Data Platform Tips 11 - Azure SQL Database vs. Managed Instances on Azure

Azure SQL Database is a relational database hosted on Azure and a fully managed service provided as the Platform as a Service (PaaS). It provides 3 deployment options. It's a pay-as-you-go option allowing users to scale up or out based on their needs. SQL Database has some additional features that are not available in SQL Server, such as built-in high availability, intelligence, and management.

• Single Database - single database with defined set of resources
• Elastic Pool - multiple databases within a elastic pool sharing resources
• Database Server - manages single databases and elastic pools

SQL Databases	SQL Managed Instances
Supports most on-premises capabilities	Supports all on-premises capabilities
99.995% availability	99.99% availability
Supports built-in backups, patching and recovery	Supports built-in backups, patching and recovery
Supports latest stable Database Engine version	Supports latest stable Database Engine version
Migration involves validating whether all the features used by on-premises version is supported.	Easy migration from on-premises
Supports databases up to 100TB	Supports databases up to 8 TB
On-premises application can access data in Azure SQL Database.	Connectivity to your on-premises environment using Azure Express Route or VPN Gateway

More information on Azure SQL Database options