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

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

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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

RDBMS database and synchronization technologies for server, desktop, remote office, and mobile environments

Primary database model

Relational DBMS

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

Relational DBMS

Secondary database models

Document store
Graph DBMS
Spatial DBMS

Document store
Spatial DBMS

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

Score	919.39
Rank	#3	Overall
	#3	Relational DBMS

Score	614.85
Rank	#4	Overall
	#4	Relational DBMS

Score	5.26
Rank	#78	Overall
	#41	Relational DBMS

Website

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

www.postgresql.org

www.sap.com/products/sql-anywhere.html

Technical documentation

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

www.postgresql.org/docs

help.sap.com/sql-anywhere

Developer

Microsoft

PostgreSQL Global Development Group

www.postgresql.org/developer

SAP

formerly Sybase

Initial release

1989

1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL

1992

Current release

SQL Server 2022, November 2022

15.1, November 2022

17, July 2015

License

Commercial or Open Source

commercial

restricted free version is available

Open Source

BSD

commercial

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.

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++

Server operating systems

Linux
Windows

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

AIX
HP-UX
Linux
OS X
Solaris
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.

yes

Secondary indexes

yes

SQL

Support of SQL

yes

standard with numerous extensions

yes

APIs and other access methods

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

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

ADO.NET
HTTP API
JDBC
ODBC

Supported programming languages

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

.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java

JDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl

C
C#
C++
Delphi
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby

Server-side scripts

Stored procedures

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

user defined functions

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

yes, in C/C++, Java, .Net or Perl

Triggers

yes

Partitioning methods

Methods for storing different data on different nodes

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

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

none

Replication methods

Methods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodes

yes, but depending on the SQL-Server Edition

Source-replica replication

other methods possible by using 3rd party extensions

Source-replica replication

Database mirroring

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

Transaction concepts

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

ACID

Concurrency

Support for concurrent manipulation of data

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

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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Navicat for SQL Server gives you a fully graphical approach to database management and development.
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Instaclustr: Fully Hosted & Managed PostgreSQL
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EDB: BigAnimal is fully-managed PostgreSQL in the cloud from the database fanatics at EDB.
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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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The State of PostgreSQL 2022 survey is now open!
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Percona: Database problems? Not on your watch.
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Navicat for PostgreSQL is an easy-to-use graphical tool for PostgreSQL database development.
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pgDash: In-Depth PostgreSQL Monitoring.
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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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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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Datasentinel: Platform for Monitoring and Analyzing the performance problems of your PostgreSQL Clusters
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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

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Snowflake is the DBMS of the Year 2021
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more DBMS events

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

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