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DBMS > IBM Db2 vs. Microsoft Access vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. PostgreSQL

System Properties Comparison IBM Db2 vs. Microsoft Access vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. PostgreSQL

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameIBM Db2 infoformerly named DB2 or IBM Database 2  Xexclude from comparisonMicrosoft Access  Xexclude from comparisonMicrosoft SQL Server  Xexclude from comparisonPostgreSQL  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionCommon in IBM host environments, 2 different versions for host and Windows/LinuxMicrosoft Access combines a backend RDBMS (JET / ACE Engine) with a GUI frontend for data manipulation and queries. infoThe Access frontend is often used for accessing other datasources (DBMS, Excel, etc.)Microsofts flagship relational DBMSWidely used open source RDBMS infoDeveloped as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQL
Primary database modelRelational DBMS infoSince Version 10.5 support for JSON/BSON documents compatible with MongoDBRelational 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
RDF store infoin Db2 LUW (Linux, Unix, Windows)
Spatial DBMS infowith Db2 Spatial Extender
Document 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
Score127.49
Rank#8  Overall
#5  Relational DBMS
Score105.40
Rank#11  Overall
#8  Relational DBMS
Score829.80
Rank#3  Overall
#3  Relational DBMS
Score645.05
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Websitewww.ibm.com/­products/­db2www.microsoft.com/­en-us/­microsoft-365/­accesswww.microsoft.com/­en-us/­sql-serverwww.postgresql.org
Technical documentationwww.ibm.com/­docs/­en/­db2developer.microsoft.com/­en-us/­accesslearn.microsoft.com/­en-US/­sql/­sql-serverwww.postgresql.org/­docs
DeveloperIBMMicrosoftMicrosoftPostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developer
Initial release1983 infohost version199219891989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL
Current release12.1, October 20161902 (16.0.11328.20222), March 2019SQL Server 2022, November 202216.2, February 2024
License infoCommercial or Open Sourcecommercial infofree version is availablecommercial infoBundled with Microsoft Officecommercial inforestricted free version is availableOpen Source infoBSD
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenononono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

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Implementation languageC and C++C++C++C
Server operating systemsAIX
HP-UX
Linux
Solaris
Windows
z/OS
Windows infoNot a real database server, but making use of DLLsLinux
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.yesyes infospecific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality.
Secondary indexesyesyesyesyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLyesyes infobut not compliant to any SQL standardyesyes infostandard with numerous extensions
APIs and other access methodsADO.NET
JDBC
JSON style queries infoMongoDB compatible
ODBC
XQuery
ADO.NET
DAO
ODBC
OLE DB
ADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
OLE DB
Tabular Data Stream (TDS)
ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
Supported programming languagesC
C#
C++
Cobol
Delphi
Fortran
Java
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Visual Basic
C
C#
C++
Delphi
Java (JDBC-ODBC)
VBA
Visual Basic.NET
C#
C++
Delphi
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
R
Ruby
Visual Basic
.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java infoJDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresyesyes infosince Access 2010 using the ACE-engineTransact SQL, .NET languages, R, Python and (with SQL Server 2019) Javauser defined functions inforealized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.
Triggersyesyes infosince Access 2010 using the ACE-engineyesyes
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesSharding infoonly with Windows/Unix/Linux Versionnonetables can be distributed across several files (horizontal partitioning); sharding through federationpartitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hash
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesyes infowith separate tools (MQ, InfoSphere)noneyes, but depending on the SQL-Server EditionSource-replica replication infoother methods possible by using 3rd party extensions
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnononono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemImmediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityyesyesyesyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACIDACID infobut no files for transaction loggingACIDACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyes infobut no files for transaction loggingyesyes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.yesno
User concepts infoAccess controlfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardno infoa simple user-level security was built in till version Access 2003fine grained access rights according to SQL-standardfine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

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More resources
IBM Db2 infoformerly named DB2 or IBM Database 2Microsoft AccessMicrosoft SQL ServerPostgreSQL
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