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Heroku Postgres VS Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Compare Heroku Postgres VS Microsoft Azure SQL Database and see what are their differences

Heroku Postgres logo Heroku Postgres

Heroku Postgres is an SQL database as a service.

Microsoft Azure SQL Database logo Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Azure SQL Database lets you create, extend and scale relational applications into the cloud.
  • Heroku Postgres Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-22
  • Microsoft Azure SQL Database Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-11-06

Heroku Postgres features and specs

  • Scalability
    Heroku Postgres offers seamless vertical and horizontal scaling, allowing you to handle increased loads without significant changes to your application.
  • Managed Service
    Heroku manages the database infrastructure, which includes automated backups, software updates, and security patches, reducing the operational overhead.
  • Integration
    Heroku Postgres integrates well with other Heroku services and add-ons, facilitating a smoother development and deployment workflow.
  • High Availability
    It provides high availability features like automated failover and redundancy to minimize downtime and ensure consistent performance.
  • Monitoring Tools
    Includes several built-in tools for monitoring database performance, which help you identify and troubleshoot issues efficiently.

Possible disadvantages of Heroku Postgres

  • Cost
    Heroku Postgres can be more expensive than self-hosted solutions, especially as your database requirements grow.
  • Limited Control
    As a managed service, it offers less control over database configurations and customizations compared to self-managed databases.
  • Vendor Lock-In
    Using Heroku Postgres can make it more challenging to transition to other platforms in the future, potentially leading to vendor lock-in.
  • Latency
    For applications not hosted on Heroku, there can be increased latency when interacting with the Heroku Postgres service due to its remote nature.
  • Advanced Feature Limitations
    Some advanced PostgreSQL features might not be fully supported or available in Heroku Postgres, limiting its use for certain specialized applications.

Microsoft Azure SQL Database features and specs

  • Scalability
    Azure SQL Database offers the ability to scale dynamically and on-demand, allowing businesses to adjust their resources based on current needs, which ensures that applications have the capacity to handle workloads efficiently.
  • Managed Service
    As a fully managed platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering, Azure SQL Database eliminates the need for physical maintenance and database management tasks such as patching, backups, and hardware provisioning.
  • High Availability
    Azure SQL Database provides built-in high availability and automated failover, ensuring minimal downtime and reliability for mission-critical applications without additional configuration.
  • Advanced Security
    Azure SQL Database includes advanced security features like data encryption, threat detection, and compliance certifications, helping to protect sensitive data and meet regulatory requirements.
  • Integration and Compatibility
    It integrates well with other Microsoft services and supports a wide range of SQL Server features, which aids businesses in leveraging existing tools and expertise.

Possible disadvantages of Microsoft Azure SQL Database

  • Cost
    For some businesses, the subscription-based model and additional costs for features like backups and geo-replication can make Azure SQL Database more expensive compared to self-managed solutions.
  • Limited Access to Server-Level Features
    Being a PaaS offering, Azure SQL Database does not provide access to server-level functionalities, making certain configurations and customizations impossible compared to on-premise SQL Server instances.
  • Vendor Lock-In
    Organizations that commit to using Azure SQL Database might find it challenging to migrate away, potentially resulting in vendor lock-in due to dependencies on Microsoft's ecosystem and technologies.
  • Performance Variability
    While Azure SQL Database is scalable, the performance can sometimes be unpredictable due to various factors such as shared resources and noisy neighbors in a multi-tenant environment.
  • Learning Curve
    Organizations may face a learning curve when adapting to Microsoft Azure's cloud-based systems, requiring initial time and resources for training and deployment.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Heroku Postgres and Microsoft Azure SQL Database)
Databases
43 43%
57% 57
Relational Databases
54 54%
46% 46
NoSQL Databases
51 51%
49% 49
PostgreSQL As A Service
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Heroku Postgres and Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Heroku Postgres Reviews

We have no reviews of Heroku Postgres yet.
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Microsoft Azure SQL Database Reviews

Top 6 Cloud Data Warehouses in 2023
The Azure SQL database is prominent for cloud-based hosting with an interactive user journey from creating SQL servers to configuring databases. It is also widely preferred because of its easy-to-use interface and many functionalities for manipulating data. Also, it is scalable to reduce costs and optimize performance on low usage.
Source: geekflare.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Microsoft Azure SQL Database seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 2 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Heroku Postgres mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Heroku Postgres yet. Tracking of Heroku Postgres recommendations started around Mar 2021.

Microsoft Azure SQL Database mentions (2)

  • What is SQL Injection and How to prevent it?
    Any website or web application that uses a SQL database, such as Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server, or others, may be vulnerable to SQL Injection. Criminals may use it to get illegal access to your sensitive data, including customer information, personal information, trade secrets, intellectual property, and other information. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • System Design: The complete course
    Since the data is not strongly relational, NoSQL databases such as Amazon DynamoDB, Apache Cassandra, or MongoDB will be a better choice here, if we do decide to use an SQL database then we can use something like Azure SQL Database or Amazon RDS. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Heroku Postgres and Microsoft Azure SQL Database, you can also consider the following products

Amazon RDS - Easy to manage relational databases optimized for total cost of ownership.

MariaDB - An enhanced, drop-in replacement for MySQL

MySQL - The world's most popular open source database

Microsoft SQL Server - Microsoft Azure is an open, flexible, enterprise-grade cloud computing platform. Move faster, do more, and save money with IaaS + PaaS. Try for FREE.

PostgreSQL - PostgreSQL is a powerful, open source object-relational database system.

SQLite - SQLite Home Page