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Altibase vs SAP HANA

Altibase: Korean hybrid in-memory/on-disk RDBMS for telecom and finance, closed-source again since 2023. SAP HANA: SAP's in-memory columnar HTAP database, the mandatory engine under S/4HANA.

key differences

  • SAP HANA is built for larger datasets (≤ 1 PB) than Altibase (≤ 10 TB).
  • Horizontal scaling is addon in Altibase and native in SAP HANA.
  • Only SAP HANA has full-text search, vector search, json, columnar storage, compression.

choose altibase for

  • +Telecom charging and subscriber data
  • +Securities trading and market-data stores
  • +Manufacturing execution systems
  • +Highway toll and transport transaction systems

best at · OLTP, Real-time analytics, IoT

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

AltibaseKorean hybrid in-memory/on-disk RDBMS for telecom and finance, closed-source again since 2023.
SAP HANASAP's in-memory columnar HTAP database, the mandatory engine under S/4HANA.
overview
Primary model
Relational
Relational
Also supports
Spatial
Columnar / OLAP, Document, Graph, Spatial, Vector
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
Altibase Corp.
SAP SE
First release
1999
2010
Latest version
8 (Jan 2026)
HANA Cloud QRC 2/2026 (Jun 2026)
License
ProprietaryProprietary (open-source edition discontinued in 2023)
ProprietaryProprietary commercial license
Free tier
—
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
5.5
39.7
Rank
#383
#48
GitHub stars
–
–
Stack Overflow questions
–
2K
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Medium (≤ 10 TB)
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Horizontal scaling
Addon
Native
Multi-region
Read replicas
Read replicas
ACID
Full
Full
Consistency
Strong
Strong
Schema
Strict
Strict
Architecture
In memory, Client server, Primary replica, 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
SQL, PSM
SQL, SQLScript, openCypher
Client languages
C, C++, Java, C#, Python
Java, Python, JavaScript, C#, Go, C++, ABAP
Best for
OLTP, Real-time analytics, IoT, Tick data
HTAP, OLTP, OLAP, Real-time analytics
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

Altibase vs SAP HANA: FAQ

What is the difference between Altibase and SAP HANA?

Altibase: Korean hybrid in-memory/on-disk RDBMS for telecom and finance, closed-source again since 2023. SAP HANA: SAP's in-memory columnar HTAP database, the mandatory engine under S/4HANA. SAP HANA is built for larger datasets (≤ 1 PB) than Altibase (≤ 10 TB). Horizontal scaling is addon in Altibase and native in SAP HANA. Only SAP HANA has full-text search, vector search, json, columnar storage, compression.

When should I choose Altibase over SAP HANA?

Choose Altibase for telecom charging and subscriber data; securities trading and market-data stores; and manufacturing execution systems. 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 Altibase or SAP HANA more popular?

SAP HANA ranks #48 on the WhichDB Score (39.7/100) and Altibase ranks #383 (5.5/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Altibase and SAP HANA open source?

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