Azure Blob Storage vs. Azure SQL Database vs. Vultr

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Azure Blob Storage
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft's Blob Storage system on Azure is designed to make unstructured data available to customers anywhere through REST-based object storage.
$0.01
per GB/per month
Azure SQL Database
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Azure SQL Database is Microsoft's relational database as a service (DBaaS).
$0.50
Per Hour
Vultr
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Vultr is an independent cloud computing platform on a mission to provide businesses and developers around the world with unrivaled ease of use, price-to-performance, and global reach.
$2.50
per month
Pricing
Azure Blob StorageAzure SQL DatabaseVultr
Editions & Modules
Block Blobs
$0.0081
per GB/per month
Azure Data Lake Storage
$0.0081
per GB/per month
Files
$0.058
per GB/per month
Managed Discs
$1.54
per month
2 vCORE
$0.5044
Per Hour
6 vCORE
$1.5131
Per Hour
10 vCORE
$2.52
Per Hour
Block Storage
$1
per month
Cloud Compute
$2.50
per month
Object Storage
$5
per month
Kubernetes Engine
$10
per month
Load Balancers
$10
per month
Managed Databases
$15
per month
Optimized Cloud Compute
$28
per month
Cloud GPU
$90
per month
Bare Metal
$120
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Azure Blob StorageAzure SQL DatabaseVultr
Free Trial
YesNoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPricing is based on specifications chosen in each product category. Bandwidth is also included up to a certain amount per month.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Azure Blob StorageAzure SQL DatabaseVultr
Considered Multiple Products
Azure Blob Storage
Chose Azure Blob Storage
We didn't actually evaluate anything but Azure Blob Storage since it worked so well for backups and Audit logs and the price point was good enough for us.
Azure SQL Database
Chose Azure SQL Database
Amazon's RDS offering is actually very good and is used in other parts of the company, we just have a lot of Azure experience so wanted to leverage that.
Vultr

No answer on this topic

Features
Azure Blob StorageAzure SQL DatabaseVultr
Database-as-a-Service
Comparison of Database-as-a-Service features of Product A and Product B
Azure Blob Storage
-
Ratings
Azure SQL Database
7.3
32 Ratings
15% below category average
Vultr
-
Ratings
Automatic software patching00 Ratings6.430 Ratings00 Ratings
Database scalability00 Ratings7.832 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated backups00 Ratings7.932 Ratings00 Ratings
Database security provisions00 Ratings8.832 Ratings00 Ratings
Monitoring and metrics00 Ratings6.831 Ratings00 Ratings
Automatic host deployment00 Ratings6.227 Ratings00 Ratings
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
Comparison of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) features of Product A and Product B
Azure Blob Storage
-
Ratings
Azure SQL Database
-
Ratings
Vultr
8.4
59 Ratings
2% above category average
Service-level Agreement (SLA) uptime00 Ratings00 Ratings9.353 Ratings
Dynamic scaling00 Ratings00 Ratings8.444 Ratings
Elastic load balancing00 Ratings00 Ratings8.932 Ratings
Pre-configured templates00 Ratings00 Ratings8.540 Ratings
Monitoring tools00 Ratings00 Ratings6.846 Ratings
Pre-defined machine images00 Ratings00 Ratings8.350 Ratings
Operating system support00 Ratings00 Ratings8.955 Ratings
Security controls00 Ratings00 Ratings8.248 Ratings
Automation00 Ratings00 Ratings8.238 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Azure Blob StorageAzure SQL DatabaseVultr
Small Businesses
Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage
Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage
Score 8.6 out of 10
IBM Cloudant
IBM Cloudant
Score 7.4 out of 10
DigitalOcean Droplets
DigitalOcean Droplets
Score 9.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Everpure FlashBlade
Everpure FlashBlade
Score 9.9 out of 10
IBM Cloudant
IBM Cloudant
Score 7.4 out of 10
SAP on IBM Cloud
SAP on IBM Cloud
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Everpure FlashBlade
Everpure FlashBlade
Score 9.9 out of 10
IBM Cloudant
IBM Cloudant
Score 7.4 out of 10
SAP on IBM Cloud
SAP on IBM Cloud
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Azure Blob StorageAzure SQL DatabaseVultr
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(9 ratings)
8.0
(28 ratings)
8.9
(61 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
9.6
(2 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
8.3
(3 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(3 ratings)
9.0
(5 ratings)
8.5
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Azure Blob StorageAzure SQL DatabaseVultr
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
In Azure, it is the storage to use, and in my view, the Blob Storage offers more, or finer-grained configuration options, than S3. So my recommendation would be to check in detail what is offered. As the Blob Storage is more or less a Microsoft exclusive product, the "interoperability" is more limited than, for example, with S3. The S3 is more widely adopted, and if you cannot exclude a migration scenario from one cloud provider to another, additional effort is needed.
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.
Read full review
Vultr
I've been with Vultr over 5 years hosting multiple businesses and email related services. I never experienced a significant outage or data loss. Migration has always been successful as well. Support is top tier and IP reputation is clean. I like the choices of OS, ease of platform use and multiple hosting/ region options.
Read full review
Pros
Microsoft
  • Ease of use both through Azure Portal as well as API.
  • Cost-effective solution for storing a large amount of data compared to other storage solutions.
  • Scalability, Security, and Performance are the other key aspects of Azure Blob Storage that are easily manageable through Admin Console.
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.
Read full review
Vultr
  • Good performance from servers close to me and my customers
  • Ease of spinning up new servers
  • Great service levels of servers I spin up
  • Notifications of issues or downtime come through quickly, allowing me to handle client queries with knowledge in hand.
Read full review
Cons
Microsoft
  • Sometimes the behavior is nondeterministic (e.g. compare config via UI vs. terraform).
  • While it does some things better than S3, the interoperability in a migration scenario seems cumbersome.
  • The number of features/config options is overwhelming; we found the docs, etc., a bit hard to read.
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).
Read full review
Vultr
  • The response times for support tickets is too high and a quicker response time would be appreciated
  • Availability of the VPS solution in Middle east and Africa would help
  • Abilito to connect SIP trunks would make it more easy to run active communictaion platforms on Vultr
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
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.
Read full review
Vultr
Just a great product with no bells and whistles, which is the advantage. We spend very little time learning and using Vultr and more time using the systems we have in Vultr to complete our tasks. Not having to worry about the IT overhead is huge and saves a great deal of time
Read full review
Usability
Microsoft
Blob storage is fairly simple, with several different options/settings that can be configured. The file explorer has enhanced its usability. Some areas could be improved, such as providing more details or stats on how many times a file has been accessed. It is an obvious choice if you're already using Azure/Entra.
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.
Read full review
Vultr
easy to use and configure. great bang for the buck. I need an affordable solution to host in the cloud data from systems installed at our client's site with the ability to drill down and change the configuration remotely. Vultr enabled us to do that in an efficient and affordable way.
Read full review
Support Rating
Microsoft
Microsoft has improved its customer service standpoint over the years. The ability to chat with an issue, get a callback, schedule a call or work with an architecture team(for free) is a huge plus. I can get mentorship and guidance on where to go with my environment without pushy sales tactics. This is very refreshing. Typically support can get me to where I need to be on the first contact, which is also nice.
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.
Read full review
Vultr
Vultr makes it easy to contact technical support. The techs are very competent. In a number of occasions they have bounced the responsibility back to me when they could have saved us all time and heartache by simply implementing the solution directly
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Vultr
Vultr implementation seemed based on open-source tools and basic cloud principles - some things were more complicated to do compared with more developed cloud providers, but on the other hand it was more extensible by open-source tools.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
Azure Premium Blob offers better latency than competitors. It works best with the Azure ecosystem, and competitors lack it. Azure Blob even stands out in storage durability, providing up to 16 nines. It can have various use cases that can suit all the organisation's needs. The Azure Blob solution can also be deployed on-premises.
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.
Read full review
Vultr
Linode is a more old-school offering. Linode pricing model and infrastructure rely on classic Virtual Machines. What we like about Vultr is that they offer the same at the front, but in the back, the machines are much more flexible and can be tailor-made to our needs, which of course also impacts the costs of running the infrastructure.
Read full review
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Vultr
Pricing is fair and did not increase
Read full review
Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • Azure Blob has reduced our overall infrastructure cost.
  • With Azure Blob Storage, we don't need dedicated personnel to maintain storage and its related infrastructure.
  • Azure Blob Storage provides a one-stop storage solution for most of our business needs, allowing us to focus solely on the business.
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
Vultr
  • We have experienced a 200% return on using Vultr products with a 100% Customer Satisfaction rating.
  • Vultr gives us the regions to deploy where our small business customers are located.
  • Vultr has helped us scale up our company and our cloud solutions.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Vultr Screenshots

Screenshot of Vultr's control panel helps users spend less time managing infrastructure.Screenshot of Vultr's services offer additional configuration and inside of the simplified control panel.Screenshot of a display of when peak activity happens on an application. The server health graphs provide insight from the moment the server is created.Screenshot of Vultr's interface, which allows users to deploy high performance servers worldwide from any device.Screenshot of how to reach the 24/7/365 technical support team that is available through Vultr's ticketing system.