DBMS > Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs. PostGIS vs. Sequoiadb vs. TimescaleDB vs. VoltDB

System Properties Comparison Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs. PostGIS vs. Sequoiadb vs. TimescaleDB vs. VoltDB

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines

Name

Description

Database as a Service offering with high compatibility to Microsoft SQL Server

Spatial extension of PostgreSQL

NewSQL database with distributed OLTP and SQL

A time series DBMS optimized for fast ingest and complex queries, based on PostgreSQL

Distributed In-Memory NewSQL RDBMS

Used for OLTP applications with a high frequency of relatively simple transactions, that can hold all their data in memory

Primary database model

Relational DBMS

Spatial DBMS

Document store
Relational DBMS

Time Series DBMS

Relational DBMS

Secondary database models

Document store
Graph DBMS
Spatial DBMS

Relational DBMS

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

Score	76.78
Rank	#16	Overall
	#11	Relational DBMS

Score	21.72
Rank	#29	Overall
	#1	Spatial DBMS

Score	0.50
Rank	#258	Overall
	#41	Document stores
	#120	Relational DBMS

Score	4.46
Rank	#71	Overall
	#5	Time Series DBMS

Score	1.47
Rank	#157	Overall
	#73	Relational DBMS

Website

azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/azure-sql/database

Technical documentation

docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql

postgis.net/documentation

www.sequoiadb.com/en/index.php?m=Files&a=index

docs.timescale.com

docs.voltdb.com

Developer

Microsoft

Sequoiadb Ltd.

Timescale

VoltDB Inc.

Initial release

2010

2005

2013

2017

2010

Current release

V12

3.4.2, February 2024

2.15.0, May 2024

11.3, April 2022

License

Commercial or Open Source

commercial

Open Source

GPL v2.0

Open Source

Server: AGPL; Client: Apache V2

Open Source

Apache 2.0

Open Source

AGPL for Community Edition, commercial license for Enterprise, AWS, and Pro Editions

Cloud-based only

Only available as a cloud service

yes

DBaaS offerings (sponsored links)

Database as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.

Implementation language

C++

Java, C++

Server operating systems

hosted

Linux

Linux
OS X
Windows

Linux
OS X

for development

Data scheme

yes

schema-free

yes

Typing

predefined data types such as float or date

yes

oid, date, timestamp, binary, regex

numerics, strings, booleans, arrays, JSON blobs, geospatial dimensions, currencies, binary data, other complex data types

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

Secondary indexes

yes

SQL

Support of SQL

yes

SQL-like query language

yes

full PostgreSQL SQL syntax

yes

only a subset of SQL 99

APIs and other access methods

ADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC

proprietary protocol using JSON

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

Java API
JDBC
RESTful HTTP/JSON API

Supported programming languages

.Net
C#
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
Ruby

.Net
C++
Java
PHP
Python

.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java

JDBC
JavaScript
Perl
PHP
Python
R
Ruby
Scheme
Tcl

C#
C++
Erlang

not officially supported
Go
Java
JavaScript

Node.js
PHP
Python

Server-side scripts

Stored procedures

Transact SQL

user defined functions

JavaScript

user defined functions, PL/pgSQL, PL/Tcl, PL/Perl, PL/Python, PL/Java, PL/PHP, PL/R, PL/Ruby, PL/Scheme, PL/Unix shell

Java

Triggers

yes

Partitioning methods

Methods for storing different data on different nodes

yes

based on PostgreSQL

Sharding

yes, across time and space (hash partitioning) attributes

Sharding

Replication methods

Methods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodes

yes, with always 3 replicas available

yes

based on PostgreSQL

Source-replica replication

Source-replica replication with hot standby and reads on replicas

Multi-source replication
Source-replica replication

MapReduce

Offers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methods

Consistency concepts

Methods to ensure consistency in a distributed system

Immediate Consistency

Eventual Consistency

Immediate Consistency

Foreign keys

Referential integrity

yes

FOREIGN KEY constraints are not supported

Transaction concepts

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

ACID

Document is locked during a transaction

ACID

Transactions are executed single-threaded within stored procedures

Concurrency

Support for concurrent manipulation of data

yes

Data access is serialized by the server

Durability

Support for making data persistent

yes

Snapshots and command logging

In-memory capabilities

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

User concepts

Access control

fine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

yes

based on PostgreSQL

simple password-based access control

fine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

Users and roles with access to stored procedures

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More resources

DB-Engines blog posts

PostgreSQL is the DBMS of the Year 2020
4 January 2021, Paul Andlinger, Matthias Gelbmann

Cloud-based DBMS's popularity grows at high rates
12 December 2019, Paul Andlinger

The popularity of cloud-based DBMSs has increased tenfold in four years
7 February 2017, Matthias Gelbmann

show all

Spatial database management systems
6 April 2021, Matthias Gelbmann

show all

Recent citations in the news

Copilot in Azure SQL Database in Private Preview
27 March 2024, InfoQ.com

Microsoft unveils Copilot for Azure SQL Database
27 March 2024, InfoWorld

Azure SQL Database migration to OCI - resources estimation and migration approach
11 January 2024, Oracle

Public Preview: New Azure SQL Database skills introduced to Microsoft Copilot in Azure | Azure updates
21 May 2024, Microsoft

Azure SQL Database takes Saturday off on US east coast following network power failure
18 September 2023, The Register

provided by Google News

TimescaleDB Is a Vector Database Now, Too
25 September 2023, Datanami

Timescale Acquires PopSQL to Bring a Modern, Collaborative SQL GUI to PostgreSQL Developers
4 April 2024, PR Newswire

Power IoT and time-series workloads with TimescaleDB for Azure Database for PostgreSQL
18 March 2019, Microsoft

Timescale Valuation Rockets to Over $1B with $110M Round, Marking the Explosive Rise of Time-Series Data
22 February 2022, Business Wire

TimescaleDB goes distributed; implements ‘Chunking’ over ‘Sharding’ for scaling-out
22 August 2019, Packt Hub

provided by Google News

VoltDB Launches Active(N) Lossless Cross Data Center Replication
31 August 2021, PR Newswire

VoltDB Turns to Real-Time Analytics with NewSQL Database
30 January 2014, Datanami

VoltDB Upgrades Power, Security of Its In-Memory Database
1 February 2017, eWeek

VoltDB Adds Geospatial Support, Cross-Site Replication
28 January 2016, The New Stack

VoltDB Aims for Fast Big Data Development -- ADTmag
29 January 2015, ADT Magazine

provided by Google News

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