DBMS > Couchbase vs. IBM Cloudant vs. Realm

System Properties Comparison Couchbase vs. IBM Cloudant vs. Realm

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines

Name

Description

JSON-based document store derived from CouchDB with a Memcached-compatible interface

Database as a Service offering based on Apache CouchDB

A DBMS built for use on mobile devices that’s a fast, easy to use alternative to SQLite and Core Data

Primary database model

Document store

Secondary database models

Key-value store

originating from the former Membase product and supporting the Memcached protocol
Spatial DBMS

using the Geocouch extension

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

Score	30.76
Rank	#26	Overall
	#4	Document stores

Score	3.12
Rank	#91	Overall
	#17	Document stores

Score	9.13
Rank	#48	Overall
	#8	Document stores

Website

www.couchbase.com

www.ibm.com/cloud/cloudant

realm.io

Technical documentation

docs.couchbase.com

cloud.ibm.com/docs/Cloudant

realm.io/docs

Developer

Couchbase, Inc.

IBM, Apache Software Foundation

IBM acquired Cloudant in February 2014

Realm, acquired by MongoDB in May 2019

Initial release

2011

2010

2014

Current release

Server: 6.5, January 2020; Mobile: 2.7, January 2020; Couchbase Autonomous Operator: 1.2, May 2019

License

Commercial or Open Source

Open Source

Apache version 2; Commercial licenses also available

commercial

Open Source

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.

Couchbase Cloud: Deploy, manage, and operate Couchbase in a few clicks

Implementation language

C, C++, Go and Erlang

Erlang

Server operating systems

Linux
OS X
Windows

hosted

Android
Backend: server-less
iOS
Windows

Data scheme

schema-free

yes

Typing

predefined data types such as float or date

yes

String, Boolean, Number

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

Declarative query language (N1QL) that extends ANSI SQL to JSON. First commercial implementation of SQL++.

APIs and other access methods

Native language bindings for CRUD, Query, Search and Analytics APIs

RESTful HTTP/JSON API

Supported programming languages

.Net
C
Clojure
ColdFusion
Erlang
Go
Java
JavaScript

Node.js
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
Tcl

C#
Java
JavaScript
Objective-C
PHP
Ruby

.Net
Java

with Android only
Objective-C
React Native
Swift

Server-side scripts

Stored procedures

Functions and timers in JavaScript

View functions (Map-Reduce) in JavaScript

runs within the applications so server-side scripts are unnecessary

Triggers

yes

via the TAP protocol

yes

Change Listeners

Partitioning methods

Methods for storing different data on different nodes

Sharding

none

Replication methods

Methods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodes

Multi-source replication

including cross data center replication
Source-replica replication

Multi-source replication
Source-replica replication

none

MapReduce

Offers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methods

yes

Consistency concepts

Methods to ensure consistency in a distributed system

Eventual Consistency
Immediate Consistency

selectable on a per-operation basis

Eventual Consistency

Immediate Consistency

Foreign keys

Referential integrity

Transaction concepts

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

ACID

atomic operations within a document possible

ACID

Concurrency

Support for concurrent manipulation of data

yes

Optimistic locking

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

Ephemeral buckets

yes

In-Memory realm

User concepts

Access control

User and Administrator separation with password-based and LDAP integrated Authentication

Access rights for users can be defined per database

yes

More information provided by the system vendor

Specific characteristics

Developed as an alternative to traditionally inflexible relational databases, Couchbase...
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Now a part of MongoDB Data Platform , Realm Database is the fast, easy to use, and...
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Competitive advantages

Couchbase was architected with several differentiated capabilities: Shared-nothing,...
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Realm ensures offline-first functionality, meaning apps run smoothly and deliver...
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Typical application scenarios

Customer 360 for user profile, session store and data aggregation (Comcast, Equifax,...
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Mobile Consumer Apps First-Line Worker Apps
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Key customers

Amadeus, AT&T, BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), Carrefour, Cisco, Comcast, Disney,...
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Cathay Pacific Royal Carribbean Cruise Lines Open Source Database powers apps built...
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Market metrics

Named a leader in the Forrester Wave™: Big Data NoSQL, Q1 2019 Over 10M downloads...
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Used by 100,000+ developers 2 bn installs Currently used in 40k+ applications in...
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Licensing and pricing models

The Community Edition (CE) of Couchbase Server and Couchbase Mobile are available...
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Realm database is licensed under the Apache License v2.0.
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