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DBMS > Firebase Realtime Database vs. FoundationDB vs. HarperDB vs. Sphinx

System Properties Comparison Firebase Realtime Database vs. FoundationDB vs. HarperDB vs. Sphinx

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameFirebase Realtime Database  Xexclude from comparisonFoundationDB  Xexclude from comparisonHarperDB  Xexclude from comparisonSphinx  Xexclude from comparison
Created as commercial project in 2013, FoundationDB has been acquired by Apple in March 2015 and was withdrawn from the market. As a consequence, the product was removed from the DB-Engines ranking. In April 2018, Apple open-sourced FoundationDB and it therefore reappears in the ranking.
DescriptionCloud-hosted realtime document store. iOS, Android, and JavaScript clients share one Realtime Database instance and automatically receive updates with the newest data.Ordered key-value store. Core features are complimented by layers.Ultra-low latency distributed database with an intuitive REST API supporting NoSQL and SQL (including joins). Deployment of functions and databases simultaneously with a consolidated node-level architecture.Open source search engine for searching in data from different sources, e.g. relational databases
Primary database modelDocument storeDocument store infosupported via specific layer
Key-value store
Relational DBMS infosupported via specific SQL-layer
Document storeSearch engine
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score14.29
Rank#39  Overall
#6  Document stores
Score1.03
Rank#190  Overall
#31  Document stores
#28  Key-value stores
#89  Relational DBMS
Score0.55
Rank#248  Overall
#38  Document stores
Score5.98
Rank#56  Overall
#5  Search engines
Websitefirebase.google.com/­products/­realtime-databasegithub.com/­apple/­foundationdbwww.harperdb.iosphinxsearch.com
Technical documentationfirebase.google.com/­docs/­databaseapple.github.io/­foundationdbdocs.harperdb.io/­docssphinxsearch.com/­docs
DeveloperGoogle infoacquired by Google 2014FoundationDBHarperDBSphinx Technologies Inc.
Initial release2012201320172001
Current release6.2.28, November 20203.1, August 20213.5.1, February 2023
License infoCommercial or Open SourcecommercialOpen Source infoApache 2.0commercial infofree community edition availableOpen Source infoGPL version 2, commercial licence available
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud serviceyesnonono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

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Implementation languageC++Node.jsC++
Server operating systemshostedLinux
OS X
Windows
Linux
OS X
FreeBSD
Linux
NetBSD
OS X
Solaris
Windows
Data schemeschema-freeschema-free infosome layers support schemasdynamic schemayes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesno infosome layers support typingyes infoJSON data typesno
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.nono
Secondary indexesyesnoyesyes infofull-text index on all search fields
SQL infoSupport of SQLnosupported in specific SQL layer onlySQL-like data manipulation statementsSQL-like query language (SphinxQL)
APIs and other access methodsAndroid
iOS
JavaScript API
RESTful HTTP API
JDBC
ODBC
React Hooks
RESTful HTTP/JSON API
WebSocket
Proprietary protocol
Supported programming languagesJava
JavaScript
Objective-C
.Net
C
C++
Go
Java
JavaScript infoNode.js
PHP
Python
Ruby
Swift
.Net
C
C#
C++
ColdFusion
D
Dart
Delphi
Erlang
Go
Haskell
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Lisp
MatLab
Objective C
Perl
PHP
PowerShell
Prolog
Python
R
Ruby
Rust
Scala
Swift
C++ infounofficial client library
Java
Perl infounofficial client library
PHP
Python
Ruby infounofficial client library
Server-side scripts infoStored procedureslimited functionality with using 'rules'in SQL-layer onlyCustom Functions infosince release 3.1no
TriggersCallbacks are triggered when data changesnonono
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesShardingA table resides as a whole on one (or more) nodes in a clusterSharding infoPartitioning is done manually, search queries against distributed index is supported
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesyesyes infothe nodes on which a table resides can be definednone
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnononono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemEventual Consistency infoif the client is offline
Immediate Consistency infoif the client is online
Linearizable consistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integritynoin SQL-layer onlynono
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of datayesACIDAtomic execution of specific operationsno
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyes, using LMDByes infoThe original contents of fields are not stored in the Sphinx index.
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.yes
User concepts infoAccess controlyes, based on authentication and database rulesnoAccess rights for users and rolesno

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More resources
Firebase Realtime DatabaseFoundationDBHarperDBSphinx
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