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DBMS > Apache Impala vs. Elasticsearch vs. Firebase Realtime Database vs. Google Cloud Spanner vs. Microsoft Azure AI Search

System Properties Comparison Apache Impala vs. Elasticsearch vs. Firebase Realtime Database vs. Google Cloud Spanner vs. Microsoft Azure AI Search

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameApache Impala  Xexclude from comparisonElasticsearch  Xexclude from comparisonFirebase Realtime Database  Xexclude from comparisonGoogle Cloud Spanner  Xexclude from comparisonMicrosoft Azure AI Search  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionAnalytic DBMS for HadoopA distributed, RESTful modern search and analytics engine based on Apache Lucene infoElasticsearch lets you perform and combine many types of searches such as structured, unstructured, geo, and metricCloud-hosted realtime document store. iOS, Android, and JavaScript clients share one Realtime Database instance and automatically receive updates with the newest data.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.Search-as-a-service for web and mobile app development
Primary database modelRelational DBMSSearch engineDocument storeRelational DBMSSearch engine
Secondary database modelsDocument storeDocument store
Spatial DBMS
Vector DBMS
Vector DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score14.03
Rank#40  Overall
#24  Relational DBMS
Score134.78
Rank#7  Overall
#1  Search engines
Score15.00
Rank#39  Overall
#6  Document stores
Score2.89
Rank#105  Overall
#53  Relational DBMS
Score5.71
Rank#64  Overall
#8  Search engines
Websiteimpala.apache.orgwww.elastic.co/­elasticsearchfirebase.google.com/­products/­realtime-databasecloud.google.com/­spannerazure.microsoft.com/­en-us/­services/­search
Technical documentationimpala.apache.org/­impala-docs.htmlwww.elastic.co/­guide/­en/­elasticsearch/­reference/­current/­index.htmlfirebase.google.com/­docs/­databasecloud.google.com/­spanner/­docslearn.microsoft.com/­en-us/­azure/­search
DeveloperApache Software Foundation infoApache top-level project, originally developed by ClouderaElasticGoogle infoacquired by Google 2014GoogleMicrosoft
Initial release20132010201220172015
Current release4.1.0, June 20228.6, January 2023V1
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoApache Version 2Open Source infoElastic Licensecommercialcommercialcommercial
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenonoyesyesyes
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.
Implementation languageC++Java
Server operating systemsLinuxAll OS with a Java VMhostedhostedhosted
Data schemeyesschema-free infoFlexible type definitions. Once a type is defined, it is persistentschema-freeyesyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesyesyesyes
XML support infoSome form of processing data in XML format, e.g. support for XML data structures, and/or support for XPath, XQuery or XSLT.nonononono
Secondary indexesyesyes infoAll search fields are automatically indexedyesyesyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLSQL-like DML and DDL statementsSQL-like query languagenoyes infoQuery statements complying to ANSI 2011no
APIs and other access methodsJDBC
ODBC
Java API
RESTful HTTP/JSON API
Android
iOS
JavaScript API
RESTful HTTP API
gRPC (using protocol buffers) API
JDBC infoAt present, JDBC supports read-only queries. No support for DDL or DML statements.
RESTful HTTP API
RESTful HTTP API
Supported programming languagesAll languages supporting JDBC/ODBC.Net
Groovy
Community Contributed Clients
Java
JavaScript
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Java
JavaScript
Objective-C
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
C#
Java
JavaScript
Python
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresyes infouser defined functions and integration of map-reduceyeslimited functionality with using 'rules'nono
Triggersnoyes infoby using the 'percolation' featureCallbacks are triggered when data changesnono
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesShardingShardingShardingSharding infoImplicit feature of the cloud service
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesselectable replication factoryesMulti-source replication with 3 replicas for regional instances.yes infoImplicit feature of the cloud service
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsyes infoquery execution via MapReduceES-Hadoop Connectornoyes infousing Google Cloud Dataflowno
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemEventual ConsistencyEventual Consistency infoSynchronous doc based replication. Get by ID may show delays up to 1 sec. Configurable write consistency: one, quorum, allEventual Consistency infoif the client is offline
Immediate Consistency infoif the client is online
Immediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integritynononoyes infoby using interleaved tables, this features focuses more on performance improvements than on referential integrityno
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of datanonoyesACID infoStrict serializable isolationno
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyesyesyes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.noMemcached and Redis integrationnono
User concepts infoAccess controlAccess rights for users, groups and roles infobased on Apache Sentry and Kerberosyes, based on authentication and database rulesAccess rights for users, groups and roles based on Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM)yes infousing Azure authentication

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More resources
Apache ImpalaElasticsearchFirebase Realtime DatabaseGoogle Cloud SpannerMicrosoft Azure AI Search
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