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DBMS > PostgreSQL vs. RDFox vs. Sphinx vs. TimescaleDB

System Properties Comparison PostgreSQL vs. RDFox vs. Sphinx vs. TimescaleDB

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NamePostgreSQL  Xexclude from comparisonRDFox  Xexclude from comparisonSphinx  Xexclude from comparisonTimescaleDB  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionWidely used open source RDBMS infoDeveloped as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQLHigh performance knowledge graph and semantic reasoning engineOpen source search engine for searching in data from different sources, e.g. relational databasesA time series DBMS optimized for fast ingest and complex queries, based on PostgreSQL
Primary database modelRelational DBMS infowith object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module.Graph DBMS
RDF store
Search engineTime Series DBMS
Secondary database modelsDocument store
Graph DBMS infowith Apache Age
Spatial DBMS
Vector DBMS infowith pgvector extension
Relational DBMSRelational DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score645.54
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Score0.23
Rank#308  Overall
#25  Graph DBMS
#14  RDF stores
Score5.98
Rank#56  Overall
#5  Search engines
Score4.64
Rank#71  Overall
#4  Time Series DBMS
Websitewww.postgresql.orgwww.oxfordsemantic.techsphinxsearch.comwww.timescale.com
Technical documentationwww.postgresql.org/­docsdocs.oxfordsemantic.techsphinxsearch.com/­docsdocs.timescale.com
DeveloperPostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developerOxford Semantic TechnologiesSphinx Technologies Inc.Timescale
Initial release1989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL201720012017
Current release16.2, February 20246.0, Septermber 20223.5.1, February 20232.13.0, November 2023
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoBSDcommercialOpen Source infoGPL version 2, commercial licence availableOpen Source infoApache 2.0
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.
Aiven for PostgreSQL: Fully managed PostgreSQL for developers with 70+ extensions and flexible orchestration tools.
Implementation languageCC++C++C
Server operating systemsFreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows
Linux
macOS
Windows
FreeBSD
Linux
NetBSD
OS X
Solaris
Windows
Linux
OS X
Windows
Data schemeyesyes infoRDF schemasyesyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesnonumerics, strings, booleans, arrays, JSON blobs, geospatial dimensions, currencies, binary data, other complex data types
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.yes infospecific XML-type available, but no XML query functionality.yes
Secondary indexesyesyes infofull-text index on all search fieldsyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLyes infostandard with numerous extensionsnoSQL-like query language (SphinxQL)yes infofull PostgreSQL SQL syntax
APIs and other access methodsADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
RESTful HTTP API
SPARQL 1.1
Proprietary protocolADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
Supported programming languages.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java infoJDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl
C
Java
C++ infounofficial client library
Java
Perl infounofficial client library
PHP
Python
Ruby infounofficial client library
.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java infoJDBC
JavaScript
Perl
PHP
Python
R
Ruby
Scheme
Tcl
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresuser defined functions inforealized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.nouser defined functions, PL/pgSQL, PL/Tcl, PL/Perl, PL/Python, PL/Java, PL/PHP, PL/R, PL/Ruby, PL/Scheme, PL/Unix shell
Triggersyesnoyes
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodespartitioning by range, list and (since PostgreSQL 11) by hashSharding infoPartitioning is done manually, search queries against distributed index is supportedyes, across time and space (hash partitioning) attributes
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesSource-replica replication infoother methods possible by using 3rd party extensionsreplication via a shared file systemnoneSource-replica replication with hot standby and reads on replicas info
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnonono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemImmediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency in stand-alone mode, Eventual Consistency in replicated setupsImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityyesnoyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACIDACIDnoACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyes infoThe original contents of fields are not stored in the Sphinx index.yes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.noyesno
User concepts infoAccess controlfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardRoles, resources, and access typesnofine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

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Related products and services
3rd partiesCYBERTEC is your professional partner in PostgreSQL topics for over 20 years. As our main aim is to be your single-source all-in-one IT service provider, we offer a wide range of products and services. Visit our website for more details.
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PostgreSQLRDFoxSphinxTimescaleDB
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