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DBMS > Microsoft SQL Server vs. PostGIS vs. PostgreSQL vs. Snowflake

System Properties Comparison Microsoft SQL Server vs. PostGIS vs. PostgreSQL vs. Snowflake

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameMicrosoft SQL Server  Xexclude from comparisonPostGIS  Xexclude from comparisonPostgreSQL  Xexclude from comparisonSnowflake  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionMicrosofts flagship relational DBMSSpatial extension of PostgreSQLWidely used open source RDBMS infoDeveloped as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQLCloud-based data warehousing service for structured and semi-structured data
Primary database modelRelational DBMSSpatial 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
Relational DBMSDocument 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
Score821.56
Rank#3  Overall
#3  Relational DBMS
Score21.72
Rank#29  Overall
#1  Spatial DBMS
Score636.25
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Score130.36
Rank#8  Overall
#5  Relational DBMS
Websitewww.microsoft.com/­en-us/­sql-serverpostgis.netwww.postgresql.orgwww.snowflake.com
Technical documentationlearn.microsoft.com/­en-US/­sql/­sql-serverpostgis.net/­documentationwww.postgresql.org/­docsdocs.snowflake.net/­manuals/­index.html
DeveloperMicrosoftPostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developerSnowflake Computing Inc.
Initial release198920051989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL2014
Current releaseSQL Server 2022, November 20223.4.2, February 202416.3, May 2024
License infoCommercial or Open Sourcecommercial inforestricted free version is availableOpen Source infoGPL v2.0Open Source infoBSDcommercial
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenononoyes
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

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Implementation languageC++CC
Server operating systemsLinux
Windows
FreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows
hosted
Data schemeyesyesyesyes infosupport of semi-structured data formats (JSON, XML, Avro)
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesyesyes
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.yesyesyes infospecific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality.yes
Secondary indexesyesyesyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLyesyesyes infostandard with numerous extensionsyes
APIs and other access methodsADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
OLE DB
Tabular Data Stream (TDS)
ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
CLI Client
JDBC
ODBC
Supported programming languagesC#
C++
Delphi
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
R
Ruby
Visual Basic
.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java infoJDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresTransact SQL, .NET languages, R, Python and (with SQL Server 2019) Javauser defined functionsuser defined functions inforealized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.user defined functions
Triggersyesyesyesno infosimilar concept for controling cloud resources
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodestables can be distributed across several files (horizontal partitioning); sharding through federationyes infobased on PostgreSQLpartitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hashyes
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesyes, but depending on the SQL-Server Editionyes infobased on PostgreSQLSource-replica replication infoother methods possible by using 3rd party extensionsyes
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnononono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemImmediate ConsistencyImmediate ConsistencyImmediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityyesyesyesyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACIDACIDACIDACID
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.yesnonono
User concepts infoAccess controlfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardyes infobased on PostgreSQLfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardUsers with fine-grained authorization concept, user roles and pluggable authentication

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More resources
Microsoft SQL ServerPostGISPostgreSQLSnowflake
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