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DBMS > FoundationDB vs. IBM Db2 vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. PostgreSQL

System Properties Comparison FoundationDB vs. IBM Db2 vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. PostgreSQL

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameFoundationDB  Xexclude from comparisonIBM Db2 infoformerly named DB2 or IBM Database 2  Xexclude from comparisonMicrosoft SQL Server  Xexclude from comparisonPostgreSQL  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Created as commercial project in 2013, FoundationDB has been acquired by Apple in March 2015 and was withdrawn from the market.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.Common in IBM host environments, 2 different versions for host and Windows/LinuxMicrosofts flagship relational DBMSWidely used open source RDBMS infoDeveloped as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQL
Primary database modelDocument store infosupported via specific layer
Key-value store
Relational DBMS infosupported via specific SQL-layer
Relational DBMS infoSince Version 10.5 support for JSON/BSON documents compatible with MongoDBRelational DBMSRelational DBMS infowith object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module.
Secondary database modelsDocument store
RDF store infoin Db2 LUW (Linux, Unix, Windows)
Spatial DBMS infowith Db2 Spatial Extender
Document store
Graph DBMS
Spatial DBMS
Document store
Graph DBMS infowith Apache Age
Spatial DBMS
Vector DBMS infowith pgvector extension
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score1.07
Rank#188  Overall
#31  Document stores
#28  Key-value stores
#86  Relational DBMS
Score127.49
Rank#8  Overall
#5  Relational DBMS
Score829.80
Rank#3  Overall
#3  Relational DBMS
Score645.05
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Websitegithub.com/­apple/­foundationdbwww.ibm.com/­products/­db2www.microsoft.com/­en-us/­sql-serverwww.postgresql.org
Technical documentationapple.github.io/­foundationdbwww.ibm.com/­docs/­en/­db2learn.microsoft.com/­en-US/­sql/­sql-serverwww.postgresql.org/­docs
DeveloperFoundationDBIBMMicrosoftPostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developer
Initial release20131983 infohost version19891989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL
Current release6.2.28, November 202012.1, October 2016SQL Server 2022, November 202216.2, February 2024
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoApache 2.0commercial infofree version is availablecommercial inforestricted free version is availableOpen Source infoBSD
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenononono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

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Implementation languageC++C and C++C++C
Server operating systemsLinux
OS X
Windows
AIX
HP-UX
Linux
Solaris
Windows
z/OS
Linux
Windows
FreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows
Data schemeschema-free infosome layers support schemasyesyesyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateno infosome layers support typingyesyesyes
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.yesyes infospecific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality.
Secondary indexesnoyesyesyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLsupported in specific SQL layer onlyyesyesyes infostandard with numerous extensions
APIs and other access methodsADO.NET
JDBC
JSON style queries infoMongoDB compatible
ODBC
XQuery
ADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
OLE DB
Tabular Data Stream (TDS)
ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
Supported programming languages.Net
C
C++
Go
Java
JavaScript infoNode.js
PHP
Python
Ruby
Swift
C
C#
C++
Cobol
Delphi
Fortran
Java
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Visual Basic
C#
C++
Delphi
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
R
Ruby
Visual Basic
.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java infoJDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresin SQL-layer onlyyesTransact SQL, .NET languages, R, Python and (with SQL Server 2019) Javauser defined functions inforealized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.
Triggersnoyesyesyes
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesShardingSharding infoonly with Windows/Unix/Linux Versiontables can be distributed across several files (horizontal partitioning); sharding through federationpartitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hash
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesyesyes infowith separate tools (MQ, InfoSphere)yes, but depending on the SQL-Server EditionSource-replica replication infoother methods possible by using 3rd party extensions
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnononono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemLinearizable consistencyImmediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityin SQL-layer onlyyesyesyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACIDACIDACIDACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyesyes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.yesno
User concepts infoAccess controlnofine grained access rights according to SQL-standardfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardfine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

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