DBMS > ClickHouse vs. PostgreSQL vs. Vertica

System Properties Comparison ClickHouse vs. PostgreSQL vs. Vertica

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines

Name

Description

A high-performance, column-oriented SQL DBMS for online analytical processing (OLAP) that uses all available system resources to their full potential to process each analytical query as fast as possible. It is available as both an open-source software and a cloud offering.

Widely used open source RDBMS

Developed as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQL

Cloud or off-cloud analytical database and query engine for structured and semi-structured streaming and batch data. Machine learning platform with built-in algorithms, data preparation capabilities, and model evaluation and management via SQL or Python.

Primary database model

Relational DBMS

with object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module.

Relational DBMS

Column oriented

Secondary database models

Time Series DBMS

Document store
Graph DBMS

with Apache Age
Spatial DBMS
Vector DBMS

with pgvector extension

Spatial DBMS
Time Series DBMS

DB-Engines Ranking measures the popularity of database management systems
Trend Chart

Score	15.17
Rank	#37	Overall
	#22	Relational DBMS

Score	638.91
Rank	#4	Overall
	#4	Relational DBMS

Score	9.96
Rank	#42	Overall
	#26	Relational DBMS

Website

clickhouse.com

www.postgresql.org

www.vertica.com

Technical documentation

clickhouse.com/docs

www.postgresql.org/docs

vertica.com/documentation

Developer

Clickhouse Inc.

PostgreSQL Global Development Group

www.postgresql.org/developer

OpenText

previously Micro Focus and Hewlett Packard

Initial release

2016

1989

1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL

2005

Current release

v24.6.2.17-stable, July 2024

16.3, May 2024

12.0.3, January 2023

License

Commercial or Open Source

Open Source

Apache 2.0

Open Source

BSD

commercial

Limited community edition free

Cloud-based only

Only available as a cloud service

on-premises, all major clouds - Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform and containers

DBaaS offerings (sponsored links)

Database as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.

ClickHouse Cloud: Get the performance you love from open source ClickHouse in a serverless offering that takes care of the details so you can spend more time getting insight out of the fastest database on earth.
DoubleCloud: Fully managed ClickHouse alongside best-in-class managed open-source services to build analytics at scale.

PostgreSQL Flex @ STACKIT offers managed PostgreSQL Instances with adjustable CPU, RAM, storage amount and speed and several extensions available, in enterprise grade to perfectly match all application requirements. All 100% GDPR-compliant.

Implementation language

C++

Server operating systems

FreeBSD
Linux
macOS

FreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows

Linux

Data scheme

yes

Yes, but also semi-structure/unstructured data storage, and complex hierarchical data (like Parquet) stored and/or queried.

Typing

predefined data types such as float or date

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.

yes

specific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality.

Secondary indexes

yes

No Indexes Required. Different internal optimization strategy, but same functionality included.

SQL

Support of SQL

Close to ANSI SQL (SQL/JSON + extensions)

yes

standard with numerous extensions

Full 1999 standard plus machine learning, time series and geospatial. Over 650 functions.

APIs and other access methods

gRPC
HTTP REST
JDBC
MySQL wire protocol
ODBC
PostgreSQL wire protocol
Proprietary protocol

ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects

ADO.NET
JDBC
Kafka Connector
ODBC
RESTful HTTP API
Spark Connector
vSQL

character-based, interactive, front-end utility

Supported programming languages

3rd party library
C++
Elixir

3rd party library
Go

3rd party library
Java

3rd party library
JavaScript (Node.js)

3rd party library
Kotlin

3rd party library
Nim

3rd party library
Perl

3rd party library
PHP

3rd party library
Python

3rd party library
R

3rd party library
Ruby

3rd party library
Rust
Scala

3rd party library

.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java

JDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl

C#
C++
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
R

Server-side scripts

Stored procedures

yes

user defined functions

realized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.

yes, PostgreSQL PL/pgSQL, with minor differences

Triggers

yes

yes, called Custom Alerts

Partitioning methods

Methods for storing different data on different nodes

key based and custom

partitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hash

horizontal partitioning, hierarchical partitioning

Replication methods

Methods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodes

Asynchronous and synchronous physical replication; geographically distributed replicas; support for object storages.

Source-replica replication

other methods possible by using 3rd party extensions

Multi-source replication

One, or more copies of data replicated across nodes, or object-store used for repository.

MapReduce

Offers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methods

Bi-directional Spark integration

Consistency concepts

Methods to ensure consistency in a distributed system

Immediate Consistency

Foreign keys

Referential integrity

yes

Transaction concepts

Support to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of data

ACID

Concurrency

Support for concurrent manipulation of data

yes

Durability

Support for making data persistent

yes

In-memory capabilities

Is there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.

yes

User concepts

Access control

Access rights for users and roles. Column and row based policies. Quotas and resource limits. Pluggable authentication with LDAP and Kerberos. Password based, X.509 certificate, and SSH key authentication.

fine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

fine grained access rights according to SQL-standard; supports Kerberos, LDAP, Ident and hash

More information provided by the system vendor

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Related products and services

3rd parties

DoubleCloud: Fully managed ClickHouse alongside best-in-class managed open-source services to build analytics at scale.
» 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

Instaclustr: Fully Hosted & Managed PostgreSQL
» more

Navicat for PostgreSQL is an easy-to-use graphical tool for PostgreSQL database development.
» more

SharePlex is the reliable and affordable data replication solution for PostgreSQL migrations, high availability and more.
» 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

We invite representatives of vendors of related products to contact us for presenting information about their offerings here.

More resources

DB-Engines blog posts

PostgreSQL is the DBMS of the Year 2023
2 January 2024, Matthias Gelbmann, Paul Andlinger

Snowflake is the DBMS of the Year 2022, defending the title from last year
3 January 2023, Matthias Gelbmann, Paul Andlinger

Snowflake is the DBMS of the Year 2021
3 January 2022, Paul Andlinger, Matthias Gelbmann

show all

Conferences, events and webinars

more DBMS events

PASS Data Community Summit
Seattle, Washington, 4-8 November 2024

Recent citations in the news

From Open Source to SaaS: the Journey of ClickHouse
16 January 2024, InfoQ.com

ClickHouse Cloud Is Now Generally Available on Microsoft Azure
25 June 2024, Business Wire

Snowflake vs. BigQuery vs. ClickHouse: Mastering Cost-Effective Business Analytics
6 December 2023, hackernoon.com

ClickHouse: Optimizing Real-Time Data Analysis with Online Analytical Processing
11 October 2023, The New Stack

Can LLMs Replace Data Analysts? Getting Answers Using SQL
22 December 2023, Towards Data Science

provided by Google News

Synopsis of several compelling features in PostgreSQL 16 | Amazon Web Services
12 July 2024, AWS Blog

Pgextensions Index For PostgreSQL
22 July 2024, iProgrammer

Best of Makers: PostgreSQL Takes a New Turn
22 February 2024, The New Stack

General availability: Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Flexible Server enhanced disaster recovery features
24 April 2024, Microsoft

Managed PostgreSQL service provider Tembo raises $14M
3 July 2024, SiliconANGLE News

provided by Google News

Don’t Believe the Big Database Hype, Stonebraker Warns
8 July 2024, Datanami

Why HPE Vertica 8 is the best fit for businesses to create an analytics-driven enterprise
16 July 2024, AIM

What’s New in OpenText Vertica
25 July 2023, OpenText

Querying a Vertica data source in Amazon Athena using the Athena Federated Query SDK
11 February 2021, AWS Blog

Postgres pioneer Michael Stonebraker promises to upend the database once more
26 December 2023, The Register

provided by Google News

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