DBMS > Firebird vs. Interbase vs. Microsoft SQL Server

System Properties Comparison Firebird vs. Interbase vs. Microsoft SQL Server

Please select another system to include it in the comparison.

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines

Name

Description

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

Light-weight proven RDBMS

originally from Borland

Microsofts flagship relational DBMS

Primary database model

Relational DBMS

Secondary database models

Document store
Graph DBMS
Spatial DBMS

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

Score	16.66
Rank	#33	Overall
	#20	Relational DBMS

Score	3.35
Rank	#77	Overall
	#41	Relational DBMS

Score	774.89
Rank	#3	Overall
	#3	Relational DBMS

Website

www.firebirdsql.org

www.embarcadero.com/products/interbase

www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server

Technical documentation

www.firebirdsql.org/en/reference-manuals

docs.embarcadero.com/products/interbase

learn.microsoft.com/en-US/sql/sql-server

Developer

Firebird Foundation

Embarcadero

Microsoft

Initial release

2000

As fork of Borland's InterBase

1984

1989

Current release

5.0.1, August 2024

InterBase 2020, December 2019

SQL Server 2022, November 2022

License

Commercial or Open Source

Open Source

Initial Developer's Public License

commercial

restricted free version is available

Cloud-based only

Only available as a cloud service

DBaaS offerings (sponsored links)

Database as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.

SQLServer Flex @ STACKIT offers a managed version of SQL Server with adjustable CPU, RAM, storage amount and speed, in enterprise grade to perfectly match all application requirements. All services are 100% GDPR-compliant.

Implementation language

C and C++

C++

Server operating systems

AIX
FreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
OS X
server-less

Firebird Embedded Server
Solaris
Unix
Windows

Android
iOS
Linux
OS X
Windows

Linux
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.

export as XML data possible

yes

Secondary indexes

yes

SQL

Support of SQL

yes

APIs and other access methods

ADO.NET
C/C++ API
JDBC

Jaybird
ODBC
OLE DB

ADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC

ADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
OLE DB
Tabular Data Stream (TDS)

Supported programming languages

C
C#
C++
Delphi
Java
JavaScript

Node.js
Lua
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby

.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java
Object Pascal
PHP
Ruby

C#
C++
Delphi
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
R
Ruby
Visual Basic

Server-side scripts

Stored procedures

PSQL

yes

Interbase procedure and trigger language

Transact SQL, .NET languages, R, Python and (with SQL Server 2019) Java

Triggers

yes

Partitioning methods

Methods for storing different data on different nodes

none

tables can be distributed across several files (horizontal partitioning); sharding through federation

Replication methods

Methods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodes

Source-replica replication

Interbase Change Views

yes, but depending on the SQL-Server Edition

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

Concurrency

Support for concurrent manipulation of data

yes

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

yes

Multiversion concurreny control

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

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

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

More resources

DB-Engines blog posts

MySQL is the DBMS of the Year 2019
3 January 2020, Matthias Gelbmann, Paul Andlinger

The struggle for the hegemony in Oracle's database empire
2 May 2017, Paul Andlinger

Microsoft SQL Server is the DBMS of the Year
4 January 2017, Matthias Gelbmann, Paul Andlinger

show all

Recent citations in the news

Firebird – Director, Business Intelligence (US)
23 October 2024, Music Business Worldwide

FBI issues national security warning to Gmail, Outlook email users
17 March 2025, MassLive

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

Firebird – Sr. Product Manager, Touring (Remote)
12 July 2024, Music Business Worldwide

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

provided by Google News

Interbase-FRET binding assay for pre-microRNAs
30 April 2021, Nature

Borland InterBase backdoor detected
11 January 2001, ZDNET

Design of the interbase-FRET assay. (a) The full-length pre-miR-21 (1)...
13 June 2021, ResearchGate

An independent soccer league transforming lives in a slum in Kenya
15 November 2022, FanSided

COMPANY NEWS; Ashton to Raise Interbase Holding (Published 1989)
18 March 1989, The New York Times

provided by Google News

Why SQL Server Is Still Worth It
24 March 2025, Redmondmag.com

The year ahead for SQL Server: Ground to cloud to fabric
15 January 2025, Microsoft

SQL Server 2019 installation for Lab
27 January 2025, Spiceworks Community

Ola Hallengren’s SQL Server Maintenance Solution in AWS
8 March 2025, Amazon Web Services

How to Recover Deleted Data from SQL Server without Backup
22 April 2025, Infosecurity Magazine

provided by Google News

Share this page