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DBMS > Apache Impala vs. Cassandra vs. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. SAP HANA vs. Snowflake

System Properties Comparison Apache Impala vs. Cassandra vs. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. SAP HANA vs. Snowflake

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameApache Impala  Xexclude from comparisonCassandra  Xexclude from comparisonMicrosoft Azure Cosmos DB infoformer name was Azure DocumentDB  Xexclude from comparisonSAP HANA  Xexclude from comparisonSnowflake  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionAnalytic DBMS for HadoopWide-column store based on ideas of BigTable and DynamoDB infoOptimized for write accessGlobally distributed, horizontally scalable, multi-model database serviceIn-memory, column based data store. Available as appliance or cloud serviceCloud-based data warehousing service for structured and semi-structured data
Primary database modelRelational DBMSWide column storeDocument store
Graph DBMS
Key-value store
Wide column store
Relational DBMSRelational DBMS
Secondary database modelsDocument storeVector DBMS infostarting with release V5Spatial DBMSDocument store
Graph DBMS infowith SAP Hana, Enterprise Edition
Spatial DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score12.45
Rank#40  Overall
#24  Relational DBMS
Score98.83
Rank#12  Overall
#1  Wide column stores
Score27.71
Rank#27  Overall
#4  Document stores
#2  Graph DBMS
#3  Key-value stores
#3  Wide column stores
Score44.27
Rank#23  Overall
#16  Relational DBMS
Score130.36
Rank#8  Overall
#5  Relational DBMS
Websiteimpala.apache.orgcassandra.apache.orgazure.microsoft.com/­services/­cosmos-dbwww.sap.com/­products/­hana.htmlwww.snowflake.com
Technical documentationimpala.apache.org/­impala-docs.htmlcassandra.apache.org/­doc/­latestlearn.microsoft.com/­azure/­cosmos-dbhelp.sap.com/­hanadocs.snowflake.net/­manuals/­index.html
DeveloperApache Software Foundation infoApache top-level project, originally developed by ClouderaApache Software Foundation infoApache top level project, originally developped by FacebookMicrosoftSAPSnowflake Computing Inc.
Initial release20132008201420102014
Current release4.1.0, June 20224.1.3, July 20232.0 SPS07 (April 4, 2023), April 2023
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoApache Version 2Open Source infoApache version 2commercialcommercialcommercial
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenonoyesno infoalso available as a cloud based serviceyes
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.
Astra DB: Multi-cloud DBaaS built on Apache Cassandra.
Implementation languageC++Java
Server operating systemsLinuxBSD
Linux
OS X
Windows
hostedAppliance or cloud-servicehosted
Data schemeyesschema-freeschema-freeyesyes infosupport of semi-structured data formats (JSON, XML, Avro)
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesyes infoJSON typesyesyes
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.nononoyes
Secondary indexesyesrestricted infoonly equality queries, not always the best performing solutionyes infoAll properties auto-indexed by defaultyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLSQL-like DML and DDL statementsSQL-like SELECT, DML and DDL statements (CQL)SQL-like query languageyesyes
APIs and other access methodsJDBC
ODBC
Proprietary protocol infoCQL (Cassandra Query Language, an SQL-like language)
Thrift
DocumentDB API
Graph API (Gremlin)
MongoDB API
RESTful HTTP API
Table API
JDBC
ODBC
CLI Client
JDBC
ODBC
Supported programming languagesAll languages supporting JDBC/ODBCC#
C++
Clojure
Erlang
Go
Haskell
Java
JavaScript infoNode.js
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
.Net
C#
Java
JavaScript
JavaScript (Node.js)
MongoDB client drivers written for various programming languages
Python
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresyes infouser defined functions and integration of map-reducenoJavaScriptSQLScript, Ruser defined functions
TriggersnoyesJavaScriptyesno infosimilar concept for controling cloud resources
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesShardingSharding infono "single point of failure"Sharding infoImplicit feature of the cloud serviceyesyes
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesselectable replication factorselectable replication factor infoRepresentation of geographical distribution of servers is possibleyes infoImplicit feature of the cloud serviceyesyes
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsyes infoquery execution via MapReduceyeswith Hadoop integration infoIntegration with Hadoop/HDInsight on Azure*nono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemEventual ConsistencyEventual Consistency
Immediate Consistency infocan be individually decided for each write operation
Bounded Staleness
Consistent Prefix
Eventual Consistency
Immediate Consistency infoConsistency level configurable on request level
Session Consistency
Immediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integritynononoyesyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of datanono infoAtomicity and isolation are supported for single operationsMulti-item ACID transactions with snapshot isolation within a partitionACIDACID
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.nonoyesno
User concepts infoAccess controlAccess rights for users, groups and roles infobased on Apache Sentry and KerberosAccess rights for users can be defined per objectAccess rights can be defined down to the item levelyesUsers with fine-grained authorization concept, user roles and pluggable authentication
More information provided by the system vendor
Apache ImpalaCassandraMicrosoft Azure Cosmos DB infoformer name was Azure DocumentDBSAP HANASnowflake
Specific characteristicsApache Cassandra is the leading NoSQL, distributed database management system, well...
» more
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 metricsCassandra is used by 40% of the Fortune 100.
» more
Licensing and pricing modelsApache license  Pricing for commercial distributions provided by DataStax and available...
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