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DBMS > PostgreSQL vs. Sphinx vs. Virtuoso

System Properties Comparison PostgreSQL vs. Sphinx vs. Virtuoso

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NamePostgreSQL  Xexclude from comparisonSphinx  Xexclude from comparisonVirtuoso  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 databasesVirtuoso is a multi-model hybrid-RDBMS that supports management of data represented as relational tables and/or property graphs
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 engineDocument store
Graph DBMS
Native XML DBMS
Relational DBMS
RDF store
Search engine
Secondary database modelsDocument store
Graph DBMS infowith Apache Age
Spatial DBMS
Vector DBMS infowith pgvector extension
Spatial DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score645.05
Rank#4  Overall
#4  Relational DBMS
Score6.03
Rank#60  Overall
#6  Search engines
Score4.20
Rank#83  Overall
#14  Document stores
#4  Graph DBMS
#2  Native XML DBMS
#45  Relational DBMS
#2  RDF stores
#9  Search engines
Websitewww.postgresql.orgsphinxsearch.comvirtuoso.openlinksw.com
Technical documentationwww.postgresql.org/­docssphinxsearch.com/­docsdocs.openlinksw.com/­virtuoso
DeveloperPostgreSQL Global Development Group infowww.postgresql.org/­developerSphinx Technologies Inc.OpenLink Software
Initial release1989 info1989: Postgres, 1996: PostgreSQL20011998
Current release16.2, February 20243.5.1, February 20237.2.11, September 2023
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoBSDOpen Source infoGPL version 2, commercial licence availableOpen Source infoGPLv2, extended commercial license available
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenonono
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
Server operating systemsFreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Solaris
Unix
Windows
FreeBSD
Linux
NetBSD
OS X
Solaris
Windows
AIX
FreeBSD
HP-UX
Linux
OS X
Solaris
Windows
Data schemeyesyesyes infoSQL - Standard relational schema
RDF - Quad (S, P, O, G) or Triple (S, P, O)
XML - DTD, XML Schema
DAV - freeform filesystem objects, plus User Defined Types a/k/a Dynamic Extension Type
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesnoyes
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 extensionsSQL-like query language (SphinxQL)yes infoSQL-92, SQL-200x, SQL-3, SQLX
APIs and other access methodsADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
Proprietary protocolADO.NET
GeoSPARQL
HTTP API
JDBC
Jena RDF API
ODBC
OLE DB
RDF4J API
RESTful HTTP API
Sesame REST HTTP Protocol
SOAP webservices
SPARQL 1.1
WebDAV
XPath
XQuery
XSLT
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
.Net
C
C#
C++
Java
JavaScript
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Visual Basic
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresuser defined functions inforealized in proprietary language PL/pgSQL or with common languages like Perl, Python, Tcl etc.noyes infoVirtuoso PL
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
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesSource-replica replication infoother methods possible by using 3rd party extensionsnoneChain, star, and bi-directional replication
Multi-source replication
Source-replica replication
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnonoyes
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemImmediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityyesnoyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACIDnoACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyes 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.noyes
User concepts infoAccess controlfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardnoFine-grained Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) in addition to typical coarse-grained Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) according to SQL-standard. Pluggable authentication with supported standards (LDAP, Active Directory, Kerberos)
More information provided by the system vendor
PostgreSQLSphinxVirtuoso
Specific characteristicsVirtuoso is a modern multi-model RDBMS for managing data represented as tabular relations...
» more
Competitive advantagesPerformance & Scale — as exemplified by DBpedia and the LOD Cloud it spawned, i.e.,...
» more
Typical application scenariosUsed for — Analytics/BI Conceptual Data Virtualization Enterprise Knowledge Graphs...
» more
Key customersBroad use across enterprises and governments including — European Union (EU) US Government...
» more
Market metricsLargest installed-base ​of Multi-Model RDBMS for AI-friendly Knowledge Graphs Platform...
» more
Licensing and pricing modelsAvailable in both Commercial Enterprise and Open Source (GPL v2) Editions Feature...
» more

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and for displaying vendor-provided information such as key customers, competitive advantages and market metrics.

Related products and services
3rd partiesFujitsu 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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Aiven for PostgreSQL: Fully managed PostgreSQL for developers with 70+ extensions and flexible orchestration tools.
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CYBERTEC 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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Redgate webinars: A series of key topics for new PostgreSQL users.
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Timescale: Calling all PostgreSQL users – the 2023 State of PostgreSQL survey is now open! Share your favorite extensions, preferred frameworks, community experiences, and more. Take the survey today!
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Instaclustr: Fully Hosted & Managed PostgreSQL
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Navicat Monitor is a safe, simple and agentless remote server monitoring tool for PostgreSQL and many other database management systems.
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SharePlex is the reliable and affordable data replication solution for PostgreSQL migrations, high availability and more.
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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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We invite representatives of vendors of related products to contact us for presenting information about their offerings here.

More resources
PostgreSQLSphinxVirtuoso
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Monitoring PostgreSQL with Redgate Monitor
Webinar, 10-11am CT / 4-5pm BST, 22 May 2024

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