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DBMS > PostgreSQL vs. Sphinx

System Properties Comparison PostgreSQL vs. Sphinx

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Our visitors often compare PostgreSQL and Sphinx with Elasticsearch, Solr and Manticore Search.

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NamePostgreSQL  Xexclude from comparisonSphinx  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionWidely used open source RDBMS infoDeveloped as objectoriented DBMS (Postgres), gradually enhanced with 'standards' like SQLOpen source search engine for searching in data from different sources, e.g. relational databases
Primary database modelRelational DBMS infowith object oriented extensions, e.g.: user defined types/functions and inheritance. Handling of key/value pairs with hstore module.Search engine
Secondary database modelsDocument store
Graph DBMS infowith Apache Age
Spatial DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score617.90
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Score6.69
Rank#65  Overall
#8  Search engines
Websitewww.postgresql.orgsphinxsearch.com
Technical documentationwww.postgresql.org/­docssphinxsearch.com/­docs
DeveloperPostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developerSphinx Technologies Inc.
Initial release1989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL2001
Current release15.3, May 20233.4.1, July 2021
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoBSDOpen Source infoGPL version 2, commercial licence available
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.
  • 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.
  • Aiven for PostgreSQL: Fully managed and hosted PostgreSQL® with 70+ extensions and orchestration tooling included.
Implementation languageCC++
Server operating systemsFreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows
FreeBSD
Linux
NetBSD
OS X
Solaris
Windows
Data schemeyesyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesno
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.
Secondary indexesyesyes infofull-text index on all search fields
SQL infoSupport of SQLyes infostandard with numerous extensionsSQL-like query language (SphinxQL)
APIs and other access methodsADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
Proprietary protocol
Supported programming languages.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Java infoJDBC
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl
C++ infounofficial client library
Java
Perl infounofficial client library
PHP
Python
Ruby infounofficial client library
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresuser defined functions inforealized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.no
Triggersyesno
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 supported
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesSource-replica replication infoother methods possible by using 3rd party extensionsnone
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityyesno
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACIDno
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyes infoThe original contents of fields are not stored in the Sphinx index.
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.no
User concepts infoAccess controlfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardno

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Related products and services
3rd partiesDatasentinel: Platform for Monitoring and Analyzing the performance problems of your PostgreSQL Clusters
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The State of PostgreSQL 2022 survey is now open!
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pgDash: In-Depth PostgreSQL Monitoring.
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Instaclustr: Fully Hosted & Managed PostgreSQL
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Navicat for PostgreSQL is an easy-to-use graphical tool for PostgreSQL database 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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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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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
PostgreSQLSphinx
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Conferences and events

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

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