DBMS > Microsoft SQL Server vs. MySQL vs. PostgreSQL

System Properties Comparison Microsoft SQL Server vs. MySQL vs. PostgreSQL

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines

Name

Description

Microsofts flagship relational DBMS

Widely used open source RDBMS

Developed as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQL

Primary database model

Relational DBMS

Key/Value like access via memcached API

Relational DBMS

with object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module.

Secondary database models

Document store
Graph DBMS
Spatial DBMS

Document store
Spatial DBMS

Document store
Graph DBMS

with Apache Age
Spatial DBMS

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

Score	920.09
Rank	#3	Overall
	#3	Relational DBMS

Score	1172.46
Rank	#2	Overall
	#2	Relational DBMS

Score	617.90
Rank	#4	Overall
	#4	Relational DBMS

Website

www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server

www.mysql.com

www.postgresql.org

Technical documentation

docs.microsoft.com/en-US/sql/sql-server

dev.mysql.com/doc

www.postgresql.org/docs

Developer

Microsoft

Oracle

since 2010, originally MySQL AB, then Sun

PostgreSQL Global Development Group

www.postgresql.org/developer

Initial release

1989

1995

1989

1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL

Current release

SQL Server 2022, November 2022

8.0.33, April 2023

15.3, May 2023

License

Commercial or Open Source

commercial

restricted free version is available

Open Source

GPL version 2. Commercial licenses with extended functionallity are available

Open Source

BSD

Cloud-based only

Only available as a cloud service

DBaaS offerings (sponsored links)

Database as a Service

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

PlanetScale: Deploy a fully managed database with the reliability of MySQL and the scale of open source Vitess with PlanetScale today. Predictably scale, increase workflow velocity, and deploy features with zero downtime.
ScaleGrid for MySQL: Fully managed MySQL hosting On-Premises and on a wide variety of cloud providers. Easily deploy, monitor, provision, and scale your deployments in the cloud.

Aiven for PostgreSQL: Fully managed and hosted PostgreSQL® with 70+ extensions and orchestration tooling included.
ScaleGrid for PostgreSQL: Fully managed PostgreSQL DBaaS hosting On-Premises and on clouds such as AWS, Azure, GCP and DigitalOcean with no vendor lock-in. Leverage any extension and get SSH access.

Implementation language

C++

C and C++

Server operating systems

Linux
Windows

FreeBSD
Linux
OS X
Solaris
Windows

FreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows

Data scheme

yes

Typing

predefined data types such as float or date

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

specific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality.

Secondary indexes

yes

SQL

Support of SQL

yes

with proprietary extensions

yes

standard with numerous extensions

APIs and other access methods

ADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
OLE DB
Tabular Data Stream (TDS)

ADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
Proprietary native API

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

Supported programming languages

C#
C++
Delphi
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
R
Ruby
Visual Basic

Ada
C
C#
C++
D
Delphi
Eiffel
Erlang
Haskell
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Objective-C
OCaml
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scheme
Tcl

.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java

JDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl

Server-side scripts

Stored procedures

Transact SQL, .NET languages, R, Python and (with SQL Server 2019) Java

yes

proprietary syntax

user defined functions

realized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.

Triggers

yes

Partitioning methods

Methods for storing different data on different nodes

tables can be distributed across several files (horizontal partitioning); sharding through federation

horizontal partitioning, sharding with MySQL Cluster or MySQL Fabric

partitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hash

Replication methods

Methods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodes

yes, but depending on the SQL-Server Edition

Multi-source replication
Source-replica replication

Source-replica replication

other methods possible by using 3rd party extensions

MapReduce

Offers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methods

Consistency concepts

Methods to ensure consistency in a distributed system

Immediate Consistency

Foreign keys

Referential integrity

yes

not for MyISAM storage engine

yes

Transaction concepts

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

ACID

not for MyISAM storage engine

ACID

Concurrency

Support for concurrent manipulation of data

yes

table locks or row locks depending on storage engine

yes

Durability

Support for making data persistent

yes

In-memory capabilities

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

yes

User concepts

Access control

fine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

Users with fine-grained authorization concept

no user groups or roles

fine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

More information provided by the system vendor

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 parties

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DBHawk: Secure access to SQL, NoSQL and Cloud databases with an all-in-one solution.
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Navicat Monitor is a safe, simple and agentless remote server monitoring tool for SQL Server and many other database management systems.
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Navicat for SQL Server gives you a fully graphical approach to database management and development.
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Navicat for MySQL is the ideal solution for MySQL/MariaDB administration and development.
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DbVisualizer is equipping database professionals with the tools they need to build, manage and maintain state-of-the-art database technologies. It has sky-high user satisfaction and is the preferred tool for database professionals around the world. Customers include Tesla, Apple, Facebook, Deutsche Bank, NASA, and 25,000 others in 145 countries.
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CData: Connect to Big Data & NoSQL through standard Drivers.
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PlanetScale: Deploy a fully managed serverless database with the reliability of MySQL and the tested scalability of Vitess. Predictably scale, increase workflow velocity, and deploy features with zero downtime.
Get started with a PlanetScale database today for free.
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SQLFlow: Provides a visual representation of the overall flow of data. Automated SQL data lineage analysis across Databases, ETL, Business Intelligence, Cloud and Hadoop environments by parsing SQL Script and stored procedure.
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Datasentinel: Platform for Monitoring and Analyzing the performance problems of your PostgreSQL Clusters
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Aiven for PostgreSQL: The familiar open source PostgreSQL® that you know and love, with no proprietary features or add-ons that will lock you in.
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The State of PostgreSQL 2022 survey is now open!
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Instaclustr: Fully Hosted & Managed PostgreSQL
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Fujitsu Enterprise Postgres: An Enterprise Grade PostgreSQL with the flexibility of a hybrid cloud solution combined with industry leading security, availability and performance.
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DbVisualizer is equipping database professionals with the tools they need to build, manage and maintain state-of-the-art database technologies. It has sky-high user satisfaction and is the preferred tool for database professionals around the world. Customers include Tesla, Apple, Facebook, Deutsche Bank, NASA, and 25,000 others in 145 countries.
» more

pgDash: In-Depth PostgreSQL Monitoring.
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Navicat for PostgreSQL is an easy-to-use graphical tool for PostgreSQL database development.
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SQLFlow: Provides a visual representation of the overall flow of data. Automated SQL data lineage analysis across Databases, ETL, Business Intelligence, Cloud and Hadoop environments by parsing SQL Script and stored procedure.
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We invite representatives of vendors of related products to contact us for presenting information about their offerings here.

More resources

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

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MySQL is the DBMS of the Year 2019
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MariaDB strengthens its position in the open source RDBMS market
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Snowflake is the DBMS of the Year 2022, defending the title from last year
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Snowflake is the DBMS of the Year 2021
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Driving the Future of PostgreSQL Adoption
15 November 2021, Umair Shahid, Percona (sponsor)

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Conferences and events

more DBMS events

PGCon 2023, PostgreSQL Conference for Users and Developers
Ottawa, Canada, 30 May 2023 - 2 June 2023

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