Small business▼−1Since September 2026: 6% → 5%, −1 point. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
5%from 6% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 10 pointsRank 6 of 70, unchanged
Azure · 2 categories · RankedAzure SQL Database
161Judge labels
17First choices
30Negative labels
14 / 14Models named it
2Categories
October 2026 Edition. Every number here is derived from the raw labels under vendor table v2026-10.8, every buyer segment counted.
Best standing
24% in Managed databases for enterprise buyers
Rank 7 of 82 in the mid-market standingaccepted challenger
0 of 14 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 20% of its 56 labels there were negative.
What the models named instead of Azure SQL Database →By buyer segmentStrongest at enterprise.
Small business6 of 74
4%34 labels
accepted challenger
Mid-market7 of 82
2%56 labels
accepted challenger
Enterprise2 of 92
24%63 labels
accepted challenger
In managed databases · each standing computed within its segment · bars are 0 to 100 · the accent bar is the product's own best reading
Standing by category
Every category where a model named Azure SQL Database for a mid-market B2B company. Share is first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts; rank is within every product named in that category.
| Category | Function | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Quadrant | Since September 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Managed relational databases | Data platform | 2% | 7 of 82 | 20% | 56 | accepted challenger | ▼−2Since September 2026: 4% → 2%, −2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Data warehouses | Data platform | 0% | 9 of 26 | 0% | 5 | under 10 labels · led by Snowflake at 49% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
Movement
Since September 2026, Azure SQL Database held within the floor in all two categories: no change cleared 11 points.
Best category · Managed databases · by segment
Mid-market▼−2Since September 2026: 4% → 2%, −2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
2%from 4% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 9 pointsRank 6 → 7 of 72
Enterprise▲+8Since September 2026: 15% → 23%, +8 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
23%from 15% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 3 pointsRank 3 → 2 of 81
All categories · Mid-market
| Category | September 2026 | Now | Change | Reading | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Managed databases | 4% | 2% | ▼−2Since September 2026: 4% → 2%, −2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 6 → 7 of 82 |
| Data warehouses | 0% | 0% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 14 → 9 of 26 |
Shares here are read over the models both editions asked, so they can differ by a point or two from the standing above, which counts every model in this edition.
The floor is 11 points of share, measured: how far the models move a leader on their own when the same questions are asked twice with nothing changed. A larger change is movement; a smaller one is noise, and both are shown. Movement is read over the twelve models both editions asked; GPT-6 Luna, Muse Glimmer 30B joined this edition and are in the standing but not yet in the comparison. How the floor is measured · The editions
By model
How each model treated Azure SQL Database across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.ShowHide
By model
How each model treated Azure SQL Database across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.
ShowHide| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Negative | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Grok 4.20 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| Mistral Small | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
By framing
Which of the six questions produced the naming. By model says how often; this says asked what. The first-choice count on the right carries the marks of the models that produced it.
FramingLabels by classFirst choices
Direct28 labels2
Paraphrase39 labels11
Comparative33 labels2not counted in share
Budget-constrained16 labels3
Scale-constrained18 labels1
Negative27 labelsNone
First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative161 labels in all, every segment counted; 17 of the 19 first choices count toward share, since the comparative and negative framings do not. The bar is one segment per label class, to scale within the framing.
What the models said for it
Verbatim evidence the judge attached to positive labels.
“Azure SQL Database is a fully managed, intelligent relational database service built on the Microsoft SQL Server engine” Perplexity Sonar · Managed databases · comparative prompt · first choice
“Amazon RDS or Azure SQL Database would be the safest bets depending on your existing tech stack” MiniMax M2.5 · Managed databases · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“Best for Microsoft Shops ... Lower first-choice share (4%) in general recommendations, but very strong within Microsoft-centric environments” Kimi K2 · Managed databases · direct prompt · alternative
“Pick Azure SQL family when you need tight Microsoft SQL Server integration, built-in AI-powered tuning and elastic pools.” Muse Glimmer 30B · Managed databases · comparative prompt · alternative
And against it
Verbatim evidence attached to negative labels. A warning on a product with few labels is a warning; on a product with many, it is one voice among them.
“Azure SQL Database, while generally robust, has resource caps and licensing implications that require careful planning” Mistral Small · Managed databases · negative prompt · soft negative
“Standard Azure SQL Database strips out many legacy features (like SSIS, SQL Agent jobs, and certain system views)” Qwen 3.7 Flash · Managed databases · negative prompt · soft negative
“These are solid managed services, but Azure's own guidance warns not to choose solely by engine compatibility” Perplexity Sonar · Managed databases · negative prompt · soft negative
“the Basic tier can be under $15/month, but be aware of backup storage and HA options that can add cost.” GLM 4.7 FlashX · Managed databases · budget prompt · soft negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Azure SQL Database, over the 159 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Azure SQL Database was named but was not.ShowHide
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Azure SQL Database, over the 159 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Azure SQL Database was named but was not.
ShowHideProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head
A head-to-head page exists where both products are among a category's top eight. The other rows are the same fact without a page behind them, so they link to the product instead.
What carried it into the answer
The sites and pages cited by the answers that named Azure SQL Database. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, five of the fourteen in this edition, so these counts come from 147 of the 159 answers that named Azure SQL Database and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
it-ai-index.com78
g2.com74
digitalocean.com68
northflank.com61
learn.microsoft.com55
cloud.google.com51
tech-insider.org49
aws.amazon.com47
cloudinsight.cc37
gitnux.org33
553 of the 553 domain citations in answers naming Azure SQL Database came from somebody else's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Search and answers
Where Azure SQL Database stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.ShowHide
Search and answers
Where Azure SQL Database stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.
ShowHideIn search
Google, US estimates- Searches for its name, Google
- 2,900 a month (“azure sql database”)
- AI search demand for its name, est.
- 376 a month
- Its own site
- It sits on Azure's site (azure.cn), so there are no site figures for it alone
In answers
This editionShare of first choices
2%
rank 7 of 82 in managed databases
Segment leader
45%
Amazon RDS
- First choices
- 17 across its categories
- Named in
- 159 answers
- Its own site cited
- in 147 of the answers that named it
Search figures are US estimates from DataForSEO, read September 28, 2026; AI search demand is its modeled, directional estimate, not a count of queries to any assistant. The answers are this edition's. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Names read as Azure SQL Database
What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as Azure SQL Database; a claim can dispute any of them.
Azure SQL 6Microsoft Azure SQL Database 3Azure SQL DB 2Azure SQL / Microsoft Fabric 1Azure SQL Database / Azure Database for MySQL / PostgreSQL 1Azure SQL Database / Azure SQL Managed Instance 1Azure SQL Managed Instance / Azure SQL Database 1Azure SQL Serverless 1
Follow Azure SQL Database
An email the morning each edition publishes: where this product moved, where it held, and by how much against the noise floor. One address, confirmed by a click; a stop link in every email.
Already following? Everything you follow, with a stop for each.
The company
Azure is the company behind Azure SQL Database.ShowHide
The company
Azure is the company behind Azure SQL Database.
ShowHideOn record
Company records- Also from Azure
- Azure ACR, Azure AD Conditional Access, Azure AD Graph API, Azure AI Document Intelligence, Azure AI Foundry, Azure AI Gateway, Azure AI Search, Azure API Management and 79 more
Is this your product?
Claim this page
Claiming is free and changes nothing in the data. A claimed page shows a verified contact who is told when each edition publishes and when Azure SQL Database's standing changes by more than the noise floor; the right to propose corrections to the vendor table, meaning names the judge wrote that should or should not read as Azure SQL Database, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.
What a new claim receivesHide what a new claim receives
A new claim receives the current edition's vendor brief for Azure SQL Database by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:
- where Azure SQL Database is named, by buyer and by framing, and which cells hold its first choices;
- the claims the models make when they name it, ranked, with the strongest and the weakest quoted;
- its vocabulary against the segment leader's, and the pages the models cited;
- who was chosen in the answers that did not name Azure SQL Database, and every reason the record gives;
- a battlecard for each top rival: the head-to-head split, why they win, and the reservation quoted against them;
- one page of published figures cleared to show a buyer.