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DBMS > Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. PostgreSQL vs. TimescaleDB

System Properties Comparison Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. PostgreSQL vs. TimescaleDB

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameMicrosoft Azure Cosmos DB infoformer name was Azure DocumentDB  Xexclude from comparisonPostgreSQL  Xexclude from comparisonTimescaleDB  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionGlobally distributed, horizontally scalable, multi-model database serviceWidely used open source RDBMS infoDeveloped as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQLA time series DBMS optimized for fast ingest and complex queries, based on PostgreSQL
Primary database modelDocument store
Graph DBMS
Key-value store
Wide column store
Relational DBMS infowith object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module.Time Series DBMS
Secondary database modelsSpatial DBMSDocument store
Graph DBMS infowith Apache Age
Spatial DBMS
Vector DBMS infowith pgvector extension
Relational DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score22.94
Rank#26  Overall
#4  Document stores
#2  Graph DBMS
#3  Key-value stores
#2  Wide column stores
Score674.32
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Score3.59
Rank#72  Overall
#5  Time Series DBMS
Websiteazure.microsoft.com/­services/­cosmos-dbwww.postgresql.orgwww.timescale.com
Technical documentationlearn.microsoft.com/­azure/­cosmos-dbwww.postgresql.org/­docsdocs.timescale.com
DeveloperMicrosoftPostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developerTimescale
Initial release20141989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL2017
Current release16.4, August 20242.15.0, May 2024
License infoCommercial or Open SourcecommercialOpen Source infoBSDOpen Source infoApache 2.0
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud serviceyesnono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

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Implementation languageCC
Server operating systemshostedFreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows
Linux
OS X
Windows
Data schemeschema-freeyesyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyes infoJSON typesyesnumerics, strings, booleans, arrays, JSON blobs, geospatial dimensions, currencies, binary data, other complex data types
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.yes infospecific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality.yes
Secondary indexesyes infoAll properties auto-indexed by defaultyesyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLSQL-like query languageyes infostandard with numerous extensionsyes infofull PostgreSQL SQL syntax
APIs and other access methodsDocumentDB API
Graph API (Gremlin)
MongoDB API
RESTful HTTP API
Table API
ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
Supported programming languages.Net
C#
Java
JavaScript
JavaScript (Node.js)
MongoDB client drivers written for various programming languages
Python
.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java infoJDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl
.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java infoJDBC
JavaScript
Perl
PHP
Python
R
Ruby
Scheme
Tcl
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresJavaScriptuser defined functions inforealized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.user defined functions, PL/pgSQL, PL/Tcl, PL/Perl, PL/Python, PL/Java, PL/PHP, PL/R, PL/Ruby, PL/Scheme, PL/Unix shell
TriggersJavaScriptyesyes
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesSharding infoImplicit feature of the cloud servicepartitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hashyes, across time and space (hash partitioning) attributes
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesyes infoImplicit feature of the cloud serviceSource-replica replication infoother methods possible by using 3rd party extensionsSource-replica replication with hot standby and reads on replicas info
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodswith Hadoop integration infoIntegration with Hadoop/HDInsight on Azure*nono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemBounded Staleness
Consistent Prefix
Eventual Consistency
Immediate Consistency infoConsistency level configurable on request level
Session Consistency
Immediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integritynoyesyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataMulti-item ACID transactions with snapshot isolation within a partitionACIDACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyes
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 can be defined down to the item levelfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardfine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

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More resources
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB infoformer name was Azure DocumentDBPostgreSQLTimescaleDB
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