DBMS > Amazon DynamoDB vs. Cassandra vs. Couchbase vs. MariaDB vs. PostgreSQL
System Properties Comparison Amazon DynamoDB vs. Cassandra vs. Couchbase vs. MariaDB vs. PostgreSQL
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| Name | Amazon DynamoDB Xexclude from comparison | Cassandra Xexclude from comparison | Couchbase  Originally called Membase Xexclude from comparison | MariaDB Xexclude from comparison | PostgreSQL Xexclude from comparison | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description | Hosted, scalable database service by Amazon with the data stored in Amazons cloud | Wide-column store based on ideas of BigTable and DynamoDB Optimized for write access | A distributed document store with integrated cache, a powerful search engine, in-built operational and analytical capabilities, and an embedded mobile database | MySQL application compatible open source RDBMS, enhanced with high availability, security, interoperability and performance capabilities. MariaDB ColumnStore provides a column-oriented storage engine and MariaDB Xpand supports distributed SQL. | Widely used open source RDBMS Developed as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQL | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Primary database model | Document store Key-value store | Wide column store | Document store | Relational DBMS | Relational DBMS with object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Secondary database models | Vector DBMS starting with release V5 | Key-value store originating from the former Membase product and supporting the Memcached protocol Spatial DBMS using the Geocouch extensionSearch engine Time Series DBMS Vector DBMS | Document store Graph DBMS with OQGraph storage engineSpatial DBMS | Document store Graph DBMS with Apache AgeSpatial DBMS Vector DBMS with pgvector extension | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Website | aws.amazon.com/dynamodb | cassandra.apache.org | www.couchbase.com | mariadb.com Site of MariaDB Corporation mariadb.org Site of MariaDB Foundation | www.postgresql.org | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technical documentation | docs.aws.amazon.com/dynamodb | cassandra.apache.org/doc/latest | docs.couchbase.com | mariadb.com/kb/en/library | www.postgresql.org/docs | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Developer | Amazon | Apache Software Foundation Apache top level project, originally developped by Facebook | Couchbase, Inc. | MariaDB Corporation Ab (MariaDB Enterprise), MariaDB Foundation (community MariaDB Server) The lead developer Monty Widenius is the original author of MySQL | PostgreSQL Global Development Group www.postgresql.org/developer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Initial release | 2012 | 2008 | 2011 | 2009 Fork of MySQL, which was first released in 1995 | 1989 1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Current release | 4.1.3, July 2023 | Server: 7.2, June 2023; Mobile: 3.1, March 2022; Couchbase Capella (DBaaS), June 2023 | 11.3.2, February 2024 | 16.3, May 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| License Commercial or Open Source | commercial free tier for a limited amount of database operations | Open Source Apache version 2 | Open Source Business Source License (BSL 1.1); Commercial licenses also available | Open Source GPL version 2, commercial enterprise subscription available | Open Source BSD | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cloud-based only Only available as a cloud service | yes | no | no | no | no | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) Database as a Service Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed. | Astra DB: Multi-cloud DBaaS built on Apache Cassandra. | Aiven for PostgreSQL: Fully managed PostgreSQL for developers with 70+ extensions and flexible orchestration tools. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Implementation language | Java | C, C++, Go and Erlang | C and C++ | C | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Server operating systems | hosted | BSD Linux OS X Windows | Linux OS X Windows | FreeBSD Linux Solaris Windows ColumnStore storage engine not available on Windows | FreeBSD HP-UX Linux NetBSD OpenBSD OS X Solaris Unix Windows | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Data scheme | schema-free | schema-free | schema-free | yes Dynamic columns are supported | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Typing predefined data types such as float or date | yes | yes | yes | yes | 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. | no | yes | yes specific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Secondary indexes | yes | restricted only equality queries, not always the best performing solution | yes | yes | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SQL Support of SQL | no | SQL-like SELECT, DML and DDL statements (CQL) | SQL++, extends ANSI SQL to JSON for operational, transactional, and analytic use cases | yes with proprietary extensions | yes standard with numerous extensions | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| APIs and other access methods | RESTful HTTP API | Proprietary protocol CQL (Cassandra Query Language, an SQL-like language) Thrift | CLI Client HTTP REST Kafka Connector Native language bindings for CRUD, Query, Search and Analytics APIs Spark Connector Spring Data | ADO.NET JDBC ODBC Proprietary native API | ADO.NET JDBC native C library ODBC streaming API for large objects | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Supported programming languages | .Net ColdFusion Erlang Groovy Java JavaScript Perl PHP Python Ruby | C# C++ Clojure Erlang Go Haskell Java JavaScript Node.jsPerl PHP Python Ruby Scala | .Net C Go Java JavaScript Node.jsKotlin PHP Python Ruby Scala | Ada C C# C++ D Eiffel Erlang Go Haskell Java JavaScript (Node.js) Objective-C OCaml Perl PHP Python Ruby Scheme Tcl | .Net C C++ Delphi Java JDBCJavaScript (Node.js) Perl PHP Python Tcl | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Server-side scripts Stored procedures | no | no | Functions and timers in JavaScript and UDFs in Java, Python, SQL++ | yes PL/SQL compatibility added with version 10.3 | user defined functions realized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Triggers | yes by integration with AWS Lambda | yes | yes via the TAP protocol | yes | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Partitioning methods Methods for storing different data on different nodes | Sharding | Sharding no "single point of failure" | Automatic Sharding | several options for horizontal partitioning and Sharding | partitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hash | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Replication methods Methods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodes | yes | selectable replication factor Representation of geographical distribution of servers is possible | Multi-source replication including cross data center replication Source-replica replication | Multi-source replication Source-replica replication | Source-replica replication other methods possible by using 3rd party extensions | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| MapReduce Offers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methods | no may be implemented via Amazon Elastic MapReduce (Amazon EMR) | yes | yes | no | no | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Consistency concepts Methods to ensure consistency in a distributed system | Eventual Consistency Immediate Consistency can be specified for read operations | Eventual Consistency Immediate Consistency can be individually decided for each write operation | Eventual Consistency Immediate Consistency selectable on a per-operation basis | Immediate Consistency | Immediate Consistency | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Foreign keys Referential integrity | no | no | no | yes not for MyISAM storage engine | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Transaction concepts Support to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of data | ACID ACID across one or more tables within a single AWS account and region | no Atomicity and isolation are supported for single operations | ACID | ACID not for MyISAM storage engine | ACID | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Concurrency Support for concurrent manipulation of data | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Durability Support for making data persistent | yes | yes | yes | yes not for in-memory storage engine | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In-memory capabilities Is there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only. | no | yes Ephemeral buckets | yes with MEMORY storage engine | no | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| User concepts Access control | Access rights for users and roles can be defined via the AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) | Access rights for users can be defined per object | User and Administrator separation with password-based and LDAP integrated Authentication. Role-base access control. | fine grained access rights according to SQL-standard | fine grained access rights according to SQL-standard | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| More information provided by the system vendor | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Amazon DynamoDB | Cassandra | Couchbase Originally called Membase | MariaDB | PostgreSQL | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Specific characteristics | Apache Cassandra is the leading NoSQL, distributed database management system, well... » more | MariaDB is the most powerful open source relational database – modern SQL and JSON... » more | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Competitive advantages | No single point of failure ensures 100% availability . Operational simplicity for... » more | MariaDB Servers have many features unavailable in other open source relational databases.... » more | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Typical application scenarios | Internet of Things (IOT), fraud detection applications, recommendation engines, product... » more | Web, SaaS and Cloud operational applications that require high availability, scalability... » more | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Key customers | Apple, Netflix, Uber, ING,, Intuit,Fidelity, NY Times, Outbrain, BazaarVoice, Best... » more | Deutsche Bank, DBS Bank, Nasdaq, Red Hat, ServiceNow, Verizon and Walgreens Featured... » more | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Market metrics | Cassandra is used by 40% of the Fortune 100. » more | MariaDB is the default database in the LAMP stack supplied by Red Hat and SUSE Linux,... » more | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Licensing and pricing models | Apache license Pricing for commercial distributions provided by DataStax and available... » more | MariaDB plc subscriptions cover our free, open source database, Community Server,... » more | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| More resources | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Amazon DynamoDB | Cassandra | Couchbase Originally called Membase | MariaDB | PostgreSQL | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DB-Engines blog posts | Cloud-based DBMS's popularity grows at high rates The popularity of cloud-based DBMSs has increased tenfold in four years Increased popularity for consuming DBMS services out of the cloud | Cassandra keeps climbing the ranks of the DB-Engines Ranking Oracle is the DBMS of the Year Winners, losers and an attractive newcomer in Novembers DB-Engines ranking | Couchbase climbs up the DB-Engines Ranking, increasing its popularity by 10% every month | MariaDB strengthens its position in the open source RDBMS market PostgreSQL is the DBMS of the Year 2017 Big gains for Relational Database Management Systems in DB-Engines Ranking | PostgreSQL is the DBMS of the Year 2023 Snowflake is the DBMS of the Year 2022, defending the title from last year Snowflake is the DBMS of the Year 2021 Monitoring PostgreSQL with Redgate Monitor Continuously replicate Amazon DynamoDB changes to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL using AWS Lambda | Amazon ... Using Elasticsearch to Offload Search and Analytics from DynamoDB: Pros and Cons Zendesk Moves from DynamoDB to MySQL and S3 to Save over 80% in Costs Migrating Uber's Ledger Data from DynamoDB to LedgerStore How Heroku reduced their operational overhead by migrating their 30 TB self-managed database from Amazon EC2 to ... provided by Google News Why Apache Cassandra 5.0 Is a Game-Changer for Developers Father of SQL says yes to NoSQL How Uber Optimized Cassandra Operations At Scale Cassandra is the “best f*cking database for gen AI,” says DataStax CEO Here's What to Know About Apache Cassandra 5.0 provided by Google News Couchbase Announces New Features to Accelerate AI-Powered Adaptive Applications for Customers Couchbase's revenue grows 20% and its stock rises in extended trading Database company Couchbase files for U.S. IPO Couchbase Server and Capella to gain vector support Couchbase Survey Finds Enterprises Plan Massive Spend on AI, with Over $21M Allocated in 2023-24 provided by Google News ServiceNow trades MariaDB for RaptorDB (PostgreSQL) Progress outbids private equity in offer for MariaDB plc RECOMMENDED CASH OFFER for MARIADB plc by MERIDIAN BIDCO LLC which is an Affiliate of K1 INVESTMENT ... Progress Software Confirms Bid to Acquire MariaDB MariaDB Receives Takeover Bid | DealFlow's SPAC News provided by Google News Continuously replicate Amazon DynamoDB changes to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL using AWS Lambda | Amazon ... SolarWinds Unveils Enhanced Database Performance Analyzer with Advanced PostgreSQL Support ServiceNow trades MariaDB for RaptorDB (PostgreSQL) First Principles: Optimizing PostgreSQL for the cloud General availability: Microsoft Entra ID integration with Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL | Azure updates provided by Google News | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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