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Apache Cassandra VS Postgres-XC

Compare Apache Cassandra VS Postgres-XC and see what are their differences

Apache Cassandra

The Apache Cassandra database is the right choice when you need scalability and high availability without compromising performance.

Rating
0 reviews
Alternatives Is it good?
Postgres-XC

Free, secure and fast downloads from the largest Open Source applications and software directory - SourceForge.net

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0 reviews
Alternatives Is it good?
Grapple
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Which is more popular?

Based on our record, Apache Cassandra seems to be more popular. It has been mentioned 45 times since March 2021.

social mentions
45 vs 0
Databases popularity
98% vs 2%
alternatives listed
232 vs 17

Base details

Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.

Apache Cassandra
Postgres-XC
Website cassandra.apache.org sourceforge.net
Listed in
Databases NoSQL Databases Relational Databases Big Data +1
Databases NoSQL Databases Relational Databases Document Databases +1

Features and specs

What each product offers, as listed by its team.

Apache Cassandra 6 features
Postgres-XC 0 features
  • Scalability
    Apache Cassandra is designed for linear scalability and can handle large volumes of data across many commodity servers without a single point of failure.
  • High Availability
    Cassandra ensures high availability by replicating data across multiple nodes. Even if some nodes fail, the system remains operational.
  • Performance
    It provides fast writes and reads by using a peer-to-peer architecture, making it highly suitable for applications requiring quick data access.
  • Flexible Data Model
    Cassandra supports a flexible schema, allowing users to add new columns to a table at any time, making it adaptable for various use cases.
  • Geographical Distribution
    Data can be distributed across multiple data centers, ensuring low-latency access for geographically distributed users.
  • No Single Point of Failure
    Its decentralized nature ensures there is no single point of failure, which enhances resilience and fault-tolerance.

Possible disadvantages

  • Complexity
    Managing and configuring Cassandra can be complex, requiring specialized knowledge and skills for optimal performance.
  • Eventual Consistency
    Cassandra follows an eventual consistency model, meaning that there might be a delay before all nodes have the latest data, which may not be suitable for all use cases.
  • Write-heavy Operations
    Although Cassandra handles writes efficiently, write-heavy workloads can lead to compaction issues and increased read latency.
  • Limited Query Capabilities
    Cassandra's query capabilities are relatively limited compared to traditional RDBMS, lacking support for complex joins and aggregations.
  • Maintenance Overhead
    Regular maintenance tasks such as node repair and compaction are necessary to ensure optimal performance, adding to the administrative overhead.
  • Tooling and Ecosystem
    While the ecosystem for Cassandra is growing, it is still not as extensive or mature as those for some other database technologies.

No features have been listed yet.

Analysis

An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.

Apache Cassandra
Postgres-XC

Overall verdict

  • Apache Cassandra is an excellent choice if you require a database system that can efficiently manage large-scale data while ensuring high availability and reliability. It is particularly well-suited for use cases that demand a robust, distributed, and scalable database solution.

Why this product is good

  • Apache Cassandra is a highly scalable and distributed NoSQL database management system designed to handle large amounts of data across multiple commodity servers without a single point of failure. It offers robust support for replicating data across multiple data centers, thereby enhancing fault tolerance and availability. Its masterless architecture and linear scalability make it suitable for high throughput online transactional applications.

Recommended for

  • Applications that require high availability and fault tolerance
  • Systems with large volumes of write-heavy workloads
  • Organizations that need multi-data center replication
  • Businesses seeking a scalable solution for distributed databases
  • Use cases needing real-time data processing with low latency

Overall verdict

  • Postgres-XC is a discontinued open-source project that provided write-scalable, multi-master synchronous PostgreSQL clustering, but it has been superseded by newer forks and is no longer actively maintained, making it a poor choice for new deployments today.

Why this product is good

  • Was one of the earliest solutions to add horizontal write scalability to PostgreSQL through a distributed architecture
  • Offered multi-master synchronous replication allowing reads and writes from any node
  • Maintained strong consistency (ACID compliance) across the cluster, unlike many NoSQL alternatives
  • Inspired successor projects like Postgres-XL and later influenced Citus and other distributed Postgres solutions
  • Free and open-source, allowing full inspection and modification of the codebase

Recommended for

  • Users researching the historical evolution of distributed PostgreSQL architectures
  • Legacy systems still running Postgres-XC that need maintenance knowledge
  • Developers evaluating old codebases before migrating to actively maintained alternatives like Postgres-XL, Citus, or YugabyteDB
  • Not recommended for new production deployments due to lack of updates, security patches, and community support

Videos

Walkthroughs and reviews on video.

Apache Cassandra 2 videos + Add
Postgres-XC 0 videos + Add

Course Intro | DS101: Introduction to Apache Cassandra™

More videos

  • - Introduction to Apache Cassandra™

No Postgres-XC videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Category popularity

How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.

Score bands 0–20 21–40 41–50 51–60 61–100
Apache Cassandra
Postgres-XC
98% 98%
Databases
2% 2%
96% 96%
NoSQL Databases
4% 4%
92% 92%
Relational Databases
8% 8%
100% 100%
Graph Databases
0% 0%

User comments

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Reviews and articles

External articles and on-site reviews we used to compare the two products.

Apache Cassandra no reviews yet
Postgres-XC no reviews yet

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Social recommendations and mentions

Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.

Apache Cassandra 45 mentions
Postgres-XC 0 mentions
  • Why Apache IoTDB Is Written in Java: A Decade of Engineering Trade-offs
    When IoTDB was initiated in 2011, almost all influential distributed systems and databases were built in Java or on the JVM—such as Hadoop, HBase, Spark (Scala on JVM), Cassandra, Kafka, and Flink. To integrate deeply with the big data... - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Why You Shouldn’t Invest In Vector Databases?
    In fact, even in the absence of these commercial databases, users can effortlessly install PostgreSQL and leverage its built-in pgvector functionality for vector search. PostgreSQL stands as the benchmark in the realm of open-source... - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Data integrity in Ably Pub/Sub
    All messages are persisted durably for two minutes, but Pub/Sub channels can be configured to persist messages for longer periods of time using the persisted messages feature. Persisted messages are additionally written to Cassandra.... - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago

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Tracking Postgres-XC since Mar 2021.

Alternatives to Apache Cassandra and Postgres-XC

When comparing Apache Cassandra and Postgres-XC, you can also consider the following products.

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