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DBMS > FoundationDB vs. Google Cloud Datastore vs. Informix vs. QuestDB vs. Sphinx

System Properties Comparison FoundationDB vs. Google Cloud Datastore vs. Informix vs. QuestDB vs. Sphinx

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameFoundationDB  Xexclude from comparisonGoogle Cloud Datastore  Xexclude from comparisonInformix  Xexclude from comparisonQuestDB  Xexclude from comparisonSphinx  Xexclude from comparison
Created as commercial project in 2013, FoundationDB has been acquired by Apple in March 2015 and was withdrawn from the market. As a consequence, the product was removed from the DB-Engines ranking. In April 2018, Apple open-sourced FoundationDB and it therefore reappears in the ranking.
DescriptionOrdered key-value store. Core features are complimented by layers.Automatically scaling NoSQL Database as a Service (DBaaS) on the Google Cloud PlatformA secure embeddable database from IBM, positioned besides IBM Db2 as a relatively low-cost product optimized for OLTP and Internet of Things dataA high performance open source SQL database for time series dataOpen source search engine for searching in data from different sources, e.g. relational databases
Primary database modelDocument store infosupported via specific layer
Key-value store
Relational DBMS infosupported via specific SQL-layer
Document storeRelational DBMS infoSince Version 12.10 support for JSON/BSON datatypes compatible with MongoDBTime Series DBMSSearch engine
Secondary database modelsDocument store
Spatial DBMS
Time Series DBMS infowith Informix TimeSeries Extension
Relational DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score1.03
Rank#190  Overall
#31  Document stores
#28  Key-value stores
#89  Relational DBMS
Score4.47
Rank#76  Overall
#12  Document stores
Score17.87
Rank#35  Overall
#22  Relational DBMS
Score2.52
Rank#109  Overall
#9  Time Series DBMS
Score5.98
Rank#56  Overall
#5  Search engines
Websitegithub.com/­apple/­foundationdbcloud.google.com/­datastorewww.ibm.com/­products/­informixquestdb.iosphinxsearch.com
Technical documentationapple.github.io/­foundationdbcloud.google.com/­datastore/­docsinformix.hcldoc.com
www.ibm.com/­support/­knowledgecenter/­SSGU8G/­welcomeIfxServers.html
questdb.io/­docssphinxsearch.com/­docs
DeveloperFoundationDBGoogleIBM, HCL Technologies infoEffective May 1st, 2017, HCL took on development, technical support, and product management teams, and works jointly with IBM on product strategy, marketing, and sales.QuestDB Technology IncSphinx Technologies Inc.
Initial release20132008198420142001
Current release6.2.28, November 202014.10.FC5, November 20203.5.1, February 2023
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoApache 2.0commercialcommercial infofree developer edition availableOpen Source infoApache 2.0Open Source infoGPL version 2, commercial licence available
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenoyesnonono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.
Implementation languageC++C, C++ and JavaJava (Zero-GC), C++, RustC++
Server operating systemsLinux
OS X
Windows
hostedAIX
HP-UX
Linux
macOS
Solaris
Windows
Linux
macOS
Windows
FreeBSD
Linux
NetBSD
OS X
Solaris
Windows
Data schemeschema-free infosome layers support schemasschema-freeyesyes infoschema-free via InfluxDB Line Protocolyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateno infosome layers support typingyes, details hereyes infoSince Version 12.10 support for JSON/BSON datatypesyesno
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.nono
Secondary indexesnoyesyesnoyes infofull-text index on all search fields
SQL infoSupport of SQLsupported in specific SQL layer onlySQL-like query language (GQL)yesSQL with time-series extensionsSQL-like query language (SphinxQL)
APIs and other access methodsgRPC (using protocol buffers) API
RESTful HTTP/JSON API
JDBC
JSON API infoMongoDB compatible
MQTT (Message Queue Telemetry Transport)
ODBC
RESTful HTTP API
HTTP REST
InfluxDB Line Protocol (TCP/UDP)
JDBC
PostgreSQL wire protocol
Proprietary protocol
Supported programming languages.Net
C
C++
Go
Java
JavaScript infoNode.js
PHP
Python
Ruby
Swift
.Net
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
Ruby
.Net
C
C++
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
Ruby
C infoPostgreSQL driver
C++
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
Rust infoover HTTP
C++ infounofficial client library
Java
Perl infounofficial client library
PHP
Python
Ruby infounofficial client library
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresin SQL-layer onlyusing Google App Engineyesnono
TriggersnoCallbacks using the Google Apps Engineyesnono
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesShardingShardingShardinghorizontal partitioning (by timestamps)Sharding infoPartitioning is done manually, search queries against distributed index is supported
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesyesMulti-source replication using PaxosMulti-source replication
Source-replica replication
Source-replica replication with eventual consistencynone
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnoyes infousing Google Cloud Dataflownonono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemLinearizable consistencyImmediate Consistency or Eventual Consistency depending on type of query and configuration infoStrong Consistency is default for entity lookups and queries within an Entity Group (but can instead be made eventually consistent). Other queries are always eventual consistent.Immediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityin SQL-layer onlyyes infovia ReferenceProperties or Ancestor pathsyesnono
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACIDACID infoSerializable Isolation within Transactions, Read Committed outside of TransactionsACIDACID for single-table writesno
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyesyesyes infoThe original contents of fields are not stored in the Sphinx index.
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.noyesyes infothrough memory mapped files
User concepts infoAccess controlnoAccess rights for users, groups and roles based on Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM)Users with fine-grained authentication, authorization, and auditing controlsno
More information provided by the system vendor
FoundationDBGoogle Cloud DatastoreInformixQuestDBSphinx
Specific characteristicsRelational model with native time series support Column-based storage and time partitioned...
» more
Competitive advantagesHigh ingestion throughput: peak of 4M rows/sec (TSBS Benchmark) Code optimizations...
» more
Typical application scenariosFinancial tick data Industrial IoT Application Metrics Monitoring
» more
Key customersBanks & Hedge funds, Yahoo, OKX, Airbus, Aquis Exchange, Net App, Cloudera, Airtel,...
» more
Licensing and pricing modelsOpen source Apache 2.0 QuestDB Enterprise QuestDB Cloud
» more
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