DBMS > CockroachDB vs. Google Cloud Spanner vs. VoltDB

System Properties Comparison CockroachDB vs. Google Cloud Spanner vs. VoltDB

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines

Name

Description

CockroachDB is a distributed database architected for modern cloud applications. It is wire compatible with PostgreSQL and backed by a Key-Value Store, which is either RocksDB or a purpose-built derivative, called Pebble.

A horizontally scalable, globally consistent, relational database service. It is the externalization of the core Google database that runs the biggest aspects of Google, like Ads and Google Play.

Distributed In-Memory NewSQL RDBMS

Used for OLTP applications with a high frequency of relatively simple transactions, that can hold all their data in memory

Primary database model

Relational DBMS

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

Score	3.90
Rank	#68	Overall
	#36	Relational DBMS

Score	2.56
Rank	#97	Overall
	#50	Relational DBMS

Score	1.21
Rank	#164	Overall
	#74	Relational DBMS

Website

www.cockroachlabs.com

cloud.google.com/spanner

www.voltdb.com

Technical documentation

www.cockroachlabs.com/docs

cloud.google.com/spanner/docs

docs.voltdb.com

Developer

Cockroach Labs

Google

VoltDB Inc.

Initial release

2015

2017

2010

Current release

24.1.0, May 2024

11.3, April 2022

License

Commercial or Open Source

Open Source

Apache 2.0, commercial license available

commercial

Open Source

AGPL for Community Edition, commercial license for Enterprise, AWS, and Pro Editions

Cloud-based only

Only available as a cloud service

yes

DBaaS offerings (sponsored links)

Database as a Service

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

Implementation language

Java, C++

Server operating systems

Linux
macOS
Windows

hosted

Linux
OS X

for development

Data scheme

dynamic schema

yes

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.

Secondary indexes

yes

SQL

Support of SQL

yes, wire compatible with PostgreSQL

yes

Query statements complying to ANSI 2011

yes

only a subset of SQL 99

APIs and other access methods

JDBC

gRPC (using protocol buffers) API
JDBC

At present, JDBC supports read-only queries. No support for DDL or DML statements.
RESTful HTTP API

Java API
JDBC
RESTful HTTP/JSON API

Supported programming languages

C#
C++
Clojure
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
Ruby
Rust

Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python

C#
C++
Erlang

not officially supported
Go
Java
JavaScript

Node.js
PHP
Python

Server-side scripts

Stored procedures

Java

Triggers

Partitioning methods

Methods for storing different data on different nodes

horizontal partitioning (by key range)

all tables are translated to an ordered KV store and then broken down into 64MB ranges, which are then used as replicas in RAFT

Sharding

Replication methods

Methods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodes

Multi-source replication using RAFT

Multi-source replication with 3 replicas for regional instances.

Multi-source replication
Source-replica replication

MapReduce

Offers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methods

yes

using Google Cloud Dataflow

Consistency concepts

Methods to ensure consistency in a distributed system

Immediate Consistency

Foreign keys

Referential integrity

yes

by using interleaved tables, this features focuses more on performance improvements than on referential integrity

FOREIGN KEY constraints are not supported

Transaction concepts

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

ACID

Strict serializable isolation

ACID

Transactions are executed single-threaded within stored procedures

Concurrency

Support for concurrent manipulation of data

yes

Data access is serialized by the server

Durability

Support for making data persistent

yes

Snapshots and command logging

In-memory capabilities

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

User concepts

Access control

Role-based access control

Access rights for users, groups and roles based on Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM)

Users and roles with access to stored procedures

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More resources

Recent citations in the news

IBM Expands Its Hybrid Cloud and AI Capabilities with CockroachDB Integration
7 May 2025, TipRanks

AI Meets Resilience: Cockroach Labs Intros CockroachDB 24.2
2 October 2024, Channel Insider

CockroachDB scurries off to proprietary software land
23 August 2024, theregister.com

Cockroach Labs shakes up its licensing to force bigger companies to pay
15 August 2024, TechCrunch

Now CockroachDB Ditches Open-Source License
20 August 2024, It's FOSS News

provided by Google News

Google Cloud Introduces HDD Tier for Spanner Database, Cutting Cold Storage Costs by 80%
22 March 2025, infoq.com

New features make Google's Spanner a database for AI
1 August 2024, TechTarget

Google Cloud adds graph processing to Spanner, SQL support to Bigtable
1 August 2024, InfoWorld

Google Cloud adds graph and vector search features to Spanner database
2 August 2024, techzine.eu

Google’s Plan to Make GCP ‘The Best Cloud for Machine Learning’
5 May 2025, SDx Central

provided by Google News

VoltDB Launches Active(N) Lossless Cross Data Center Replication
31 August 2021, PR Newswire

VoltDB Aims for Fast Big Data Development
29 January 2015, ADTmag

VoltDB Announces Key New Hires
26 October 2021, citybiz

MemSQL, VoltDB Vie For In-Memory Big Data Role
12 February 2015, InformationWeek

VoltDB Adds Geospatial Support to Its Operational InMemory SQL Database
30 January 2016, App Developer Magazine

provided by Google News

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