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Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.data vs. Oracle Database

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.data

    Score8.8 out of 10
    N/AAstra DB is a vector database for developers. In 2025 Datastax, the developer and supporter of Astra DB, was acquired. Astra DB is now available as a component of the IBM watsonx.data Multicloud offering.N/A

    Oracle Database

    Score8.2 out of 10
    N/AOracle Database, currently in edition 23ai, is a converged, multimodel database management system. It is designed to simplify development for AI, microservices, graph, document, spatial, and relational applications.

    $0.05

    per hour

    Pricing
    Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.dataOracle Database
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Oracle Base Database Service - Standard
    $0.0538
    per hour
    Oracle Base Database Service - Enterprise
    $0.1075
    per hour
    Oracle Base Database Service - High Performance
    $0.2218
    per hour
    Standard Edition
    Contact Sales
    Enterprise Edition
    Contact Sales
    Personal Edition
    Contact Sales
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.dataOracle Database
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.dataOracle Database
    Considered Both Products
    Discontinued Products
    Chose Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.data
    We chose Astra as our primary database for time series data was already on Apache Cassandra. We also utilize a small postgres database for relational data within the application, but it made sense to migrate the data to Astra from Apache Cassandra.
    Incentivized
    Oracle
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    46 Answers
    86%
    Would buy again
    24 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    45 Answers
    83%
    Delivers good value for the price
    19 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    45 Answers
    89%
    Happy with the feature set
    25 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    98%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    40 Answers
    88%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    14 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    98%
    Implementation went as expected
    44 Answers
    91%
    Implementation went as expected
    21 Answers
    Features
    Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.dataOracle Database
    Vector Database
    Comparison of Vector Database features of Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.data and Oracle Database
    Feature
    Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.data
    8.0
    12 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Oracle Database
    -
    Ratings
    Vector Data Connection8.212 Ratings00 Ratings
    Vector Data Editing8.56 Ratings00 Ratings
    Attribute Management7.710 Ratings00 Ratings
    Geospatial Analysis8.26 Ratings00 Ratings
    Geometric Transformations8.06 Ratings00 Ratings
    Vector Data Visualization8.07 Ratings00 Ratings
    Coordinate Reference System Management:7.96 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Import/Export8.011 Ratings00 Ratings
    Symbolization and Styling8.35 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Sharing and Collaboration7.69 Ratings00 Ratings
    Relational Databases
    Comparison of Relational Databases features of Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.data and Oracle Database
    Feature
    Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.data
    -
    Ratings
    Oracle Database
    8.3
    7 Ratings
    2% above category average
    ACID compliance00 Ratings8.47 Ratings
    Database monitoring00 Ratings8.77 Ratings
    Database locking00 Ratings8.77 Ratings
    Encryption00 Ratings9.06 Ratings
    Disaster recovery00 Ratings8.86 Ratings
    Flexible deployment00 Ratings6.47 Ratings
    Multiple datatypes00 Ratings8.17 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.dataOracle Database
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Amazon RDS
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    SingleStore
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    SAP IQ
    Score5.5 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.dataOracle Database
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.7
    (46 ratings)
    8.2
    (199 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (6 ratings)
    Usability
    7.8
    (4 ratings)
    7.6
    (13 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.9
    (4 ratings)
    7.0
    (5 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.6
    (3 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.6
    (44 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.dataOracle Database
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Discontinued Products
    We've been super happy with Astra DB. It's been extremely well-suited for our vector search needs as described in previous responses. With Astra DB’s high-performance vector search, Maester’s AI dynamically optimizes responses in real-time, adapting to new user interactions without requiring costly retraining cycles.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Oracle
    We migrated from NoSQL to an Oracle database. One of the reasons was robust backup and recovery options available in the Oracle database, which provide zero data loss. A transactional database like Oracle is a better fit for our use case than NoSQL. On a large scale, deployment was evaluated as a cheaper option than the NoSQL engine. This conclusion came even after considering Oracle license is expensive.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Discontinued Products
    • We need to be able to process a lot of data (our biggest clients process hundreds of milions of transactions every month). However, it is not only the amount of data, it is also an unpredictable patterns with spikes occuring at different points of time - something athat Astra is great at.
    • Our processing needs to be extremaly fast. Some of our clients use our enrichment in a synchronous way, meaning that any delay in processing is holding up the whole transaction lifecycle and can have a major impact on the client. Astra is very fast.
    • A close collaboration with GCP makes our life very easy. All of our technology sits in Google Cloud, so having Astra in there makes it a no-brainer solution for us.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Oracle
    • Supports most of the Operating Systems like Unix, Linux and Windows Server.
    • It works well in high load environment under intense parallel transactions setup.
    • Highly reliable DBMS, especially RAC is very much reliable.
    • Well managed and predictable release of security patches.
    • We have highly scaled it from on-prem to a cloud cluster environment for our product.
    • One of the best-performing DBMSs on Linux machines under test delivers high throughput (QPS).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Discontinued Products
    • Need better fine-grained Security options.
    • The support team sometimes requires the escalate button pressed on tickets, to get timely responses. I will say, once the ticket is escalated, action is taken.
    • They require better documentation on the migration of data. The three primary methods for migrating large data volumes are bulk, Cassandra Data Migrator, and ZDM (Zero Downtime Migration Utility). Over time I have become very familiar will all three of these methods; however, through working with the Services team and the support team, it seemed like we were breaking new ground. I feel if the utilities were better documented and included some examples and/or use cases from large data migrations; this process would have been easier. One lesson learned is you likely need to migrate your application servers to the same cloud provider you host Astra on; otherwise, the latency is too large for latency-sensitive applications.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Oracle
    • The memory demand and management makes it impossible to run it in a container.
    • It is hard to perform local unit testing with Oracle even using the personal edition (aggressive all the available memory grab for itself).
    • Lack of built in database migrations (e.g. as Flyway).
    • The need to install the Oracle client in addition to its drivers.
    • The cost of running it, especially in the Cloud.
    • Comes with very spartan community grade client/management tools whereas the commercial offerings tend to demand a premium price.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Oracle
    There is a lot of sunk cost in a product like Oracle 12c. It is doing a great job, it would not provide us much benefit to switch to another product even if it did the same thing due to the work involved in making such a switch. It would not be cost effective.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Discontinued Products
    It's a great product but suffers with counters. This isn't a deal breaker but lets down what is otherwise a good all round solution
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Oracle
    Many of the powerful options can be auto-configured but there are still many things to take into account at the moment of installing and configuring an Oracle Database, compared with SQL Server or other databases. At the same time, that extra complexity allows for detailed configuration and guarantees performance, scalability, availability and security.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Discontinued Products
    Their response time is fast, in case you do not contact them during business hours, they give a very good follow-up to your case. They also facilitate video calls if necessary for debugging.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Oracle
    1. I have very good experience with Oracle Database support team. Oracle support team has pool of talented Oracle Analyst resources in different regions. To name a few regions - EMEA, Asia, USA(EST, MST, PST), Australia. Their support staffs are very supportive, well trained, and customer focused. Whenever I open Oracle Sev1 SR(service request), I always get prompt update on my case timely. 2. Oracle has zoom call and chat session option linked to Oracle SR. Whenever you are in Oracle portal - you can chat with the Oracle Analyst who is working on your case. You can request for Oracle zoom call thru which you can share the your problem server screen in no time. This is very nice as it saves lot of time and energy in case you have to follow up with oracle support for your case. 3.Oracle has excellent knowledge base in which all the customer databases critical problems and their solutions are well documented. It is very easy to follow without consulting to support team at first.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Oracle
    Overall the implementation went very well and after that everything came out as expected - in terms of performance and scalability. People should always install and upgrade a stable version for production with the latest patch set updates, test properly as much as possible, and should have a backup plan if anything unexpected happens
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Discontinued Products
    Graph, search, analytics, administration, developer tooling, and monitoring are all incorporated into a single platform by Astra DB. Mongo Db is a self-managed infrastructure. Astra DB has Wide column store and Mongo DB has Document store. The best thing is that Astra DB operates on Java while Mongo DB operates on C++
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Oracle
    Because of a rich user base and support for any critical issue, this is one of the best options to choose. In case the project has a TCO issue, it can compromise and choose Postgres as the best alternative. SQL server is also good and easy to code and maintain but performance is not as good as the Oracle
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Discontinued Products
    We are well aware of the Cassandra architecture and familiar with the open source tooling that Datastax provides the industry (K8sSandra / Stargate) to scale Cassandra on Kubernetes.
    Having prior knowledge of Cassandra / Kubernetes means we know that under the hood Astra is built on infinitely scalable technologies. We trust that the foundations that Astra is built on will scale so we know Astra will scale.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Oracle
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Discontinued Products
    • Better uptime due to the managed service having no outages
    • Less technical debt because we don't need to worry about upgrading our Cassandra clusters
    • Lower cost on infrastructure as a whole
    • Quick and easy to integrate vector search into our tech stack
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Oracle
    • Multiple applications can use the same database and still get high performance
    • Licensing cost is still a concern compared to the other options available in the market that are very very inexpensive
    • Almost a maintenance free database
    • Oracle Grid makes life easy in terms of monitoring and managing the databases
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots