Firebird SQL vs PostgreSQL comparison

Read 125 PostgreSQL reviews

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8,606 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Firebird SQL

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

PostgreSQL and Firebird SQL compete as database management systems. PostgreSQL seems to have the upper hand in features due to its robust capabilities, while Firebird shines in ease of deployment and simplicity, providing distinct advantages for users seeking straightforward implementation.

Features: PostgreSQL offers robust features such as advanced data types, comprehensive indexing, and high-performance scalability, catering to complex use cases. Firebird SQL provides lightweight architecture, multi-platform support, and seamless integration for users prioritizing simplicity and efficiency.

Room for Improvement: PostgreSQL could benefit from simplified configuration processes and reduced complexity to improve user experience. Enhancements in documentation, community support, and resource availability would bolster Firebird SQL's offerings. Users suggest that both systems address usability and community engagement challenges.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: PostgreSQL faces challenges with its deployment process, suggesting a need for intuitive setup tools. Firebird SQL's straightforward deployment offers a hassle-free experience. Both products provide satisfactory customer service, but PostgreSQL's extensive community offers broader support resources.

Pricing and ROI: PostgreSQL incurs higher setup costs due to its comprehensive features but delivers substantial ROI over time with lower operational expenses. Firebird SQL appeals with low initial setup costs, providing quick returns, though ROI varies by use case. PostgreSQL offers long-term gains, while Firebird emphasizes cost-effectiveness and immediate benefits.

To learn more, read our detailed Firebird SQL vs. PostgreSQL Report (Updated: December 2024).

Firebird SQL vs. PostgreSQL

December 2024

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Categories and Ranking

Firebird SQL

Ranking in Open Source Databases

3rd

Average Rating

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Embedded Database (1st)

PostgreSQL

Ranking in Open Source Databases

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.9

Number of Reviews

125

Ranking in other categories

Vector Databases (9th)

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Open Source Databases category, the mindshare of Firebird SQL is 21.3%, down from 22.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PostgreSQL is 20.8%, down from 23.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Open Source Databases

Featured Reviews

Doug Meuross

Strategic Advisor at TradeWindow

A reliable tool that offers good performance and is easy to use

I have had no issues with the stability of the product since it has always been a 100 percent reliable product and much better than the other databases available in the market. The multi-platform part is not good, especially when locked into things like Windows. You can judge your platform with Linux or Unix or whatever since they are good.

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AdityaSharma3

Vice President Business at Techmagnate: Digital Marketing Agency

Transaction processes are fast and good replication capability

Use cases include querying data warehouses and databases to fetch data for clients already working on PostgreSQL. We also use Postgres for building reports It's a transactional database, so we use Postgres for most of our reporting. That's where it's helping. The query speed is fast, and the…

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The most valuable feature of Firebird SQL is the creation of databases."

"I can deploy it on Linux, Mac OS, and Windows — it's very easy."

"The reliability and ease of management are very valuable."

"It helps us in detecting all kinds of problems in the code, such as bad quality, unclear code, or any violation in the code or best practices."

"I like that we don't have to pay external fees to migrate this data. So, we are looking to relocate from Postgres or EDB."

"Firebird SQL is an open-source solution."

"We are happy with the event capabilities of Firebird SQL database. We can raise events from it and display them in our application."

"I appreciate the fact that, once the database is embedded, it doesn't need to be administered, and removes the requirement for a specific server."

More Firebird SQL pros

"Clustering will be the number 1 feature. It is also open-source so it is free. It can also be clustered, to allow fault tolerance."

"Postgres is rock solid when deployed according to best practices as documented by the PostgreSQL community. When it's installed correctly, PostgreSQL is an enterprise-grade solution."

"This is an open-source solution, operates at a high speed, and supports more than one SQL language."

"The solution provides complete support in terms of the SQL dialect and behaves nicely when it comes to transactions."

"We often use PostgreSQL for operations monitoring because we are a manufacturing company."

"The community support and the open-source community for it are good."

"It is very simple to manage."

"The PostgreSQL database is similar to the SQL Server but has a slightly different technology that has similar resources as well. If the customer has the confidence using SQL Server, they will be fairly comfortable using this solution."

Cons

"Database sharing is a capability that Firebird SQL lacks."

"Technical support and performance could be better. We have some problems with this solution, but we don't know if the problem is with the database or the configuration. For example, sometimes, the users can't access the database."

"It is not easy to integrate the tool with Visual Studio."

"On large databases, we have some difficulties."

"In the next release, it should support JSON, XML, and replication with third-party tools."

"The solution could improve by providing partitioning and encryption. It is not at the higher level of database solution but it could be with some upgrades."

"I don't think the solution is very scalable, because the scalability of the performance when using more than one process is not very good."

"We would like to improve the management of very large databases."

More Firebird SQL cons

"I find it difficult to get connectors on the tool. For example, .NET has only one free provider in PostgreSQL. I need to pay the provider if I need something more sophisticated features. Other languages like PHP and Java have good community support. We need community support for .NET."

"The search option is not very good."

"The price could be better."

"They need to have a better graphical interface. There is a tool called pgAdmin 4 that they use, which is free. It is written in Java, and it is slow. They need to have a better product that is similar to Toad for Oracle, but, of course, it is hard to get something that's really great and free. Other than that, it is great."

"It would be great if the solution offered even more integration capabilities."

"PostgreSQL’s performance could be improved."

"We have to set up event API, which takes a lot of events from the user."

"Sometimes, the views create problems. If you don't have the view, sometimes what happens is you need to have the drivers properly set up for PostgreSQL."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is no licensing cost for this solution, as it is open-source."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is freely available."

"There is a yearly maintenance fee for the use of the solution."

"It is okay."

"The tool is open source."

"I was using the free version of Firebird SQL."

"Firebird SQL is an open-source solution, which means it is a free product."

"It is a public domain system as every customer can install it on their system without paying any license fee."

More Firebird SQL pricing and cost advice

"It is free. In terms of operating costs, it basically needs the same platform on which Oracle runs."

"The solution requires a license."

"It is open-source. If you use it on-premise, it is free. It also has enterprise or commercial versions. If you go for the cloud version, there will be a cost, but it is lower than Oracle or Microsoft."

"We do not pay for licensing."

"The need for our customers to pay for licences is contingent on their projects and budgets."

"The licensing model is good."

"There is an annual license."

"It is free. There is no license on it."

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Educational Organization

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

How does Firebird SQL compare with PostgreSQL?

PostgreSQL was designed in a way that provides you with not only a high degree of flexibility but also offers you a cheap and easy-to-use solution. It gives you the ability to redesign and audit yo...

What do you like most about Firebird SQL?

Firebird SQL is an open-source solution.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Firebird SQL?

It's open-source and free.

What do you like most about PostgreSQL?

It's a transactional database, so we use Postgres for most of our reporting. That's where it's helping.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PostgreSQL?

The tool is free of cost. For now, it's not about making money. But once we perfect it, we can offer it to customers willing to pay for support and other services. Most of my deployments are free.

What needs improvement with PostgreSQL?

Postgres should focus on building a stronger knowledge base. They also need to expand their integration capabilities, so more tools and resources are available to manage it. But it is more secure t...

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Product Reports

Download Firebird SQL product report

Embedded Database

November 2024

Download PostgreSQL product report

December 2024

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Firebird

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Overview

Firebird SQL is an open-source, cross-platform relational database management system that offers an enterprise-level database solution. The solution is designed to be highly secure, efficient, and compatible with various platforms and programming languages. Firebird can operate in both embedded and server modes.

Firebird is an open-source project with an active community of developers and users. It is released under the Initial Developer's Public License (IDPL) and the InterBase Public License, allowing for free use, modification, and distribution.

The Firebird solution requires minimal configuration and its architecture allows it to efficiently handle databases ranging from a few KB to multiple terabytes. It is available for various operating systems, including Windows, Linux, macOS, and several Unix-like platforms.

What are the key features of Firebird SQL?

ACID Compliance: Firebird provides full support for ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) transactions, ensuring data integrity and consistency, even in the event of system failures or concurrent access.
SQL Language Support: Firebird SQL provides extensive support for ANSI SQL, which is the standard SQL language, making it compatible with a wide range of applications and tools.
Multi-Generational Architecture: Firebird employs a multi-generational architecture, which allows multiple versions of the same data to coexist within the database.
Concurrency and Performance: Firebird offers efficient concurrency control mechanisms, including multi-version concurrency control (MVCC), which allows multiple transactions to access and modify data simultaneously without locking or blocking each other, improving overall performance.
Embedded mode: In the embedded mode, the database engine is integrated directly into the application.
Security Features: Firebird provides user authentication, role-based access control, and encryption capabilities. It supports various authentication methods, such as native Firebird user accounts, external authentication sources (e.g., Windows domains), and single sign-on (SSO) mechanisms.
Backup and Restore: Firebird offers built-in backup and restore utilities, allowing users to create full or incremental backups of the database, as well as restore from these backups when needed.

As part of being a commonly used open-sourced solution, Firebird boasts a vibrant community of developers and users. The community provides extensive documentation, third-party tools, and active forums for support. Businesses can also opt for professional support services offered by third-party vendors for added assurance.

To summarize, Firebird SQL is a robust, scalable, and cost-effective database solution suitable for a wide range of applications and business sizes. Its comprehensive SQL support, security features, and cross-platform compatibility, combined with the active community support, make it a compelling choice for businesses looking to leverage the power of open-source software without compromising on performance or security.

PostgreSQL is a versatile and reliable database management system commonly used for web development, data analysis, and building scalable databases.

It offers advanced features like indexing, replication, and transaction management. Users appreciate its flexibility, performance, and ability to handle large amounts of data efficiently. Its robustness, scalability, and support for complex queries make it highly valuable.

Additionally, PostgreSQL's extensibility, flexibility, community support, and frequent updates contribute to its ongoing improvement and stability.

Sample Customers

Elekt Labs, Streamsoft, wobe-systems GmbH, DRB Systems, Moscow City Hospital #31

1. Apple 2. Cisco 3. Fujitsu 4. Instagram 5. Netflix 6. Red Hat 7. Sony 8. Uber 9. Cisco Systems 10. Skype 11. LinkedIn 12. Etsy 13. Yelp 14. Reddit 15. Dropbox 16. Slack 17. Twitch 18. WhatsApp 19. Snapchat 20. Shazam 21. SoundCloud 22. The New York Times 23. Cisco WebEx 24. Atlassian 25. Cisco Meraki 26. Heroku 27. GitLab 28. Zalando 29. OpenTable 30. Trello 31. Square Enix 32. Bloomberg