DBMS > AlaSQL vs. Amazon SimpleDB vs. Datomic vs. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. Realm

System Properties Comparison AlaSQL vs. Amazon SimpleDB vs. Datomic vs. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. Realm

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines

Name

Description

JavaScript DBMS library

Hosted simple database service by Amazon, with the data stored in the Amazon Cloud.

There is an unrelated product called SimpleDB developed by Edward Sciore

Datomic builds on immutable values, supports point-in-time queries and uses 3rd party systems for durability

Globally distributed, horizontally scalable, multi-model database service

A DBMS built for use on mobile devices that’s a fast, easy to use alternative to SQLite and Core Data

Primary database model

Document store
Relational DBMS

Key-value store

Relational DBMS

Document store
Graph DBMS
Key-value store
Wide column store

Document store

Secondary database models

Spatial DBMS

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

Score	0.51
Rank	#256	Overall
	#40	Document stores
	#118	Relational DBMS

Score	1.88
Rank	#133	Overall
	#23	Key-value stores

Score	1.66
Rank	#144	Overall
	#66	Relational DBMS

Score	27.71
Rank	#27	Overall
	#4	Document stores
	#2	Graph DBMS
	#3	Key-value stores
	#3	Wide column stores

Score	7.41
Rank	#52	Overall
	#8	Document stores

Website

alasql.org

aws.amazon.com/simpledb

www.datomic.com

azure.microsoft.com/services/cosmos-db

realm.io

Technical documentation

github.com/AlaSQL/alasql

docs.aws.amazon.com/simpledb

docs.datomic.com

learn.microsoft.com/azure/cosmos-db

realm.io/docs

Developer

Andrey Gershun & Mathias R. Wulff

Amazon

Cognitect

Microsoft

Realm, acquired by MongoDB in May 2019

Initial release

2014

2007

2012

2014

Current release

1.0.7075, December 2023

License

Commercial or Open Source

Open Source

MIT-License

commercial

limited edition free

commercial

Open Source

Cloud-based only

Only available as a cloud service

yes

DBaaS offerings (sponsored links)

Database as a Service

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

Implementation language

JavaScript

Java, Clojure

Server operating systems

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

hosted

All OS with a Java VM

hosted

Android
Backend: server-less
iOS
Windows

Data scheme

schema-free

yes

schema-free

yes

Typing

predefined data types such as float or date

yes

JSON 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.

Secondary indexes

yes

All columns are indexed automatically

yes

All properties auto-indexed by default

yes

SQL

Support of SQL

Close to SQL99, but no user access control, stored procedures and host language bindings.

SQL-like query language

APIs and other access methods

JavaScript API

RESTful HTTP API

DocumentDB API
Graph API (Gremlin)
MongoDB API
RESTful HTTP API
Table API

Supported programming languages

JavaScript

.Net
C
C++
Erlang
Java
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala

Clojure
Java

.Net
C#
Java
JavaScript
JavaScript (Node.js)
MongoDB client drivers written for various programming languages
Python

.Net
Java

with Android only
Objective-C
React Native
Swift

Server-side scripts

Stored procedures

yes

Transaction Functions

JavaScript

runs within the applications so server-side scripts are unnecessary

Triggers

yes

By using transaction functions

JavaScript

yes

Change Listeners

Partitioning methods

Methods for storing different data on different nodes

none

Sharding must be implemented in the application

none

But extensive use of caching in the application peers

Sharding

Implicit feature of the cloud service

none

Replication methods

Methods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodes

none

yes

none

But extensive use of caching in the application peers

yes

Implicit feature of the cloud service

none

MapReduce

Offers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methods

with Hadoop integration

Integration with Hadoop/HDInsight on Azure*

Consistency concepts

Methods to ensure consistency in a distributed system

none

Eventual Consistency
Immediate Consistency

can be specified for read operations

Immediate Consistency

Bounded Staleness
Consistent Prefix
Eventual Consistency
Immediate Consistency

Consistency level configurable on request level
Session Consistency

Immediate Consistency

Foreign keys

Referential integrity

yes

Transaction concepts

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

yes

only for local storage and DOM-storage

Concurrent data updates can be detected by the application

ACID

Multi-item ACID transactions with snapshot isolation within a partition

ACID

Concurrency

Support for concurrent manipulation of data

yes

Durability

Support for making data persistent

yes

by using IndexedDB, SQL.JS or proprietary FileStorage

yes

using external storage systems (e.g. Cassandra, DynamoDB, PostgreSQL, Couchbase and others)

yes

In-memory capabilities

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

yes

recommended only for testing and development

yes

In-Memory realm

User concepts

Access control

Access rights for users and roles can be defined via the AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)

Access rights can be defined down to the item level

yes

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