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Exasol vs SAP IQ

Exasol: In-memory MPP columnar analytics database from Germany, tuned for fast BI with little tuning. SAP IQ: Sybase's pioneering columnar warehouse, now SAP IQ and the engine behind HANA Cloud's data lake.

key differences

  • Only Exasol has geospatial, json, in-memory.
  • Only SAP IQ has secondary indexes, full-text search.

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-iq for

  • +Warm and near-line storage for SAP BW and HANA
  • +Existing Sybase IQ warehouses
  • +SAP HANA Cloud data lake

best at · Warehouse, OLAP

ExasolIn-memory MPP columnar analytics database from Germany, tuned for fast BI with little tuning.
SAP IQSybase's pioneering columnar warehouse, now SAP IQ and the engine behind HANA Cloud's data lake.
overview
Primary model
Columnar / OLAP
Columnar / OLAP
Also supports
Relational, Spatial
Relational
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
Exasol AG
SAP
First release
2000
1995
Latest version
2026.1.0 (May 26, 2026)
–
License
ProprietaryProprietary
ProprietaryProprietary
Free tier
✓
—
popularity
WhichDB Score
31.0
11.9
Rank
#83
#276
GitHub stars
–
–
Stack Overflow questions
89
288
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
Native
Multi-region
None
None
ACID
Full
Full
Consistency
Strong
Strong
Schema
Strict
Strict
Architecture
Distributed, In memory, Client server
Shared storage, Client server
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
✓
Serverless
—
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
AWS, Azure, Google Cloud
AWS, Azure, Google 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 (Transact-SQL and Watcom SQL dialects)
Client languages
Python, Java, .NET, Go, JavaScript
Java, C, .NET, Python
Best for
Warehouse, OLAP
Warehouse, OLAP
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

Exasol vs SAP IQ: FAQ

What is the difference between Exasol and SAP IQ?

Exasol: In-memory MPP columnar analytics database from Germany, tuned for fast BI with little tuning. SAP IQ: Sybase's pioneering columnar warehouse, now SAP IQ and the engine behind HANA Cloud's data lake. Only Exasol has geospatial, json, in-memory. Only SAP IQ has secondary indexes, full-text search.

When should I choose Exasol over SAP IQ?

Choose Exasol for BI acceleration layer for Tableau or Power BI, EU data-sovereign analytics and replacing slow legacy warehouses. Choose SAP IQ for warm and near-line storage for SAP BW and HANA; existing Sybase IQ warehouses; and SAP HANA Cloud data lake.

Is Exasol or SAP IQ more popular?

Exasol ranks #83 on the WhichDB Score (31.0/100) and SAP IQ ranks #276 (11.9/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Exasol and SAP IQ open source?

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