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Exasol vs SAP HANA

Exasol: In-memory MPP columnar analytics database from Germany, tuned for fast BI with little tuning. SAP HANA: SAP's in-memory columnar HTAP database, the mandatory engine under S/4HANA.

key differences

  • Exasol is primarily a columnar / OLAP database; SAP HANA is relational.
  • Only SAP HANA has secondary indexes, full-text search, vector search, triggers.

choose exasol for

  • +BI acceleration layer for Tableau or Power BI
  • +EU data-sovereign analytics
  • +Replacing slow legacy warehouses
  • +In-database data science

best at · Warehouse, OLAP

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

ExasolIn-memory MPP columnar analytics database from Germany, tuned for fast BI with little tuning.
SAP HANASAP's in-memory columnar HTAP database, the mandatory engine under S/4HANA.
overview
Primary model
Columnar / OLAP
Relational
Also supports
Relational, Spatial
Columnar / OLAP, Document, Graph, Spatial, Vector
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
Exasol AG
SAP SE
First release
2000
2010
Latest version
2026.1.0 (May 26, 2026)
HANA Cloud QRC 2/2026 (Jun 2026)
License
ProprietaryProprietary
ProprietaryProprietary commercial license
Free tier
✓
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
31.0
39.7
Rank
#83
#48
GitHub stars
–
–
Stack Overflow questions
89
2K
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
Native
Multi-region
None
Read replicas
ACID
Full
Full
Consistency
Strong
Strong
Schema
Strict
Strict
Architecture
Distributed, In memory, Client server
In memory, Distributed, Primary replica, Client server
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
✓
Serverless
—
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
AWS, Azure, Google Cloud
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, Lua, Python UDFs, R UDFs, Java UDFs
SQL, SQLScript, openCypher
Client languages
Python, Java, .NET, Go, JavaScript
Java, Python, JavaScript, C#, Go, C++, ABAP
Best for
Warehouse, OLAP
HTAP, OLTP, OLAP, Real-time analytics
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

Exasol vs SAP HANA: FAQ

What is the difference between Exasol and SAP HANA?

Exasol: In-memory MPP columnar analytics database from Germany, tuned for fast BI with little tuning. SAP HANA: SAP's in-memory columnar HTAP database, the mandatory engine under S/4HANA. Exasol is primarily a columnar / OLAP database; SAP HANA is relational. Only SAP HANA has secondary indexes, full-text search, vector search, triggers.

When should I choose Exasol over SAP HANA?

Choose Exasol for BI acceleration layer for Tableau or Power BI, EU data-sovereign analytics and replacing slow legacy warehouses. 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 Exasol or SAP HANA more popular?

SAP HANA ranks #48 on the WhichDB Score (39.7/100) and Exasol ranks #83 (31.0/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Exasol and SAP HANA open source?

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