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DBMS > Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. PostgreSQL

System Properties Comparison Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. PostgreSQL

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameMicrosoft Azure Cosmos DB infoformer name was Azure DocumentDB  Xexclude from comparisonMicrosoft SQL Server  Xexclude from comparisonPostgreSQL  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionGlobally distributed, horizontally scalable, multi-model database serviceMicrosofts flagship relational DBMSWidely used open source RDBMS infoDeveloped as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQL
Primary database modelDocument store
Graph DBMS
Key-value store
Wide column store
Relational DBMSRelational DBMS infowith object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module.
Secondary database modelsSpatial DBMSDocument store
Graph DBMS
Spatial DBMS
Document store
Graph DBMS infowith Apache Age
Spatial DBMS
Vector DBMS infowith pgvector extension
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score29.85
Rank#27  Overall
#4  Document stores
#2  Graph DBMS
#3  Key-value stores
#3  Wide column stores
Score829.80
Rank#3  Overall
#3  Relational DBMS
Score645.05
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Websiteazure.microsoft.com/­services/­cosmos-dbwww.microsoft.com/­en-us/­sql-serverwww.postgresql.org
Technical documentationlearn.microsoft.com/­azure/­cosmos-dblearn.microsoft.com/­en-US/­sql/­sql-serverwww.postgresql.org/­docs
DeveloperMicrosoftMicrosoftPostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developer
Initial release201419891989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL
Current releaseSQL Server 2022, November 202216.2, February 2024
License infoCommercial or Open Sourcecommercialcommercial inforestricted free version is availableOpen Source infoBSD
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud serviceyesnono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

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Implementation languageC++C
Server operating systemshostedLinux
Windows
FreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows
Data schemeschema-freeyesyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyes infoJSON typesyesyes
XML support infoSome form of processing data in XML format, e.g. support for XML data structures, and/or support for XPath, XQuery or XSLT.yesyes infospecific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality.
Secondary indexesyes infoAll properties auto-indexed by defaultyesyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLSQL-like query languageyesyes infostandard with numerous extensions
APIs and other access methodsDocumentDB API
Graph API (Gremlin)
MongoDB API
RESTful HTTP API
Table API
ADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
OLE DB
Tabular Data Stream (TDS)
ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
Supported programming languages.Net
C#
Java
JavaScript
JavaScript (Node.js)
MongoDB client drivers written for various programming languages
Python
C#
C++
Delphi
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
R
Ruby
Visual Basic
.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java infoJDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresJavaScriptTransact SQL, .NET languages, R, Python and (with SQL Server 2019) Javauser defined functions inforealized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.
TriggersJavaScriptyesyes
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesSharding infoImplicit feature of the cloud servicetables can be distributed across several files (horizontal partitioning); sharding through federationpartitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hash
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesyes infoImplicit feature of the cloud serviceyes, but depending on the SQL-Server EditionSource-replica replication infoother methods possible by using 3rd party extensions
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodswith Hadoop integration infoIntegration with Hadoop/HDInsight on Azure*nono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemBounded Staleness
Consistent Prefix
Eventual Consistency
Immediate Consistency infoConsistency level configurable on request level
Session Consistency
Immediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integritynoyesyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataMulti-item ACID transactions with snapshot isolation within a partitionACIDACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.yesno
User concepts infoAccess controlAccess rights can be defined down to the item levelfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardfine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

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More resources
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB infoformer name was Azure DocumentDBMicrosoft SQL ServerPostgreSQL
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