DBMS > Firebase Realtime Database vs. PostgreSQL vs. Redis vs. RethinkDB vs. SAP SQL Anywhere

System Properties Comparison Firebase Realtime Database vs. PostgreSQL vs. Redis vs. RethinkDB vs. SAP SQL Anywhere

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines

Name

Description

Cloud-hosted realtime document store. iOS, Android, and JavaScript clients share one Realtime Database instance and automatically receive updates with the newest data.

Widely used open source RDBMS

Developed as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQL

Popular in-memory data platform used as a cache, message broker, and database that can be deployed on-premises, across clouds, and hybrid environments

Redis focuses on performance so most of its design decisions prioritize high performance and very low latencies.

DBMS for the Web with a mechanism to push updated query results to applications in realtime.

RDBMS database and synchronization technologies for server, desktop, remote office, and mobile environments

Primary database model

Document store

Relational DBMS

with object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module.

Key-value store

Multiple data types and a rich set of operations, as well as configurable data expiration, eviction and persistence

Document store

Relational DBMS

Secondary database models

Document store
Graph DBMS

with Apache Age
Spatial DBMS
Vector DBMS

with pgvector extension

Document store

with RedisJSON
Graph DBMS

with RedisGraph
Spatial DBMS
Search engine

with RediSearch
Time Series DBMS

with RedisTimeSeries
Vector DBMS

Spatial DBMS

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

Score	14.29
Rank	#39	Overall
	#6	Document stores

Score	645.54
Rank	#4	Overall
	#4	Relational DBMS

Score	157.80
Rank	#6	Overall
	#1	Key-value stores

Score	2.74
Rank	#105	Overall
	#19	Document stores

Score	4.25
Rank	#79	Overall
	#43	Relational DBMS

Website

firebase.google.com/products/realtime-database

www.postgresql.org

redis.com
redis.io

rethinkdb.com

www.sap.com/products/technology-platform/sql-anywhere.html

Technical documentation

firebase.google.com/docs/database

www.postgresql.org/docs

docs.redis.com/latest/index.html
redis.io/docs

rethinkdb.com/docs

help.sap.com/docs/SAP_SQL_Anywhere

Developer

Google

acquired by Google 2014

PostgreSQL Global Development Group

www.postgresql.org/developer

Redis project core team, inspired by Salvatore Sanfilippo

Development sponsored by Redis Inc.

The Linux Foundation

since July 2017

SAP

formerly Sybase

Initial release

2012

1989

1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL

2009

1992

Current release

16.2, February 2024

7.2.4, January 2024

2.4.1, August 2020

17, July 2015

License

Commercial or Open Source

commercial

Open Source

BSD

Open Source

source-available extensions (modules), commercial licenses for Redis Enterprise

Open Source

Apache Version 2

commercial

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.

Aiven for PostgreSQL: Fully managed PostgreSQL for developers with 70+ extensions and flexible orchestration tools.

Aiven for Redis: Fully managed in-memory key-value store for all your caching and speedy lookup needs.

Implementation language

C++

Server operating systems

hosted

FreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows

BSD
Linux
OS X
Windows

ported and maintained by Microsoft Open Technologies, Inc.

Linux
OS X
Windows

AIX
HP-UX
Linux
OS X
Solaris
Windows

Data scheme

schema-free

yes

schema-free

yes

Typing

predefined data types such as float or date

yes

partial

Supported data types are strings, hashes, lists, sets and sorted sets, bit arrays, hyperloglogs and geospatial indexes

yes

string, binary, float, bool, date, geometry

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.

yes

specific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality.

yes

Secondary indexes

yes

with RediSearch module

yes

SQL

Support of SQL

yes

standard with numerous extensions

with RediSQL module

yes

APIs and other access methods

Android
iOS
JavaScript API
RESTful HTTP API

ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects

proprietary protocol

RESP - REdis Serialization Protocol

ADO.NET
HTTP API
JDBC
ODBC

Supported programming languages

Java
JavaScript
Objective-C

.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java

JDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl

C
C#
C++
Clojure
Crystal
D
Dart
Elixir
Erlang
Fancy
Go
Haskell
Haxe
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Lisp
Lua
MatLab
Objective-C
OCaml
Pascal
Perl
PHP
Prolog
Pure Data
Python
R
Rebol
Ruby
Rust
Scala
Scheme
Smalltalk
Swift
Tcl
Visual Basic

community-supported driver
C#

community-supported driver
C++

community-supported driver
Clojure

community-supported driver
Dart

community-supported driver
Erlang

community-supported driver
Go

community-supported driver
Haskell

community-supported driver
Java

official driver
JavaScript (Node.js)

official driver
Lisp

community-supported driver
Lua

community-supported driver
Objective-C

community-supported driver
Perl

community-supported driver
PHP

community-supported driver
Python

official driver
Ruby

official driver
Scala

community-supported driver

C
C#
C++
Delphi
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby

Server-side scripts

Stored procedures

limited functionality with using 'rules'

user defined functions

realized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.

Lua; Redis Functions coming in Redis 7 (slides and Github)

yes, in C/C++, Java, .Net or Perl

Triggers

Callbacks are triggered when data changes

yes

publish/subscribe channels provide some trigger functionality; RedisGears

Client-side triggers through changefeeds

yes

Partitioning methods

Methods for storing different data on different nodes

partitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hash

Sharding

Automatic hash-based sharding with support for hash-tags for manual sharding

Sharding

range based

none

Replication methods

Methods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodes

Source-replica replication

other methods possible by using 3rd party extensions

Multi-source replication

with Redis Enterprise Pack
Source-replica replication

Chained replication is supported

Source-replica replication

Database mirroring

MapReduce

Offers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methods

through RedisGears

yes

Consistency concepts

Methods to ensure consistency in a distributed system

Eventual Consistency

if the client is offline
Immediate Consistency

if the client is online

Immediate Consistency

Eventual Consistency
Causal consistency can be enabled in Active-Active databases
Strong consistency with Redis Raft
Strong eventual consistency with Active-Active

Immediate Consistency

Foreign keys

Referential integrity

yes

Transaction concepts

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

yes

ACID

Atomic execution of command blocks and scripts and optimistic locking

Atomic single-document operations

ACID

Concurrency

Support for concurrent manipulation of data

yes

Data access is serialized by the server

yes

MVCC based

yes

Durability

Support for making data persistent

yes

Configurable mechanisms for persistency via snapshots and/or operations logs

yes

In-memory capabilities

Is there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.

yes

User concepts

Access control

yes, based on authentication and database rules

fine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

Access Control Lists (ACLs): redis.io/docs/management/security/acl
LDAP and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) for Redis Enterprise
Mutual TLS authentication: redis.io/docs/management/security/encryption
Password-based authentication

yes

users and table-level permissions

fine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

More information provided by the system vendor

We invite representatives of system vendors to contact us for updating and extending the system information,
and for displaying vendor-provided information such as key customers, competitive advantages and market metrics.

Related products and services

3rd parties

Fujitsu Enterprise Postgres: An Enterprise Grade PostgreSQL with the flexibility of a hybrid cloud solution combined with industry leading security, availability and performance.
» more

Navicat Monitor is a safe, simple and agentless remote server monitoring tool for PostgreSQL and many other database management systems.
» more

pgDash: In-Depth PostgreSQL Monitoring.
» more

Instaclustr: Fully Hosted & Managed PostgreSQL
» more

Redgate webinars: A series of key topics for new PostgreSQL users.
» more

Aiven for PostgreSQL: Fully managed PostgreSQL for developers with 70+ extensions and flexible orchestration tools.
» more

SharePlex is the reliable and affordable data replication solution for PostgreSQL migrations, high availability and more.
» more

Timescale: Calling all PostgreSQL users – the 2023 State of PostgreSQL survey is now open! Share your favorite extensions, preferred frameworks, community experiences, and more. Take the survey today!
» more

Navicat for PostgreSQL is an easy-to-use graphical tool for PostgreSQL database development.
» more

CYBERTEC is your professional partner in PostgreSQL topics for over 20 years. As our main aim is to be your single-source all-in-one IT service provider, we offer a wide range of products and services. Visit our website for more details.
» more

Aiven for Redis: Fully managed in-memory key-value store for all your caching and speedy lookup needs.
» more

Navicat for Redis: the award-winning Redis management tool with an intuitive and powerful graphical interface.
» more

Redisson PRO: The ultra-fast Redis Java Client.
» more

CData: Connect to Big Data & NoSQL through standard Drivers.
» more

We invite representatives of vendors of related products to contact us for presenting information about their offerings here.

More resources

DB-Engines blog posts

Cloud-based DBMS's popularity grows at high rates
12 December 2019, Paul Andlinger

show all

PostgreSQL is the DBMS of the Year 2023
2 January 2024, Matthias Gelbmann, Paul Andlinger

Snowflake is the DBMS of the Year 2022, defending the title from last year
3 January 2023, Matthias Gelbmann, Paul Andlinger

Snowflake is the DBMS of the Year 2021
3 January 2022, Paul Andlinger, Matthias Gelbmann

show all

PostgreSQL is the DBMS of the Year 2018
2 January 2019, Paul Andlinger, Matthias Gelbmann

MySQL, PostgreSQL and Redis are the winners of the March ranking
2 March 2016, Paul Andlinger

MongoDB is the DBMS of the year, defending the title from last year
7 January 2015, Paul Andlinger, Matthias Gelbmann

show all

Meet some database management systems you are likely to hear more about in the future
4 August 2014, Paul Andlinger

show all

Conferences, events and webinars

more DBMS events

Monitoring PostgreSQL with Redgate Monitor
Webinar, 10-11am CT / 4-5pm BST, 22 May 2024

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

Automatically Generate Types for Your PostgreSQL Database
1 May 2024, The New Stack

Baffle Delivers Enterprise-Grade Data Security for PostgreSQL on Amazon RDS and Amazon Aurora
1 May 2024, Yahoo Finance

Why PostgreSQL Is the Bedrock for the Future of Data
26 April 2024, hackernoon.com

Crunchy Data Introduces Postgres Query Engine for Data Lakes, Crunchy Bridge for Analytics
30 April 2024, StreetInsider.com

Introducing OCI Database with PostgreSQL: Completing Our Cloud Database Suite for Every Need
14 November 2023, Oracle

provided by Google News

Boosting throughput for cloud databases
29 April 2024, The Register

Redis Named the Most Loved Database in Stack Overflow's Developer Survey
29 April 2024, Yahoo News UK

Redis switches licenses, acquires Speedb to go beyond its core in-memory database
21 March 2024, TechCrunch

Redis acquires storage engine startup Speedb to enhance its open-source database
21 March 2024, SiliconANGLE News

Redis moves to source-available licenses
25 March 2024, InfoWorld

provided by Google News

How to Use RethinkDB with Node.js Applications — SitePoint
16 December 2015, SitePoint

Stripe acquires team behind NoSQL database startup RethinkDB
5 October 2016, VentureBeat

MongoDB: The Popular Database for IoT
15 August 2023, Open Source For You

RethinkDB is dead, and MongoDB isn't what killed it
24 January 2017, TechRepublic

Review: RethinkDB rethinks real-time Web apps
23 September 2015, InfoWorld

provided by Google News

SAP vulnerabilities Let Attacker Inject OS Commands—Patch Now!
11 July 2023, CybersecurityNews

SAP Again Named a Leader in 2021 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Cloud Database Management Systems
16 December 2021, SAP News

SAP launches HANA cloud platform, partners with Siemens, Intel
6 May 2015, Channel Daily News

AWS, IBM, Microsoft, Google emerge Cloud DBMS leaders
22 December 2022, Daily Host News

provided by Google News

Share this page