DBMS > Firebase Realtime Database vs. Realm vs. Redis

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

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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.

A DBMS built for use on mobile devices that’s a fast, easy to use alternative to SQLite and Core Data

In-memory data structure store, used as database, cache and message broker

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

Primary database model

Document store

Key-value store

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

Secondary database models

Document store

with Redis Modules
Graph DBMS

with Redis Modules
Spatial DBMS
Search engine

with Redis Modules
Time Series DBMS

with Redis Modules

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

Score	16.92
Rank	#38	Overall
	#5	Document stores

Score	9.13
Rank	#48	Overall
	#8	Document stores

Score	155.89
Rank	#7	Overall
	#1	Key-value stores

Website

firebase.google.com/products/realtime-database

realm.io

redis.io

Technical documentation

firebase.google.com/docs/database

realm.io/docs

redis.io/documentation

Developer

Google

acquired by Google 2014

Realm, acquired by MongoDB in May 2019

Salvatore Sanfilippo

Development sponsored by Redis Labs

Initial release

2012

2014

2009

Current release

6.2.1 , March 2021

License

Commercial or Open Source

commercial

Open Source

BSD 3-Clause, commercial license available

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.

ScaleGrid for Redis: Fully managed hosting for Redis on AWS, Azure and DigitalOcean with high availability and SSH access on the #1 multi-cloud DBaaS.
Redis Enterprise Cloud: Instantly scale and pay only for the resources you need - on any cloud - AWS, Azure or Google Cloud.

Implementation language

Server operating systems

hosted

Android
Backend: server-less
iOS
Windows

BSD
Linux
OS X
Windows

ported and maintained by Microsoft Open Technologies, Inc.

Data scheme

schema-free

yes

schema-free

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

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

with RediSearch module

SQL

Support of SQL

APIs and other access methods

Android
iOS
JavaScript API
RESTful HTTP API

proprietary protocol

RESP - REdis Serialization Protocol

Supported programming languages

Java
JavaScript
Objective-C

.Net
Java

with Android only
Objective-C
React Native
Swift

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

Server-side scripts

Stored procedures

limited functionality with using 'rules'

runs within the applications so server-side scripts are unnecessary

Lua

Triggers

Callbacks are triggered when data changes

yes

Change Listeners

publish/subscribe channels provide limited trigger functionality

Partitioning methods

Methods for storing different data on different nodes

none

Sharding

Replication methods

Methods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodes

none

Multi-source replication

with Redis Enterprise Pack
Source-replica replication

Chained replication is supported

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

Immediate Consistency

Eventual Consistency
Strong eventual consistency with CRDTs

Foreign keys

Referential integrity

Transaction concepts

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

yes

ACID

Optimistic locking, atomic execution of commands blocks and scripts

Concurrency

Support for concurrent manipulation of data

yes

Data access is serialized by the server

Durability

Support for making data persistent

yes

Configurable mechanisms for persistency via snapshots and/or operations logs

In-memory capabilities

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

yes

In-Memory realm

yes

User concepts

Access control

yes, based on authentication and database rules

yes

Simple password-based access control

Access control lists and SSL are available in the commercial version

More information provided by the system vendor

Specific characteristics

Now a part of MongoDB Data Platform , Realm Database is the fast, easy to use, and...
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Redis, benchmarked as the world's fastest database, reduces application complexity,...
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Competitive advantages

Realm ensures offline-first functionality, meaning apps run smoothly and deliver...
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Redis is an in-memory database platform offering native support of wide range of...
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Typical application scenarios

Mobile Consumer Apps First-Line Worker Apps
» more

Redis powers personalization, real-time fraud detection, IoT, e-commerce, real-time...
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Key customers

Cathay Pacific Royal Carribbean Cruise Lines Open Source Database powers apps built...
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Verizon, Vodafone, Atlassian, Trip Advisor, Jet.com, Nokia, Samsung, HTC, Docker,...
» more

Market metrics

Used by 100,000+ developers 2 bn installs Currently used in 40k+ applications in...
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Licensing and pricing models

Realm database is licensed under the Apache License v2.0.
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The licensing model is subscription based. Redis Enterprise Cloud is priced according...
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and for displaying vendor-provided information such as key customers, competitive advantages and market metrics.