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DBMS > Microsoft SQL Server vs. Milvus vs. PostgreSQL vs. searchxml

System Properties Comparison Microsoft SQL Server vs. Milvus vs. PostgreSQL vs. searchxml

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameMicrosoft SQL Server  Xexclude from comparisonMilvus  Xexclude from comparisonPostgreSQL  Xexclude from comparisonsearchxml  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 SQLDBMS for structured and unstructured content wrapped with an application server
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.Native XML DBMS
Search engine
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
Score0.00
Rank#383  Overall
#7  Native XML DBMS
#25  Search engines
Websitewww.microsoft.com/­en-us/­sql-servermilvus.iowww.postgresql.orgwww.searchxml.net/­category/­products
Technical documentationlearn.microsoft.com/­en-US/­sql/­sql-servermilvus.io/­docs/­overview.mdwww.postgresql.org/­docswww.searchxml.net/­support/­handouts
DeveloperMicrosoftPostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developerinformationpartners gmbh
Initial release198920191989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL2015
Current releaseSQL Server 2022, November 20222.3.4, January 202416.3, May 20241.0
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.
SQLServer Flex @ STACKIT offers a managed version of SQL Server with adjustable CPU, RAM, storage amount and speed, in enterprise grade to perfectly match all application requirements. All services are 100% GDPR-compliant.Zilliz Cloud – Cloud-native service for Milvus
  • PostgreSQL Flex @ STACKIT offers managed PostgreSQL Instances with adjustable CPU, RAM, storage amount and speed and several extensions available, in enterprise grade to perfectly match all application requirements. All 100% GDPR-compliant.
  • Aiven for PostgreSQL: Fully managed PostgreSQL for developers with 70+ extensions and flexible orchestration tools.
Implementation languageC++C++, GoCC++
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
Windows
Data schemeyesyesschema-free
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 extensionsno
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
RESTful HTTP API
WebDAV
XQuery
XSLT
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++ infomost other programming languages supported via APIs
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 infoon the application server
Triggersyesnoyesno
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 extensionsyes infosychronisation to multiple collections
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 integrityyesnoyesno
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACIDnoACIDmultiple readers, single writer
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.yesyesnono
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-standardDomain, group and role-based access control at the document level and for application services
More information provided by the system vendor
Microsoft SQL ServerMilvusPostgreSQLsearchxml
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...
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Typical application scenariosRAG: retrieval augmented generation Video media : video understanding, video deduplication....
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Key customersMilvus is trusted by thousands of enterprises, including PayPal, eBay, IKEA, LINE,...
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Market metricsAs of January 2024, 25k+ GitHub stars 10M+ downloads and installations​ ​ 3k+ enterprise...
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Licensing and pricing modelsMilvus was released under the open-source Apache License 2.0 in October 2019. Fully-managed...
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More resources
Microsoft SQL ServerMilvusPostgreSQLsearchxml
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