Difference Between Oracle and PostgreSQL
Oracle is a product from Oracle Corporation that provides a number of cloud and service based on applications or platforms, whereas PostgreSQL or Postgres is a relational database management system that was created as a open-source application by PostgreSQL Global Development Group Regents of the University of California. In terms of versioning, PostgreSQL brings out new versions every once a while, to add or update new features to match the changing technological standards in the market, and Oracle issues latest versions with improved tool functioning qualities.
What is Oracle?
Oracle is one of the largest vendor of RDBMS (relational database management system) in the IT market. It is called as an Oracle database, Oracle DB or Oracle marketed by Oracle.Oracle database is developed in 1977 by Lawrence Ellison which is built around a relational database in which data can be accessed by users through an application or query language called SQL (structured query language). Oracle corporation first commercialized oracle RDBMS in 1979. Oracle database is available in different editions such as Enterprise edition, Standard edition, express edition, and oracle lite. Oracle database runs on the major platforms like Windows, UNIX, Linux, and MacOS. The biggest rival for the Oracle database is the Microsoft SQL Server.
What is PostgreSQL?
PostgreSQL doesn’t support SQL until 1994 – QUEL language was used to query data from it. Later on, SQL support was added. PostgreSQL becomes open-source in 1996. PostgreSQL supports all features of RDBMS with an addition of other features that are not available in RDBMS such as views, stored procedures, indexes, and triggers in addition to the primary key, foreign key and atomicity features. It runs on major platforms such as UNIX, MacOS, Windows, and Linux, etc. It supports video, text, audio, images, programming interfaces for different languages such as C/C++, Java, Python, Perl, etc. and open database connectivity.
Head To Head Comparison Between Oracle and PostgreSQL (Infographics)
Below is the top 7 difference between Oracle vs PostgreSQL Performance
Key differences between Oracle and PostgreSQL
Both Oracle vs PostgreSQL Performance are popular choices in the market; let us discuss some of the major Difference:
- PostgreSQL database is an open-source and object-relational database management system whereas Oracle is a commercial relational database management system that is available in different editions.
- Oracle has secondary database models like the document store, key-value store, RDF store, and graph DBMS whereas PostgreSQL has secondary database models like Document store and key-value store models.
- Oracle was implemented in C and C++ programming language whereas PostgreSQL was developed in C programming language.
- Oracle vs PostgreSQL support data schemes, typing, XML support, secondary indexes, and SQL.
- Oracle supports different programming languages such as C/C++, C#, Perl, PHP, Python, R, Ruby, Scala, Cobol, Tcl, Java, visual basic etc. whereas PostgreSQL supports different programming languages such as.Net, C/C++, Python, Java, PHP, Perl, and Tcl.
- Oracle supports two types of replication methods such as master-slave and master-master replication whereas PostgreSQL supports only one type of replication such as master-slave replication.
- Oracle database has support for horizontal partitioning whereas PostgreSQL has support for declarative partitioning form PostgreSQL 10.0
- Oracle database uses PL/SQL scripts on server side whereas PostgreSQL uses user-defined functions as server-side scripts.
- Oracle database supports different API’s and access methods such as JDBC, ODBC, Oracle call interface and ODP.NET whereas PostgreSQL supports API’s and other access methods such as ODBC, JDBC, native C library, streaming API for large objects and ADO.NET
Oracle vs PostgreSQL Comparison Table
The primary Comparison between Oracle vs PostgreSQL Performance are discussed below:
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| The Basis Of Comparison |
Oracle |
PostgreSQL |
| The total cost of ownership | The price of acquisition and product support for Oracle database is high and we need to pay in addition for every extra feature we need which is having the high price. So TCO is high for Oracle database | As PostgreSQL is open-source there is no fee for acquisition and product support which are absolutely free of cost. We can get all the available features of PostgreSQL database for free as it is open-source. |
| Support | Customer support for Oracle database is not free; it is almost one-fourth of the license cost and increases 3 to 5 % annually. | Customer support for PostgreSQL is free but it will take time to resolve the issue as it will be solved by the developer’s community. We can opt for paid service by PostgreSQL professionals which will be less costly than Oracle DB support cost. |
| Productivity | Oracle database productivity is more due to its technical superiority. Oracle database provides more transactions per second than PostgreSQL. | PostgreSQL productivity is less than Oracle database as it provides less number of transactions per second than Oracle DB. |
| Safety | Oracle database has more security or advanced security but we need to purchase as part of the editions provided by Oracle corporation which have some features that protect the database. | PostgreSQL has good security support but not as advanced as Oracle database but those features are not relevant to worse conditions of the database i.e. total collapse of technical support or database crash or shutdown. |
| Scalability | Oracle database offers four sockets with standard edition for scalability but for high workload projects we need to buy enterprise edition which is little costly. | PostgreSQL offers scalability support for free of cost expansions such as proxy from Skype allocating information in database clusters, cluster-based storage solutions based on PostgreSQL. |
| Updates | Oracle database release new versions or updated versions once in two to three years with quality changes respect to demand in the market. | PostgreSQL releases new versions or updated versions once in four to five years but they continuously add new features and updates to be up to date with market trends and requirements. |
| Handling large data volume | Oracle database enterprise edition handles a large amount of data effectively than PostgreSQL based on other equal conditions and machine types. So it is not fair to compare as productivity depends on various factors. | PostgreSQL database handles a large amount of data effectively which boosts the productivity 10 to 30 pages on machines having large volumes of memory. So it depends on various factors. |
Conclusion
Finally, It’s an overview of Oracle vs PostgreSQL comparison in different aspects. I hope you will have a better understanding of these topics after reading this Oracle vs PostgreSQL article. We have seen the Difference Between Oracle and PostgreSQL and I can say that PostgreSQL is more powerful than Oracle in many instances, being an open-source, compatibility with other RDBMS and ease of use with a large community of developers. We can decide the database based on the concrete project. PostgreSQL is being used in many industries such as Hospital applications, patient genetic, B2B applications etc.
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