Exasol vs Microsoft SQL Server
Exasol
exasol.comMicrosoft SQL Server
microsoft.comSide by side
| Figure | Exasol | Microsoft SQL Server |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $3.30/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 18 | 20 |
| Spec score · Database Software | 9.0 (#9) | 8.5 (#24) |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Integrations | Official ecosystem documentation lists BI integrations including Power BI, Tableau, Looker, Qlik Sense, SAS, Superset, Yellowfin and Amazon QuickSight. | SQL Server 2025 integrates with LangChain, Semantic Kernel, Entity Framework Core, Microsoft Azure, and Microsoft Fabric. |
| Security | Exasol states that it is ISO/IEC 27001 certified and describes controls including access control and incident response processes. | Microsoft's SQL Server security guidance covers platform and network security, permissions, encryption, and secure connections. |
Plans
Exasol
- XS$3.30 a month
- S$6.60 a month
- M$13.20 a month
- L$26.40 a month
- XL$52.80 a month
- 2XL$105.60 a month
- 3XL$158.40 a month
- Storage$25 a month
- Exasol Community EditionFree
- Exasol PersonalFree
Microsoft SQL Server
- Standard per corePriced on request
- Standard per corePrice not published
- Standard serverPriced on request
- Standard serverPrice not published
- Standard CALPriced on request
- Standard CALPrice not published
- Enterprise pay-as-you-go$274 a month
- Developer – Standard & EnterpriseFree
- ExpressFree
- Standard pay-as-you-go$73 a month
In their own words
Exasol
Exasol is a database for analytics and high-concurrency AI workloads, available in cloud, on-premises, hybrid, and fully managed SaaS deployments. The company says teams can analyze billions of rows in seconds and that automatic self-indexing helps tune performance. SaaS includes five databases, multi-cluster support, basic UDF support, advanced in-database analytics, and data virtualization. Teams can scale vertically or add clusters with dedicated compute for work such as data ingest or machine learning. The 30-day SaaS trial includes $200 of usage and requires no credit card. Pay-as-you-go compute is billed hourly; XS is $3.30 a month and S is $6.60 a month, while storage is listed separately at $25 a month. Free options include Exasol Personal, licensed for a single user and up to two connected data sources, and Community Edition, limited to 200GB of data. Exasol lists integrations including Airbyte, Alation, Amazon QuickSight, Apache Airflow, and Apache Superset. Its documentation covers multiple authentication methods and TLS encryption for database connections; encryption at rest must be configured on the supplied file systems and devices.
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server is a database platform for storing, processing, and securing data, offered with both deployment models and a free plan. Its Database Engine includes replication, full-text search, relational, XML, and JSON data management, as well as Python and R machine-learning services. Integration Services provides graphical tools and programmable objects for moving and transforming data, while PolyBase can query Azure Storage, S3, and ODBC sources. SQL Server 2025 adds vector search, vector embedding generation, text chunking, and DiskANN vector indexing, and integrates with LangChain, Semantic Kernel, Entity Framework Core, Microsoft Azure, and Microsoft Fabric. Microsoft provides downloads for Windows and Linux and a SQL Server container image for Docker. Express is a free entry-level edition for learning and desktop or small server applications; its single Database Engine instance is limited to the lesser of one socket or four cores. Developer editions provide Enterprise or Standard functionality for development and testing, not production. SQL Server 2025 does not support SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.