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ActivePivot vs SAP HANA

ActivePivot: In-memory OLAP aggregation engine for bank risk analytics, renamed Atoti Server by ActiveViam. SAP HANA: SAP's in-memory columnar HTAP database, the mandatory engine under S/4HANA.

key differences

  • ActivePivot is primarily a columnar / OLAP database; SAP HANA is relational.
  • SAP HANA is built for larger datasets (≤ 1 PB) than ActivePivot (≤ 10 TB).
  • Transactions: ActivePivot offers limited ACID; SAP HANA offers full.
  • Only ActivePivot has time travel, streaming ingest.
  • Only SAP HANA has secondary indexes, full-text search, vector search, geospatial, json.

choose activepivot for

  • +Market risk and FRTB capital calculations
  • +Real-time P&L and limits monitoring on trading desks
  • +What-if and scenario analysis on granular positions
  • +Excel/MDX front ends over large in-memory cubes

best at · OLAP, Real-time analytics, Tick data

choose sap-hana for

  • +Running SAP S/4HANA and BW/4HANA
  • +Real-time operational reporting on ERP data
  • +Embedding analytics and ML (PAL/APL) in SAP business processes
  • +Grounding SAP Joule/AI scenarios with the vector and knowledge-graph engines

best at · HTAP, OLTP, OLAP

ActivePivotIn-memory OLAP aggregation engine for bank risk analytics, renamed Atoti Server by ActiveViam.
SAP HANASAP's in-memory columnar HTAP database, the mandatory engine under S/4HANA.
overview
Primary model
Columnar / OLAP
Relational
Also supports
Relational
Columnar / OLAP, Document, Graph, Spatial, Vector
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
ActiveViam (formerly Quartet FS)
SAP SE
First release
2005
2010
Latest version
–
HANA Cloud QRC 2/2026 (Jun 2026)
License
ProprietaryProprietary (Atoti EULA; free community edition of the Python SDK)
ProprietaryProprietary commercial license
Free tier
✓
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
3.4
39.7
Rank
#436
#48
GitHub stars
–
–
Stack Overflow questions
–
2K
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Medium (≤ 10 TB)
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
Native
Multi-region
None
Read replicas
ACID
Limited
Full
Consistency
Strong
Strong
Schema
Strict
Strict
Architecture
In memory, Client server, Distributed
In memory, Distributed, Primary replica, Client server
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
—
✓
Serverless
—
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
–
AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Alibaba Cloud
capabilities
Transactions
✓
✓
Joins
✓
✓
Secondary indexes
—
✓
Full-text search
—
✓
Vector search
—
✓
Geospatial
—
✓
JSON
—
✓
Change data capture
—
—
Triggers
—
✓
Stored procedures
—
✓
Materialized views
—
—
TTL / expiry
—
—
Pub/Sub
—
—
Columnar storage
✓
✓
In-memory
✓
✓
Durable persistence
✓
✓
Compression
✓
✓
Encryption at rest
—
✓
Role-based access
✓
✓
Time travel
✓
—
Branching
—
—
Online schema changes
—
—
Streaming ingest
✓
—
Offline sync
—
—
Runs in WebAssembly
—
—
interfaces
Query languages
MDX
SQL, SQLScript, openCypher
Client languages
Java, Python
Java, Python, JavaScript, C#, Go, C++, ABAP
Best for
OLAP, Real-time analytics, Tick data
HTAP, OLTP, OLAP, Real-time analytics
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ActivePivot vs SAP HANA: FAQ

What is the difference between ActivePivot and SAP HANA?

ActivePivot: In-memory OLAP aggregation engine for bank risk analytics, renamed Atoti Server by ActiveViam. SAP HANA: SAP's in-memory columnar HTAP database, the mandatory engine under S/4HANA. ActivePivot is primarily a columnar / OLAP database; SAP HANA is relational. SAP HANA is built for larger datasets (≤ 1 PB) than ActivePivot (≤ 10 TB). Transactions: ActivePivot offers limited ACID; SAP HANA offers full.

When should I choose ActivePivot over SAP HANA?

Choose ActivePivot for market risk and FRTB capital calculations; real-time P&L and limits monitoring on trading desks; and what-if and scenario analysis on granular positions. Choose SAP HANA for running SAP S/4HANA and BW/4HANA; real-time operational reporting on ERP data; and embedding analytics and ML (PAL/APL) in SAP business processes.

Is ActivePivot or SAP HANA more popular?

SAP HANA ranks #48 on the WhichDB Score (39.7/100) and ActivePivot ranks #436 (3.4/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are ActivePivot and SAP HANA open source?

No. ActivePivot is proprietary, closed-source software. No. SAP HANA is proprietary, closed-source software.