--- title: Azure SQL Database Reviews meta_title: 'Azure SQL Database Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 241 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Azure SQL Database works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.5 review_count: 241 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-07-23' parent_category: name: Database Software url: https://www.g2.com/categories/database-software --- # Azure SQL Database Reviews **Vendor:** Microsoft **Category:** [Relational Databases](https://www.g2.com/categories/relational-databases) **Average Rating:** 4.5/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 241 ## About Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Database is a fully managed, intelligent relational database service built on the Microsoft SQL Server engine, designed to support modern cloud applications. It offers scalability, high availability, and robust security features, enabling developers to build and maintain applications without the complexities of infrastructure management. Key Features and Functionality: - Hyperscale Storage: Rapidly scale storage resources to meet demand, supporting large databases with up to 100 TB capacity. - Serverless Compute: Automatically adjust compute resources based on workload needs, optimizing performance and cost. - Built-in Intelligence: Utilize AI-driven features for performance tuning, threat detection, and advanced security measures. - High Availability: Ensure business continuity with automatic backups, geo-replication, and a 99.99% uptime SLA. - Advanced Security: Protect data with multi-layered security, including encryption, access controls, and compliance with over 100 certifications. Primary Value and Solutions Provided: Azure SQL Database simplifies database management by automating routine tasks such as patching, backups, and monitoring, allowing developers to focus on application development. Its scalability and performance capabilities support applications of varying sizes, from small web apps to large enterprise solutions. The integration with Azure services and support for AI and machine learning workloads enable the creation of intelligent applications. Additionally, its comprehensive security and compliance features ensure data protection and regulatory adherence, making it a reliable choice for businesses seeking a robust cloud-based database solution. ## Azure SQL Database Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users appreciate the **scalability** of Azure SQL Database, allowing for effortless database expansion without additional hardware. (26 reviews) - Users value the **seamless integrations** of Azure SQL Database, enhancing their experience across various technologies and services. (16 reviews) - Users value the **strong security features** of Azure SQL Database, enhancing data protection for their applications. (13 reviews) - Users value the **ease of use** of Azure SQL Database, facilitating seamless integration and management for businesses. (12 reviews) - Users value the **easy integrations** of Azure SQL Database, enabling seamless connectivity across various technologies for application development. (12 reviews) - Users appreciate the **ease of use and rich features** of Azure SQL Database, making data management straightforward and efficient. (10 reviews) - Cloud Services (9 reviews) - Customer Support (8 reviews) - Setup Ease (8 reviews) - Users appreciate the **high availability** of Azure SQL Database, benefiting from reliable performance and seamless cloud integration. (6 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users find Azure SQL Database **expensive** , especially for large databases and high-performance requirements, affecting overall value. (25 reviews) - Users face **complexity issues** managing Azure SQL Database due to a confusing billing structure and unexpected costs. (7 reviews) - Users find the **complexity of cost management** and frequent renaming frustrating, complicating their experience with Azure SQL Database. (6 reviews) - Users find **feature limitations** in Azure SQL Database necessitate workarounds and increase complexity, impacting overall usability. (6 reviews) - Users note **limited database support** in Azure SQL Database, lacking essential features and user-friendly GUI options for tasks. (6 reviews) - Users face **limited SQL** capabilities in Azure SQL Database, affecting customization and advanced functionalities compared to self-managed options. (6 reviews) - Users experience a **steep learning curve** with Azure SQL Database, especially due to complexity in pricing and advanced features. (5 reviews) - Users find Azure SQL Database has **limited features** , impacting functionality and compatibility with legacy systems. (5 reviews) - Users find **pricing confusion** prevalent, complicating decision-making and leading to frustration with Azure SQL Database's cost structure. (5 reviews) - Poor Usability (4 reviews) ## Azure SQL Database Reviews ### 1. Azure SQL is best if working on Cloud. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** ANMOL K. | Consultant, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 19, 2021 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** 1. It's pretty fast. 2. No need to setup anything On-Prem. 3. Pricing is very effective. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** If you are not using this resource still Microsoft will charge for it. **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** It's much faster.. Integrate with multiple application on different platforms. No need to setup On-Prem. Pricing is cost-effective Response is pretty fast. Data can easily fetched ### 2. Data protection from potential threats and breach **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Games | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 09, 2021 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** Data Encryption authentication and Data protection from potential threats. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** Some incompatibility and Analysis services are not supported by Sql Azure database. **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** Data Encryption authentication and Data protection from potential threats. ### 3. Azure SQL database is good for retrieving and storing data,It is user friendly and versatile. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 18, 2021 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** Support with automatic backup and store data and easy for data collection. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** Data auditing and Global temporary tables , Backup fully managed. **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** Handle database management,such as patching, backupAnd monitoring without user involvement. ### 4. Azure SQL Database Review **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Scott K. | Director, eCommerce Analytics and Digital Marketing, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 15, 2020 ### 5. Useful for Data Warehousing **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Retail | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 21, 2021 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** It is a great transition from an old sql server to a db that is cloud based and more readily available. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** It is a little cumbersome trying to get onboarded to from a legacy sql server database. **Recommendations to others considering Azure SQL Database:** I would recommend it for reporting purposes, but for transactional data I would recommend cosmosdb **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** Using as a data warehouse and mainly for the purposes of reporting where data is collected from multiple sources and aggregated into a central reporting repository. ### 6. A database for every need ! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Srinivas K. | Business Process Lead, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 27, 2020 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** Easy to set up. Can be scaled up and down according to the business needs. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** A bit expensive when the data volume is huge. **Recommendations to others considering Azure SQL Database:** If you don't have a huge capital and looking for a DB infrastructure that charges you less yet meet all your needs, then Azure SQL is the best available choice out there. **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** Ingesting data from multiple sources and create data model to support BI apps. ### 7. Best Cloud Based SQL for Big Data **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nasrullah N. | Application Developer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 09, 2020 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** SQL Azure Database works same as the windows application of SQL management studio. The Azure SQL can be managed remotely via Visual Studio and SQL management studio. It is very efficient working with remote administrators. great features and extra security layers. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** Azure SQL database subscription cost are higher for small scale business. Suitable only for large scale business when comparing to the price of storage. **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** Storing, reading, writing data related to our core application. The core mobile application uses Azure SQL database to read and write all its contents ### 8. My views on Azure SQL **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Saurabh S. | Sr. Software Engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 19, 2019 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** In Azure Virtual Machine creation and configuration process is easy and it require less efforts. Integration and deployment with other tool is simple. Database hosting and setup process is seamless. Scalability wise it's good enough and we can scale it any time according to business requirement. Performance wise its efficient and database availability during the peak time is great even there is a lot of traffic and parrallely other jobs and backup processes are in running state. In case of database security this is exceptional as DB encryption provides high level of security on the cloud. API's good enough documentation is available that is greatly helpful to configure and manage the resources. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** We can scale the resources in good way but higher number impacts on price and some time it's a bit complex to understand the impact so for newbie user there is some learning curve. **Recommendations to others considering Azure SQL Database:** Application user interface is nice. It's a reliable and secure tool, provides seamless data access. Deployment is smooth in one go on different geographical servers. **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** Managed the large scale databases and improved the availability/access of same. Database backup and restoration activities are super easy. ### 9. Great tool abs scalability. Would definitely recommend. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Hospital & Health Care | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 23, 2020 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** Speed of tool is great. Scalability is awesome as you can make it work for any amount of data. Can process huge amounts of data in short amount of time. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** Some connection issues at times but could be my internet connection. Do not really have any other issues besides that. **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** Large data storage, processing and querying of very large datasets. ### 10. The best database for the cloud **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Radoslav G. | Software Architect & Managing Partner, Computer Software, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 22, 2019 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** We've been using Azure SQL Database for a long time. It's the best PaaS offering for Microsoft SQL Server which features a 99.99% availability. You can leverage the 3 possible flavors of it - Managed Instances, Single, Elastic Pool. Managed Instance is basically the fully-featured SQL Server for the cloud where Single and Elastic Pool are more restricted(but performant) options. You can choose among a good variety of scalability options and service tiers. Azure SQL database implements Automatic performance tuning, built-in backups, and integration with Azure Active Directory. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** I would love it if it becomes a little more transparent in terms of Dynamic Management Views, advanced features and integration with SQL Server Profiler (although it's announced as legacy). **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** We have been using Azure SQL Database in almost every solution we are involved in. Typically it's used for the persistence of the core application data. Some solutions that employ the microservices architecture need more than one Azure SQL Database to store its information. ### 11. Reliability at its best in own practice **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Vivek M. | Testing Engineer, Computer Software, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 13, 2019 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** The ease of use and the flexibility are the one which makes the system more reliable. Also the poly-base features and the ability to integrate with our systems is remarkable. Ability to load large amounts of data with minimal cost or impact to on premise infrastructure. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** It can become expensive as the services are not optimized so need so work on it by the company. Also Would be nice to scale CPU more efficiently, pay for "active" CPU used vs. reserving large amounts of CPU that are not used 100%.Otherwise everything is good. **Recommendations to others considering Azure SQL Database:** Costs for CPU and memory can be significant. Look at playbooks or other ways to optimize loads. **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** The Azure Data Warehouse meets or exceeds our project requirements. It allows fast processing and querying of data.Azure SQL Database allowed for large data sets to be stored economically and processed efficiently without impacting existing on premise infrastructure. ### 12. Great Way to Have your data on the could without a physical server **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** A. C. | Asset Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 22, 2019 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** Azure SQL database gives you the ability to have most of the traditional SQL server function but having it on the cloud. It is easy to integrate with other tools available on Microsoft Azure. You can scale it as much as you want, instead of purchasing the hardware of a physical database server. You'll be also using the latest version of SQL server which is a huge plus. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** It's going to cost a bit more than your traditional sql server if you haven't got the right settings. There's a limit on stored procedures and also you cannot run R or Python in Azure SQL database. If you are a Microsoft shop already, it'll be easy to implant everything. Otherwise, you might need to start from scratch and have everything sorted out before you go for the Azure SQL database route. **Recommendations to others considering Azure SQL Database:** Having the compactibility to run Python script or R script on Azure SQL is the next step. **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** Realtime monitoring on data. And scalable on demand database is the huge point of having Azure SQL database. Microsoft did a great job on this ### 13. Host your data online with Azure SQL Database **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Zandro Z. | Microsoft Technical Consultant | Microsoft Full Stack Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 26, 2019 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** It is integrated with the Microsoft Suite of products. I use Azure Mobile Apps to host my mobile application that connects with a Microsoft SQL Server Database also hosted in Azure while my other files are hosted in Microsoft Azure Blob storage. There is a portal that easily lets you create a Database instance in 5 mins and you are ready to go. The portal online also has a basic tool to allow you to create queries just in case you need to check data changes immediately. Also, I have used other 3rd party softwares to easily access the data and tables when needed. As this is a hosted solution, you do not need to worry about maintaining your database server. If you are using this product for your company, the hassle of needing a database server, hosting and hiring database administrators is removed. In addition, as this is a Microsoft product you know that it is headed in the right direction and it is not going away anytime soon. The software is properly supported and there is a team ready to answer questions - at a price of course. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** It is not very easy to find answers to questions especially if you need to do something very complex. The service comes with a price so you would need to pay for the DB, the App service and storage and other features you would need to run your app. **Recommendations to others considering Azure SQL Database:** use this if you are using the other products of Microsoft Azure **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** database hosting, hassle free maintenance of the database and database servers ### 14. Easy and scalable **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Danilo C. | Graduate Assistant, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 26, 2019 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** I like the fact that we can pay as we go in Azure SQL Database and also the easy way of setting up a database **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** Nothing to complain so far. Azure SQL Database is a great PAAS **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** Store data of a service desk system ### 15. Using Azure DMS for SQL **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civic & Social Organization | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 02, 2019 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** It’s helps me get information form database tables **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** You have to have your IP address added to each connection which is team consuming **Recommendations to others considering Azure SQL Database:** Azure for SQL is a good way to learn for beginners **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** Get a huge amount of data quickly ### 16. Cheapest Cloud SQL Tool! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 17, 2019 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** While Azure SQL has the same capabilities as its AWS and GCP counterparts, especially with logging, monitoring, high availability, and service integration, it is by far the cheapest. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** The overall Azure console UI makes it hard to navigate, even within Azure SQL. **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** I'm using Azure SQL for internal projects and innovation efforts. ### 17. Simple database for simple applications **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Leonid K. | SQL Developer, Computer Software, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 16, 2018 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** Azure SQL provides all necessary tools for Azure WebApps. It is using TSQL language and easy to learn for SQL Server DBAs. It can be scaled and has very interesting High-Availability and disaster recovery functionality. It looks more secure than SQL Server, because it using firewall for access management, It can be managed from Azure portal or SSMS, or using the new SQL Operations Studio tool. It can be tuned automatically and provides some performance insights, so you are able to see the bottlenecks in your deployment quickly and fix these before it comes to issue. It is integrated with Azure monitoring solutions, to see the issues and performance in real-time. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** Applications could not be migrated from on-premises to Azure SQL without adjusting the code. Azure SQL does not provides backwards compatibility with SQL Server. Some useful functionality like in-Memory OLTP is missing there, so you could only rely on CPU and Storage performance. It also blocks you from using large enterprise scale databases in Azure. **Recommendations to others considering Azure SQL Database:** If you are trying to move your application from on-prem, this is not for you **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** Using this for simple WebApps ### 18. Modern database solution in Azure **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Anton S. | Windows System Administrator, Information Technology and Services, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 12, 2018 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** Azure SQL database is the first step in cloud data platform, allows you using functionality similar to SQL Server in conjunction with modern technologies and features. Database is provided as PaaS, so you don`t have to manage it`s host or perform any system administration. Database using new features of cloud deployment, like automated tuning and performance insights, which allows you to reduce administrative efforts and follow best practices of cloud location. High Availability and disaster recovery features allows replication of database to another region and perform failover in case of Azure location outage. New security functions like firewall rules and virtual network integration allows to restrict access to only locations specified by you, but not make additional problems for your applications connected to these databases. Implementation of elastic pools for several databases will allow you to manage resources needed for every database without additional costs. Different pricing tiers will allow you to pick eactly what you need at current stage of work on your application. You can always increase resources when it will be needed and application will go live. You can configure auto=scaling so database will have more resources in case of increased load, and don`t consume much when it is idle. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** Azure SQL database is not SQL Server, it just looks similar and have partially common functionality, in most cases you will have to adjust the code of your applications to have it working with Azure SQL database **Recommendations to others considering Azure SQL Database:** If you are looking for more close approach to SQL Server, you might need to wait for SQL Database Managed Instance to go in public preview. It is much more close to SQL Server and probably will allow to leave your code is it is in more cases. **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** RDBMS solution for webapps ### 19. Great database solution for Azure Web Applications **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Michael T. | Project Manager, Information Technology and Services, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 11, 2018 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** Azure SQL Database works perfectly in pair with Azure WebApps, being provisioned as a PaaS solution it does not need to manage the server running it, so you just need database administration. It is very easy to deploy and connect for your application, at the same time it is very secure, access is being managed by firewall rules, virtual network integration and native SQL Server user access tools. Azure SQL has a number of additional tools for administration, like performance advisor which analyzing performance of queries running across the database and provides recommendations to increase it. Azure SQL Server also allows automatic tuning, like creation of missed indexes or dropping unused ones. Implementation of elastic pools allows you to share resources between several databases, so each database will have enough resources to run queries and don`t consume addition costs being idle. New query editor function, which is currently in preview, allows you to run queries directly from Azure portal. Great high-availability and disaster recovery options, allows you to ensure that database will remain online even in case of disaster. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** Unfortunately Azure SQL has not the same set of features of on-premise SQL Server, that means that applications will need rewriting the code to adopt this. **Recommendations to others considering Azure SQL Database:** You apps could not be easily migrated from on-premise to PaaS solution. As an option you could use regular SQL Server deployed on Azure VM, it will also provide some cool benefits of cloud location **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** PaaS Database service for Azure web application ### 20. Although a bit unstable sometimes, it is till the best value for the money **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 27, 2018 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** I mainly like this because of the additional feature that comes with it. Some of the best features that I love the most are: Point in time restores that allows you to restore the database to any point in time in past 35 days. Transparent Data Encryption, Dynamic Data Masking. Auditing and threat detection that notifies you on what there is a vulnerability detection. Ability to scale up and scale down whenever you would like or even schedule it to be on higher tier when busy and lower tier when not. Allows yo to view and query data within the Azure Portal itself, which is great. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** Stability sometimes can be a problem but that is rare occurrence. another issue is the reliability of scaling operations, they can get stuck sometimes but azure support is always ready to assist and resolve the issue. **Recommendations to others considering Azure SQL Database:** If you are looking to reduce your headache while managing the database and wants that everything is managed by someone sitting somewhere than this is best service that allows you so many features with no manageability. **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** Being in cloud allows you to access it from anywhere. It removes the requirement of managing anything such as backups, security, auditing as this is already provided by Azure SQL Database for as little as the cost of database starting from $5. ### 21. Very Flexible System **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Daniel K. | Director of Sales, Internet, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 20, 2018 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** Snappy response times on the platform allowing for easier use. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** Sometimes the UI does not seem to align correctly which requires re-sizing **Recommendations to others considering Azure SQL Database:** This is a solid platform to built on and scale **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** Having the most up-to-date technology allows for easier programming and flexibility. Being the most up-to-date technology allows for simpler updates and faster fixes. ### 22. Very easy to set up **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Financial Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 19, 2018 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** Azure database is very easy to configure and it allows you to connect to multiple visualization and data processing tools. I really like it **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** There's nothing that I dislike, the db is very powerful **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** Basically storage, we want to avoid the use of xls files or MS access databases. We wanted to have everything in a single place where everyone can access the data that they need ### 23. Moved from bare metal to the clouds **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Donald H. | Multiple (Engineer, Architect, VP), Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 25, 2018 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** The best thing is not having to manage an actual server or database installation. No more patch Tuesdays to worry about or service pack updates. Need another copy of that database to test with? Go to the portal and create a copy. You can even create shared resources so as to not incur extra costs. Want to automate spin up & tear down? Easy peasy with PowerShell. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** There are times when we've kicked off something that took a while to complete. It was hard to get insight into the progress of that task. The other part I dislike is support. It can be tough to get support on the product when something goes wrong. **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** Lower costs and no more physical servers to manage. ### 24. That is one way to manage data **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sandro M. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 31, 2018 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** No having the need to keep it on out physical server. Ability to move from server with just clicks. Scalability and mirroring **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** First setup might be a little tricky specially the mirroring **Recommendations to others considering Azure SQL Database:** If possible ... change. Just take in consideration the type of data and if a non sql database makes more sense **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** Data storage ### 25. Expensive, but it will get the job done **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nick S. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 16, 2018 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** You can go from nothing to having a SQL Server instance in less than 30 minutes. You can also expand or contract that instance as you wish thereby increasing performance or decreasing cost. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** It does take a fair bit of effort to get started even if you only want to spin up a server. The pricing is confusing and the performance capabilities at each level do not make much sense. Changing performance levels is slow. **Recommendations to others considering Azure SQL Database:** Azure is an excellent solution, but not the only one and certainly not the cheapest. Also consider Amazon AWS. I can say that Azure will simply "get it done". **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** I needed a database to manage 120 GB of data and needed flexibility to managed the performance of the server. Azure gave me exactly that and did it in less than 30 minutes. It simply eliminated a problem that I faced and allowed me to focus on analysis rather than data storage and processing. ### 26. Cloud. Made Easy. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Joshua R. | Technical Marketing Specialist, Printing, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 02, 2018 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** I love how all the apps integrate into making a platform that is easy for me whole team to manage. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** Migrating our data from an ancient system was very tedious **Recommendations to others considering Azure SQL Database:** Please implement this change if you are using an obsolete system for data management **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** Im combinign SQL data management along with inventory control for our ecommerce site. ### 27. Sql In the Cloud **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Christopher P. | Scrum Master, Financial Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 01, 2018 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** Management tools are second to none. Databases are provisioned very fast and up and running within minutes. Microsoft manages all the hardware and I have over a dozen centers I can place my data, bringing it closer to users and other azure services. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** Harder to setup as a document repository, so Cosmos Db is a better solution. **Recommendations to others considering Azure SQL Database:** Awesome database for small to mid-sized database needs. Easy to setup and maintain. **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** Light weight and fast data storage for various small to mid-sized projects. ### 28. Simple to use but powerful cloud service. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jeremy H. | Software Engineer, Semiconductors, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 05, 2017 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** The portal to manage the services is easy to use and constantly improving. The services have had very little downtime in the years that I've used it. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** Tech support could be better especially for billing and account transfers. Had a hard time transferring the services from one work account to another. **Recommendations to others considering Azure SQL Database:** If you are a Microsoft shop already, this will be a pretty easy transition. There are lot's of tools to integrate with your internal servers if you need to and the help is pretty good for technical things. **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** I'm hosting a company website that is utilizing an Azure SQL database and file storage. It's easy to host all the services in Azure rather than on an internal company server. There is a lot less maintenance for me since I don't have to manage web server myself. ### 29. Failed to go-live with it **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Timur Z. | Web Software Developer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 02, 2018 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** The idea itself is perfect. Database as a service without managing it`s infrastructure. I beleive in future releases it will grow to something more suitable for complex workloads. Great resource management, elasticity and scaling options. Much better than Amazon RDS. Very secure solution. Perfectly works for simple web applications processing sensitive data **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** Functionality is still not enough for complex applications, we failed to go-live with it and had to deploy on-premise version of SQL Server on Azure virtual machine **Recommendations to others considering Azure SQL Database:** Don`t try to connect it with applications that requires in-Memory OLTP or complex analytics **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** Data platform for web aplications ### 30. Good solution as a database for you Azure Web Apps **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ivan R. | SQL Server Developer, Computer Software, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 18, 2018 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** Azure SQL is very easy to deploy, security is perfect, access is managed by users and firewall rules, so you can control IP adresses from which database could be accessed **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** Limited functionality in comparision with on-premise SQL Server **Recommendations to others considering Azure SQL Database:** Great solution for not very complex applications, if you need advanced features you`d better deploy on-premise version of SQL Server on Azure virtual machine **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** Allows developers to build both web-apps and databases in the same cloud location ### 31. Secure way to keep your data in Azure **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Andrey G. | Network and Security Engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 29, 2018 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** Fast, simple and secure database service for websites built in Azure, very fast deployment, access control using firewall rules, virtual network integration, integration with on-premise SQL Servers **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** functionality is not always enough for developer needs. no horizontal scaling options, performance advisor not always see all problems **Recommendations to others considering Azure SQL Database:** I beleive sometimes it will have more advanced feature set **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** Database for simple websites ### 32. Cloud version of SQL Server that still needs to grow **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Vlad D. | Windows System Administrator, Consumer Electronics, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 17, 2018 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** Azure SQL works perfectly for web applications based on Azure PaaS **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** Platform still needs a lot of functionality to become successor of on-premise version of SQL Server **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** Allows working with data without maintaning underliying infrastructure ### 33. Amazing software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Primary/Secondary Education | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 19, 2018 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** Way better than SQLite, there's a lot more customization available. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** Nothing much really, it's a very powerful system. **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** It fits perfectly with my clients needs and it makes my workflow go much faster ### 34. One of the best databases on cloud **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2018 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** It’s simplicity and access like GUI makes it supereasy **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** Sometimes he speed is very slow and needs a refresh **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** Cost of ownership is reduced tremendously ### 35. Great experience so far, not the cheapest cloud service, but I sleep more peacefully **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Lester E. | Systems Engineer, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 30, 2017 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** Uptime has been great so far. So many different services offered. Moving SQL Server and IIS servers to Azure was absolutely pain-free. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** The cost of moving our report server (SQL Reporting services) to Azure cloud was much more costly than expected. My report server on Azure cost me more per month than the application it supports. **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** The cost of the Azure monthly is much less than the services we hosted on-site and purchased online. ### 36. Im loving the new Portal. So easy to create your infrastructure **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Julian M. | System Engineer SRE, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 07, 2017 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** So easy to manage and very user friendly when creating new infrastructure. For example new Virtual machines, Virtual networks, VPN tunnels, If you have an MSDN account your entitled to 150dl / monthly credit. to play around **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** Pricing can be a bit challenging but with time you will get use to it. Theres not much documentation out there at this time but sooner rather than later, will start seeing more and more forums **Recommendations to others considering Azure SQL Database:** Create an account and play around for a bit, so you can get your hands dirty with their free credits. Azure is the way to go . saves so much money **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** taking advantage of the new SQL 2016 and its capabilities of encryption. ### 37. Low adoption in valley **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Arif A. | Senior Engineer, Computer Software, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 01, 2015 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** 1) Integrated with VS.NET 2) Cloud development environment for C# developer 3) IOT framework for next generation IOT application 4) Pay as you go model **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** 1) Low adoption in industries. 2) No aggressive marketing plan from MS 3) Developers choose Heroku, Amazon more than Azure. 4) Azure developers are only considered for Redmond jobs not in local market. **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** 1) Successfully migrated ASP.NET code to Windows Azure environment and SQL Server data to SQL Azure. 2) ROI has improved moving from traditional hosting environment to cloud environement 3) Pay as your Go model. ### 38. Migrated couple of web based application to cloud base **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 06, 2015 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** I like the scalability and flexibility of cloud based model also the cost benefits and pricing Model. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** Its a tedious job to migrate your existing database to Microsoft Azure, Also limited support is available for that. **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** It's a migration project and client wants to migrate the application considering the cost and pricing benefits, ### 39. Azure Review **Rating:** 0.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Meir W. | Integrations Software Engineer, Information Technology and Services, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 15, 2014 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** They had a cool looking UI and the fact that they directly integrate with Visual Studio made development and deployment a smooth and easy things. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** They dont support customer service you need to pay additional charges just to get support. Additionally after a month of using the Azure server Microsoft decided to update there system which caused Sql server to crash ended up changing over to AWS server much better support. ### 40. Cost Effective with Good Performance **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 27, 2015 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** We are using MS Azure for our production website for our customers. We love Backup and Recovery Services of Azure services. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** VM with SQL Server 2012 Professional is little expensive than Amazon AWS. **What problems is Azure SQL Database solving and how is that benefiting you?** We host our website for the customer in Azure and deploying a product in Azure ### 41. Azure is a game-changer **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Brian T. | Chief Technology Evangelist & Co-founder, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 26, 2014 **What do you like best about Azure SQL Database?** The Windows Azure management portal itself and the ease at which services can be provisioned. The fact that services can be accessed as general availability prior to release, so you can start using it. The value for money is incredible. You only pay for what you need and use. True business continuity can be achieved with mouse clicks instead of purchase orders and long-term contracts. I also like the fact that there is support for PHP applications and MySQL. **What do you dislike about Azure SQL Database?** There's not much to dislike. The platform is extremely mature and they keep adding features all the time. There is also plenty of forums-based assistance or you can purchase a support plan. Microsoft has also done a great job of encouraging technical evangelists to post their own experiences in personal blogs. You can easily learn from the people who are working with Azure on a daily basis. **Recommendations to others considering Azure SQL Database:** I simply can’t say enough great things about Windows Azure, part of me wants to shout it at the rooftops while the other part wants to keep it a secret from my competition. My company is using the Service Bus, Queues, Web Roles, Azure SQL and VMs for our production applications. Personally, I am using Azure Websites to host around 10 sites along with Azure SQL and MySQL databases. In addition, I’ve started to experiment with the Azure Active Directory. Bottom line, Azure is a game-changer for Microsoft. While most traditional software licensing and computer hardware companies have been slow to adopt a cloud-based business model, due to the potential revenue shift, Microsoft has been hard at work on Azure and “cloudifying” all their traditional desktop and server software to make it run as a fully integrated set of services. ## Azure SQL Database Discussions - [What is Azure SQL Database used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-azure-sql-database-used-for) - 3 comments, 1 upvote - [Is Azure SQL Database free?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/is-azure-sql-database-free) - 2 comments - [View Azure SQL Database pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/azure-sql-database/reviews?page=5&qs=pros-and-cons§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-08-02+03%3A27%3A52+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=81ec5c0b-ec62-4f9d-bcdb-be8957262c24&secure%5Btoken%5D=205b90e530c3b782b236d62d56e4223aa6ee5d1e8259f0f669135a28da40786c&format=llm_user) ## Azure SQL Database Integrations - [Agentforce Sales (formerly Salesforce Sales Cloud)](https://www.g2.com/products/agentforce-sales-formerly-salesforce-sales-cloud/reviews) - [Azure Functions](https://www.g2.com/products/azure-functions/reviews) - [Kubernetes](https://www.g2.com/products/kubernetes/reviews) - [Microsoft Power BI](https://www.g2.com/products/microsoft-microsoft-power-bi/reviews) - [Pronto Xi ERP](https://www.g2.com/products/pronto-software-pronto-xi-erp/reviews) - [Tricentis Tosca](https://www.g2.com/products/tricentis-tosca/reviews) ## Azure SQL Database Features **Management ** - Data Schema - Query Language - ACID - Complaint - Data Replication **Configuration** - Application Performance - Orchestration - Database Monitoring - Anomaly Detection - Network Security **Support ** - Text Search - Data Types - Languages - Operating Systems **Database Administration** - Provisioning - Governance - Auditing **Security** - Database Locking - Access Control - Encryption - Authentication **Availability** - Scalability - Backup - Archiving - Indexing **Security** - Data Masking - Authentication And Single Sign-On - Data Anonymization **Performance ** - Disaster Recovery - Data Concurrency - Workload Management - Advanced Indexing - Query Optimizer **Data Management** - Data Replication - Advanced Data Analytics **Database Features** - Storage - Availability - Stability - Scalability - Security - Data Manipulation - Query Language ## Top Azure SQL Database Alternatives - [Oracle Database](https://www.g2.com/products/oracle-database/reviews) - 4.3/5.0 (932 reviews) - [Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)](https://www.g2.com/products/amazon-relational-database-service-rds/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (865 reviews) - [Amazon Aurora](https://www.g2.com/products/amazon-aurora/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (436 reviews)