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Spanner and CockroachDB are distributed relational databases.

CosmosDB is a JSON-based document store. It offers interfaces that emulate the ability to use SQL/Cassandra SQL/Azure Table/Gremlin graphs but this doesn't necessarily add functionality like relational joins.

Really? You can’t figure out why someone might use a Microsoft hosted db over one at google or one they’d have to run themselves?

Azure’s growth rate is amazing. There’s a ton of adoption there that doesn’t have access to spanner, or maybe has a document based data model, where spanner / cockroach doesn’t make any sense

Comments here are rather negative yet service is growing very rapidly so there is a disconnect. I would encourage you to try service and develop own perspective.