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DBMS > Apache Cassandra vs. PostgreSQL vs. TimescaleDB

System Properties Comparison Apache Cassandra vs. PostgreSQL vs. TimescaleDB

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameApache Cassandra  Xexclude from comparisonPostgreSQL  Xexclude from comparisonTimescaleDB  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionWide-column store based on ideas of BigTable and DynamoDB infoOptimized for write accessWidely used open source RDBMS infoDeveloped as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQLA time series DBMS optimized for fast ingest and complex queries, based on PostgreSQL
Primary database modelWide column storeRelational DBMS infowith object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module.Time Series DBMS
Secondary database modelsVector DBMS infostarting with release V5Document store
Graph DBMS infowith Apache Age
Spatial DBMS
Vector DBMS infowith pgvector extension
Relational DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score102.58
Rank#11  Overall
#1  Wide column stores
Score659.62
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Score3.62
Rank#73  Overall
#5  Time Series DBMS
Websitecassandra.apache.orgwww.postgresql.orgwww.timescale.com
Technical documentationcassandra.apache.org/­doc/­latestwww.postgresql.org/­docsdocs.timescale.com
DeveloperApache Software Foundation infoApache top level project, originally developped by FacebookPostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developerTimescale
Initial release20081989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL2017
Current release5.0-rc1, July 202416.4, August 20242.15.0, May 2024
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoApache version 2Open Source infoBSDOpen Source infoApache 2.0
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenonono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

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Implementation languageJavaCC
Server operating systemsBSD
Linux
OS X
Windows
FreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows
Linux
OS X
Windows
Data schemeschema-freeyesyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesnumerics, 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.noyes infospecific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality.yes
Secondary indexesrestricted infoonly equality queries, not always the best performing solutionyesyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLSQL-like SELECT, DML and DDL statements (CQL)yes infostandard with numerous extensionsyes infofull PostgreSQL SQL syntax
APIs and other access methodsProprietary protocol infoCQL (Cassandra Query Language, an SQL-like language)
Thrift
ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
Supported programming languagesC#
C++
Clojure
Erlang
Go
Haskell
Java
JavaScript infoNode.js
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java infoJDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl
.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java infoJDBC
JavaScript
Perl
PHP
Python
R
Ruby
Scheme
Tcl
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresnouser defined functions inforealized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.user defined functions, PL/pgSQL, PL/Tcl, PL/Perl, PL/Python, PL/Java, PL/PHP, PL/R, PL/Ruby, PL/Scheme, PL/Unix shell
Triggersyesyesyes
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesSharding infono "single point of failure"partitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hashyes, across time and space (hash partitioning) attributes
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesselectable replication factor infoRepresentation of geographical distribution of servers is possibleSource-replica replication infoother methods possible by using 3rd party extensionsSource-replica replication with hot standby and reads on replicas info
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsyesnono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemEventual Consistency
Immediate Consistency infocan be individually decided for each write operation
Immediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integritynoyesyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of datano infoAtomicity and isolation are supported for single operationsACIDACID
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.nonono
User concepts infoAccess controlAccess rights for users can be defined per objectfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardfine grained access rights according to SQL-standard
More information provided by the system vendor
Apache CassandraPostgreSQLTimescaleDB
Specific characteristicsApache Cassandra is the leading NoSQL, distributed database management system, well...
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Competitive advantagesNo single point of failure ensures 100% availability . Operational simplicity for...
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Typical application scenariosInternet of Things (IOT), fraud detection applications, recommendation engines, product...
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Key customersApple, Netflix, Uber, ING,, Intuit,Fidelity, NY Times, Outbrain, BazaarVoice, Best...
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Market metricsApache Cassandra is used by 40% of the Fortune 100.
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Licensing and pricing modelsApache license  Pricing for commercial distributions provided by DataStax and available...
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