DBMS > DuckDB vs. PostgreSQL vs. XTDB

System Properties Comparison DuckDB vs. PostgreSQL vs. XTDB

Please select another system to include it in the comparison.

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines

Name

Description

An embeddable, in-process, column-oriented SQL OLAP RDBMS

Widely used open source RDBMS

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

A general purpose database with bitemporal SQL and Datalog and graph queries

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.

Document store

Secondary database models

Document store
Spatial DBMS

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

Score	2.01
Rank	#143	Overall
	#70	Relational DBMS

Score	616.50
Rank	#4	Overall
	#4	Relational DBMS

Score	0.18
Rank	#361	Overall
	#53	Document stores

Website

duckdb.org

www.postgresql.org

github.com/xtdb/xtdb
xtdb.com

Technical documentation

duckdb.org/docs

www.postgresql.org/docs

xtdb.com/docs

Developer

PostgreSQL Global Development Group

www.postgresql.org/developer

Juxt Ltd.

Initial release

2018

1989

1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL

2019

Current release

0.2, August 2020

15.1, November 2022

1.19, September 2021

License

Commercial or Open Source

Open Source

MIT License

Open Source

BSD

Open Source

MIT License

Cloud-based only

Only available as a cloud service

DBaaS offerings (sponsored links)

Database as a Service

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

Aiven for PostgreSQL: Fully managed and hosted PostgreSQL® with 70+ extensions and orchestration tooling included.
ScaleGrid for PostgreSQL: Fully managed PostgreSQL DBaaS hosting On-Premises and on clouds such as AWS, Azure, GCP and DigitalOcean with no vendor lock-in. Leverage any extension and get SSH access.

Implementation language

C++

Clojure

Server operating systems

server-less

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

All OS with a Java 8 (and higher) VM
Linux

Data scheme

yes

schema-free

Typing

predefined data types such as float or date

yes

yes, extensible-data-notation format

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

SQL

Support of SQL

yes

standard with numerous extensions

limited SQL, making use of Apache Calcite

APIs and other access methods

CLI Client
JDBC

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

HTTP REST
JDBC

Supported programming languages

C
C++
Go

3rd party driver
Java
Python
R
Ruby

3rd party driver

.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java

JDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl

Clojure
Java

Server-side scripts

Stored procedures

user defined functions

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

Triggers

yes

Partitioning methods

Methods for storing different data on different nodes

none

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

none

Replication methods

Methods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodes

none

Source-replica replication

other methods possible by using 3rd party extensions

yes, each node contains all data

MapReduce

Offers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methods

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, multi-version concurrency control (MVCC)

yes

Durability

Support for making data persistent

yes

yes, flexibel persistency by using storage technologies like Apache Kafka, RocksDB or LMDB

In-memory capabilities

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

yes

User concepts

Access control

fine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

More information provided by the system vendor

We invite representatives of system vendors to contact us for updating and extending the system information,
and for displaying vendor-provided information such as key customers, competitive advantages and market metrics.

Related products and services

3rd parties

Fujitsu Enterprise Postgres: An Enterprise Grade PostgreSQL with the flexibility of a hybrid cloud solution combined with industry leading security, availability and performance.
» more

DbVisualizer is equipping database professionals with the tools they need to build, manage and maintain state-of-the-art database technologies. It has sky-high user satisfaction and is the preferred tool for database professionals around the world. Customers include Tesla, Apple, Facebook, Deutsche Bank, NASA, and 25,000 others in 145 countries.
» more

Percona: Database problems? Not on your watch.
Databases run better with Percona.
» more

Datasentinel: Platform for Monitoring and Analyzing the performance problems of your PostgreSQL Clusters
» more

Aiven for PostgreSQL: The familiar open source PostgreSQL® that you know and love, with no proprietary features or add-ons that will lock you in.
» more

The State of PostgreSQL 2022 survey is now open!
» more

Instaclustr: Fully Hosted & Managed PostgreSQL
» more

SQLFlow: Provides a visual representation of the overall flow of data. Automated SQL data lineage analysis across Databases, ETL, Business Intelligence, Cloud and Hadoop environments by parsing SQL Script and stored procedure.
» more

pgDash: In-Depth PostgreSQL Monitoring.
» more

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

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

Driving the Future of PostgreSQL Adoption
15 November 2021, Umair Shahid, Percona (sponsor)

show all

Conferences and events

more DBMS events

PGCon 2023, PostgreSQL Conference for Users and Developers
Ottawa, Canada, 30 May 2023 - 2 June 2023

Recent citations in the news

DuckDB, database wrangler used by Google, Facebook, and Airbnb, hits 0.5.0
9 September 2022, The Register

SQL With CSVs
5 January 2023, KDnuggets

MotherDuck raises $47.5M for open source DuckDB database
15 November 2022, TechTarget

Is Big Data Dead? MotherDuck Raises $47M to Prove It
16 November 2022, Datanami

What's 2023 have in store for DC tech? These experts offer their ...
10 January 2022, Technical.ly

provided by Google News

What is PostgreSQL?
25 January 2023, Database Journal

Securing PostgreSQL from Cryptojacking Campaigns in Kubernetes
26 January 2023, CrowdStrike

Microsoft: Kubernetes clusters hacked in malware campaign via PostgreSQL
9 January 2023, BleepingComputer

Running Applications in Docker, Part 2: Table Joins in PostgreSQL
20 January 2023, Virtualization Review

10 Tips to Optimize PostgreSQL Queries in Your Django Project
11 January 2023, Security Boulevard

provided by Google News

Job opportunities

Entry Level Django Developer
I28 Technologies Corporation, Remote

PostgreSQL Developer
Divi Technologies, Remote

Go Backend Engineer 100% Remote
Pridevel Consulting, Remote

Scala Engineer (100% Global Remote)
vidIQ, Remote

Software Engineer - 100% Remote
CDK Global, Salt Lake City, UT

jobs by

Share this page