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DBMS > Google Cloud Spanner vs. HarperDB vs. PostgreSQL vs. TimesTen

System Properties Comparison Google Cloud Spanner vs. HarperDB vs. PostgreSQL vs. TimesTen

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameGoogle Cloud Spanner  Xexclude from comparisonHarperDB  Xexclude from comparisonPostgreSQL  Xexclude from comparisonTimesTen  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionA 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.Ultra-low latency distributed database with an intuitive REST API supporting NoSQL and SQL (including joins). Deployment of functions and databases simultaneously with a consolidated node-level architecture.Widely used open source RDBMS infoDeveloped as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQLIn-Memory RDBMS compatible to Oracle
Primary database modelRelational DBMSDocument storeRelational DBMS infowith object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module.Relational DBMS
Secondary database modelsDocument 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
Score2.89
Rank#105  Overall
#53  Relational DBMS
Score0.55
Rank#252  Overall
#38  Document stores
Score645.05
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Score1.35
Rank#165  Overall
#75  Relational DBMS
Websitecloud.google.com/­spannerwww.harperdb.iowww.postgresql.orgwww.oracle.com/­database/­technologies/­related/­timesten.html
Technical documentationcloud.google.com/­spanner/­docsdocs.harperdb.io/­docswww.postgresql.org/­docsdocs.oracle.com/­database/­timesten-18.1
DeveloperGoogleHarperDBPostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developerOracle, TimesTen Performance Software, HP infooriginally founded in HP Labs it was acquired by Oracle in 2005
Initial release201720171989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL1998
Current release3.1, August 202116.2, February 202411 Release 2 (11.2.2.8.0)
License infoCommercial or Open Sourcecommercialcommercial infofree community edition availableOpen Source infoBSDcommercial
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud serviceyesnonono
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.
Implementation languageNode.jsC
Server operating systemshostedLinux
OS X
FreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows
AIX
HP-UX
Linux
OS X
Solaris SPARC/x86
Windows
Data schemeyesdynamic schemayesyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyes infoJSON data typesyesyes
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.no
Secondary indexesyesyesyesyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLyes infoQuery statements complying to ANSI 2011SQL-like data manipulation statementsyes infostandard with numerous extensionsyes
APIs and other access methodsgRPC (using protocol buffers) API
JDBC infoAt present, JDBC supports read-only queries. No support for DDL or DML statements.
RESTful HTTP API
JDBC
ODBC
React Hooks
RESTful HTTP/JSON API
WebSocket
ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
JDBC
ODBC
ODP.NET
Oracle Call Interface (OCI)
Supported programming languagesGo
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
.Net
C
C#
C++
ColdFusion
D
Dart
Delphi
Erlang
Go
Haskell
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Lisp
MatLab
Objective C
Perl
PHP
PowerShell
Prolog
Python
R
Ruby
Rust
Scala
Swift
.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java infoJDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl
C
C++
Java
PL/SQL
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresnoCustom Functions infosince release 3.1user defined functions inforealized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.PL/SQL
Triggersnonoyesno
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesShardingA table resides as a whole on one (or more) nodes in a clusterpartitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hashnone
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesMulti-source replication with 3 replicas for regional instances.yes infothe nodes on which a table resides can be definedSource-replica replication infoother methods possible by using 3rd party extensionsMulti-source replication
Source-replica replication
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsyes infousing Google Cloud Dataflownonono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemImmediate ConsistencyImmediate ConsistencyImmediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency or Eventual Consistency depending on configuration
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityyes infoby using interleaved tables, this features focuses more on performance improvements than on referential integritynoyesyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACID infoStrict serializable isolationAtomic execution of specific operationsACIDACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyes, using LMDByesyes infoby means of logfiles and checkpoints
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.noyesnoyes
User concepts infoAccess controlAccess rights for users, groups and roles based on Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM)Access rights for users and rolesfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardfine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

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More resources
Google Cloud SpannerHarperDBPostgreSQLTimesTen
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