DBMS > Google Cloud Bigtable vs. Google Cloud Spanner vs. VoltDB

System Properties Comparison Google Cloud Bigtable vs. Google Cloud Spanner vs. VoltDB

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines

Name

Description

Google's NoSQL Big Data database service. It's the same database that powers many core Google services, including Search, Analytics, Maps, and Gmail.

A horizontally scalable, globally consistent, relational database service. It is the externalization of the core Google database that runs the biggest aspects of Google, like Ads and Google Play.

Distributed In-Memory NewSQL RDBMS

Used for OLTP applications with a high frequency of relatively simple transactions, that can hold all their data in memory

Primary database model

Key-value store
Wide column store

Relational DBMS

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

Score	2.67
Rank	#93	Overall
	#15	Key-value stores
	#6	Wide column stores

Score	2.56
Rank	#97	Overall
	#50	Relational DBMS

Score	1.21
Rank	#161	Overall
	#73	Relational DBMS

Website

cloud.google.com/bigtable

cloud.google.com/spanner

www.voltdb.com

Technical documentation

cloud.google.com/bigtable/docs

cloud.google.com/spanner/docs

docs.voltdb.com

Developer

Google

VoltDB Inc.

Initial release

2015

2017

2010

Current release

11.3, April 2022

License

Commercial or Open Source

commercial

Open Source

AGPL for Community Edition, commercial license for Enterprise, AWS, and Pro Editions

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.

Implementation language

Java, C++

Server operating systems

hosted

Linux
OS X

for development

Data scheme

schema-free

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.

Secondary indexes

yes

SQL

Support of SQL

yes

Query statements complying to ANSI 2011

yes

only a subset of SQL 99

APIs and other access methods

gRPC (using protocol buffers) API
HappyBase (Python library)
HBase compatible API (Java)

gRPC (using protocol buffers) API
JDBC

At present, JDBC supports read-only queries. No support for DDL or DML statements.
RESTful HTTP API

Java API
JDBC
RESTful HTTP/JSON API

Supported programming languages

C#
C++
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python

Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python

C#
C++
Erlang

not officially supported
Go
Java
JavaScript

Node.js
PHP
Python

Server-side scripts

Stored procedures

Java

Triggers

Partitioning methods

Methods for storing different data on different nodes

Sharding

Replication methods

Methods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodes

Internal replication in Colossus, and regional replication between two clusters in different zones

Multi-source replication with 3 replicas for regional instances.

Multi-source replication
Source-replica replication

MapReduce

Offers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methods

yes

using Google Cloud Dataflow

Consistency concepts

Methods to ensure consistency in a distributed system

Immediate consistency (for a single cluster), Eventual consistency (for two or more replicated clusters)

Immediate Consistency

Foreign keys

Referential integrity

yes

by using interleaved tables, this features focuses more on performance improvements than on referential integrity

FOREIGN KEY constraints are not supported

Transaction concepts

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

Atomic single-row operations

ACID

Strict serializable isolation

ACID

Transactions are executed single-threaded within stored procedures

Concurrency

Support for concurrent manipulation of data

yes

Data access is serialized by the server

Durability

Support for making data persistent

yes

Snapshots and command logging

In-memory capabilities

Is there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.

User concepts

Access control

Access rights for users, groups and roles based on Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM)

Users and roles with access to stored procedures

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More resources

Recent citations in the news

What’s next for Google Cloud databases? AI inside SQL and more
9 April 2025, VentureBeat

Google Cloud adds graph processing to Spanner, SQL support to Bigtable
1 August 2024, InfoWorld

Google Cloud expands its database portfolio with new AI capabilities
1 August 2024, TechCrunch

Google scales up Cloud Bigtable NoSQL database
27 January 2022, TechTarget

Google Expands Cloud BigTable Replication Capabilities Globally in Beta
20 March 2019, infoq.com

provided by Google News

Google Cloud Introduces HDD Tier for Spanner Database, Cutting Cold Storage Costs by 80%
22 March 2025, infoq.com

New features make Google's Spanner a database for AI
1 August 2024, TechTarget

Google Cloud Spanner gets dual-region configuration option
23 July 2024, InfoWorld

Google Releases Spanner Graph into General Availability
19 February 2025, infoq.com

Google Cloud expands its database portfolio with new AI capabilities
1 August 2024, TechCrunch

provided by Google News

VoltDB Launches Active(N) Lossless Cross Data Center Replication
31 August 2021, PR Newswire

VoltDB Announces Key New Hires
26 October 2021, citybiz

MemSQL, VoltDB Vie For In-Memory Big Data Role
12 February 2015, Information Week

New startup from Postgres creator puts the database at heart of software stack
12 March 2024, TechCrunch

VoltDB Adds Geospatial Support to Its Operational InMemory SQL Database
30 January 2016, App Developer Magazine

provided by Google News

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