Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL vs Google Cloud Bigtable
Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL
azure.microsoft.com
Google Cloud Bigtable
cloud.google.comSide by side
| Figure | Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL | Google Cloud Bigtable |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $0.03/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 10 | 10 |
| Spec score · Wide-Column Databases | 7.9 (#5) | 7.8 (#6) |
| Spec score · NoSQL Databases | 7.9 (#15) | 7.9 (#16) |
| Spec score · Database Software | 8.1 (#42) | 8.1 (#44) |
| Availability | The product page states that NoSQL data has SLAs including less than 10 millisecond read and write latency and 99.999 percent availability. | Google says multi-region instances offer 99.999% availability and protection against a regional failure. |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Integrations | Change feed supports event-driven architectures and streaming pipelines using Azure Functions and Spark. | The product page lists integrations with Apache Spark, Hadoop, GKE, Dataflow, Dataproc, Vertex AI Vector Search, BigQuery, and LangChain. |
| Security | Microsoft recommends private endpoints, disabling public network access, and client-side encryption with Always Encrypted for sensitive data. | Security controls include customer-managed encryption keys with Cloud External Key Manager support, IAM, VPC Service Controls, Access Transparency, Access Approval, audit logging, and table-, column-, or row-level access control. |
Plans
Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL
- Free tierFree
- 30-day free trialPriced on request
- Standard provisioned throughputPriced on request
- Standard provisioned throughputPrice not published
- Autoscale provisioned throughputPriced on request
- Autoscale provisioned throughputPrice not published
- ServerlessPriced on request
- ServerlessPrice not published
- Azure Cosmos DB free tierFree
- Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL — standard provisioned throughputPrice not published
Google Cloud Bigtable
- Enterprise$0.65 a month
- Enterprise Plus$0.85 a month
- Data BoostFree
- HDD storage$0.03 a month
- Standard backup storage$0.03 a month
- Hot backup storage$0.12 a month
- SSD storage$0.17 a month
- In-memory tier$0.20 a month
- Enterprise compute capacity$0.65 a month
- Enterprise Plus compute capacity$0.85 a month
In their own words
Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL
Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL is a fully managed cloud database built around schema-agnostic JSON documents and SQL-like querying. It supports global data distribution, multi-region writes, and automatic failover, with configurable consistency controls and transactions. Search includes vector and hybrid similarity capabilities for workloads such as retrieval-augmented generation and AI agents. Throughput can use standard provisioned, autoscale provisioned, or serverless models. The service lists SDKs for.NET, Java, JavaScript/Node.js, Python, Go, and Rust. Its change feed can support event-driven architectures and streaming pipelines using Azure Functions and Spark; no-ETL analytical workflows are available through Azure Synapse Link or Fabric mirroring. Microsoft states that NoSQL data has service-level agreements including less than 10 millisecond read and write latency and 99.999 percent availability. A free tier includes 1,000 RU/s and 25 GB of storage for one account per Azure subscription, and a 30-day trial is listed. The Azure Cosmos DB emulator provides a no-cost local development environment for Windows or Linux. The pricing page notes that the selected compute pricing model and API cannot be changed after selection.
Google Cloud Bigtable
Google Cloud Bigtable is a managed, low-latency NoSQL database for machine learning, operational analytics, and user-facing applications. It stores structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data in key-value and wide-column formats. SQL querying includes an API with more than 200 functions and support for aggregations, windowing, geospatial and JSON processing, and vector search. Compute scales horizontally, and instances can span up to eight regions with automatic replication between clusters. Google says multi-region instances offer 99.999% availability and protection against a regional failure. Integrations listed include Apache Spark, Hadoop, GKE, Dataflow, Dataproc, Vertex AI Vector Search, BigQuery, and LangChain. Bigtable provides Apache HBase and Cassandra APIs, plus migration tools for HBase, Cassandra, DynamoDB, and Aerospike. Security controls include IAM, customer-managed encryption keys, audit logging, and table-, column-, or row-level access control. Deployment is cloud-based. Google describes its capacity-based low-latency compute as more favorable for larger workloads than small applications. A 10-day trial is available subject to eligibility requirements.