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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Google Cloud Spanner

    Score5.6 out of 10
    N/AGoogle Cloud Spanner is a cloud database-as-a-service product offered as a service on Google Cloud Platform (GCP).N/A

    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
    Google Cloud SpannerAzure SQL Database
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    2 vCORE
    $0.5044
    Per Hour
    6 vCORE
    $1.5131
    Per Hour
    10 vCORE
    $2.52
    Per Hour
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Google Cloud SpannerAzure SQL Database
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Google Cloud SpannerAzure SQL Database
    Considered Both Products
    Google
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Would buy again
    17 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    16 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    16 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    14 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    16 Answers
    Features
    Google Cloud SpannerAzure SQL Database
    Database-as-a-Service
    Comparison of Database-as-a-Service features of Google Cloud Spanner and Azure SQL Database
    Feature
    Google Cloud Spanner
    7.8
    2 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Azure SQL Database
    7.2
    32 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Automatic software patching8.82 Ratings6.330 Ratings
    Database scalability8.82 Ratings7.832 Ratings
    Automated backups10.01 Ratings7.832 Ratings
    Database security provisions5.82 Ratings8.832 Ratings
    Monitoring and metrics5.82 Ratings6.831 Ratings
    Automatic host deployment7.62 Ratings6.127 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Google Cloud SpannerAzure SQL Database
    Small Businesses
    MongoDB Atlas
    Score7.8 out of 10
    MongoDB Atlas
    Score7.8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Azure Database
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Azure Database
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Google Cloud SQL
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Google Cloud SQL
    Score8.7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Google Cloud SpannerAzure SQL Database
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.4
    (2 ratings)
    8.0
    (32 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.5
    (5 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Google Cloud SpannerAzure SQL Database
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Google
    Google Cloud Spanner is suited for limitless horizontal scaling while maintaining strong consistency which needs to support ACID. NoSQL databases work in scaling but no ACID support. RDBMS support ACID, but horizontal scaling is not as great. The API it provides result in some limitations to related areas of the code, such as connection pools or database linking framework. So high # of connection pools can vary.
    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
    Google
    • Super high availability
    • Scales automatically
    • High standard SLA
    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
    Google
    • Support for Views
    • Support for more databases (schemas).
    • More index types that can be supported (Functional)
    • Backups (ie table/data backup) if data is deleted or truncate by accident.
    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
    Google
    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
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Google
    At that point, we were looking at something [that] can hold our relational database, [...] provide stable connection, and maintain high ACID transition. BigTable is for nonrelational database so it was out of our [sight] very quickly. BigQuery is a data warehouse that can hold huge amount of data but not ideal for transition. AWS RDS is [...] similar to Spanner but because most of our services are already on GCP, so we went with Spanner.
    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
    Return on Investment
    Google
    • Backups specifically if transactional data is deleted. Restoring made us lose time.
    • Sharding on Horizontal level was quick and easy. Deployment and increasing nodes is easy
    • Large dataset handling.
    • ACID compliance
    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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