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DBMS > Cassandra vs. GridDB vs. PostgreSQL vs. TimescaleDB vs. Trafodion

System Properties Comparison Cassandra vs. GridDB vs. PostgreSQL vs. TimescaleDB vs. Trafodion

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameCassandra  Xexclude from comparisonGridDB  Xexclude from comparisonPostgreSQL  Xexclude from comparisonTimescaleDB  Xexclude from comparisonTrafodion  Xexclude from comparison
Apache Trafodion has been retired in 2021. Therefore it is excluded from the DB-Engines Ranking.
DescriptionWide-column store based on ideas of BigTable and DynamoDB infoOptimized for write accessScalable in-memory time series database optimized for IoT and Big DataWidely 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 PostgreSQLTransactional SQL-on-Hadoop DBMS
Primary database modelWide column storeTime Series DBMSRelational DBMS infowith object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module.Time Series DBMSRelational DBMS
Secondary database modelsVector DBMS infostarting with release V5Key-value store
Relational DBMS
Document 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
Score101.89
Rank#12  Overall
#1  Wide column stores
Score1.95
Rank#128  Overall
#10  Time Series DBMS
Score645.54
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Score4.64
Rank#71  Overall
#4  Time Series DBMS
Websitecassandra.apache.orggriddb.netwww.postgresql.orgwww.timescale.comtrafodion.apache.org
Technical documentationcassandra.apache.org/­doc/­latestdocs.griddb.netwww.postgresql.org/­docsdocs.timescale.comtrafodion.apache.org/­documentation.html
DeveloperApache Software Foundation infoApache top level project, originally developped by FacebookToshiba CorporationPostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developerTimescaleApache Software Foundation, originally developed by HP
Initial release200820131989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL20172014
Current release4.1.3, July 20235.1, August 202216.3, May 20242.15.0, May 20242.3.0, February 2019
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoApache version 2Open Source infoAGPL version 3 and Apache License, version 2.0 , commercial license (standard and advanced editions) also availableOpen Source infoBSDOpen Source infoApache 2.0Open Source infoApache 2.0
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenonononono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.
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Implementation languageJavaC++CCC++, Java
Server operating systemsBSD
Linux
OS X
Windows
LinuxFreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows
Linux
OS X
Windows
Linux
Data schemeschema-freeyesyesyesyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyes infonumerical, string, blob, geometry, boolean, timestampyesnumerics, strings, booleans, arrays, JSON blobs, geospatial dimensions, currencies, binary data, other complex data typesyes
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.yesno
Secondary indexesrestricted infoonly equality queries, not always the best performing solutionyesyesyesyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLSQL-like SELECT, DML and DDL statements (CQL)SQL92, SQL-like TQL (Toshiba Query Language)yes infostandard with numerous extensionsyes infofull PostgreSQL SQL syntaxyes
APIs and other access methodsProprietary protocol infoCQL (Cassandra Query Language, an SQL-like language)
Thrift
JDBC
ODBC
Proprietary protocol
RESTful HTTP/JSON API
ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
ADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
Supported programming languagesC#
C++
Clojure
Erlang
Go
Haskell
Java
JavaScript infoNode.js
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
C
C++
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
.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
All languages supporting JDBC/ODBC/ADO.Net
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresnonouser 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 shellJava Stored Procedures
Triggersyesyesyesyesno
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesSharding infono "single point of failure"Shardingpartitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hashyes, across time and space (hash partitioning) attributesSharding
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesselectable replication factor infoRepresentation of geographical distribution of servers is possibleSource-replica replicationSource-replica replication infoother methods possible by using 3rd party extensionsSource-replica replication with hot standby and reads on replicas infoyes, via HBase
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsyesConnector for using GridDB as an input source and output destination for Hadoop MapReduce jobsnonoyes infovia user defined functions and HBase
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemEventual Consistency
Immediate Consistency infocan be individually decided for each write operation
Immediate consistency within container, eventual consistency across containersImmediate ConsistencyImmediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integritynonoyesyesyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of datano infoAtomicity and isolation are supported for single operationsACID at container levelACIDACIDACID
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.noyesnonono
User concepts infoAccess controlAccess rights for users can be defined per objectAccess rights for users can be defined per databasefine grained access rights according to SQL-standardfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardfine grained access rights according to SQL-standard
More information provided by the system vendor
CassandraGridDBPostgreSQLTimescaleDBTrafodion
Specific characteristicsApache Cassandra is the leading NoSQL, distributed database management system, well...
» more
GridDB is a highly scalable, in-memory time series database optimized for IoT and...
» more
Competitive advantagesNo single point of failure ensures 100% availability . Operational simplicity for...
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1. Optimized for IoT Equipped with Toshiba's proprietary key-container data model...
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Typical application scenariosInternet of Things (IOT), fraud detection applications, recommendation engines, product...
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Factory IoT, Automative Industry, Energy, BEMS, Smart Community, Monitoring system.
» more
Key customersApple, Netflix, Uber, ING,, Intuit,Fidelity, NY Times, Outbrain, BazaarVoice, Best...
» more
Denso International [see use case ] An Electric Power company [see use case ] Ishinomaki...
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Market metricsCassandra is used by 40% of the Fortune 100.
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GitHub trending repository
» more
Licensing and pricing modelsApache license  Pricing for commercial distributions provided by DataStax and available...
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Open Source license (AGPL v3 & Apache v2) Commercial license (subscription)
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More resources
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