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DBMS > Cassandra vs. EXASOL vs. Kdb vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. Snowflake

System Properties Comparison Cassandra vs. EXASOL vs. Kdb vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. Snowflake

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameCassandra  Xexclude from comparisonEXASOL  Xexclude from comparisonKdb  Xexclude from comparisonMicrosoft SQL Server  Xexclude from comparisonSnowflake  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionWide-column store based on ideas of BigTable and DynamoDB infoOptimized for write accessHigh-performance, in-memory, MPP database specifically designed for in-memory analytics.High performance Time Series DBMSMicrosofts flagship relational DBMSCloud-based data warehousing service for structured and semi-structured data
Primary database modelWide column storeRelational DBMSTime Series DBMS
Vector DBMS
Relational DBMSRelational DBMS
Secondary database modelsVector DBMS infostarting with release V5Relational DBMSDocument store
Graph DBMS
Spatial DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score101.89
Rank#12  Overall
#1  Wide column stores
Score1.99
Rank#124  Overall
#58  Relational DBMS
Score7.55
Rank#53  Overall
#3  Time Series DBMS
#1  Vector DBMS
Score824.29
Rank#3  Overall
#3  Relational DBMS
Score121.33
Rank#9  Overall
#6  Relational DBMS
Websitecassandra.apache.orgwww.exasol.comkx.comwww.microsoft.com/­en-us/­sql-serverwww.snowflake.com
Technical documentationcassandra.apache.org/­doc/­latestwww.exasol.com/­resourcescode.kx.comlearn.microsoft.com/­en-US/­sql/­sql-serverdocs.snowflake.net/­manuals/­index.html
DeveloperApache Software Foundation infoApache top level project, originally developped by FacebookExasolKx Systems, a division of First Derivatives plcMicrosoftSnowflake Computing Inc.
Initial release200820002000 infokdb was released 2000, kdb+ in 200319892014
Current release4.1.3, July 20233.6, May 2018SQL Server 2022, November 2022
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoApache version 2commercialcommercial infofree 32-bit versioncommercial inforestricted free version is availablecommercial
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenonononoyes
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 languageJavaqC++
Server operating systemsBSD
Linux
OS X
Windows
Linux
OS X
Solaris
Windows
Linux
Windows
hosted
Data schemeschema-freeyesyesyesyes infosupport of semi-structured data formats (JSON, XML, Avro)
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesyesyesyes
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.nonoyesyesyes
Secondary indexesrestricted infoonly equality queries, not always the best performing solutionyesyes infotable attribute 'grouped'yes
SQL infoSupport of SQLSQL-like SELECT, DML and DDL statements (CQL)yesSQL-like query language (q)yesyes
APIs and other access methodsProprietary protocol infoCQL (Cassandra Query Language, an SQL-like language)
Thrift
.Net
JDBC
ODBC
WebSocket
HTTP API
JDBC
Jupyter
Kafka
ODBC
WebSocket
ADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
OLE DB
Tabular Data Stream (TDS)
CLI Client
JDBC
ODBC
Supported programming languagesC#
C++
Clojure
Erlang
Go
Haskell
Java
JavaScript infoNode.js
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
Java
Lua
Python
R
C
C#
C++
Go
J
Java
JavaScript
Lua
MatLab
Perl
PHP
Python
R
Scala
C#
C++
Delphi
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
R
Ruby
Visual Basic
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresnouser defined functionsuser defined functionsTransact SQL, .NET languages, R, Python and (with SQL Server 2019) Javauser defined functions
Triggersyesyesyes infowith viewsyesno infosimilar concept for controling cloud resources
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesSharding infono "single point of failure"Shardinghorizontal partitioningtables can be distributed across several files (horizontal partitioning); sharding through federationyes
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesselectable replication factor infoRepresentation of geographical distribution of servers is possibleSource-replica replicationyes, but depending on the SQL-Server Editionyes
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsyesyes infoHadoop integrationno infosimilar paradigm used for internal processingnono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemEventual Consistency
Immediate Consistency infocan be individually decided for each write operation
Immediate ConsistencyImmediate ConsistencyImmediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integritynoyesyesyesyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of datano infoAtomicity and isolation are supported for single operationsACIDnoACIDACID
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.noyesyesyesno
User concepts infoAccess controlAccess rights for users can be defined per objectAccess rights for users, groups and roles according to SQL-standardrights management via user accountsfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardUsers with fine-grained authorization concept, user roles and pluggable authentication
More information provided by the system vendor
CassandraEXASOLKdbMicrosoft SQL ServerSnowflake
Specific characteristicsApache Cassandra is the leading NoSQL, distributed database management system, well...
» more
Integrated columnar database & programming system for streaming, real time and historical...
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Competitive advantagesNo single point of failure ensures 100% availability . Operational simplicity for...
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provides seamless scalability; runs on industry standard server platforms; is top-ranked...
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Typical application scenariosInternet of Things (IOT), fraud detection applications, recommendation engines, product...
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tick database streaming sensor data massive intelligence applications oil and gas...
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Key customersApple, Netflix, Uber, ING,, Intuit,Fidelity, NY Times, Outbrain, BazaarVoice, Best...
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Goldman Sachs Morgan Stanley Merrill Lynch J.P. Morgan Deutsche Bank IEX Securities...
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Market metricsCassandra is used by 40% of the Fortune 100.
» more
kdb+ performance and reliability proven by our customers in critical infrastructure...
» more
Licensing and pricing modelsApache license  Pricing for commercial distributions provided by DataStax and available...
» more
upon request
» more

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More resources
CassandraEXASOLKdbMicrosoft SQL ServerSnowflake
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