DB-EnginesExtremeDB for everyone with an RTOSEnglish
Deutsch
Knowledge Base of Relational and NoSQL Database Management Systemsprovided by solid IT

DBMS > Google Cloud Firestore vs. Google Cloud Spanner vs. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. PostgreSQL

System Properties Comparison Google Cloud Firestore vs. Google Cloud Spanner vs. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. PostgreSQL

Please select another system to include it in the comparison.

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameGoogle Cloud Firestore  Xexclude from comparisonGoogle Cloud Spanner  Xexclude from comparisonMicrosoft Azure Cosmos DB infoformer name was Azure DocumentDB  Xexclude from comparisonPostgreSQL  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionCloud Firestore is an auto-scaling document database for storing, syncing, and querying data for mobile and web apps. It offers seamless integration with other Firebase and Google Cloud Platform products.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.Globally distributed, horizontally scalable, multi-model database serviceWidely used open source RDBMS infoDeveloped as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQL
Primary database modelDocument storeRelational DBMSDocument store
Graph DBMS
Key-value store
Wide column store
Relational DBMS infowith object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module.
Secondary database modelsSpatial DBMSDocument 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
Score7.85
Rank#51  Overall
#8  Document stores
Score2.89
Rank#103  Overall
#52  Relational DBMS
Score29.04
Rank#27  Overall
#4  Document stores
#2  Graph DBMS
#3  Key-value stores
#3  Wide column stores
Score645.54
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Websitefirebase.google.com/­products/­firestorecloud.google.com/­spannerazure.microsoft.com/­services/­cosmos-dbwww.postgresql.org
Technical documentationfirebase.google.com/­docs/­firestorecloud.google.com/­spanner/­docslearn.microsoft.com/­azure/­cosmos-dbwww.postgresql.org/­docs
DeveloperGoogleGoogleMicrosoftPostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developer
Initial release2017201720141989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL
Current release16.3, May 2024
License infoCommercial or Open SourcecommercialcommercialcommercialOpen Source infoBSD
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud serviceyesyesyesno
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.
  • Aiven for PostgreSQL: Fully managed PostgreSQL for developers with 70+ extensions and flexible orchestration tools.
  • 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.
Implementation languageC
Server operating systemshostedhostedhostedFreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows
Data schemeschema-freeyesschema-freeyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesyes infoJSON typesyes
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.nonoyes infospecific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality.
Secondary indexesyesyesyes infoAll properties auto-indexed by defaultyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLnoyes infoQuery statements complying to ANSI 2011SQL-like query languageyes infostandard with numerous extensions
APIs and other access methodsAndroid
gRPC (using protocol buffers) API
iOS
JavaScript API
RESTful HTTP API
gRPC (using protocol buffers) API
JDBC infoAt present, JDBC supports read-only queries. No support for DDL or DML statements.
RESTful HTTP API
DocumentDB API
Graph API (Gremlin)
MongoDB API
RESTful HTTP API
Table API
ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
Supported programming languagesGo
Java
JavaScript
JavaScript (Node.js)
Objective-C
Python
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
.Net
C#
Java
JavaScript
JavaScript (Node.js)
MongoDB client drivers written for various programming languages
Python
.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java infoJDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresyes, Firebase Rules & Cloud FunctionsnoJavaScriptuser defined functions inforealized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.
Triggersyes, with Cloud FunctionsnoJavaScriptyes
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesShardingShardingSharding infoImplicit feature of the cloud servicepartitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hash
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesMulti-source replicationMulti-source replication with 3 replicas for regional instances.yes infoImplicit feature of the cloud serviceSource-replica replication infoother methods possible by using 3rd party extensions
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsUsing Cloud Dataflowyes infousing Google Cloud Dataflowwith Hadoop integration infoIntegration with Hadoop/HDInsight on Azure*no
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemImmediate ConsistencyImmediate ConsistencyBounded Staleness
Consistent Prefix
Eventual Consistency
Immediate Consistency infoConsistency level configurable on request level
Session Consistency
Immediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integritynoyes infoby using interleaved tables, this features focuses more on performance improvements than on referential integritynoyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of datayesACID infoStrict serializable isolationMulti-item ACID transactions with snapshot isolation within a partitionACID
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.nono
User concepts infoAccess controlAccess rights for users, groups and roles based on Google Cloud Identity and Access Management. Security Rules for 3rd party authentication using Firebase Auth.Access rights for users, groups and roles based on Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM)Access rights can be defined down to the item levelfine 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 partiesCData: Connect to Big Data & NoSQL through standard Drivers.
» 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

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

Instaclustr: Fully Hosted & Managed PostgreSQL
» more

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

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

pgDash: In-Depth PostgreSQL Monitoring.
» more

Navicat Monitor is a safe, simple and agentless remote server monitoring tool for PostgreSQL and many other database management systems.
» more

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

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

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

More resources
Google Cloud FirestoreGoogle Cloud SpannerMicrosoft Azure Cosmos DB infoformer name was Azure DocumentDBPostgreSQL
DB-Engines blog posts

Cloud-based DBMS's popularity grows at high rates
12 December 2019, Paul Andlinger

show all

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

Google's AI-First Strategy Brings Vector Support To Cloud Databases
1 March 2024, Forbes

Realtime vs Cloud Firestore: Which Firebase Database to go?
8 March 2024, Appinventiv

Google's Cloud Firestore is now generally available
31 January 2019, ZDNet

Google launches Cloud Firestore, a new document database for app developers
3 October 2017, TechCrunch

Google's Cloud-Native NoSQL Database Cloud Firestore Is Now Generally Available
8 February 2019, InfoQ.com

provided by Google News

Google Improves Cloud Spanner: More Compute and Storage without Price Increase
14 October 2023, InfoQ.com

Google turns up the heat on AWS, claims Cloud Spanner is half the cost of DynamoDB
11 October 2023, TechCrunch

Google makes its Cloud Spanner database service faster and more cost-efficient
11 October 2023, SiliconANGLE News

Google Cloud just fired a major volley at AWS as the cloud wars heat up
12 October 2023, TechRadar

Google Spanner: When Do You Need to Move to It?
11 September 2023, hackernoon.com

provided by Google News

Start your AI journey with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB—compete for $10K
9 May 2024, azure.microsoft.com

Microsoft Build 2024: Cosmos DB for NoSQL gets vector search
21 May 2024, InfoWorld

At Build, Microsoft Fabric, PostgreSQL and Cosmos DB get AI enhancements
21 May 2024, SiliconANGLE News

Public preview: Change partition key of a container in Azure Cosmos DB (NoSQL API) | Azure updates
27 March 2024, azure.microsoft.com

Azure Synapse Link for Cosmos DB: New Analytics Capabilities
10 November 2023, InfoQ.com

provided by Google News

How to implement a better like, views, comment counters in PostgreSQL?
28 May 2024, SitePoint

How LeadSquared accelerated chatbot deployments with generative AI using Amazon Bedrock and Amazon Aurora ...
24 May 2024, AWS Blog

Introducing OCI Database with PostgreSQL: Completing Our Cloud Database Suite for Every Need
14 November 2023, Oracle

At Build, Microsoft Fabric, PostgreSQL and Cosmos DB get AI enhancements
21 May 2024, SiliconANGLE News

PostgreSQL 17: Part 4 or Commitfest 2024-01
29 May 2024, Хабр

provided by Google News



Share this page

Featured Products

RaimaDB logo

RaimaDB, embedded database for mission-critical applications. When performance, footprint and reliability matters.
Try RaimaDB for free.

Milvus logo

Vector database designed for GenAI, fully equipped for enterprise implementation.
Try Managed Milvus for Free

Datastax Astra logo

Bring all your data to Generative AI applications with vector search enabled by the most scalable
vector database available.
Try for Free

SingleStore logo

The database to transact, analyze and contextualize your data in real time.
Try it today.

Neo4j logo

See for yourself how a graph database can make your life easier.
Use Neo4j online for free.

Present your product here