monitoring and integration for the EMR."
"There are many inconsistencies in syntax for the different querying tasks like selecting columns and joining between two tables so I'd like to see a more consistent syntax."
"In the next update, we'd like to see better performance for small points of data. It is possible but there are better tools that are faster and cheaper."
"In the next release, maybe the visualization of some command-line features could be added."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"SAP HANA is expensive, but unfortunately, we do not have any alternatives."
"People who are technical will accept the cost, but financially they will assess whether this solution will bring them revenue or not. People often ask, how will I profit when the cost is so high?"
"There is an annual payment needed to use the solution."
"The cost of SAP HANA is high, and I would rate the price at eight out of ten."
"There is a yearly subscription to use SAP HANA. There is a fee for maintenance."
"The price of SAP HANA is very expensive and it is paid annually."
"We pay annually for the license of the solution."
"Its licensing is expensive for SMEs and large enterprises alike."
"The solution is open-sourced and free."
"We use the open-source version, so we do not have direct support from Apache."
"There is no license or subscription for this solution."
"The on-premise solution is quite expensive in terms of hardware, setting up the cluster, memory, hardware and resources. It depends on the use case, but in our case with a shared cluster which is quite large, it is quite expensive."
"We don't have to pay for licenses with this solution because we are working in a small market, and we rely on open-source because the budgets of projects are very small."
"The solution is bundled with Palantir Foundry at no extra charge."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Government
5%
Financial Services Firm
20%
University
12%
Retailer
11%
Healthcare Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise62
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise4
 

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...
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...
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...
What needs improvement with Spark SQL?
We do not have any performance problems, but we do have some resource problems. Spark SQL consumes so many resources that we migrated our streaming job from Spark to Apache Flink. Resource manageme...
What is your primary use case for Spark SQL?
Spark SQL has been in our stack for less than one year, though some of our colleagues are using it. It is a useful product for transformation jobs. We generally use Spark SQL for batch processing. ...
What advice do you have for others considering Spark SQL?
Regarding the Catalyst query optimizer, I think we are using it. We were using it in the past, but I am not certain if we use it now. We used it a long time ago. I rate my experience with Spark SQL...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

SAP High-Performance Analytic Appliance, HANA
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Unilever, NHS 24, adidas Group, CHIO Aachen, Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited
UC Berkeley AMPLab, Amazon, Alibaba Taobao, Kenshoo, Hitachi Solutions
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP HANA vs. Spark SQL and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.