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DBMS > Firebase Realtime Database vs. Google Cloud Spanner vs. ObjectBox

System Properties Comparison Firebase Realtime Database vs. Google Cloud Spanner vs. ObjectBox

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameFirebase Realtime Database  Xexclude from comparisonGoogle Cloud Spanner  Xexclude from comparisonObjectBox  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionCloud-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.Lightweight, fast on-device database for IoT, Mobile and Embedded devices, persisting and synchronising objects and vectors
Primary database modelDocument storeRelational DBMSObject oriented DBMS
Vector DBMS
Secondary database modelsTime Series DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score13.43
Rank#39  Overall
#6  Document stores
Score2.56
Rank#97  Overall
#50  Relational DBMS
Score1.11
Rank#175  Overall
#7  Object oriented DBMS
#13  Vector DBMS
Websitefirebase.google.com/­products/­realtime-databasecloud.google.com/­spannergithub.com/­objectbox
objectbox.io
Technical documentationfirebase.google.com/­docs/­databasecloud.google.com/­spanner/­docsdocs.objectbox.io
DeveloperGoogle infoacquired by Google 2014GoogleObjectBox Limited
Initial release201220172017
Current release4.0 (May 2024)
License infoCommercial or Open SourcecommercialcommercialBindings are released under Apache 2.0 infoApache License 2.0
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud serviceyesyesno
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.
Implementation languageC and C++
Server operating systemshostedhostedAndroid
Any POSIX system
Docker
iOS
Linux
macOS
QNX
Windows
Data schemeschema-freeyesyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesyes, plus "flex" map-like types
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.nonono
Secondary indexesyesyesyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLnoyes infoQuery statements complying to ANSI 2011no
APIs and other access methodsAndroid
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
Proprietary native API
Supported programming languagesJava
JavaScript
Objective-C
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
C
C++
Dart (Flutter)
Go
Java
Kotlin
Python
Swift
Server-side scripts infoStored procedureslimited functionality with using 'rules'nono
TriggersCallbacks are triggered when data changesnono
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesShardingnone
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesMulti-source replication with 3 replicas for regional instances.Data sync between devices allowing occasional connected databases to work completely offline
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnoyes infousing Google Cloud Dataflowno
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemEventual Consistency infoif the client is offline
Immediate Consistency infoif the client is online
Immediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integritynoyes infoby using interleaved tables, this features focuses more on performance improvements than on referential integrityyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of datayesACID infoStrict serializable isolationACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.nono
User concepts infoAccess controlyes, based on authentication and database rulesAccess rights for users, groups and roles based on Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM)yes
More information provided by the system vendor
Firebase Realtime DatabaseGoogle Cloud SpannerObjectBox
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