DBMS > Oracle vs. PostgreSQL

System Properties Comparison Oracle vs. PostgreSQL

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines

Name

Description

Widely used RDBMS

Widely used open source RDBMS

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

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.

Secondary database models

Document store
Graph DBMS

with Oracle Spatial and Graph
RDF store

with Oracle Spatial and Graph
Spatial DBMS

with Oracle Spatial and Graph

Document store
Spatial DBMS

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

Score	1269.94
Rank	#1	Overall
	#1	Relational DBMS

Score	559.25
Rank	#4	Overall
	#4	Relational DBMS

Website

www.oracle.com/database

www.postgresql.org

Technical documentation

docs.oracle.com/en/database

www.postgresql.org/docs

Developer

Oracle

PostgreSQL Global Development Group

www.postgresql.org/developer

Initial release

1980

1989

1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL

Current release

19c, February 2019

13.3, May 2021

License

Commercial or Open Source

commercial

restricted free version is available

Open Source

BSD

Cloud-based only

Only available as a cloud service

DBaaS offerings (sponsored links)

Database as a Service

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Implementation language

C and C++

Server operating systems

AIX
HP-UX
Linux
OS X
Solaris
Windows
z/OS

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

Data scheme

yes

Schemaless in JSON and XML columns

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

JDBC
ODBC
ODP.NET
Oracle Call Interface (OCI)

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

Supported programming languages

C
C#
C++
Clojure
Cobol
Delphi
Eiffel
Erlang
Fortran
Groovy
Haskell
Java
JavaScript
Lisp
Objective C
OCaml
Perl
PHP
Python
R
Ruby
Scala
Tcl
Visual Basic

.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java

JDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl

Server-side scripts

Stored procedures

PL/SQL

also stored procedures in Java possible

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

Sharding, horizontal partitioning

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

Replication methods

Methods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodes

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

can be realized in PL/SQL

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

isolation level can be parameterized

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

Version 12c introduced the new option 'Oracle Database In-Memory'

User concepts

Access control

fine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

More information provided by the system vendor

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Related products and services

3rd parties

General SQL Parser: Instantly adding parsing, decoding, analysis and rewrite SQL processing capability to your products.
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Navicat for Oracle improves the efficiency and productivity of Oracle developers and administrators with a streamlined working environment.
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Navicat for PostgreSQL is an easy-to-use graphical tool for PostgreSQL database development.
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EDB: Helping organizations get the most from PostgreSQL, Oracle Migration, High Availability, Security
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pgDash: In-Depth PostgreSQL Monitoring.
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CYBERTEC is your professional partner for PostgreSQL services and Data Science since 2000. With offices in Austria, Uruguay, Estonia, Poland, South Africa and Switzerland, CYBERTEC operates worldwide and is here for you 24/7!
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ClusterControl: the only management system you’ll ever need to take control of your open source database infrastructure.
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General SQL Parser: Instantly adding parsing, decoding, analysis and rewrite SQL processing capability to your products.
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Fivetran: Quickly and easily centralize your on-premise and cloud databases.
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We invite representatives of vendors of related products to contact us for presenting information about their offerings here.

More resources

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Recent citations in the news

Oracle Database 21c review: The old RDBMS is new again
1 May 2021, ARNnet

New Oracle Enterprise Manager features support for hybrid cloud, extensibility and more
27 April 2021, TechRepublic

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21 April 2021, SiliconANGLE News

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