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DBMS > Google Cloud Spanner vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. mSQL vs. PostgreSQL

System Properties Comparison Google Cloud Spanner vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. mSQL vs. PostgreSQL

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameGoogle Cloud Spanner  Xexclude from comparisonMicrosoft SQL Server  Xexclude from comparisonmSQL infoMini SQL  Xexclude from comparisonPostgreSQL  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.Microsofts flagship relational DBMSmSQL (Mini SQL) is a simple and lightweight RDBMSWidely used open source RDBMS infoDeveloped as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQL
Primary database modelRelational DBMSRelational DBMSRelational 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
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
Score3.37
Rank#97  Overall
#50  Relational DBMS
Score845.81
Rank#3  Overall
#3  Relational DBMS
Score1.41
Rank#170  Overall
#78  Relational DBMS
Score634.91
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Websitecloud.google.com/­spannerwww.microsoft.com/­en-us/­sql-serverhughestech.com.au/­products/­msqlwww.postgresql.org
Technical documentationcloud.google.com/­spanner/­docslearn.microsoft.com/­en-US/­sql/­sql-serverwww.postgresql.org/­docs
DeveloperGoogleMicrosoftHughes TechnologiesPostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developer
Initial release2017198919941989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL
Current releaseSQL Server 2022, November 20224.4, October 202116.2, February 2024
License infoCommercial or Open Sourcecommercialcommercial inforestricted free version is availablecommercial infofree licenses can be providedOpen Source infoBSD
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 languageC++CC
Server operating systemshostedLinux
Windows
AIX
HP-UX
Linux
OS X
Solaris SPARC/x86
Windows
FreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows
Data schemeyesyesyesyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesyesyes
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.noyesnoyes infospecific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality.
Secondary indexesyesyesyesyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLyes infoQuery statements complying to ANSI 2011yesA subset of ANSI SQL is implemented infono subqueries, aggregate functions, views, foreign keys, triggersyes infostandard with numerous extensions
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
ADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
OLE DB
Tabular Data Stream (TDS)
JDBC
ODBC
ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
Supported programming languagesGo
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
C#
C++
Delphi
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
R
Ruby
Visual Basic
C
C++
Delphi
Java
Perl
PHP
Tcl
.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java infoJDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresnoTransact SQL, .NET languages, R, Python and (with SQL Server 2019) Javanouser defined functions inforealized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.
Triggersnoyesnoyes
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesShardingtables can be distributed across several files (horizontal partitioning); sharding through federationnonepartitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hash
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesMulti-source replication with 3 replicas for regional instances.yes, but depending on the SQL-Server EditionnoneSource-replica replication infoother methods possible by using 3rd party extensions
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 ConsistencynoneImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityyes infoby using interleaved tables, this features focuses more on performance improvements than on referential integrityyesnoyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACID infoStrict serializable isolationACIDnoACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesnoyes
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.noyesnono
User concepts infoAccess controlAccess rights for users, groups and roles based on Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM)fine grained access rights according to SQL-standardnofine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

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More resources
Google Cloud SpannerMicrosoft SQL ServermSQL infoMini SQLPostgreSQL
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