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DBMS > Apache Cassandra vs. Apache HBase vs. Google Cloud Spanner

System Properties Comparison Apache Cassandra vs. Apache HBase vs. Google Cloud Spanner

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameApache Cassandra  Xexclude from comparisonApache HBase  Xexclude from comparisonGoogle Cloud Spanner  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionWide-column store based on ideas of BigTable and DynamoDB infoOptimized for write accessWide-column store based on Apache Hadoop and on concepts of BigTableA horizontally scalable, globally consistent, relational database service. It is the externalization of the core Google database that runs the biggest aspects of Google, like Ads and Google Play.
Primary database modelWide column storeWide column storeRelational DBMS
Secondary database modelsVector DBMS infostarting with release V5
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score108.05
Rank#11  Overall
#1  Wide column stores
Score22.62
Rank#27  Overall
#3  Wide column stores
Score2.56
Rank#97  Overall
#50  Relational DBMS
Websitecassandra.apache.orghbase.apache.orgcloud.google.com/­spanner
Technical documentationcassandra.apache.org/­doc/­latesthbase.apache.org/­book.htmlcloud.google.com/­spanner/­docs
DeveloperApache Software Foundation infoApache top level project, originally developped by FacebookApache Software Foundation infoApache top-level project, originally developed by PowersetGoogle
Initial release200820082017
Current release5.0-rc1, July 20242.3.4, January 2021
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoApache version 2Open Source infoApache version 2commercial
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenonoyes
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

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Implementation languageJavaJava
Server operating systemsBSD
Linux
OS X
Windows
Linux
Unix
Windows infousing Cygwin
hosted
Data schemeschema-freeschema-free, schema definition possibleyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesoptions to bring your own types, AVROyes
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.nonono
Secondary indexesrestricted infoonly equality queries, not always the best performing solutionnoyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLSQL-like SELECT, DML and DDL statements (CQL)noyes infoQuery statements complying to ANSI 2011
APIs and other access methodsProprietary protocol infoCQL (Cassandra Query Language, an SQL-like language)
Thrift
Java API
RESTful HTTP API
Thrift
gRPC (using protocol buffers) API
JDBC infoAt present, JDBC supports read-only queries. No support for DDL or DML statements.
RESTful HTTP API
Supported programming languagesC#
C++
Clojure
Erlang
Go
Haskell
Java
JavaScript infoNode.js
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
C
C#
C++
Groovy
Java
PHP
Python
Scala
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresnoyes infoCoprocessors in Javano
Triggersyesyesno
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesSharding infono "single point of failure"ShardingSharding
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesselectable replication factor infoRepresentation of geographical distribution of servers is possibleMulti-source replication
Source-replica replication
Multi-source replication with 3 replicas for regional instances.
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsyesyesyes infousing Google Cloud Dataflow
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemEventual Consistency
Immediate Consistency infocan be individually decided for each write operation
Immediate Consistency or Eventual ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integritynonoyes infoby using interleaved tables, this features focuses more on performance improvements than on referential integrity
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of datano infoAtomicity and isolation are supported for single operationsSingle row ACID (across millions of columns)ACID infoStrict serializable isolation
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.noyesno
User concepts infoAccess controlAccess rights for users can be defined per objectAccess Control Lists (ACL) for RBAC, integration with Apache Ranger for RBAC & ABACAccess rights for users, groups and roles based on Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM)
More information provided by the system vendor
Apache CassandraApache HBaseGoogle Cloud Spanner
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