DBMS > FoundationDB vs. H2 vs. Oracle Berkeley DB vs. Postgres-XL vs. PostgreSQL

System Properties Comparison FoundationDB vs. H2 vs. Oracle Berkeley DB vs. Postgres-XL vs. PostgreSQL

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines

Name

Created as commercial project in 2013, FoundationDB has been acquired by Apple in March 2015 and was withdrawn from the market.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.

Description

Ordered key-value store. Core features are complimented by layers.

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

Widely used in-process key-value store

Based on PostgreSQL enhanced with MPP and write-scale-out cluster features

Widely used open source RDBMS

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

Primary database model

Document store

supported via specific layer
Key-value store
Relational DBMS

supported via specific SQL-layer

Relational DBMS

Key-value store

supports sorted and unsorted key sets
Native XML DBMS

in the Oracle Berkeley DB XML version

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
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	1.06
Rank	#185	Overall
	#31	Document stores
	#28	Key-value stores
	#85	Relational DBMS

Score	8.33
Rank	#46	Overall
	#30	Relational DBMS

Score	2.01
Rank	#126	Overall
	#21	Key-value stores
	#3	Native XML DBMS

Score	0.53
Rank	#254	Overall
	#117	Relational DBMS

Score	636.25
Rank	#4	Overall
	#4	Relational DBMS

Website

github.com/apple/foundationdb

www.h2database.com

www.oracle.com/database/technologies/related/berkeleydb.html

www.postgres-xl.org

www.postgresql.org

Technical documentation

apple.github.io/foundationdb

www.h2database.com/html/main.html

docs.oracle.com/cd/E17076_05/html/index.html

www.postgres-xl.org/documentation

www.postgresql.org/docs

Developer

FoundationDB

Thomas Mueller

Oracle

originally developed by Sleepycat, which was acquired by Oracle

PostgreSQL Global Development Group

www.postgresql.org/developer

Initial release

2013

2005

1994

2014

since 2012, originally named StormDB

1989

1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL

Current release

6.2.28, November 2020

2.2.220, July 2023

18.1.40, May 2020

10 R1, October 2018

16.3, May 2024

License

Commercial or Open Source

Open Source

Apache 2.0

Open Source

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

Open Source

commercial license available

Open Source

Mozilla public license

Open Source

BSD

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.

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++

Java

C, Java, C++ (depending on the Berkeley DB edition)

Server operating systems

Linux
OS X
Windows

All OS with a Java VM

AIX
Android
FreeBSD
iOS
Linux
OS X
Solaris
VxWorks
Windows

Linux
macOS

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

Data scheme

schema-free

some layers support schemas

yes

schema-free

yes

Typing

predefined data types such as float or date

some layers support typing

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

only with the Berkeley DB XML edition

yes

XML type, but no XML query functionality

yes

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

Secondary indexes

yes

SQL

Support of SQL

supported in specific SQL layer only

yes

SQL interfaced based on SQLite is available

yes

distributed, parallel query execution

yes

standard with numerous extensions

APIs and other access methods

JDBC
ODBC

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

Supported programming languages

.Net
C
C++
Go
Java
JavaScript

Node.js
PHP
Python
Ruby
Swift

Java

.Net

Figaro is a .Net framework assembly that extends Berkeley DB XML into an embeddable database engine for .NET
others

Third-party libraries to manipulate Berkeley DB files are available for many languages
C
C#
C++
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)

3rd party binding
Perl
Python
Tcl

.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Erlang
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl

.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java

JDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl

Server-side scripts

Stored procedures

in SQL-layer only

Java Stored Procedures and User-Defined Functions

user defined functions

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

Triggers

yes

only for the SQL API

yes

Partitioning methods

Methods for storing different data on different nodes

Sharding

none

horizontal partitioning

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

Replication methods

Methods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodes

yes

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

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

Linearizable consistency

Immediate Consistency

Foreign keys

Referential integrity

in SQL-layer only

yes

Transaction concepts

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

ACID

MVCC

ACID

Concurrency

Support for concurrent manipulation of data

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

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

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

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

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

Instaclustr: Fully Hosted & Managed PostgreSQL
» more

pgDash: In-Depth PostgreSQL Monitoring.
» more

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

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

show all

Recent citations in the news

FoundationDB team's new venture, Antithesis, raises $47M to enhance software testing
13 February 2024, SiliconANGLE News

FoundationDB Raises $17 Million Series A Financing
31 May 2024, Yahoo Movies UK

Stonebraker Seeks to Invert the Computing Paradigm with DBOS
12 March 2024, Datanami

Antithesis raises $47M to launch an automated testing platform for software
13 February 2024, TechCrunch

FoundationDB, a very interesting NoSQL database owned by Apple, is now an open-source project
19 April 2018, GeekWire

provided by Google News

Margo Seltzer Named ACM Athena Lecturer for Technical and Mentoring Contributions
26 April 2023, Datanami

ACM recognizes far-reaching technical achievements with special awards
26 May 2021, EurekAlert

Oracle buys Sleepycat Software
14 February 2006, MarketWatch

Database Trends Report: SQL Beats NoSQL, MySQL Most Popular -- ADTmag
5 March 2019, ADT Magazine

Margo I. Seltzer | Berkman Klein Center
18 August 2020, Berkman Klein Center

provided by Google News

PostgreSQL is Now Faster than Pinecone, 75% Cheaper, with New Open Source Extensions
11 June 2024, PR Newswire

Timescale unveils high-performance AI vector database extensions for PostgreSQL
11 June 2024, SiliconANGLE News

PostgreSQL Tutorial: Definition, Commands, & Features
4 June 2024, Simplilearn

How To Schedule PostgreSQL Backups With GitHub Actions
6 June 2024, The New Stack

Raise the bar on AI-powered app development with Azure Database for PostgreSQL
5 June 2024, Microsoft

provided by Google News

Share this page