DBMS > 4D vs. FileMaker vs. Lovefield vs. ObjectBox vs. SpatiaLite

System Properties Comparison 4D vs. FileMaker vs. Lovefield vs. ObjectBox vs. SpatiaLite

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines

Name

Description

Application development environment with integrated database management system

FileMaker is a cross-platform RDBMS that includes a GUI frontend.

Embeddable relational database for web apps written in pure JavaScript

Lightweight, fast on-device database for IoT, Mobile and Embedded devices, persisting and synchronising objects and vectors

Spatial extension of SQLite

Primary database model

Relational DBMS

Object oriented DBMS
Vector DBMS

Spatial DBMS

Secondary database models

Time Series DBMS

Relational DBMS

DB-Engines Ranking measures the popularity of database management systems
Trend Chart

Score	2.37
Rank	#110	Overall
	#54	Relational DBMS

Score	45.20
Rank	#20	Overall
	#14	Relational DBMS

Score	0.22
Rank	#306	Overall
	#138	Relational DBMS

Score	1.08
Rank	#179	Overall
	#6	Object oriented DBMS
	#9	Vector DBMS

Score	1.56
Rank	#142	Overall
	#3	Spatial DBMS

Website

www.4d.com

www.claris.com/filemaker

google.github.io/lovefield

github.com/objectbox
objectbox.io

www.gaia-gis.it/fossil/libspatialite/index

Technical documentation

developer.4d.com

www.claris.com/resources/documentation

github.com/google/lovefield/blob/master/docs/spec_index.md

docs.objectbox.io

www.gaia-gis.it/gaia-sins/spatialite_topics.html

Developer

4D, Inc

Claris

a subsidiary of Apple

Google

ObjectBox Limited

Alessandro Furieri

Initial release

1984

1983

2014

2017

2008

Current release

v20, April 2023

19.4.1, November 2021

2.1.12, February 2017

4.0 (May 2024)

5.0.0, August 2020

License

Commercial or Open Source

commercial

Open Source

Apache 2.0

Bindings are released under Apache 2.0

Apache License 2.0

Open Source

MPL 1.1, GPL v2.0 or LGPL v2.1

Cloud-based only

Only available as a cloud service

DBaaS offerings (sponsored links)

Database as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.

Implementation language

JavaScript

C and C++

C++

Server operating systems

OS X
Windows

iOS

client part only
Linux
OS X
Windows

server-less, requires a JavaScript environment (browser, Node.js)

tested with Chrome, Firefox, IE, Safari

Android
Any POSIX system
Docker
iOS
Linux
macOS
QNX
Windows

server-less

Data scheme

yes

Typing

predefined data types such as float or date

yes

yes, plus "flex" map-like types

yes

XML support

Some form of processing data in XML format, e.g. support for XML data structures, and/or support for XPath, XQuery or XSLT.

yes

A http query request can return the data in XML format

Secondary indexes

yes

SQL

Support of SQL

yes

close to SQL 92

yes

via plugins

SQL-like query language

via JavaScript builder pattern

yes

APIs and other access methods

ODBC
RESTful HTTP API

by using 4D Mobile
SOAP webservices

Filemaker WebDirect
JDBC
ODBC

Proprietary native API

Supported programming languages

4D proprietary IDE
PHP

PHP

JavaScript

C
C++
Dart (Flutter)
Go
Java
Kotlin
Python
Swift

Server-side scripts

Stored procedures

yes

Triggers

yes

Using read-only observers

yes

Partitioning methods

Methods for storing different data on different nodes

none

Replication methods

Methods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodes

Multi-source replication

Source-replica replication, warm standby

since Version 14

none

Data sync between devices allowing occasional connected databases to work completely offline

none

MapReduce

Offers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methods

Consistency concepts

Methods to ensure consistency in a distributed system

Immediate Consistency

Foreign keys

Referential integrity

yes

Transaction concepts

Support to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of data

ACID

Concurrency

Support for concurrent manipulation of data

yes

Durability

Support for making data persistent

yes

yes, by using IndexedDB or the cloud service Firebase Realtime Database

yes

In-memory capabilities

Is there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.

yes

using MemoryDB

yes

User concepts

Access control

Users and groups

simple rights management via user accounts and connection to external directory services

yes

More information provided by the system vendor

News

MongoDB Realm & Device Sync alternatives – ObjectBox
17 September 2024

Local AI – what it is and why we need it
11 September 2024

First on-device Vector Database (aka Semantic Index) for iOS
24 July 2024

Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) with vector databases: Expanding AI Capabilities
18 June 2024

The on-device Vector Database for Android and Java
29 May 2024

We invite representatives of system vendors to contact us for updating and extending the system information,
and for displaying vendor-provided information such as key customers, competitive advantages and market metrics.

Related products and services

We invite representatives of vendors of related products to contact us for presenting information about their offerings here.

More resources

DB-Engines blog posts

MySQL, PostgreSQL and Redis are the winners of the March ranking
2 March 2016, Paul Andlinger

show all

Spatial database management systems
6 April 2021, Matthias Gelbmann

show all

Recent citations in the news

Efficiency leap: Migration from old FileMaker software to gFM-Business increases company performance
19 September 2024, openPR

Problemista - Features
1 March 2024, Reverse Shot

Tilda Swinton Wasn’t Prepared for ‘Problemista’ Horror Stories from Audiences Who Recognize Her Toxic Art World Character
1 March 2024, IndieWire

Apple subsidiary FileMaker returns to its original name from the ’80s
6 August 2019, The Verge

Claris’s Plans for FileMaker Bode Well for Individual Users
23 August 2022, TidBITS

provided by Google News

Share this page