DB-EnginesInfluxDB: Focus on building software with an easy-to-use serverless, scalable time series platformEnglish
Deutsch
Knowledge Base of Relational and NoSQL Database Management Systemsprovided by solid IT

DBMS > Microsoft SQL Server vs. Milvus vs. PostgreSQL vs. SAP SQL Anywhere

System Properties Comparison Microsoft SQL Server vs. Milvus vs. PostgreSQL vs. SAP SQL Anywhere

Please select another system to include it in the comparison.

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameMicrosoft SQL Server  Xexclude from comparisonMilvus  Xexclude from comparisonPostgreSQL  Xexclude from comparisonSAP SQL Anywhere infoformerly called Adaptive Server Anywhere  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionMicrosofts flagship relational DBMSA DBMS designed for efficient storage of vector data and vector similarity searchesWidely used open source RDBMS infoDeveloped as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQLRDBMS database and synchronization technologies for server, desktop, remote office, and mobile environments
Primary database modelRelational DBMSVector DBMSRelational DBMS infowith object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module.Relational DBMS
Secondary database modelsDocument 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
Score824.29
Rank#3  Overall
#3  Relational DBMS
Score2.31
Rank#113  Overall
#3  Vector DBMS
Score645.54
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Score4.25
Rank#79  Overall
#43  Relational DBMS
Websitewww.microsoft.com/­en-us/­sql-servermilvus.iowww.postgresql.orgwww.sap.com/­products/­technology-platform/­sql-anywhere.html
Technical documentationlearn.microsoft.com/­en-US/­sql/­sql-servermilvus.io/­docs/­overview.mdwww.postgresql.org/­docshelp.sap.com/­docs/­SAP_SQL_Anywhere
DeveloperMicrosoftPostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developerSAP infoformerly Sybase
Initial release198920191989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL1992
Current releaseSQL Server 2022, November 20222.3.4, January 202416.3, May 202417, July 2015
License infoCommercial or Open Sourcecommercial inforestricted free version is availableOpen Source infoApache Version 2.0Open Source infoBSDcommercial
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenononono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.
Zilliz Cloud – Cloud-native service for MilvusAiven for PostgreSQL: Fully managed PostgreSQL for developers with 70+ extensions and flexible orchestration tools.
Implementation languageC++C++, GoC
Server operating systemsLinux
Windows
Linux
macOS info10.14 or later
Windows infowith WSL 2 enabled
FreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows
AIX
HP-UX
Linux
OS X
Solaris
Windows
Data schemeyesyesyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesVector, Numeric and Stringyesyes
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.yesnoyes infospecific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality.yes
Secondary indexesyesnoyesyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLyesnoyes infostandard with numerous extensionsyes
APIs and other access methodsADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
OLE DB
Tabular Data Stream (TDS)
RESTful HTTP APIADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
ADO.NET
HTTP API
JDBC
ODBC
Supported programming languagesC#
C++
Delphi
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
R
Ruby
Visual Basic
C++
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java infoJDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl
C
C#
C++
Delphi
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresTransact SQL, .NET languages, R, Python and (with SQL Server 2019) Javanouser defined functions inforealized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.yes, in C/C++, Java, .Net or Perl
Triggersyesnoyesyes
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodestables can be distributed across several files (horizontal partitioning); sharding through federationShardingpartitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hashnone
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesyes, but depending on the SQL-Server EditionSource-replica replication infoother methods possible by using 3rd party extensionsSource-replica replication infoDatabase mirroring
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnononono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemImmediate ConsistencyBounded Staleness
Eventual Consistency
Immediate Consistency
Session Consistency
Tunable Consistency
Immediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityyesnoyesyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACIDnoACIDACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyesyes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.yesyesnoyes
User concepts infoAccess controlfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardRole based access control and fine grained access rightsfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardfine grained access rights according to SQL-standard
More information provided by the system vendor
Microsoft SQL ServerMilvusPostgreSQLSAP SQL Anywhere infoformerly called Adaptive Server Anywhere
Specific characteristicsMilvus is an open-source and cloud-native vector database built for production-ready...
» more
Competitive advantagesHighly available, versatile, and robust with millisecond latency. Supports batch...
» more
Typical application scenariosRAG: retrieval augmented generation Video media : video understanding, video deduplication....
» more
Key customersMilvus is trusted by thousands of enterprises, including PayPal, eBay, IKEA, LINE,...
» more
Market metricsAs of January 2024, 25k+ GitHub stars 10M+ downloads and installations​ ​ 3k+ enterprise...
» more
Licensing and pricing modelsMilvus was released under the open-source Apache License 2.0 in October 2019. Fully-managed...
» more

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.

Related products and services
3rd partiesNavicat Monitor is a safe, simple and agentless remote server monitoring tool for SQL Server and many other database management systems.
» more

Navicat for SQL Server gives you a fully graphical approach to database management and development.
» more
Aiven for PostgreSQL: Fully managed PostgreSQL for developers with 70+ extensions and flexible orchestration tools.
» more

SharePlex is the reliable and affordable data replication solution for PostgreSQL migrations, high availability and more.
» more

Instaclustr: Fully Hosted & Managed PostgreSQL
» more

Fujitsu Enterprise Postgres: An Enterprise Grade PostgreSQL with the flexibility of a hybrid cloud solution combined with industry leading security, availability and performance.
» more

Navicat for PostgreSQL is an easy-to-use graphical tool for PostgreSQL database development.
» more

pgDash: In-Depth PostgreSQL Monitoring.
» more

Timescale: Calling all PostgreSQL users – the 2023 State of PostgreSQL survey is now open! Share your favorite extensions, preferred frameworks, community experiences, and more. Take the survey today!
» more

Navicat Monitor is a safe, simple and agentless remote server monitoring tool for PostgreSQL and many other database management systems.
» more

CYBERTEC is your professional partner in PostgreSQL topics for over 20 years. As our main aim is to be your single-source all-in-one IT service provider, we offer a wide range of products and services. Visit our website for more details.
» more

Redgate webinars: A series of key topics for new PostgreSQL users.
» more

We invite representatives of vendors of related products to contact us for presenting information about their offerings here.

More resources
Microsoft SQL ServerMilvusPostgreSQLSAP SQL Anywhere infoformerly called Adaptive Server Anywhere
DB-Engines blog posts

MySQL is the DBMS of the Year 2019
3 January 2020, Matthias Gelbmann, Paul Andlinger

The struggle for the hegemony in Oracle's database empire
2 May 2017, Paul Andlinger

Microsoft SQL Server is the DBMS of the Year
4 January 2017, Matthias Gelbmann, Paul Andlinger

show all

Vector databases
2 June 2023, Matthias Gelbmann

show all

PostgreSQL is the DBMS of the Year 2023
2 January 2024, Matthias Gelbmann, Paul Andlinger

Snowflake is the DBMS of the Year 2022, defending the title from last year
3 January 2023, Matthias Gelbmann, Paul Andlinger

Snowflake is the DBMS of the Year 2021
3 January 2022, Paul Andlinger, Matthias Gelbmann

show all

Conferences, events and webinars

Monitoring PostgreSQL with Redgate Monitor
Webinar, 10-11am CT / 4-5pm BST, 22 May 2024

Recent citations in the news

Mallox Ransomware Deployed Via MS-SQL Honeypot Attack
13 May 2024, Infosecurity Magazine

Data Virtualization in SQL Server 2022
7 May 2024, Visual Studio Magazine

Hackers Exploiting MS-SQL Severs To Deploy Mallox Ransomware
13 May 2024, CybersecurityNews

SQL Server 2014 end of support: Keep your customers secure
28 March 2024, Microsoft

Containerize SQL Server workloads with Amazon EKS and DH2i | Amazon Web Services
28 March 2024, AWS Blog

provided by Google News

How NVIDIA GPU Acceleration Supercharged Milvus Vector Database
26 March 2024, The New Stack

Zilliz Unveils Game-Changing Features for Vector Search
22 March 2024, Datanami

Milvus 2.4 Unveils Game-Changing Features for Enhanced Vector Search
20 March 2024, GlobeNewswire

AI-Powered Search Engine With Milvus Vector Database on Vultr
31 January 2024, SitePoint

IBM watsonx.data’s integrated vector database: unify, prepare, and deliver your data for AI
9 April 2024, ibm.com

provided by Google News

ServiceNow trades MariaDB for RaptorDB (PostgreSQL)
13 May 2024, Techzine Europe

AGEDB Technology Launches PGTS - PostgreSQL Tech-Support
8 May 2024, Yahoo Canada Finance

First Principles: Optimizing PostgreSQL for the cloud
14 November 2023, Oracle

General availability: Microsoft Entra ID integration with Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL | Azure updates
13 March 2024, Microsoft

Automatically Generate Types for Your PostgreSQL Database
1 May 2024, The New Stack

provided by Google News

SAP vulnerabilities Let Attacker Inject OS Commands—Patch Now!
11 July 2023, CybersecurityNews

Rimini Street expands support beyond SAP and Oracle
11 June 2022, InsideSAP

SAP Products & Services Data Portfolio
2 July 2021, Datamation

SAP launches HANA cloud platform, partners with Siemens, Intel
6 May 2015, Channel Daily News

AWS, IBM, Microsoft, Google emerge Cloud DBMS leaders
22 December 2022, Daily Host News

provided by Google News



Share this page

Featured Products

Milvus logo

Vector database designed for GenAI, fully equipped for enterprise implementation.
Try Managed Milvus for Free

Neo4j logo

See for yourself how a graph database can make your life easier.
Use Neo4j online for free.

RaimaDB logo

RaimaDB, embedded database for mission-critical applications. When performance, footprint and reliability matters.
Try RaimaDB for free.

AllegroGraph logo

Graph Database Leader for AI Knowledge Graph Applications - The Most Secure Graph Database Available.
Free Download

Datastax Astra logo

Bring all your data to Generative AI applications with vector search enabled by the most scalable
vector database available.
Try for Free

Present your product here