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DBMS > AlaSQL vs. Firebase Realtime Database vs. FoundationDB vs. PostgreSQL

System Properties Comparison AlaSQL vs. Firebase Realtime Database vs. FoundationDB vs. PostgreSQL

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameAlaSQL  Xexclude from comparisonFirebase Realtime Database  Xexclude from comparisonFoundationDB  Xexclude from comparisonPostgreSQL  Xexclude from comparison
Created as commercial project in 2013, FoundationDB has been acquired by Apple in March 2015 and was withdrawn from the market. As a consequence, the product was removed from the DB-Engines ranking. In April 2018, Apple open-sourced FoundationDB and it therefore reappears in the ranking.
DescriptionJavaScript DBMS libraryCloud-hosted realtime document store. iOS, Android, and JavaScript clients share one Realtime Database instance and automatically receive updates with the newest data.Ordered key-value store. Core features are complimented by layers.Widely used open source RDBMS infoDeveloped as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQL
Primary database modelDocument store
Relational DBMS
Document storeDocument store infosupported via specific layer
Key-value store
Relational DBMS infosupported via specific SQL-layer
Relational DBMS infowith object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module.
Secondary database modelsDocument 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
Score0.46
Rank#260  Overall
#40  Document stores
#121  Relational DBMS
Score14.29
Rank#39  Overall
#6  Document stores
Score1.03
Rank#190  Overall
#31  Document stores
#28  Key-value stores
#89  Relational DBMS
Score645.54
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Websitealasql.orgfirebase.google.com/­products/­realtime-databasegithub.com/­apple/­foundationdbwww.postgresql.org
Technical documentationgithub.com/­AlaSQL/­alasqlfirebase.google.com/­docs/­databaseapple.github.io/­foundationdbwww.postgresql.org/­docs
DeveloperAndrey Gershun & Mathias R. WulffGoogle infoacquired by Google 2014FoundationDBPostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developer
Initial release2014201220131989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL
Current release6.2.28, November 202016.2, February 2024
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoMIT-LicensecommercialOpen Source infoApache 2.0Open Source infoBSD
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenoyesnono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.
Aiven for PostgreSQL: Fully managed PostgreSQL for developers with 70+ extensions and flexible orchestration tools.
Implementation languageJavaScriptC++C
Server operating systemsserver-less, requires a JavaScript environment (browser, Node.js)hostedLinux
OS X
Windows
FreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows
Data schemeschema-freeschema-freeschema-free infosome layers support schemasyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or datenoyesno infosome layers support typingyes
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.nonoyes infospecific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality.
Secondary indexesnoyesnoyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLClose to SQL99, but no user access control, stored procedures and host language bindings.nosupported in specific SQL layer onlyyes infostandard with numerous extensions
APIs and other access methodsJavaScript APIAndroid
iOS
JavaScript API
RESTful HTTP API
ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
Supported programming languagesJavaScriptJava
JavaScript
Objective-C
.Net
C
C++
Go
Java
JavaScript infoNode.js
PHP
Python
Ruby
Swift
.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java infoJDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresnolimited functionality with using 'rules'in SQL-layer onlyuser defined functions inforealized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.
TriggersyesCallbacks are triggered when data changesnoyes
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesnoneShardingpartitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hash
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesnoneyesSource-replica replication infoother methods possible by using 3rd party extensions
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnononono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemnoneEventual Consistency infoif the client is offline
Immediate Consistency infoif the client is online
Linearizable consistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityyesnoin SQL-layer onlyyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of datayes infoonly for local storage and DOM-storageyesACIDACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyes infoby using IndexedDB, SQL.JS or proprietary FileStorageyesyesyes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.yesno
User concepts infoAccess controlnoyes, based on authentication and database rulesnofine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

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More resources
AlaSQLFirebase Realtime DatabaseFoundationDBPostgreSQL
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