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DBMS > Amazon Aurora vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. PostgreSQL vs. QuestDB vs. TimescaleDB

System Properties Comparison Amazon Aurora vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. PostgreSQL vs. QuestDB vs. TimescaleDB

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameAmazon Aurora  Xexclude from comparisonMicrosoft SQL Server  Xexclude from comparisonPostgreSQL  Xexclude from comparisonQuestDB  Xexclude from comparisonTimescaleDB  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionMySQL and PostgreSQL compatible cloud service by AmazonMicrosofts flagship relational DBMSWidely used open source RDBMS infoDeveloped as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQLA high performance open source SQL database for time series dataA time series DBMS optimized for fast ingest and complex queries, based on PostgreSQL
Primary database modelRelational DBMSRelational DBMSRelational DBMS infowith object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module.Time Series DBMSTime Series DBMS
Secondary database modelsDocument storeDocument store
Graph DBMS
Spatial DBMS
Document store
Graph DBMS infowith Apache Age
Spatial DBMS
Vector DBMS infowith pgvector extension
Relational DBMSRelational DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score7.91
Rank#50  Overall
#32  Relational DBMS
Score824.29
Rank#3  Overall
#3  Relational DBMS
Score645.54
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Score2.52
Rank#109  Overall
#9  Time Series DBMS
Score4.64
Rank#71  Overall
#4  Time Series DBMS
Websiteaws.amazon.com/­rds/­aurorawww.microsoft.com/­en-us/­sql-serverwww.postgresql.orgquestdb.iowww.timescale.com
Technical documentationdocs.aws.amazon.com/­AmazonRDS/­latest/­AuroraUserGuide/­CHAP_Aurora.htmllearn.microsoft.com/­en-US/­sql/­sql-serverwww.postgresql.org/­docsquestdb.io/­docsdocs.timescale.com
DeveloperAmazonMicrosoftPostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developerQuestDB Technology IncTimescale
Initial release201519891989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL20142017
Current releaseSQL Server 2022, November 202216.2, February 20242.13.0, November 2023
License infoCommercial or Open Sourcecommercialcommercial inforestricted free version is availableOpen Source infoBSDOpen Source infoApache 2.0Open Source infoApache 2.0
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud serviceyesnononono
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 languageC++CJava (Zero-GC), C++, RustC
Server operating systemshostedLinux
Windows
FreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows
Linux
macOS
Windows
Linux
OS X
Windows
Data schemeyesyesyesyes infoschema-free via InfluxDB Line Protocolyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesyesyesnumerics, strings, booleans, arrays, JSON blobs, geospatial dimensions, currencies, binary data, other complex data types
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.yesyesyes infospecific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality.noyes
Secondary indexesyesyesyesnoyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLyesyesyes infostandard with numerous extensionsSQL with time-series extensionsyes infofull PostgreSQL SQL syntax
APIs and other access methodsADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
ADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
OLE DB
Tabular Data Stream (TDS)
ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
HTTP REST
InfluxDB Line Protocol (TCP/UDP)
JDBC
PostgreSQL wire protocol
ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
Supported programming languagesAda
C
C#
C++
D
Delphi
Eiffel
Erlang
Haskell
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Objective-C
OCaml
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scheme
Tcl
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
C infoPostgreSQL driver
C++
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
Rust infoover HTTP
.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java infoJDBC
JavaScript
Perl
PHP
Python
R
Ruby
Scheme
Tcl
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresyesTransact 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.nouser defined functions, PL/pgSQL, PL/Tcl, PL/Perl, PL/Python, PL/Java, PL/PHP, PL/R, PL/Ruby, PL/Scheme, PL/Unix shell
Triggersyesyesyesnoyes
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodeshorizontal partitioningtables can be distributed across several files (horizontal partitioning); sharding through federationpartitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hashhorizontal partitioning (by timestamps)yes, across time and space (hash partitioning) attributes
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesSource-replica replicationyes, but depending on the SQL-Server EditionSource-replica replication infoother methods possible by using 3rd party extensionsSource-replica replication with eventual consistencySource-replica replication with hot standby and reads on replicas info
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnonononono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemImmediate ConsistencyImmediate ConsistencyImmediate ConsistencyImmediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityyesyesyesnoyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACIDACIDACIDACID for single-table writesACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyesyesyes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.yesyesnoyes infothrough memory mapped filesno
User concepts infoAccess controlfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardfine grained access rights according to SQL-standard
More information provided by the system vendor
Amazon AuroraMicrosoft SQL ServerPostgreSQLQuestDBTimescaleDB
Specific characteristicsRelational model with native time series support Column-based storage and time partitioned...
» more
Competitive advantagesHigh ingestion throughput: peak of 4M rows/sec (TSBS Benchmark) Code optimizations...
» more
Typical application scenariosFinancial tick data Industrial IoT Application Metrics Monitoring
» more
Key customersBanks & Hedge funds, Yahoo, OKX, Airbus, Aquis Exchange, Net App, Cloudera, Airtel,...
» more
Licensing and pricing modelsOpen source Apache 2.0 QuestDB Enterprise QuestDB Cloud
» more
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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.

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More resources
Amazon AuroraMicrosoft SQL ServerPostgreSQLQuestDBTimescaleDB
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