Azure SQL Database vs SingleStore Helios
Azure SQL Database
azure.microsoft.comSingleStore Helios
singlestore.comSide by side
| Figure | Azure SQL Database | SingleStore Helios |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $0.99/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 5 | 6 |
| Spec score · Database Software | 9.0 (#7) | 9.3 (#3) |
| Spec score · Spatial Databases | 9.0 (#4) | 8.7 (#7) |
| Compliance | Microsoft states that Azure has more than 100 compliance certifications, including over 50 for specific regions and countries. | SingleStore states that it holds ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2 certifications and maintains a privacy-compliance framework. |
| Documentation depth | Microsoft Learn provides conceptual guidance, quickstarts, tutorials, API references, resource-limit tables, code samples and troubleshooting material. | The cloud documentation includes getting-started, connection, database, loading, querying, AI, security, reference, release-notes and support sections. |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Integrations | Azure SQL Database can connect to Azure services such as Azure Functions and replicate SQL data into Microsoft Fabric for near-real-time querying and analysis. | Listed integrations include AWS Glue, Apache Beam, Apache Flink, Apache Spark, Azure Data Factory, Azure Event Hubs, Confluent Kafka, Fivetran, Informatica, Qlik, Tableau Prep, dbt, Datadog, New Relic and Terraform. |
| Rating on G2 | 4.5 out of 5 from 242 reviews | 4.5 out of 5 from 118 reviews. |
| Rating on Gartner Peer Insights | 4.5 out of 5 from 340 ratings | 4.4 out of 5 from 0 reviews shown on the currently rendered page. |
| Rating on TrustRadius | 8.3 out of 10 from 291 reviews and ratings | 8.2 out of 10 from 120 reviews and ratings. |
| Security | Its security and governance features include a multilayered approach that includes Microsoft Defender for SQL. | SingleStore describes security across application security, cloud security, corporate IT security, and governance, risk, and compliance. |
| Self-hosting | Azure SQL Database is delivered as Microsoft’s cloud PaaS service; Microsoft separately documents SQL Server containers and virtual machines for self-managed deployments. | SingleStore can be deployed as a self-managed production environment or as a local Docker Dev Image. |
| What it does | Azure SQL Database is Microsoft’s managed cloud relational database service for transactional and analytical workloads. | SingleStore Helios is a managed distributed SQL database combining transactional, analytical, JSON, full-text, vector, time-series and geospatial workloads. |
Plans
Azure SQL Database
- Free offerFree
- Azure SQL Database free offerFree
- Azure SQL Database free tierFree
- Azure SQL Database pay-as-you-goPrice not published
- Pay as you goPrice not published
SingleStore Helios
- SharedFree
- Standard$0.99 a month
- Enterprise$1.49 a month
- StandardPriced on request
- EnterprisePriced on request
- BYOC StandardPriced on request
In their own words
Azure SQL Database
Azure SQL Database is a cloud-native relational database service built on the SQL Server engine and delivered as a fully managed PaaS. Microsoft manages provisioning, patching, backups, monitoring, and high availability. The service supports standard T-SQL and can be accessed through the Azure portal, SQL Server Management Studio, Visual Studio Code's MSSQL extension, and compatible application frameworks. It supports native JSON and REST and GraphQL APIs through Data API builder. Hyperscale independently scales compute and storage and supports scale-out with up to 30 named replicas. For AI application development, it offers native vector search and connections to Azure OpenAI and Azure AI Search. It can connect to Azure Functions and replicate SQL data into Microsoft Fabric for near-real-time querying and analysis. Security and governance include a multilayered approach with Microsoft Defender for SQL; recovery features include disaster recovery and snapshot-based backups. The free offer allows up to 10 General Purpose databases per subscription, each with 100,000 vCore seconds, 32 GB of data, and 32 GB of backup storage monthly. Once limits are reached, a database can auto-pause or remain online with excess use billed at standard rates.
SingleStore Helios
SingleStore Helios is a cloud database service available on AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. It handles transactional and analytical workloads in one database, with storage and compute scaled independently. Its data capabilities include relational records, JSON/BSON documents, vector and full-text search, time-series, geospatial, and key-value data. SingleStore Pipelines can ingest from sources such as Kafka, Amazon S3, and HDFS. For AI workloads, the service includes Jupyter notebooks, data integration services, and a compute service. Listed integrations include Datadog, Terraform, Apache Spark, AWS Glue, Azure Data Factory, dbt, and Fivetran. Helios is available through web and API platforms. The free Shared plan provides one workspace for evaluation, development, and non-production testing, with self-support. Standard is $0.99 a month for managed production workloads, with read replicas, database branching, 30-day monitoring, and support. Enterprise is $1.49 a month and adds online point-in-time recovery, Smart Disaster Recovery, audit logging, and customer-managed encryption keys. The listed availability commitments vary by configuration, reaching 99.99% across two availability zones on paid plans.