Apache Hadoop vs. Microsoft SQL Server

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Hadoop
Score 7.6 out of 10
N/A
Hadoop is an open source software from Apache, supporting distributed processing and data storage. Hadoop is popular for its scalability, reliability, and functionality available across commoditized hardware.N/A
Microsoft SQL Server
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database.
$1,418
Per License
Pricing
Apache HadoopMicrosoft SQL Server
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Subscription
$1,418.00
Per License
Enterprise
$13,748.00
Per License
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
HadoopMicrosoft SQL Server
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details——
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Apache HadoopMicrosoft SQL Server
Considered Both Products
Hadoop
Chose Apache Hadoop
Hands down, Hadoop is less expensive than the other platforms we considered. Cloudera was easier to set up but the expense ruled it out. MS-SQL didn't have the performance we saw with the Hadoop clusters and was more expensive. We considered MS-SQL mainly for its ability …
Microsoft SQL Server
Chose Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server is one of the fastest RDBMS systems available in the market. Pricing is a bit on the higher side but all the features it provides pretty much justifies it. It can be integrated with a large number of frameworks thus enabling to work on multiple frameworks …
Chose Microsoft SQL Server
MS SQL server is the best database management tool available and it has been improving every year addressing the needs for ever growing data.
Chose Microsoft SQL Server
I have been a SQL Server focused professional for over 20 years, so SQL Server is my first choice. I have experience and comfort, and the ability to get up to speed quickly. Oracle has been too expensive, though I think it has performed similar to SQL Server in the applications …
TrustRadius Insights
Apache HadoopMicrosoft SQL Server
Highlights

TrustRadius
Research Team Insight
Published

Users of Apache Hadoop typically engage the framework for large-scale data processing tasks across distributed systems where scalability, fault tolerance, and data locality are crucial. A variety of users, from data scientists to IT departments, have embraced Hadoop primarily for its capability to handle massive volumes of unstructured data for analytical and operational applications. For instance, enterprises have been leveraging Hadoop for data warehousing, ETL processes, and real-time or near-real-time data processing across numerous industries.

Conversely, Microsoft SQL Server is predominantly utilized as a relational database management system, emphasizing data integrity and transaction processing. SQL Server is widely implemented across various departments within organizations, functioning as the backbone for critical business applications, data storage, and detailed security management. Users often utilize SQL Server to support both In-house developed and third-party enterprise applications where stable, structured data management and robust transaction handling are required. This includes handling high transaction volumes in retail environments, supporting complex queries in business intelligence tools, and underpinning asset management systems in organizations.

While both Apache Hadoop and Microsoft SQL Server serve major roles in data handling, their typical use cases reflect different needs and user bases. Hadoop is primarily patterned around handling large data volumes in unstructured or semi-structured formats, often in environments where rapid data growth is expected, whereas SQL Server is tailored to environments requiring high transactional performance, strong consistency, and complex query capabilities on well-structured data.

Best Alternatives
Apache HadoopMicrosoft SQL Server
Small Businesses

No answers on this topic

InterSystems IRIS
InterSystems IRIS
Score 7.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Cloudera Manager
Cloudera Manager
Score 9.9 out of 10
InterSystems IRIS
InterSystems IRIS
Score 7.9 out of 10
Enterprises
IBM Analytics Engine
IBM Analytics Engine
Score 8.4 out of 10
SAP IQ
SAP IQ
Score 10.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Apache HadoopMicrosoft SQL Server
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(37 ratings)
8.2
(102 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.6
(8 ratings)
9.0
(6 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(6 ratings)
7.6
(16 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
7.5
(3 ratings)
7.9
(25 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
6.1
(2 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(5 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Apache HadoopMicrosoft SQL Server
Likelihood to Recommend
Apache
Altogether, I want to say that Apache Hadoop is well-suited to a larger and unstructured data flow like an aggregation of web traffic or even advertising. I think Apache Hadoop is great when you literally have petabytes of data that need to be stored and processed on an ongoing basis. Also, I would recommend that the software should be supplemented with a faster and interactive database for a better querying service. Lastly, it's very cost-effective so it is good to give it a shot before coming to any conclusion.
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Microsoft
Microsoft SQL is ubiquitous, while MySQL runs under the hood all over the place. Microsoft SQL is the platform taught in colleges and certification courses and is the one most likely to be used by businesses because it is backed by Microsoft. Its interface is friendly (well, as pleasant as SQL can be) and has been used by so many for so long that resources are freely available if you encounter any issues.
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Pros
Apache
  • Handles large amounts of unstructured data well, for business level purposes
  • Is a good catchall because of this design, i.e. what does not fit into our vertical tables fits here.
  • Decent for large ETL pipelines and logging free-for-alls because of this, also.
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Microsoft
  • Easy to configure and use with Visual Studio and Dot Net
  • Easy integration with MSBI to perform data analysis
  • Data Security
  • Easy to understand and use
  • Very easy to export database and tables in the form of SQL query or a script
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Cons
Apache
  • Less organizational support system. Bugs need to be fixed and outside help take a long time to push updates
  • Not for small data sets
  • Data security needs to be ramped up
  • Failure in NameNode has no replication which takes a lot of time to recover
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Microsoft
  • Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise edition has a high cost but is the only edition which supports SQL Always On Availability Groups. It would be nice to include this feature in the Standard version.
  • Licensing of Microsoft SQL Server is a quite complex matter, it would be good to simplify licensing in the future. For example, per core vs per user CAL licensing, as well as complex licensing scenarios in the Cloud and on Edge locations.
  • It would be good to include native tools for converting Oracle, DB2, Postgresql and MySQL/MariaDB databases (schema and data) for import into Microsoft SQL Server.
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Likelihood to Renew
Apache
Hadoop is organization-independent and can be used for various purposes ranging from archiving to reporting and can make use of economic, commodity hardware. There is also a lot of saving in terms of licensing costs - since most of the Hadoop ecosystem is available as open-source and is free
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Microsoft
We understand that the Microsoft SQL Server will continue to advance, offering the same robust and reliable platform while adding new features that enable us, as a software center, to create a superior product. That provides excellent performance while reducing the hardware requirements and the total cost of ownership of our solution.
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Usability
Apache
As Hadoop enterprise licensed version is quite fine tuned and easy to use makes it good choice for Hadoop administrators. It’s scalability and integration with Kerberos is good option for authentication and authorisation. installation can be improved. logging can be improved so that it become easier for debugging purposes. parallel processing of data is achieved easily.
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Microsoft
SQL Server mostly 'just works' or generates error messages to help you sort out the trouble. You can usually count on the product to get the job done and keep an eye on your potential mistakes. Interaction with other Microsoft products makes operating as a Windows user pretty straight forward. Digging through the multitude of dialogs and wizards can be a pain, but the answer is usually there somewhere.
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Reliability and Availability
Apache
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Its does not have outages.
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Performance
Apache
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
SSAS data cubes may some time slow down your Excel reports.
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Support Rating
Apache
It's a great value for what you pay, and most Data Base Administrators (DBAs) can walk in and use it without substantial training. I tend to dabble on the analyst side, so querying the data I need feels like it can take forever, especially on higher traffic days like Monday.
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Microsoft
We managed to handle most of our problems by looking into Microsoft's official documentation that has everything explained and almost every function has an example that illustrates in detail how a particular functionality works. Just like PowerShell has the ability to show you an example of how some cmdlet works, that is the case also here, and in my opinion, it is a very good practice and I like it.
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In-Person Training
Apache
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
It was good
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Online Training
Apache
Hadoop is a complex topic and best suited for classrom training. Online training are a waste of time and money.
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Microsoft
very hands on and detailed training
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Implementation Rating
Apache
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Other than SQL taking quite a bit of time to actually install there are no problems with installation. Even on hardware that has good performance SQL can still take close to an hour to install a typical server with management and reporting services.
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Alternatives Considered
Apache
Not used any other product than Hadoop and I don't think our company will switch to any other product, as Hadoop is providing excellent results. Our company is growing rapidly, Hadoop helps to keep up our performance and meet customer expectations. We also use HDFS which provides very high bandwidth to support MapReduce workloads.
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Microsoft
[Microsoft] SQL Server has a much better community and professional support and is overall just a more reliable system with Microsoft behind it. I've used MySQL in the past and SQL Server has just become more comfortable for me and is my go to RDBMS.
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Scalability
Apache
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
SQL server does handle growing demands of a mid sized company.
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Return on Investment
Apache
  • There are many advantages of Hadoop as first it has made the management and processing of extremely colossal data very easy and has simplified the lives of so many people including me.
  • Hadoop is quite interesting due to its new and improved features plus innovative functions.
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Microsoft
  • Increased accuracy - We went from multiple users having different versions of an Excel spreadsheet to a single source of truth for our reporting.
  • Increased Efficiency - We can now generate reports at any time from a single source rather than multiple users spending their time collating data and generating reports.
  • Improved Security - Enterprise level security on a dedicated server rather than financial files on multiple laptop hard drives.
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