DBMS > Firebird vs. Google BigQuery vs. H2 vs. HyperSQL vs. PostgreSQL

System Properties Comparison Firebird vs. Google BigQuery vs. H2 vs. HyperSQL vs. PostgreSQL

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines

Name

Description

Firebird is an open source RDBMS forked from Borland's InterBase

Large scale data warehouse service with append-only tables

Full-featured RDBMS with a small footprint, either embedded into a Java application or used as a database server.

Multithreaded, transactional RDBMS written in Java

also known as HSQLDB

Widely used open source RDBMS

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

Primary database model

Relational DBMS

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

Secondary database models

Spatial DBMS

Document store
Graph DBMS

with Apache Age
Spatial DBMS
Vector DBMS

with pgvector extension

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

Score	20.82
Rank	#30	Overall
	#18	Relational DBMS

Score	60.38
Rank	#19	Overall
	#13	Relational DBMS

Score	8.13
Rank	#49	Overall
	#31	Relational DBMS

Score	3.49
Rank	#87	Overall
	#47	Relational DBMS

Score	645.54
Rank	#4	Overall
	#4	Relational DBMS

Website

www.firebirdsql.org

cloud.google.com/bigquery

www.h2database.com

hsqldb.org

www.postgresql.org

Technical documentation

www.firebirdsql.org/en/reference-manuals

cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs

www.h2database.com/html/main.html

hsqldb.org/web/hsqlDocsFrame.html

www.postgresql.org/docs

Developer

Firebird Foundation

Google

Thomas Mueller

PostgreSQL Global Development Group

www.postgresql.org/developer

Initial release

2000

As fork of Borland's InterBase

2010

2005

2001

1989

1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL

Current release

5.0.0, January 2024

2.2.220, July 2023

2.7.2, June 2023

16.3, May 2024

License

Commercial or Open Source

Open Source

Initial Developer's Public License

commercial

Open Source

dual-licence (Mozilla public license, Eclipse public license)

Open Source

based on BSD license

Open Source

BSD

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.

PostgreSQL Flex @ STACKIT offers managed PostgreSQL Instances with adjustable CPU, RAM, storage amount and speed and several extensions available, in enterprise grade to perfectly match all application requirements. All 100% GDPR-compliant.
Aiven for PostgreSQL: Fully managed PostgreSQL for developers with 70+ extensions and flexible orchestration tools.

Implementation language

C and C++

Java

Server operating systems

AIX
FreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
OS X
server-less

Firebird Embedded Server
Solaris
Unix
Windows

hosted

All OS with a Java VM

Embedded (into Java applications) and Client-Server operating modes

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

Data scheme

yes

Typing

predefined data types such as float or date

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.

Secondary indexes

yes

SQL

Support of SQL

yes

standard with numerous extensions

APIs and other access methods

ADO.NET
C/C++ API
JDBC

Jaybird
ODBC
OLE DB

RESTful HTTP/JSON API

JDBC
ODBC

HTTP API

JDBC via HTTP
JDBC
ODBC

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

Supported programming languages

C
C#
C++
Delphi
Java
JavaScript

Node.js
Lua
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby

.Net
Java
JavaScript
Objective-C
PHP
Python
Ruby

Java

All languages supporting JDBC/ODBC
Java

.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java

JDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl

Server-side scripts

Stored procedures

PSQL

user defined functions

in JavaScript

Java Stored Procedures and User-Defined Functions

Java, SQL

user defined functions

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

Triggers

yes

Partitioning methods

Methods for storing different data on different nodes

none

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

Replication methods

Methods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodes

Source-replica replication

With clustering: 2 database servers on different computers operate on identical copies of a database

none

Source-replica replication

other methods possible by using 3rd party extensions

MapReduce

Offers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methods

Consistency concepts

Methods to ensure consistency in a distributed system

Immediate Consistency

Foreign keys

Referential integrity

yes

Transaction concepts

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

ACID

Since BigQuery is designed for querying data

ACID

Concurrency

Support for concurrent manipulation of data

yes

Features a multi-generational MVCC architecture, readers do not block writers

yes

yes, multi-version concurrency control (MVCC)

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

User concepts

Access control

Users with fine-grained authorization concept

Access privileges (owner, writer, reader) on dataset, table or view level

Google Cloud Identity & Access Management (IAM)

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

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

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

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

Instaclustr: Fully Hosted & Managed PostgreSQL
» more

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

pgDash: In-Depth PostgreSQL Monitoring.
» more

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

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

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

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

DoNot Team's New Firebird Backdoor Hits Pakistan and Afghanistan
23 October 2023, The Hacker News

12 Top Open Source Databases to Consider
1 May 2024, TechTarget

FIREBIRD'S HUBBARD TALKS DATA, AI, TIKTOK
14 December 2023, HITS Daily Double

Firebird - Analyst, Digital Marketing (US)
23 February 2024, Music Business Worldwide

Exploring the Firebird Database
9 August 2023, Open Source For You

provided by Google News

Google Cloud partners Coinbase to accept crypto payments
11 October 2022, Ledger Insights

Winning the 2020 Google Cloud Technology Partner of the Year – Infrastructure Modernization Award
22 December 2021, CIO

Hightouch Announces $38M in Funding and Launches New Customer 360 Toolkit
20 July 2023, Datanami

Hightouch Raises $38M in Funding
19 July 2023, FinSMEs

provided by Google News

HyperSQL DataBase flaw leaves library vulnerable to RCE
24 October 2022, The Daily Swig

Introduction to JDBC with HSQLDB tutorial
14 November 2022, TheServerSide.com

provided by Google News

Let PostgreSQL Pick An Index For You
20 May 2024, iProgrammer

Continuously replicate Amazon DynamoDB changes to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL using AWS Lambda | Amazon ...
14 May 2024, AWS Blog

Introducing OCI Database with PostgreSQL: Completing Our Cloud Database Suite for Every Need
14 November 2023, blogs.oracle.com

ServiceNow trades MariaDB for RaptorDB (PostgreSQL)
13 May 2024, Techzine Europe

General availability: Microsoft Entra ID integration with Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL | Azure updates
13 March 2024, azure.microsoft.com

provided by Google News

Share this page