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DBMS > Apache Phoenix vs. Cassandra vs. PostgreSQL

System Properties Comparison Apache Phoenix vs. Cassandra vs. PostgreSQL

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameApache Phoenix  Xexclude from comparisonCassandra  Xexclude from comparisonPostgreSQL  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionA scale-out RDBMS with evolutionary schema built on Apache HBaseWide-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 SQL
Primary database modelRelational DBMSWide column storeRelational DBMS infowith object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module.
Secondary database modelsDocument store
Graph DBMS infowith Apache Age
Spatial DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score3.01
Rank#118  Overall
#59  Relational DBMS
Score111.14
Rank#12  Overall
#1  Wide column stores
Score617.90
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Websitephoenix.apache.orgcassandra.apache.orgwww.postgresql.org
Technical documentationphoenix.apache.orgcassandra.apache.org/­doc/­latestwww.postgresql.org/­docs
DeveloperApache Software FoundationApache Software Foundation infoApache top level project, originally developped by FacebookPostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developer
Initial release201420081989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL
Current release5.0-HBase2, July 2018 and 4.15-HBase1, December 20194.1.0, December 202215.3, May 2023
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoApache Version 2.0Open Source infoApache version 2Open Source infoBSD
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenonono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

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Implementation languageJavaJavaC
Server operating systemsLinux
Unix
Windows
BSD
Linux
OS X
Windows
FreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows
Data schemeyes infolate-bound, schema-on-read capabilitiesschema-freeyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesyes
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.nonoyes infospecific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality.
Secondary indexesyesrestricted infoonly equality queries, not always the best performing solutionyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLyesSQL-like SELECT, DML and DDL statements (CQL)yes infostandard with numerous extensions
APIs and other access methodsJDBCProprietary protocol infoCQL (Cassandra Query Language, an SQL-like language)
Thrift
ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
Supported programming languagesC
C#
C++
Go
Groovy
Java
PHP
Python
Scala
C#
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
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresuser defined functionsnouser defined functions inforealized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.
Triggersnoyesyes
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesShardingSharding infono "single point of failure"partitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hash
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesMulti-source replication
Source-replica replication
selectable replication factor infoRepresentation of geographical distribution of servers is possibleSource-replica replication infoother methods possible by using 3rd party extensions
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsHadoop integrationyesno
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemImmediate Consistency or Eventual ConsistencyEventual Consistency
Immediate Consistency infocan be individually decided for each write operation
Immediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integritynonoyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACIDno infoAtomicity and isolation are supported for single operationsACID
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.yesnono
User concepts infoAccess controlAccess Control Lists (using HBase ACL) for RBAC, integration with Apache Ranger for RBAC & ABAC, multi-tenancyAccess rights for users can be defined per objectfine grained access rights according to SQL-standard
More information provided by the system vendor
Apache PhoenixCassandraPostgreSQL
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...
» more
Typical application scenariosInternet of Things (IOT), fraud detection applications, recommendation engines, product...
» more
Key customersApple, Netflix, Uber, ING,, Intuit,Fidelity, NY Times, Outbrain, BazaarVoice, Best...
» more
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...
» more
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