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DBMS > Google Cloud Spanner vs. PostgreSQL

System Properties Comparison Google Cloud Spanner vs. PostgreSQL

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameGoogle Cloud Spanner  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.Widely used open source RDBMS infoDeveloped as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQL
Primary database modelRelational 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 infowith Apache Age
Spatial DBMS
Vector DBMS infowith pgvector extension
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score2.56
Rank#97  Overall
#50  Relational DBMS
Score674.32
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Websitecloud.google.com/­spannerwww.postgresql.org
Technical documentationcloud.google.com/­spanner/­docswww.postgresql.org/­docs
DeveloperGooglePostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developer
Initial release20171989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL
Current release16.4, August 2024
License infoCommercial or Open SourcecommercialOpen Source infoBSD
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud serviceyesno
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

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Implementation languageC
Server operating systemshostedFreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows
Data schemeyesyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyes
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.noyes infospecific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality.
Secondary indexesyesyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLyes infoQuery statements complying to ANSI 2011yes 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
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
Supported programming languagesGo
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java infoJDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresnouser defined functions inforealized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.
Triggersnoyes
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesShardingpartitioning 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.Source-replica replication infoother methods possible by using 3rd party extensions
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsyes infousing Google Cloud Dataflowno
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemImmediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityyes infoby using interleaved tables, this features focuses more on performance improvements than on referential integrityyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACID infoStrict serializable isolationACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyes
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 (IAM)fine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

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More resources
Google Cloud SpannerPostgreSQL
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Recent citations in the news

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

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

Google Cloud adds graph and vector search features to Spanner database
2 August 2024, techzine.eu

Google’s Plan to Make GCP ‘The Best Cloud for Machine Learning’
5 May 2025, SDx Central

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

provided by Google News

Running I/O intensive workloads on PostgreSQL with Amazon EBS io2 Block Express | Amazon Web Services
19 May 2025, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

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19 May 2025, HackerNoon

Supercharging your data experience: PostgreSQL 17 is now available on IBM Cloud
16 May 2025, IBM

Over 1,500 PostgreSQL Servers Compromised in Fileless Cryptocurrency Mining Campaign
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