What users are saying about
36 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 8.3 out of 100
Based on 36 reviews and ratings
Top Rated
1484 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 8.9 out of 100
Based on 1484 reviews and ratings
Feature Set Ratings
NoSQL Databases
8.6
Azure Cosmos DB
86%
Microsoft SQL Server
Feature Set Not Supported
N/A
Azure Cosmos DB ranks higher in 7/7 features
Azure Cosmos DB ranks higher in 7/7 features
Performance
8.2
82%
6 Ratings
N/A
0 Ratings
Availability
9.5
95%
6 Ratings
N/A
0 Ratings
Concurrency
8.1
81%
6 Ratings
N/A
0 Ratings
Security
9.4
94%
6 Ratings
N/A
0 Ratings
Scalability
8.6
86%
6 Ratings
N/A
0 Ratings
Data model flexibility
8.1
81%
6 Ratings
N/A
0 Ratings
Deployment model flexibility
8.5
85%
6 Ratings
N/A
0 Ratings
Attribute Ratings
- Azure Cosmos DB is rated higher in 1 area: Support Rating
- Microsoft SQL Server is rated higher in 3 areas: Likelihood to Recommend, Likelihood to Renew, Usability
Likelihood to Recommend
8.3
Azure Cosmos DB
83%
6 Ratings
9.1
Microsoft SQL Server
91%
94 Ratings
Likelihood to Renew
7.7
Azure Cosmos DB
77%
4 Ratings
9.0
Microsoft SQL Server
90%
6 Ratings
Usability
8.6
Azure Cosmos DB
86%
2 Ratings
9.8
Microsoft SQL Server
98%
10 Ratings
Availability
Azure Cosmos DB
N/A
0 Ratings
10.0
Microsoft SQL Server
100%
2 Ratings
Performance
Azure Cosmos DB
N/A
0 Ratings
9.0
Microsoft SQL Server
90%
2 Ratings
Support Rating
9.4
Azure Cosmos DB
94%
2 Ratings
7.9
Microsoft SQL Server
79%
49 Ratings
In-Person Training
Azure Cosmos DB
N/A
0 Ratings
9.0
Microsoft SQL Server
90%
1 Rating
Online Training
Azure Cosmos DB
N/A
0 Ratings
9.0
Microsoft SQL Server
90%
1 Rating
Implementation Rating
Azure Cosmos DB
N/A
0 Ratings
9.0
Microsoft SQL Server
90%
10 Ratings
Product Scalability
Azure Cosmos DB
N/A
0 Ratings
9.0
Microsoft SQL Server
90%
1 Rating
Likelihood to Recommend
Azure Cosmos DB
NoSQL platforms are very useful when it comes to security, speed, accuracy, high accessibility with high read and write power. Everything is managed under the cloud and we have the various capabilities of Azure and support for Microsoft products with us. Flexibility in price and variety of features, as well as real-time results, are some of the popular [features] of this platform.
IT Operations and Support Specialist
AZEREX LLC.Information Technology & Services, 1-10 employees
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server is a great RDBMS and meets all of our requirements. If you need a stable DB platform to support your line of a business application you'll be well served. Licensing costs are far cheaper, more portable and a lot more user friendly than Oracle. Product support and security patches from Microsoft are strong.

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Information Technology & Services Company, 201-500 employeesPros
Azure Cosmos DB
- Turn-key geo-redundancy with multi-master writes is unprecedented and unparalleled in the industry!
- Guaranteed low latency makes Cosmos DB an excellent fit for most of our performance-intensive situations.
- The tunable consistency model simplifies so many challenges in distributed systems engineering that otherwise require advanced knowledge of computer science topics. I continue to be impressed at how Cosmos DB has abstracted away so much complexity.
Solutions Architect
Netrix, LLCInformation Technology and Services, 201-500 employees
Microsoft SQL Server
- 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
Project Engineer
Wipro LimitedInformation Technology & Services, 10,001+ employees
Cons
Azure Cosmos DB
- Expensive, so be careful of the use case.
- We had a thought time migrating from traditional DBs to Cosmos. Azure should provide a seamless platform for the migration of data from on-premises to cloud.

Verified User
Project Manager in Information Technology
Pharmaceuticals Company, 10,001+ employeesMicrosoft SQL Server
- The import/export process can be tricky to follow with lots of steps and could be better for importing flat files
- Obtaining help from Microsoft is cumbersome and often other internet sources are better and quicker
- The documentation is not great and again it's generally better to obtain help elsewhere if needed
Data Analyst / Scuba Dive Instructor
Haymarket PublishingMedia Production, 1001-5000 employees
Pricing Details
Azure Cosmos DB
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—Azure Cosmos DB Editions & Modules
—
Additional Pricing Details
—Microsoft SQL Server
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
$0 Per License
Microsoft SQL Server Editions & Modules
Edition
Enterprise | $13,748.001 |
---|---|
Subscription | $1,418.001 |
- Per License
Additional Pricing Details
—Likelihood to Renew
Azure Cosmos DB
Azure Cosmos DB 7.7
Based on 4 answers
It's efficient, easy to scale, and works. We do have to do a bit of administration, but less now than when we started with this a couple of years ago. Microsoft continues to improve its self-management capability.

Verified User
Employee in Information Technology
Financial Services Company, 1001-5000 employeesMicrosoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server 9.0
Based on 6 answers
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.
Sr Database Administrator / Developer
Kapsch TrafficcomInformation Technology and Services, 51-200 employees
Usability
Azure Cosmos DB
Azure Cosmos DB 8.6
Based on 2 answers
It has very good compatibility and adaptability with other APIs and developers can safely create new apps because it is compatible with various tools and can be easily managed and run under the cloud, and in terms of security, it is one of the best of its kind, which is very powerful and excellent.
IT Operations and Support Specialist
AZEREX LLC.Information Technology & Services, 1-10 employees
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server 9.8
Based on 10 answers
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.
Senior Consultant
NavigantUtilities, 1001-5000 employees
Reliability and Availability
Azure Cosmos DB
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server 10.0
Based on 2 answers
Its does not have outages.
Sr MS SQL BI Developer
Georgia-Pacific LLCConsumer Goods, 1001-5000 employees
Performance
Azure Cosmos DB
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server 9.0
Based on 2 answers
SSAS data cubes may some time slow down your Excel reports.
Sr MS SQL BI Developer
Georgia-Pacific LLCConsumer Goods, 1001-5000 employees
Support Rating
Azure Cosmos DB
Azure Cosmos DB 9.4
Based on 2 answers
Microsoft is the best when it comes to after-sales support. They have a well-structured training and knowledge base portal that anyone can use. They are usually quick to respond to cases and are on point for on-call support. I have no complaints from a support standpoint. Pretty happy with the support.

Verified User
Project Manager in Information Technology
Pharmaceuticals Company, 10,001+ employeesMicrosoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server 7.9
Based on 49 answers
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.
Software Engineer
King-ICTComputer Software, 501-1000 employees
In-Person Training
Azure Cosmos DB
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server 9.0
Based on 1 answer
It was good
Sr MS SQL BI Developer
Georgia-Pacific LLCConsumer Goods, 1001-5000 employees
Online Training
Azure Cosmos DB
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server 9.0
Based on 1 answer
very hands on and detailed training
Sr MS SQL BI Developer
Georgia-Pacific LLCConsumer Goods, 1001-5000 employees
Implementation Rating
Azure Cosmos DB
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server 9.0
Based on 10 answers
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.
Database Administrator
AderantComputer Software, 201-500 employees
Alternatives Considered
Azure Cosmos DB
Azure Cosmos DB has the benefit of having multi-master key tenancy compared to Redis and Mongo. Reads are just as fast, if not faster than Mongo. However, the distribution of writes (i.e. ACID transactions) isn't as high as Google Cloud Spanner or CouchDB. Azure Cosmos DB writes slower than Cassandra, but with Cosmos, we do not have to worry about replication or tools like Zookeeper to handle it. Azure Cosmos DB has it built-in.

Verified User
Engineer in Engineering
Biotechnology Company, 11-50 employeesMicrosoft SQL Server
[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.

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Non-Profit Organization Management Company, 201-500 employeesScalability
Azure Cosmos DB
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server 9.0
Based on 1 answer
SQL server does handle growing demands of a mid sized company.
Sr MS SQL BI Developer
Georgia-Pacific LLCConsumer Goods, 1001-5000 employees
Return on Investment
Azure Cosmos DB
- Azure Cosmos DB may be expensive on its own, but it was cheaper than increasing the size/power of our VMs running SQL Server instances enough to keep up with the volume and velocity of the unstructured data.
- We got the JSON data out of our SQL Servers and they quit tipping over.

Verified User
Employee in Information Technology
Financial Services Company, 1001-5000 employeesMicrosoft SQL Server
- 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.

Verified User
Analyst in Information Technology
Construction Company, 10,001+ employees