DBMS > HBase vs. InfinityDB vs. PostgreSQL

System Properties Comparison HBase vs. InfinityDB vs. PostgreSQL

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines

Name

Description

Wide-column store based on Apache Hadoop and on concepts of BigTable

A Java embedded Key-Value Store which extends the Java Map interface

Widely used open source RDBMS

Developed as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQL

Primary database model

Wide column store

Key-value store

Relational DBMS

with object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module.

Secondary database models

Document store
Spatial DBMS

DB-Engines Ranking measures the popularity of database management systems
Trend Chart

Score	42.07
Rank	#26	Overall
	#2	Wide column stores

Score	0.02
Rank	#348	Overall
	#54	Key-value stores

Score	620.84
Rank	#4	Overall
	#4	Relational DBMS

Website

hbase.apache.org

boilerbay.com

www.postgresql.org

Technical documentation

hbase.apache.org

boilerbay.com/infinitydb/manual

www.postgresql.org/docs

Developer

Apache Software Foundation

Apache top-level project, originally developed by Powerset

Boiler Bay Inc.

PostgreSQL Global Development Group

www.postgresql.org/developer

Initial release

2008

2002

1989

1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL

Current release

2.3.4, January 2021

4.0

14.3, May 2022

License

Commercial or Open Source

Open Source

Apache version 2

commercial

Open Source

BSD

Cloud-based only

Only available as a cloud service

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Implementation language

Java

Server operating systems

Linux
Unix
Windows

using Cygwin

All OS with a Java VM

FreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows

Data scheme

schema-free, schema definition possible

yes

nested virtual Java Maps, multi-value, logical â€˜tuple spaceâ€™ runtime Schema upgrade

yes

Typing

predefined data types such as float or date

options to bring your own types, AVRO

yes

all Java primitives, Date, CLOB, BLOB, huge sparse arrays

yes

XML support

Some form of processing data in XML format, e.g. support for XML data structures, and/or support for XPath, XQuery or XSLT.

yes

specific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality.

Secondary indexes

manual creation possible, using inversions based on multi-value capability

yes

SQL

Support of SQL

yes

standard with numerous extensions

APIs and other access methods

Java API
RESTful HTTP API
Thrift

Access via java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentNavigableMap Interface
Proprietary API to InfinityDB ItemSpace (boilerbay.com/docs/ItemSpaceDataStructures.htm)

ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects

Supported programming languages

C
C#
C++
Groovy
Java
PHP
Python
Scala

Java

.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java

JDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl

Server-side scripts

Stored procedures

yes

Coprocessors in Java

user defined functions

realized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.

Triggers

yes

Partitioning methods

Methods for storing different data on different nodes

Sharding

none

partitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hash

Replication methods

Methods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodes

Multi-source replication
Source-replica replication

none

Source-replica replication

other methods possible by using 3rd party extensions

MapReduce

Offers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methods

yes

Consistency concepts

Methods to ensure consistency in a distributed system

Immediate Consistency or Eventual Consistency

Immediate Consistency

READ-COMMITTED or SERIALIZED

Immediate Consistency

Foreign keys

Referential integrity

manual creation possible, using inversions based on multi-value capability

yes

Transaction concepts

Support to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of data

Single row ACID (across millions of columns)

ACID

Optimistic locking for transactions; no isolation for bulk loads

ACID

Concurrency

Support for concurrent manipulation of data

yes

Durability

Support for making data persistent

yes

In-memory capabilities

Is there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.

yes

User concepts

Access control

Access Control Lists (ACL) for RBAC, integration with Apache Ranger for RBAC & ABAC

fine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

More information provided by the system vendor

Specific characteristics

Apache HBase is the leading NoSQL, distributed database management system, well suited...
» more

Competitive advantages

No single point of failure ensures very high availability with multiple customers...
» more

Typical application scenarios

Internet of Things (IOT), fraud detection applications, recommendation engines, product...
» more

Key customers

Apple, Salesforce, Cerner, Allegis Group, Bloomberg, Airtel, Thomson Reuters, Dish,...
» more

Market metrics

#1 largest NoSQL database by revenue
» more

Licensing and pricing models

Apache license P ricing for commercial distribution provided by Cloudera and available...
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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.

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More resources

DB-Engines blog posts

Cloudera's HBase PaaS offering now supports Complex Transactions
11 August 2021, Krishna Maheshwari (sponsor)

Why is Hadoop not listed in the DB-Engines Ranking?
13 May 2013, Paul Andlinger

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