DBMS > Firebase Realtime Database vs. FoundationDB vs. Realm

System Properties Comparison Firebase Realtime Database vs. FoundationDB vs. Realm

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines

Name

Created as commercial project in 2013, FoundationDB has been acquired by Apple in March 2015 and was withdrawn from the market.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.

Description

Cloud-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.

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

supported via specific layer
Key-value store
Relational DBMS

supported via specific SQL-layer

Document store

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

Score	15.00
Rank	#39	Overall
	#6	Document stores

Score	1.07
Rank	#188	Overall
	#31	Document stores
	#28	Key-value stores
	#86	Relational DBMS

Score	7.71
Rank	#52	Overall
	#9	Document stores

Website

firebase.google.com/products/realtime-database

github.com/apple/foundationdb

realm.io

Technical documentation

firebase.google.com/docs/database

apple.github.io/foundationdb

realm.io/docs

Developer

Google

acquired by Google 2014

FoundationDB

Realm, acquired by MongoDB in May 2019

Initial release

2012

2013

2014

Current release

6.2.28, November 2020

License

Commercial or Open Source

commercial

Open Source

Apache 2.0

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.

Implementation language

C++

Server operating systems

hosted

Linux
OS X
Windows

Android
Backend: server-less
iOS
Windows

Data scheme

schema-free

some layers support schemas

yes

Typing

predefined data types such as float or date

yes

some layers support typing

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

supported in specific SQL layer only

APIs and other access methods

Android
iOS
JavaScript API
RESTful HTTP API

Supported programming languages

Java
JavaScript
Objective-C

.Net
C
C++
Go
Java
JavaScript

Node.js
PHP
Python
Ruby
Swift

.Net
Java

with Android only
Objective-C
React Native
Swift

Server-side scripts

Stored procedures

limited functionality with using 'rules'

in SQL-layer only

runs within the applications so server-side scripts are unnecessary

Triggers

Callbacks are triggered when data changes

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

yes

none

MapReduce

Offers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methods

Consistency concepts

Methods to ensure consistency in a distributed system

Eventual Consistency

if the client is offline
Immediate Consistency

if the client is online

Linearizable consistency

Immediate Consistency

Foreign keys

Referential integrity

in SQL-layer only

Transaction concepts

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

yes

ACID

Concurrency

Support for concurrent manipulation of data

yes

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

In-Memory realm

User concepts

Access control

yes, based on authentication and database rules

yes

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More resources

DB-Engines blog posts

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12 December 2019, Paul Andlinger

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Recent citations in the news

Realtime vs Cloud Firestore: Which Firebase Database to go?
8 March 2024, Appinventiv

Atos cybersecurity blog: Misconfigured Firebase: A real-time cyber threat
18 January 2024, Atos

Don't be like these 900+ websites and expose millions of passwords via Firebase
18 March 2024, The Register

Google Firebase may have exposed 125M records from misconfigurations
19 March 2024, SC Media

Hundreds of Google Firebase websites might have leaked data online
19 March 2024, TechRadar

provided by Google News

FoundationDB team's new venture, Antithesis, raises $47M to enhance software testing
13 February 2024, SiliconANGLE News

Antithesis raises $47M to launch an automated testing platform for software
13 February 2024, TechCrunch

Antithesis Launches Out Of Stealth To Revolutionize Software Reliability
13 February 2024, Yahoo Finance Australia

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28 September 2023, DevClass

IBM Cloudant pulls plan to fund new foundational layer for CouchDB
15 March 2022, The Register

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9 June 2020, diginomica

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6 October 2016, The Business Journals

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12 September 2017, Solutions Review

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