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DBMS > Google Cloud Spanner vs. QuestDB vs. Sphinx vs. SQL.JS

System Properties Comparison Google Cloud Spanner vs. QuestDB vs. Sphinx vs. SQL.JS

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameGoogle Cloud Spanner  Xexclude from comparisonQuestDB  Xexclude from comparisonSphinx  Xexclude from comparisonSQL.JS  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.A high performance open source SQL database for time series dataOpen source search engine for searching in data from different sources, e.g. relational databasesPort of SQLite to JavaScript
Primary database modelRelational DBMSTime Series DBMSSearch engineRelational DBMS
Secondary database modelsRelational DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score3.37
Rank#97  Overall
#50  Relational DBMS
Score2.69
Rank#115  Overall
#8  Time Series DBMS
Score6.06
Rank#61  Overall
#6  Search engines
Score0.63
Rank#243  Overall
#111  Relational DBMS
Websitecloud.google.com/­spannerquestdb.iosphinxsearch.comsql.js.org
Technical documentationcloud.google.com/­spanner/­docsquestdb.io/­docssphinxsearch.com/­docssql.js.org/­documentation/­index.html
DeveloperGoogleQuestDB Technology IncSphinx Technologies Inc.Alon Zakai infoenhancements implemented by others
Initial release2017201420012012
Current release3.5.1, February 2023
License infoCommercial or Open SourcecommercialOpen Source infoApache 2.0Open Source infoGPL version 2, commercial licence availableOpen Source
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.
Implementation languageJava (Zero-GC), C++, RustC++JavaScript
Server operating systemshostedLinux
macOS
Windows
FreeBSD
Linux
NetBSD
OS X
Solaris
Windows
server-less, requires a JavaScript environment (browser, Node.js)
Data schemeyesyes infoschema-free via InfluxDB Line Protocolyesyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesnoyes
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.nonono
Secondary indexesyesnoyes infofull-text index on all search fields
SQL infoSupport of SQLyes infoQuery statements complying to ANSI 2011SQL with time-series extensionsSQL-like query language (SphinxQL)yes infoSQL-92 is not fully supported
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
HTTP REST
InfluxDB Line Protocol (TCP/UDP)
JDBC
PostgreSQL wire protocol
Proprietary protocolJavaScript API
Supported programming languagesGo
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
C infoPostgreSQL driver
C++
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
Rust infoover HTTP
C++ infounofficial client library
Java
Perl infounofficial client library
PHP
Python
Ruby infounofficial client library
JavaScript
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresnononono
Triggersnononono
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesShardinghorizontal partitioning (by timestamps)Sharding infoPartitioning is done manually, search queries against distributed index is supportednone
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesMulti-source replication with 3 replicas for regional instances.Source-replica replication with eventual consistencynonenone
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 Consistencynone
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityyes infoby using interleaved tables, this features focuses more on performance improvements than on referential integritynonoyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACID infoStrict serializable isolationACID for single-table writesnoACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyes infoThe original contents of fields are not stored in the Sphinx index.no infoexcept by serializing a db to a file
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.noyes infothrough memory mapped filesyes
User concepts infoAccess controlAccess rights for users, groups and roles based on Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM)nono
More information provided by the system vendor
Google Cloud SpannerQuestDBSphinxSQL.JS
Specific characteristicsRelational model with native time series support Column-based storage and time partitioned...
» more
Competitive advantagesHigh ingestion throughput: peak of 4M rows/sec (TSBS Benchmark) Code optimizations...
» more
Typical application scenariosFinancial tick data Industrial IoT Application Metrics Monitoring
» more
Key customersBanks & Hedge funds, Yahoo, OKX, Airbus, Aquis Exchange, Net App, Cloudera, Airtel,...
» more
Licensing and pricing modelsOpen source Apache 2.0 QuestDB Enterprise QuestDB Cloud
» more
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and for displaying vendor-provided information such as key customers, competitive advantages and market metrics.

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