InterSystems Caché vs. Microsoft SQL Server

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
InterSystems Caché
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
InterSystems Cache is a database management system (DBMS) and non-relational database.N/A
Microsoft SQL Server
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database.
$1,418
Per License
Pricing
InterSystems CachéMicrosoft SQL Server
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Subscription
$1,418.00
Per License
Enterprise
$13,748.00
Per License
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
InterSystems CachéMicrosoft SQL Server
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
InterSystems CachéMicrosoft SQL Server
Considered Both Products
InterSystems Caché
Chose InterSystems Caché
I've only worked with products that do one thing before, but there's so much that Cache offers versus piecing different services together manually. Not only does the product offer a more robust tool-set, but the support is wonderful and I've never encountered a better vendor in …
Microsoft SQL Server

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
InterSystems CachéMicrosoft SQL Server
Small Businesses
SQLite
SQLite
Score 9.0 out of 10
SingleStore
SingleStore
Score 9.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
SQLite
SQLite
Score 9.0 out of 10
SingleStore
SingleStore
Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
SQLite
SQLite
Score 9.0 out of 10
SingleStore
SingleStore
Score 9.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
InterSystems CachéMicrosoft SQL Server
Likelihood to Recommend
4.0
(4 ratings)
9.6
(96 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(6 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
9.9
(10 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
7.9
(25 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 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
InterSystems CachéMicrosoft SQL Server
Likelihood to Recommend
InterSystems
It's definitely great for medical industries that need the vast amounts of features/security/performance, however if you need something simple then this would be too much. There is a learning curve, and if you come from more common database technologies, then there will be a lot of differences to handle. Simple database needs would be better fulfilled elsewhere, but Cache is for when you need to take the next step, whether that be in the volume, complexity, or security of ETL.
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Microsoft
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.
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Pros
InterSystems
  • Performance
  • Robustness
  • Reliable
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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
InterSystems
  • The IDE IntelliSense needs to be improved.
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Microsoft
  • 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
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Likelihood to Renew
InterSystems
No answers on this topic
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
InterSystems
No answers on this topic
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
InterSystems
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Its does not have outages.
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Performance
InterSystems
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
SSAS data cubes may some time slow down your Excel reports.
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Support Rating
InterSystems
No answers on this topic
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
InterSystems
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
It was good
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Online Training
InterSystems
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
very hands on and detailed training
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Implementation Rating
InterSystems
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
InterSystems
I've only worked with products that do one thing before, but there's so much that Cache offers versus piecing different services together manually. Not only does the product offer a more robust tool-set, but the support is wonderful and I've never encountered a better vendor in any industry in terms of how well they interact with their customers and care about helping you solve your problems. They want you to grow and to get better.
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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
InterSystems
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
SQL server does handle growing demands of a mid sized company.
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Return on Investment
InterSystems
  • Implementation time could be speeded up
  • It is very flexible and attractive
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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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ScreenShots

InterSystems Caché Screenshots

Screenshot of The structure of InterSystems Caché Database Engine