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DBMS > Firebase Realtime Database vs. Kdb vs. Microsoft Azure Data Explorer vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. PostgreSQL

System Properties Comparison Firebase Realtime Database vs. Kdb vs. Microsoft Azure Data Explorer vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. PostgreSQL

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameFirebase Realtime Database  Xexclude from comparisonKdb  Xexclude from comparisonMicrosoft Azure Data Explorer  Xexclude from comparisonMicrosoft SQL Server  Xexclude from comparisonPostgreSQL  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.High performance Time Series DBMSFully managed big data interactive analytics platformMicrosofts flagship relational DBMSWidely used open source RDBMS infoDeveloped as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQL
Primary database modelDocument storeTime Series DBMS
Vector DBMS
Relational DBMS infocolumn orientedRelational DBMSRelational DBMS infowith object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module.
Secondary database modelsRelational DBMSDocument store infoIf a column is of type dynamic docs.microsoft.com/­en-us/­azure/­kusto/­query/­scalar-data-types/­dynamic then it's possible to add arbitrary JSON documents in this cell
Event Store infothis is the general usage pattern at Microsoft. Billing, Logs, Telemetry events are stored in ADX and the state of an individual entity is defined by the arg_max(timestamps)
Spatial DBMS
Search engine infosupport for complex search expressions docs.microsoft.com/­en-us/­azure/­kusto/­query/­parseoperator FTS, Geospatial docs.microsoft.com/­en-us/­azure/­kusto/­query/­geo-point-to-geohash-function distributed search -> ADX acts as a distributed search engine
Time Series DBMS infosee docs.microsoft.com/­en-us/­azure/­data-explorer/­time-series-analysis
Document store
Graph DBMS
Spatial DBMS
Document store
Graph DBMS infowith Apache Age
Spatial DBMS
Vector DBMS infowith pgvector extension
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score13.64
Rank#39  Overall
#6  Document stores
Score7.71
Rank#49  Overall
#2  Time Series DBMS
#1  Vector DBMS
Score3.80
Rank#81  Overall
#43  Relational DBMS
Score821.56
Rank#3  Overall
#3  Relational DBMS
Score636.25
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Websitefirebase.google.com/­products/­realtime-databasekx.comazure.microsoft.com/­services/­data-explorerwww.microsoft.com/­en-us/­sql-serverwww.postgresql.org
Technical documentationfirebase.google.com/­docs/­databasecode.kx.comdocs.microsoft.com/­en-us/­azure/­data-explorerlearn.microsoft.com/­en-US/­sql/­sql-serverwww.postgresql.org/­docs
DeveloperGoogle infoacquired by Google 2014Kx Systems, a division of First Derivatives plcMicrosoftMicrosoftPostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developer
Initial release20122000 infokdb was released 2000, kdb+ in 2003201919891989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL
Current release3.6, May 2018cloud service with continuous releasesSQL Server 2022, November 202216.3, May 2024
License infoCommercial or Open Sourcecommercialcommercial infofree 32-bit versioncommercialcommercial inforestricted free version is availableOpen Source infoBSD
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud serviceyesnoyesnono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

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Implementation languageqC++C
Server operating systemshostedLinux
OS X
Solaris
Windows
hostedLinux
Windows
FreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows
Data schemeschema-freeyesFixed schema with schema-less datatypes (dynamic)yesyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesyes infobool, datetime, dynamic, guid, int, long, real, string, timespan, double: docs.microsoft.com/­en-us/­azure/­kusto/­query/­scalar-data-typesyesyes
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.noyesyesyesyes infospecific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality.
Secondary indexesyesyes infotable attribute 'grouped'all fields are automatically indexedyesyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLnoSQL-like query language (q)Kusto Query Language (KQL), SQL subsetyesyes infostandard with numerous extensions
APIs and other access methodsAndroid
iOS
JavaScript API
RESTful HTTP API
HTTP API
JDBC
Jupyter
Kafka
ODBC
WebSocket
Microsoft SQL Server communication protocol (MS-TDS)
RESTful HTTP API
ADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
OLE DB
Tabular Data Stream (TDS)
ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
Supported programming languagesJava
JavaScript
Objective-C
C
C#
C++
Go
J
Java
JavaScript
Lua
MatLab
Perl
PHP
Python
R
Scala
.Net
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PowerShell
Python
R
C#
C++
Delphi
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
R
Ruby
Visual Basic
.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java infoJDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl
Server-side scripts infoStored procedureslimited functionality with using 'rules'user defined functionsYes, possible languages: KQL, Python, RTransact SQL, .NET languages, R, Python and (with SQL Server 2019) Javauser defined functions inforealized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.
TriggersCallbacks are triggered when data changesyes infowith viewsyes infosee docs.microsoft.com/­en-us/­azure/­kusto/­management/­updatepolicyyesyes
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodeshorizontal partitioningSharding infoImplicit feature of the cloud servicetables can be distributed across several files (horizontal partitioning); sharding through federationpartitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hash
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesSource-replica replicationyes infoImplicit feature of the cloud service. Replication either local, cross-facility or geo-redundant.yes, but depending on the SQL-Server EditionSource-replica replication infoother methods possible by using 3rd party extensions
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnono infosimilar paradigm used for internal processingSpark connector (open source): github.com/­Azure/­azure-kusto-sparknono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemEventual Consistency infoif the client is offline
Immediate Consistency infoif the client is online
Immediate ConsistencyEventual Consistency
Immediate Consistency
Immediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integritynoyesnoyesyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of datayesnonoACIDACID
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.yesnoyesno
User concepts infoAccess controlyes, based on authentication and database rulesrights management via user accountsAzure Active Directory Authenticationfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardfine grained access rights according to SQL-standard
More information provided by the system vendor
Firebase Realtime DatabaseKdbMicrosoft Azure Data ExplorerMicrosoft SQL ServerPostgreSQL
Specific characteristicsIntegrated columnar database & programming system for streaming, real time and historical...
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Competitive advantagesprovides seamless scalability; runs on industry standard server platforms; is top-ranked...
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Typical application scenariostick database streaming sensor data massive intelligence applications oil and gas...
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Key customersGoldman Sachs Morgan Stanley Merrill Lynch J.P. Morgan Deutsche Bank IEX Securities...
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Market metricskdb+ performance and reliability proven by our customers in critical infrastructure...
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Licensing and pricing modelsupon request
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More resources
Firebase Realtime DatabaseKdbMicrosoft Azure Data ExplorerMicrosoft SQL ServerPostgreSQL
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