DBMS > Cassandra vs. Microsoft Azure Data Explorer vs. PostgreSQL vs. RethinkDB vs. SAP Advantage Database Server
System Properties Comparison Cassandra vs. Microsoft Azure Data Explorer vs. PostgreSQL vs. RethinkDB vs. SAP Advantage Database Server
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| Name | Cassandra Xexclude from comparison | Microsoft Azure Data Explorer Xexclude from comparison | PostgreSQL Xexclude from comparison | RethinkDB Xexclude from comparison | SAP Advantage Database Server  former name: Sybase ADS Xexclude from comparison | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SAP Advantage Database Server seems to be discontinued. Therefore it is excluded from the DB-Engines Ranking. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description | Wide-column store based on ideas of BigTable and DynamoDB Optimized for write access | Fully managed big data interactive analytics platform | Widely used open source RDBMS Developed as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQL | DBMS for the Web with a mechanism to push updated query results to applications in realtime. | Low-cost RDBMS with access to ISAM and FoxPro data structures | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Primary database model | Wide column store | Relational DBMS column oriented | Relational DBMS with object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module. | Document store | Relational DBMS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Secondary database models | Vector DBMS starting with release V5 | Document store If a column is of type dynamic docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/kusto/query/scalar-data-types/dynamic then it's possible to add arbitrary JSON documents in this cell Event Store this is the general usage pattern at Microsoft. Billing, Logs, Telemetry events are stored in ADX and the state of an individual entity is defined by the arg_max(timestamps)Spatial DBMS Search engine support for complex search expressions docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/kusto/query/parseoperator FTS, Geospatial docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/kusto/query/geo-point-to-geohash-function distributed search -> ADX acts as a distributed search engineTime Series DBMS see docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/data-explorer/time-series-analysis | Document store Graph DBMS with Apache AgeSpatial DBMS Vector DBMS with pgvector extension | Spatial DBMS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Website | cassandra.apache.org | azure.microsoft.com/services/data-explorer | www.postgresql.org | rethinkdb.com | www.sap.com/products/advantage-database-server.html | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technical documentation | cassandra.apache.org/doc/latest | docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/data-explorer | www.postgresql.org/docs | rethinkdb.com/docs | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Developer | Apache Software Foundation Apache top level project, originally developped by Facebook | Microsoft | PostgreSQL Global Development Group www.postgresql.org/developer | The Linux Foundation since July 2017 | Sybase, SAP | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Initial release | 2008 | 2019 | 1989 1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL | 2009 | 1993 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Current release | 4.1.3, July 2023 | cloud service with continuous releases | 16.3, May 2024 | 2.4.1, August 2020 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| License Commercial or Open Source | Open Source Apache version 2 | commercial | Open Source BSD | Open Source Apache Version 2 | commercial | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cloud-based only Only available as a cloud service | no | yes | no | no | no | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) Database as a Service Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed. | Astra DB: Multi-cloud DBaaS built on Apache Cassandra. |
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| Implementation language | Java | C | C++ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Server operating systems | BSD Linux OS X Windows | hosted | FreeBSD HP-UX Linux NetBSD OpenBSD OS X Solaris Unix Windows | Linux OS X Windows | Linux Windows | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Data scheme | schema-free | Fixed schema with schema-less datatypes (dynamic) | yes | schema-free | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Typing predefined data types such as float or date | yes | yes bool, datetime, dynamic, guid, int, long, real, string, timespan, double: docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/kusto/query/scalar-data-types | yes | yes string, binary, float, bool, date, geometry | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| XML support Some form of processing data in XML format, e.g. support for XML data structures, and/or support for XPath, XQuery or XSLT. | no | yes | yes specific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality. | no | no | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Secondary indexes | restricted only equality queries, not always the best performing solution | all fields are automatically indexed | yes | yes | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SQL Support of SQL | SQL-like SELECT, DML and DDL statements (CQL) | Kusto Query Language (KQL), SQL subset | yes standard with numerous extensions | no | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| APIs and other access methods | Proprietary protocol CQL (Cassandra Query Language, an SQL-like language) Thrift | Microsoft SQL Server communication protocol (MS-TDS) RESTful HTTP API | ADO.NET JDBC native C library ODBC streaming API for large objects | .NET Client API ADO.NET JDBC ODBC OLE DB | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Supported programming languages | C# C++ Clojure Erlang Go Haskell Java JavaScript Node.jsPerl PHP Python Ruby Scala | .Net Go Java JavaScript (Node.js) PowerShell Python R | .Net C C++ Delphi Java JDBCJavaScript (Node.js) Perl PHP Python Tcl | C community-supported driver C# community-supported driverC++ community-supported driverClojure community-supported driverDart community-supported driverErlang community-supported driverGo community-supported driverHaskell community-supported driverJava official driverJavaScript (Node.js) official driverLisp community-supported driverLua community-supported driverObjective-C community-supported driverPerl community-supported driverPHP community-supported driverPython official driverRuby official driverScala community-supported driver | Delphi Perl PHP | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Server-side scripts Stored procedures | no | Yes, possible languages: KQL, Python, R | user defined functions realized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc. | yes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Triggers | yes | yes see docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/kusto/management/updatepolicy | yes | Client-side triggers through changefeeds | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Partitioning methods Methods for storing different data on different nodes | Sharding no "single point of failure" | Sharding Implicit feature of the cloud service | partitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hash | Sharding range based | none | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Replication methods Methods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodes | selectable replication factor Representation of geographical distribution of servers is possible | yes Implicit feature of the cloud service. Replication either local, cross-facility or geo-redundant. | Source-replica replication other methods possible by using 3rd party extensions | Source-replica replication | Multi-source replication CONFLICT Trigger to resolve replication conflicts Source-replica replication | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| MapReduce Offers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methods | yes | Spark connector (open source): github.com/Azure/azure-kusto-spark | no | yes | no | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Consistency concepts Methods to ensure consistency in a distributed system | Eventual Consistency Immediate Consistency can be individually decided for each write operation | Eventual Consistency Immediate Consistency | Immediate Consistency | Immediate Consistency | Immediate Consistency | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Foreign keys Referential integrity | no | no | yes | no | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Transaction concepts Support to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of data | no Atomicity and isolation are supported for single operations | no | ACID | Atomic single-document operations | ACID | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Concurrency Support for concurrent manipulation of data | yes | yes | yes | yes MVCC based | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Durability Support for making data persistent | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In-memory capabilities Is there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only. | no | no | no | no | no caching of (temporary) tables can be configured | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| User concepts Access control | Access rights for users can be defined per object | Azure Active Directory Authentication | fine grained access rights according to SQL-standard | yes users and table-level permissions | fine grained access rights according to SQL-standard | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| More information provided by the system vendor | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cassandra | Microsoft Azure Data Explorer | PostgreSQL | RethinkDB | SAP Advantage Database Server former name: Sybase ADS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Specific characteristics | Apache Cassandra is the leading NoSQL, distributed database management system, well... » more | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Competitive advantages | No single point of failure ensures 100% availability . Operational simplicity for... » more | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Typical application scenarios | Internet of Things (IOT), fraud detection applications, recommendation engines, product... » more | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Key customers | Apple, Netflix, Uber, ING,, Intuit,Fidelity, NY Times, Outbrain, BazaarVoice, Best... » more | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Market metrics | Cassandra is used by 40% of the Fortune 100. » more | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Licensing and pricing models | Apache license Pricing for commercial distributions provided by DataStax and available... » more | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| News | An Introduction to David Jones-Gilardi, Developer Relations Introducing Tejas Kumar, Developer Relations Engineer Indexing All of Wikipedia on a Laptop An Introduction to Phil Nash, Developer Relations Focus on Creativity, Not Clusters: DataStax Mission Control in Action! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 3rd parties | Cassandra Forward event: Want to level up your Cassandra game? Watch now replays of the March 2023 sessions. » more CData: Connect to Big Data & NoSQL through standard Drivers. » more | pgDash: In-Depth PostgreSQL Monitoring. » more Navicat Monitor is a safe, simple and agentless remote server monitoring tool for PostgreSQL and many other database management systems. » more Redgate webinars: A series of key topics for new PostgreSQL users. » more CYBERTEC is your professional partner in PostgreSQL topics for over 20 years. As our main aim is to be your single-source all-in-one IT service provider, we offer a wide range of products and services. Visit our website for more details. » more Navicat for PostgreSQL is an easy-to-use graphical tool for PostgreSQL database development. » more Fujitsu Enterprise Postgres: An Enterprise Grade PostgreSQL with the flexibility of a hybrid cloud solution combined with industry leading security, availability and performance. » more Aiven for PostgreSQL: Fully managed PostgreSQL for developers with 70+ extensions and flexible orchestration tools. » more SharePlex is the reliable and affordable data replication solution for PostgreSQL migrations, high availability and more. » more Timescale: Calling all PostgreSQL users – the 2023 State of PostgreSQL survey is now open! Share your favorite extensions, preferred frameworks, community experiences, and more. Take the survey today! » more Instaclustr: Fully Hosted & Managed PostgreSQL » more | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| More resources | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cassandra | Microsoft Azure Data Explorer | PostgreSQL | RethinkDB | SAP Advantage Database Server former name: Sybase ADS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DB-Engines blog posts | Cassandra keeps climbing the ranks of the DB-Engines Ranking Oracle is the DBMS of the Year Winners, losers and an attractive newcomer in Novembers DB-Engines ranking | PostgreSQL is the DBMS of the Year 2023 Snowflake is the DBMS of the Year 2022, defending the title from last year Snowflake is the DBMS of the Year 2021 | Meet some database management systems you are likely to hear more about in the future | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Recent citations in the news | ScyllaDB 6.0 advances open source database scalability Here's What to Know About Apache Cassandra 5.0 How Uber Optimized Cassandra Operations At Scale Microsoft extends life support for aging Apache Cassandra 3.11 database How Zalando migrated their shopping carts to Amazon DynamoDB from Apache Cassandra | Amazon Web Services provided by Google News | We’re retiring Azure Time Series Insights on 7 July 2024 – transition to Azure Data Explorer | Azure updates Update records in a Kusto Database (public preview) | Azure updates Public Preview: Azure Data Explorer connector for Apache Flink | Azure updates Announcing General Availability to migrate Virtual Network injected Azure Data Explorer Cluster to Private Endpoints ... New Features for graph-match KQL Operator: Enhanced Pattern Matching and Cycle Control | Azure updates provided by Google News | PostgreSQL is Now Faster than Pinecone, 75% Cheaper, with New Open Source Extensions Timescale unveils high-performance AI vector database extensions for PostgreSQL A New Era AI Databases: PostgreSQL with pgvectorscale Outperforms Pinecone and Cuts Costs by 75% with New Open-Source Extensions PostgreSQL Tutorial: Definition, Commands, & Features Raise the bar on AI-powered app development with Azure Database for PostgreSQL provided by Google News | An introduction to building realtime apps with RethinkDB How to Use RethinkDB with Node.js Applications — SitePoint Stripe acquires team behind NoSQL database startup RethinkDB RethinkDB is dead, and MongoDB isn't what killed it RethinkDB is shutting down, Qt Quick Controls, and Sensory gives developers Alexa voice control—SD Times news ... provided by Google News | SAP Announces Q3 2023 Results: Asia Pacific and Japan View provided by Google News | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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