We performed a comparison between Oracle Database and SQL Server based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Of the two solutions, a lot of users favor Oracle. However, users are happier with the price of SQL Server.
"I like that it's stable. What's good is that Oracle manages the infrastructure. We have got better because they update the server by default or whenever it's needed. They try to fix it server by server because of their own support plans."
"It is easy to set up on their engineered systems."
"We use the relational databases for government contracts."
"The ease of use has been great."
"Technical support is great."
"We use Oracle Database to run applications. We use it for our clients' databases and applications."
"The thing that probably stands out the most about Oracle Database is reliability. I have been working with Oracle Databases for over 25 years, and I have never lost any data due to a machine going down or any events that were not stupid human tricks. I've never lost anybody's data using Oracle. It gets the job done and doesn't fail."
"It is one of the most reliable database systems."
"The most valuable feature of SQL Server is the performance."
"For my business requirements, the performance is good."
"Excel integration is one of its most valuable features."
"It is secure, and it is fast. For our present database size, we are using the Always-On feature on SQL Server so that our transactions are replicated among three servers. If one server goes down, we can find the data from other servers. We have benefited from this feature."
"The SQL Server is low maintenance, it does not require advanced technical skills to maintain or use it as you might in other similar database solutions. You need some knowledge on how to access the solution and how to query it but it is fairly straightforward."
"As a data warehouse and storage solution, it's quite good."
"It's a flexible solution."
"Stability is one of the most valuable features."
"The integration can be made much easier for the Oracle tools, for example, Oracle Database or OPI. The integration sometimes can be a little complicated for us because we have to do a number of integrations with other tools, such as Oracle computation. The integration could be more streamlined and easier to work with."
"There is a lot that can improve in Oracle Database. For example, it could be more user-friendly and should be easier to integrate into the cloud."
"The monitoring of processes that are executing could be better. I find it very difficult to find processes that had been in a suspended state in order to stop them."
"The connection can be slow due to the distance from the provider."
"Needs educational content that would help the individual to be able to work in a real life situation and scenarios."
"I have contacted the support from Oracle and they are sometimes slow."
"It could be slightly more intuitive, but other than that, we really like it as a solution."
"There are plenty of options and features in this solution, but they are, somehow, not being used very well. Therefore, training and support should be increased and improved for this solution. They can make people aware of how to make proper use of their server so that people can optimize it because its cost is just too much. They can provide training on the policies and procedures to be used for archiving and all such things. There should be some kind of segregation in licensing. With a full license, all options should be available. There should also be a basic license with limited functionalities. This kind of basic license would be useful for us because we don't use most of the functionalities."
"The GUI needs improvement. From a technical perspective, it's quite complex, which may not be a problem for individuals with technical backgrounds like ours, especially since we've encountered similar interfaces. However, navigating the GUI can be challenging for newcomers or product owners without technical experience. For example, as someone transitioning from a developer role to a product management role, I find it relatively easy to use the GUI. But for those without a technical background, it's much more challenging to grasp what's happening."
"The number of concurrent users is too limited and other databases are better than SQL in this regard."
"The performance needs some improvement and it needs more features integrated into it."
"The product overall would benefit from the addition of better tutorials to help master the skills necessary to actually build a project database. Right now, what is available isn't sufficient."
"For a big amount of data, when we are speaking about IoT Segments, and Big Data projects, there are performance issues."
"The solution is lacking a compound index for comparing values."
"The integration could be better. They are not open-source, so the integration with other platforms is not that easy."
"Debugging from the debugger tool functionality should be enhanced."
Oracle Database is ranked 2nd in Relational Databases Tools with 278 reviews while SQL Server is ranked 1st in Relational Databases Tools with 260 reviews. Oracle Database is rated 8.6, while SQL Server is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Oracle Database writes "Supports a large volume of transactions compared to other databases". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SQL Server writes "Easy to use and provides good speed and data recovery". Oracle Database is most compared with SAP HANA, MariaDB, IBM Db2 Database, Amazon Aurora and MySQL, whereas SQL Server is most compared with MariaDB, SAP HANA, LocalDB, IBM Db2 Database and Teradata. See our Oracle Database vs. SQL Server report.
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As always, it depends: First look is the area: on-premise server (your own hardware) or in the cloud?
If you want to use your own server, look at the operating system? In my opinion, SQL Server fits best on Windows; Oracle on Unix/Linux. Next is your size of data and the application you want to use: rule of thumb: the more data, the more I tend to Oracle; but Oracle is not 'automatically better'! You need an expert to configure the system for optimal use! A simple setup is often not enough! (There are a lot of screws you can turn, but turning the wrong ones is a negative! And more Hardware is not the solution to a slow system). I think the first step is to look at which app creates and consume which data, where in your network is your data needed and then decide the RDBMS. I have worked for years in a mixed environment; we use a large Oracle RDBMS on AIX to store the large amount of data of several production systems; but also some SQL Server RDBMS to distribute data for some evaluations or reports. In the Oracle RDBMS are 30 Years of data of the whole production process; in SQL Servers are consolidated data for reporting. So first make a compilation of your existing data and application and the future requirements; then you can decide; and the result can also be a mixed world!