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SAP HANA vs SAP IQ

SAP HANA: SAP's in-memory columnar HTAP database, the mandatory engine under S/4HANA. SAP IQ: Sybase's pioneering columnar warehouse, now SAP IQ and the engine behind HANA Cloud's data lake.

key differences

  • SAP HANA is primarily a relational database; SAP IQ is columnar / OLAP.
  • Only SAP HANA has vector search, geospatial, json, triggers, in-memory.

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

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

SAP HANASAP's in-memory columnar HTAP database, the mandatory engine under S/4HANA.
SAP IQSybase's pioneering columnar warehouse, now SAP IQ and the engine behind HANA Cloud's data lake.
overview
Primary model
Relational
Columnar / OLAP
Also supports
Columnar / OLAP, Document, Graph, Spatial, Vector
Relational
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
SAP SE
SAP
First release
2010
1995
Latest version
HANA Cloud QRC 2/2026 (Jun 2026)
–
License
ProprietaryProprietary commercial license
ProprietaryProprietary
Free tier
✓
—
popularity
WhichDB Score
39.7
11.9
Rank
#48
#276
GitHub stars
–
–
Stack Overflow questions
2K
288
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
Native
Multi-region
Read replicas
None
ACID
Full
Full
Consistency
Strong
Strong
Schema
Strict
Strict
Architecture
In memory, Distributed, Primary replica, Client server
Shared storage, Client server
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
✓
Serverless
—
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Alibaba 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, SQLScript, openCypher
SQL (Transact-SQL and Watcom SQL dialects)
Client languages
Java, Python, JavaScript, C#, Go, C++, ABAP
Java, C, .NET, Python
Best for
HTAP, OLTP, OLAP, Real-time analytics
Warehouse, OLAP
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

SAP HANA vs SAP IQ: FAQ

What is the difference between SAP HANA and SAP IQ?

SAP HANA: SAP's in-memory columnar HTAP database, the mandatory engine under S/4HANA. SAP IQ: Sybase's pioneering columnar warehouse, now SAP IQ and the engine behind HANA Cloud's data lake. SAP HANA is primarily a relational database; SAP IQ is columnar / OLAP. Only SAP HANA has vector search, geospatial, json, triggers, in-memory.

When should I choose SAP HANA over SAP IQ?

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. 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 SAP HANA or SAP IQ more popular?

SAP HANA ranks #48 on the WhichDB Score (39.7/100) and SAP IQ ranks #276 (11.9/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are SAP HANA and SAP IQ open source?

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