Google BigQuery vs. Azure SQL Database

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Google BigQuery
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Google's BigQuery is part of the Google Cloud Platform, a database-as-a-service (DBaaS) supporting the querying and rapid analysis of enterprise data.
$0
per month
Azure SQL Database
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Azure SQL Database is Microsoft's relational database as a service (DBaaS).
$0.50
Per Hour
Pricing
Google BigQueryAzure SQL Database
Editions & Modules
Standard edition
$0.04 / slot hour
Enterprise edition
$0.06 / slot hour
Enterprise Plus edition
$0.10 / slot hour
2 vCORE
$0.5044
Per Hour
6 vCORE
$1.5131
Per Hour
10 vCORE
$2.52
Per Hour
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Google BigQueryAzure SQL Database
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
Google BigQueryAzure SQL Database
Considered Both Products
Google BigQuery
Chose Google BigQuery
Google BigQuery i would say is better to use than AWS Redshift but not SQL products but this could be due to being more experience in Microsoft and AWS products. It would be really nice if it could use standard SQL server coding rather than having to learn another dialect of …
Chose Google BigQuery
Google BigQuery integrates seamlessly with Web Analytics data compared to the Azure cloud.
Google BigQuery integrates natively with different digital media platforms compared to Azure and AWs.
Azure SQL Database

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Google BigQueryAzure SQL Database
Database-as-a-Service
Comparison of Database-as-a-Service features of Product A and Product B
Google BigQuery
8.5
51 Ratings
3% below category average
Azure SQL Database
9.2
27 Ratings
5% above category average
Automatic software patching8.117 Ratings8.125 Ratings
Database scalability8.851 Ratings10.027 Ratings
Automated backups8.524 Ratings9.927 Ratings
Database security provisions8.844 Ratings9.027 Ratings
Monitoring and metrics8.546 Ratings9.026 Ratings
Automatic host deployment8.113 Ratings9.022 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Google BigQueryAzure SQL Database
Small Businesses
SingleStore
SingleStore
Score 9.7 out of 10
SingleStore
SingleStore
Score 9.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
SingleStore
SingleStore
Score 9.7 out of 10
SingleStore
SingleStore
Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
SingleStore
SingleStore
Score 9.7 out of 10
SingleStore
SingleStore
Score 9.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Google BigQueryAzure SQL Database
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(51 ratings)
9.1
(27 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
9.4
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(9 ratings)
9.0
(5 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
8.2
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Google BigQueryAzure SQL Database
Likelihood to Recommend
Google
For organizations looking to avoid the overhead of managing infrastructure, BigQuery's server-less architecture allows teams to focus on analyzing data without worrying about server maintenance or capacity planning. Small projects or startups with limited data analysis needs and tight budgets might find other solutions more cost-effective. Also, it is not suitable for OLTP systems.
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Microsoft
Your upcoming app can be built faster on a fully managed SQL database and can be moved into Azure with a few to no application code changes. Flexible and responsive server less computing and Hyperscale storage can cope with your changing requirements and one of the main benefits is the reduction in costs, which is noticeable.
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Pros
Google
  • Its serverless architecture and underlying Dremel technology are incredibly fast even on complex datasets. I can get answers to my questions almost instantly, without waiting hours for traditional data warehouses to churn through the data.
  • Previously, our data was scattered across various databases and spreadsheets and getting a holistic view was pretty difficult. Google BigQuery acts as a central repository and consolidates everything in one place to join data sets and find hidden patterns.
  • Running reports on our old systems used to take forever. Google BigQuery's crazy fast query speed lets us get insights from massive datasets in seconds.
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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.
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Cons
Google
  • Can't use it out of Google's cloud platform which is a minus point if you want a local setup.
  • Can be a little expensive to manage.
  • A little difficult to manage someone with less technical expertise as it requires you to have SQL knowledge of joins, CTEs etc.
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).
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Likelihood to Renew
Google
We have to use this product as its a 3rd party supplier choice to utilise this product for their data side backend so will not be likely we will move away from this product in the future unless the 3rd party supplier decides to change data vendors.
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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.
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Usability
Google
web UI is easy and convenient. Many RDBMS clients such as aqua data studio, Dbeaver data grid, and others connect. Range of well-documented APIs available. The range of features keeps expanding, increasing similar features to traditional RDBMS such as Oracle and DB2
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Google
BigQuery can be difficult to support because it is so solid as a product. Many of the issues you will see are related to your own data sets, however you may see issues importing data and managing jobs. If this occurs, it can be a challenge to get to speak to the correct person who can help you.
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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.
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Alternatives Considered
Google
Google's Firebase isn't a competitor but we had to use Google's BigQuery because Google's Firebase's database is limited compared to Google's BigQuery. Linking your Firebase project to BigQuery lets you access your raw, unsampled event data along with all of your parameters and user properties. Highly recommend connecting the two if you have a mobile app.
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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.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Google
None so far. Very satisfied with the transparency on contract terms and pricing model.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Professional Services
Google
Google Support has kindly provide individual support and consultants to assist with the integration work. In the circumstance where the consultants are not present to support with the work, Google Support Helpline will always be available to answer to the queries without having to wait for more than 3 days.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Google
  • Google BigQuery has had enormous impact in terms of ROI to our business, as it has allowed us to ease our dependence on our physical servers, which we pay for monthly from another hosting service. We have been able to run multiple enterprise scale data processing applications with almost no investment
  • Since our business is highly client focused, Google Cloud Platform, and BigQuery specifically, has allowed us to get very granular in how our usage should be attributed to different projects, clients, and teams.
  • Plain and simple, I believe the meager investments that we have made in Google BigQuery have paid themselves back hundreds of times over.
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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.
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ScreenShots