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Apache Hive vs. Azure Synapse Analytics vs. Azure SQL Database

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Apache Hive

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AApache Hive is database/data warehouse software that supports data querying and analysis of large datasets stored in the Hadoop distributed file system (HDFS) and other compatible systems, and is distributed under an open source license.N/A

    Azure Synapse Analytics

    Score7.4 out of 10
    N/AAzure Synapse Analytics is described as the former Azure SQL Data Warehouse, evolved, and as a limitless analytics service that brings together enterprise data warehousing and Big Data analytics. It gives users the freedom to query data using either serverless or provisioned resources, at scale. Azure Synapse brings these two worlds together with a unified experience to ingest, prepare, manage, and serve data for immediate BI and machine learning needs.

    $4,700

    per month 5000 Synapse Commit Units (SCUs)

    Azure SQL Database

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/AAzure SQL Database is Microsoft's relational database as a service (DBaaS).

    $0.50

    Per Hour

    Pricing
    Apache HiveAzure Synapse AnalyticsAzure SQL Database
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Tier 1
    $4,700
    per month 5,000 Synapse Commit Units (SCUs)
    Tier 2
    $9,200
    per month 10,000 Synapse Commit Units (SCUs)
    Tier 3
    $21,360
    per month 24,000 Synapse Commit Units (SCUs)
    Tier 4
    $50,400
    per month 60,000 Synapse Commit Units (SCUs)
    Tier 5
    $117,000
    per month 150,000 Synapse Commit Units (SCUs)
    Tier 6
    $259,200
    per month 360,000 Synapse Commit Units (SCUs)
    2 vCORE
    $0.5044
    Per Hour
    6 vCORE
    $1.5131
    Per Hour
    10 vCORE
    $2.52
    Per Hour
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Apache HiveAzure Synapse AnalyticsAzure SQL Database
    Free Trial
    NoNoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details———
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Apache HiveAzure Synapse AnalyticsAzure SQL Database
    Considered Multiple Products
    Apache
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    Chose Azure Synapse Analytics
    They're all part of the Microsoft Azure family, so they are not exactly competitors. They overlap in functionality, but they're targeted at different levels of customers.
    Azure Data Factory is an excellent stand-alone PaaS (included in Synapse Analytics) for writing, scheduling, …
    Incentivized
    Chose Azure Synapse Analytics
    Azure Synapse Analytics stacks up well against the competitors I mentioned above. Technically, Azure SQL Datawarehouse is an upgraded version of the Azure SQL Database. So, the choice to move from one to the other depends on the processing needs of your company. If you need …
    Incentivized
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    95%
    Would buy again
    18 Answers
    80%
    Would buy again
    8 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    17 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    18 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    10 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    16 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    19 Answers
    80%
    Happy with the feature set
    8 Answers
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    16 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    90%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    9 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    7 Answers
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    14 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    89%
    Implementation went as expected
    17 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    9 Answers
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    16 Answers
    Features
    Apache HiveAzure Synapse AnalyticsAzure SQL Database
    Database-as-a-Service
    Comparison of Database-as-a-Service features of Apache Hive and Azure Synapse Analytics and Azure SQL Database
    Feature
    Apache Hive
    -
    Ratings
    Azure Synapse Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    Azure SQL Database
    7.2
    32 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Automatic software patching00 Ratings00 Ratings6.330 Ratings
    Database scalability00 Ratings00 Ratings7.832 Ratings
    Automated backups00 Ratings00 Ratings7.832 Ratings
    Database security provisions00 Ratings00 Ratings8.832 Ratings
    Monitoring and metrics00 Ratings00 Ratings6.831 Ratings
    Automatic host deployment00 Ratings00 Ratings6.127 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Apache HiveAzure Synapse AnalyticsAzure SQL Database
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    MongoDB Atlas
    Score7.8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Cloudera Enterprise Data Hub
    Score9 out of 10
    Snowflake
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Azure Database
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Oracle Exadata
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Snowflake
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Google Cloud SQL
    Score8.7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Apache HiveAzure Synapse AnalyticsAzure SQL Database
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (35 ratings)
    7.7
    (12 ratings)
    8.0
    (32 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    8.5
    (7 ratings)
    8.3
    (5 ratings)
    8.5
    (5 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.0
    (6 ratings)
    9.6
    (2 ratings)
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Apache HiveAzure Synapse AnalyticsAzure SQL Database
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Apache
    Software work execution is on a large scale, it is good to use for new projects or organizational changes, data lineage mapping has always been dubious but this one has had good results. You can store and synchronize data from different departments, the storage process can be manual but it is best automated.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    It's well suited for large, fastly growing, and frequently changing data warehouses (e.g., in startups). It's also suited for companies that want a single, relatively easy-to-use, centralized cloud service for all their data needs. Larger, more structured organizations could still benefit from this service by using Synapse Dedicated SQL Pools, knowing that costs will be much higher than other solutions. I think this product is not suited for smaller, simpler workloads (where an Azure SQL Database and a Data Factory could be enough) or very large scenarios, where it may be better to build custom infrastructure.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    We have found it's a great alternative for making older legacy applications work with online databases instead of only on-premises databases. We've converted over a dozen applications this way, and it has allowed our clients to have a distributed workforce using their applications without incurring the expense of a complete application rewrite.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Apache
    • Apache Hive allows use to write expressive solutions to complex problems thanks to its SQL-like syntax.
    • Relatively easy to set up and start using.
    • Very little ramp-up to start using the actual product, documentation is very thorough, there is an active community, and the code base is constantly being improved.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Quick to return data. Queries in a SQL data warehouse architecture tend to return data much more quickly than a OLTP setup. Especially with columnar indexes.
    • Ability to manage extremely large SQL tables. Our databases contain billions of records. This would be unwieldy without a proper SQL datawarehouse
    • Backup and replication. Because we're already using SQL, moving the data to a datawarehouse makes it easier to manage as our users are already familiar with SQL.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Maintenance is always an issue, so using a cloud solution saves a lot of trouble.
    • On premise solutions always suffer from fragmented implementations here and there, where several "dba's" keep track of security and maintenance. With a cloud database it's much easier to keep a central overview.
    • Security options in SQL database are next level... data masking, hiding sensitive data where always neglected on premise, whereas you'll get this automatically in the cloud.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Apache
    • Some queries, particularly complex joins, are still quite slow and can take hours
    • Previous jobs and queries are not stored sometimes
    • Switching to Impala can sometimes be time-consuming (i.e. the system hangs, or is slow to respond).
    • Sometimes, directories and tables don't load properly which causes confusion
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • With Azure, it's always the same issue, too many moving parts doing similar things with no specialisation. ADF, Fabric Data Factory and Synapse pipeline serve the same purpose. Same goes for Fabric Warehouse and Synapse SQL pools.
    • Could do better with serverless workloads considering the competition from databricks and its own fabric warehouse
    • Synapse pipelines is a replica of Azure Data Factory with no tight integration with Synapse and to a surprise, with missing features from ADF. Integration of warehouse can be improved with in environment ETl tools
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • One needs to be aware that some T-SQL features are simply not available.
    • The programmatic access to server, trace flags, hardware from within Azure SQL Database is taken away (for a good reason).
    • No SQL Agent so your jobs need to be orchestrated differently.
    • The maximum concurrent logins maybe an unexpected problem.
    • Sudden disconnects.
    • The developers and admin must study the capacity and tier usage limits https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-subscription-service-limits otherwise some errors or even transaction aborts never seen before can occur.
    • Only one Latin Collation choice.
    • There is no way to debug T-SQL ( a big drawback in my point of view).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Apache
    Since I do not know the second data warehouse solution that integrate with HDFS as well as Hive.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    This is best solution as a DBA one could expect from a service provider and as a cloud service, it removes all your hassles.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Apache
    Hive is a very good big data analysis and ad-hoc query platform, which supports scaling also. The BI processes can be easily integrated with Hadoop via the Hive. It can deal with a much larger data set that traditional RDBMS can not. It is a "must-have" component of the big data domain.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    The data warehouse portion is very much like old style on-prem SQL server, so most SQL skills one has mastered carry over easily. Azure Data Factory has an easy drag and drop system which allows quick building of pipelines with minimal coding. The Spark portion is the only really complex portion, but if there's an in-house python expert, then the Spark portion is also quiet useable.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    The interfaces are intuitive once you are familiar with all the functions. The ability to use different tools to interact with the platform, such as directly via a browser or code editors such as VS Code or Visual Studio is a great option and allows for integrating withn the project and other testing and developing tools.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Apache
    Apache Hive is a FOSS project and its open source. We need not definitely comment on anything about the support of open source and its developer community. But, it has got tremendous developer support, awesome documentation. I would justify the fact that much support can be gathered from the community backup.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Microsoft does its best to support Synapse. More and more articles are being added to the documentation, providing more useful information on best utilizing its features. The examples provided work well for basic knowledge, but more complex examples should be added to further assist in discovering the vast abilities that the system has.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    We give the support a high rating simply because every time we've had issues or questions, representatives were in contact with us quickly. Without fail, our issues/questions were handled in a timely matter. That kind of response is integral when client data integrity and availability is in question. There is also a wealth of documentation for resolving issues on your own.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Apache
    Besides Hive, I have used Google BigQuery, which is costly but have very high computation speed. Amazon Redshift is the another product, I used in my recent organisation. Both Redshift and BigQuery are managed solution whereas Hive needs to be managed
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    In comparing Azure Synapse to the Google BigQuery - the biggest highlight that I'd like to bring forward is Azure Synapse SQL leverages a scale-out architecture in order to distribute computational processing of data across multiple nodes whereas Google BigQuery only takes into account computation and storage.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    We moved away from Oracle and NoSQL because we had been so reliant on them for the last 25 years, the pricing was too much and we were looking for a way to cut the cord. Snowflake is just too up in the air, feels like it is soon to be just another line item to add to your Azure subscription. Azure was just priced right, easy to migrate to and plenty of resources to hire to support/maintain it. Very easy to learn, too.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Apache
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Basically, the billing is predictable, and this all about it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Apache
    • Apache hive is secured and scalable solution that helps in increasing the overall organization productivity.
    • Apache hive can handle and process large amount of data in a sufficient time manner.
    • It simplifies writing SQL queries, hence helping the organization as most companies use SQL for all query jobs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Licensing fees is replaced with Azure subscription fee. No big saving there
    • More visibility into the Azure usage and cost
    • It can be used a hot storage and old data can be archived to data lake. Real time data integration is possible via external tables and Microsoft Power BI
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Perfect for small and medium databases, being very cost effective.
    • As a Platform as a Service, there is no concern about patches, upgrades and end of life.
    • Be aware of security and network capabilities. The service cannot run in the VNET as Azure Virtual Machines do.
    Read full review
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