Oracle Database is a national database system that we use in our organization.
Database Administrator at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Beneficial reports, functional GUI, and helpful support
Pros and Cons
- "There is a lot of functionality in Oracle Database. The reports and the GUI are good."
- "If Oracle Database could have more build-in features from some of their other products it would be good."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
There is a lot of functionality in Oracle Database. The reports and the GUI are good.
What needs improvement?
With the nature of my job, there are certain things that I would want to improve. I can do this by acquiring some of the other products from Oracle, which would then make work a little bit easier. For example, in terms of replication from one site to the other site, the GoldenGate solution would be something I would have to acquire. However, this is subject to the budget. If we have the money, we could acquire other solutions. At the moment, we don't have such solutions which we can acquire in the future when budgets are low.
If Oracle Database could have more build-in features from some of their other products it would be good.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Oracle Database for many years.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Oracle Database is stable, the performance has been perfect.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of the Oracle Database is very good. It is easy to scale and you can have a tremendous about of users.
Our entire workforce is using this solution. For example, there is a payroll system and everybody has to access their payroll details. This is how the entire workforce will have access.
Over time we plan to increase usage of the Oracle Database. We will want to use some kind of an ERP in the future and when we do there will be many things happening on the one system.
We have a solution from Oracle and that in itself is not a complete solution. It's just a part that we have introduced. There are other parts that we will acquire over time. For example, we will keep our journal in Oracle instead of another system. We will do procurement in Oracle eventually. The solution can expand but you have to purchase the different parts.
How are customer service and support?
The support from Oracle is good. You raise your support cases over the support website and there will be support people that will work with you until you get a solution to the problem.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used dBase and it had limitations. Over the years it vanished from the market.
How was the initial setup?
The installation was simple.
What about the implementation team?
We used vendor integrators and consultants. This type of solution's installation cannot be done alone. Our experience with the help was very good, everything was successful.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We are on an annual license for the use of this solution.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend others to work with Oracle. Oracle is a huge company that knows its product very well.
I rateOracle Database a ten out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Professor at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
User-friendly, versatile, and offers huge ROI
Pros and Cons
- "The command interface is very user-friendly. The required commands are not complicated and we are able to easily access the root system."
- "We believe that the usability could be improved, especially within the data lakehouse. We found content management to be a little bit more simpler within the GUI part."
What is our primary use case?
We are using this for our data warehouse as well as for many of our core banking systems.
What is most valuable?
The command interface is very user-friendly. The required commands are not complicated and we are able to easily access the root system.
What needs improvement?
We believe that the usability could be improved, especially within the data lakehouse. We found content management to be a little bit more simpler within the GUI part.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using the product for over 10 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product has been quite stable across all versions.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The database in-memory and also the extra data that we were using, was quite scalable. It had a range of capabilities, which we could see the high throughput and low latency. Scalability was very well-defined and innovative which has allowed us to stick with the product.
We have about 200 in-house users with more than 1.3 million subscribers. This requires about four to six database specialists for maintenance.
How are customer service and support?
They are committed on their SLAs and their availability is quite good. So, we are quite happy with with Oracle Database's customer service and support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have always stuck with Oracle.
How was the initial setup?
We were able to take advantage of a two-week POC to allow our technical team to become comfortable with the database. From here, it took just two to four weeks to deploy it to the mainstream and set up the whole system via data transfer.
What about the implementation team?
We relied mainly on our in-house team. An Oracle representative assisted us during our POC and we were able to phone them during deployment if needed.
What was our ROI?
The return on investment is quite good. We were able to see a growing number of subscribers. Considering the speed and amount of activities that were going on with banks, I would say we saw returns within two to three years.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Since we are in BPN, we utilize group licensing which has the tech support included.
What other advice do I have?
This product is definitely worth it. Our team is satisfied in all areas: price, scalability, support, etc.
I would rate this a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Oracle Database
March 2025

Learn what your peers think about Oracle Database. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Oracle Applications Consultant at ASAM Conseil Inc
The autonomous database simplifies patching making this a strong product
Pros and Cons
- "The autonomous database simplifies everything."
- "Once you start with Oracle you become locked into it."
What is our primary use case?
My primary use case is in a university environment.
What is most valuable?
It's the autonomous database that makes this a valuable product, it's a big feature that Oracle brings to the market. Autonomous patching means that the database more or less patches itself without the need to ask DBAs to apply and test patches. It simplifies the maintenance so this is a strong and autonomous database. They're constantly bringing new features that satisfy their clients. It's a great solution.
What needs improvement?
The main issue is that people don't want to be locked into Oracle, and once all the data is in there, it's difficult to switch to Amazon AWS or something else.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used this solution for many years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable, it's been around for a long time and there's not much for clients to complain about.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
They offer a lot of support these days, including a kind of Oracle cloud management service. You can also buy some database administrators from Oracle. You just have to tell them what you need and they can patch it automatically and monitor the database for you.
How was the initial setup?
This solution is straightforward. It's good on the database side but I think SAP is taking over now. It's moving faster than Oracle. Even when it comes to the application side, people go to SAP and will sometimes move from Oracle to SAP. I've noticed that a lot in the last five years.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Costs can add up when you use Oracle because they monitor everything and there's a fee for that.
What other advice do I have?
We're now moving to no-code, the BI application. When you buy Oracle Database, it comes as a free tool and you can build anything you want in-house with Apex. You can bring in some developers and develop the application in-house. The solution is PaaS, Platform as a Service, but you can connect with the database and build what you want. Even functional people who don't know how to code, how to do SQL, are able to just drag and drop, building their application to manage and solve anything.
I rate the solution nine out of 10.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Implementer
DB Architect / Consultant at Virtusa Global
Oracle Database is Zero Down Time and Zero Data loss at any given situation
Pros and Cons
- "As a database, the solution has been number one from the beginning."
- "The features should be communicated to end users in the proper way."
How has it helped my organization?
As a database, the solution has been number one from the beginning, in my experience, because of the features and the performance. The solution has a number of Features including , Maximum Availability Architecture for zero downtime and Zero Data lost.
The only issue is the speed that Oracle is going with the technology transformation. The marketplace is not adapting. As a whole, Oracle innovation is very fast as an organization, but end users are not so much in a hurry to go.
What needs improvement?
An area that could be improved is information. Everything is going on containerization architecture now. Oracle is also coming up with data Shards with their Multitenancy Architecture to support this containerization. The gap is in marketing the features and the knowledge that the end users are having. The end users must be educated about the current features, and that is what is lacking with Oracle.
Additional features that could be added in the future need Real Time Analytics features and multi-cloud support. But I have seen Oracle is coming up with the Lakehouse and the delta Lake concepts. Oracle is heading in the right direction, but the features should be communicated to end-users in the proper way.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working with Oracle for over twenty years.
How are customer service and support?
Overall, the technical support is a little bit lacking, and they should improve. Especially the team who is deployed to handle these tickets. Around 50% of the team itself is lacking some knowledge on handling texting and knowledge. They are very good superior resources, that I understand, but in the APEC region, a little bit of lacking. Especially in India and Singapore, because those are not well handled. But in the US, they handle those things.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I believe Oracle has reduced the pricing.
What other advice do I have?
Every thing starts with a proper foundation , so as with Oracle Database Architecture. Any one with solid architectural foundation will have a life long journey with Oracle Database.
This knowledge includes conceptual understanding hands-on with scenario and solutions basis which will allow the DBA to get through with the product. This What I am doing in the trainings that I conduct - https://www.youtube.com/c/tech...
I would give the solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Sr. Solution Architect at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
A stable and scalable database solution with a useful query optimization feature
Pros and Cons
- "I like the query part and the optimization of the query to get the data. I also like its speedy recovery and stability. In the security part, the loss of data is minimal for any crashes that could happen. First of all, it might not occur, or if it happens, the recovery of the data is smoother than others."
- "It would be better if the administrator part could be simplified. At the moment, we need specialized skills for managing or administering Oracle Database. If that is simplified, my juniors or basic database engineers could use it. Right now, we need specific administrative skills to manage the Oracle Server."
What is our primary use case?
We are using a BI solution and Oracle Transaction Server for transaction data. So, transactional data is being stored in the Oracle Database.
What is most valuable?
I like the query part and the optimization of the query to get the data. I also like its speedy recovery and stability. In the security part, the loss of data is minimal for any crashes that could happen. First of all, it might not occur, but if it happens, the recovery of the data is smoother than others.
What needs improvement?
It would be better if the administrator part could be simplified. At the moment, we need specialized skills for managing or administering Oracle Database. If that is simplified, my juniors or basic database engineers could use it. Right now, we need specific administrative skills to manage the Oracle Server.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been dealing with Oracle Database for more than a decade.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Oracle Database is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Oracle Database is definitely scalable. For the project we are working on, the team size is around 500 to 600 engineers. But not everyone is working on Oracle. Even if we go with the 10% or 5% count, you still end up with 20 to 50 people who are dealing with the SQL queries, day in, day out.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this database solution to potential users, but it depends on their specific business needs.
On a scale from one to ten, I would give Oracle Database an eight.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
System support engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Quick to deploy, reliable, and scalable
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is very easy to use in general."
- "I would like to see more integration with other databases and the cloud as well as Microsoft's Office 365."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution to house our database applications and as a part of our ERP.
What is most valuable?
The solution has been scalable.
The stability is good. We find the product to be reliable.
The solution is very easy to use in general.
Its initial setup is quite straightforward. The deployment is fast.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see more integration with other databases and the cloud as well as Microsoft's Office 365. It should have, for example, a certificate that is then authorized in Oracle Databases so that easy division will be possible with other cloud solutions.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for eight to ten years at this point. It's been about a decade, or just under. We've used it for a long time in general.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is reliable and quite stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. The performance is great.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is quite scalable. It's not a problem if you need to expand.
We have about 18 to 20 users on the product currently. We have managers, admins, and engineers on the product.
How are customer service and support?
We do occasionally deal with technical support. For example, in the case of the wrong data entered in the ERP, support is required to purge out the wrong information.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not use a different solution previous to Oracle. We've always used Oracle. We started using it at version 6 around 2006 or 2007.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward and simple. The deployment takes a maximum of one and a half to two hours. It's not difficult.
We only have and need one person for deployment and maintenance tasks.
What about the implementation team?
We are able to handle the installation ourselves.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We have a license for Oracle Database. You need one in order to use it.
What other advice do I have?
In terms of versions, we are using currently 11G and we are planning to move to 12G in a couple of months.
I'd rate the solution at a ten out of ten.
I would recommend this solution to others considering implementing it.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
DGM Data Centre at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Reliable, scales well, and easy to install
Pros and Cons
- "They continue to improve and are always introducing new features."
- "More integration, in my opinion, would be beneficial."
What is our primary use case?
All of our critical databases are running on Oracle Database.
What is most valuable?
They continue to improve and are always introducing new features.
What needs improvement?
More integration, in my opinion, would be beneficial.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Oracle Database for 20 to 30 years.
Because we have a long-term contract with the software team, we are always up to date. It's always the most up-to-date version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Because Oracle Database is incredibly stable, it has been used for 20 to 30 years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Oracle Database is a scalable solution.
It is being worked on by the development team. As a result, it's reaching our entire organization's population.
How are customer service and support?
I have never contacted technical support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, we were using NetVault. We also use MySQL.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
We have the necessary expertise to set up and deploy this solution in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We have a subscription.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others.
I would rate Oracle Database an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Head Of Information Technology at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Stable, with good technical support, but very expensive
Pros and Cons
- "The scalability is quite good."
- "They should be putting more emphasis on the Windows platform. Usually, they run very well on the Linux platform, however, their performance on Windows is a little bit lower quality."
What is our primary use case?
We are using the solution for our online transaction system - that is debit cards - and we are using it for our loan origination system as well. There are two systems that are deployed on it and we are getting a good experience from it.
What is most valuable?
The Data Guard feature is the most valuable aspect of the solution.
The initial setup is pretty straightforward.
The solution is stable.
The scalability is quite good.
I have always found the technical support to be very helpful.
What needs improvement?
The solution is expensive. They should work at making the pricing more reasonable.
They should be putting more emphasis on the Windows platform. Usually, they run very well on the Linux platform, however, their performance on Windows is a little bit lower quality.
They have to work on their flashback feature. Right now, it is a cumbersome process.
It is actually very heavy on the storage. If Oracle could do something about it, that would be great.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for the last 23 years at this point. It's been over two decades. I've used it for a long time.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is quite good. there are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The product is quite scalable. You can add as many servers as you would like to. It's not a problem.
The product is not deployed for the user base. It is deployed for the backend service. The amount of actual users is only one or two people.
We do not have plans to increase usage. The cost is too much of a factor now. I'm not sure if I will be using it anymore.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support has been great. I am satisfied with the level of service we receive.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have Oracle Database and SQL Central Server Database in our environment. We're moving to SQL based on the generally high cost of Oracle.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very straightforward.
I'm very comfortable with Oracle as well, so for me, it was very, very convenient. I can't speak to the end-user or a user with the lower skillset in terms of their capabilities of setting it up. However, if you have some experience with Oracle, it's not bad.
The deployment only takes 45 minutes to an hour. It doesn't take long.
What about the implementation team?
I have installed it personally and it is very straightforward. However, it is possible to use an integrator or consultant to get the proper assistance.
What was our ROI?
We don't really calculate the ROI on the database itself. We calculate the ROI for the system. On whichever system is deployed on a database, we calculate it on a community basis. Therefore, of course, we get the ROI from whatever technology we deploy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
While I'm a fan of Oracle as a solution, I am not a fan of the cost. It is very expensive.
For medium to small organizations, the current cost might not be viable as compared to SQL Server, which is much cheaper than Oracle and provides approximately the same functionality that they have.
You can choose a core-based license or a user-based license. There are no extra costs above the standard licensing fees. Typically it is a five-year contract that can be paid monthly or yearly.
What other advice do I have?
We are a customer and an end-user.
I'd advise those considering the solution to always keep their logs on a different database. Also, they have to make sure the parameterization they do in their initial setup is very, very extensively thought out.
I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

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