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Firebird VS PostgreSQL

Compare Firebird VS PostgreSQL and see what are their differences

Firebird logo Firebird

Relational database offering many ANSI SQL standard features that runs on Linux, Windows, and a variety of Unix platform

PostgreSQL logo PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is a powerful, open source object-relational database system.
  • Firebird Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-14
  • PostgreSQL Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-21

Firebird features and specs

  • Open Source
    Firebird is an open-source database management system, which means it is free to use, often leading to lower total cost of ownership compared to proprietary solutions.
  • Cross-Platform Compatibility
    Firebird runs on multiple operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and MacOS, making it a versatile choice for various development environments.
  • Low Resource Consumption
    Firebird is known for its low resource requirements, making it highly efficient and suitable for both small and large-scale applications.
  • Advanced SQL Support
    Firebird supports a broad range of SQL standards and advanced features, including stored procedures, triggers, and full ACID-compliant transactions.
  • User Security
    Firebird offers robust user authentication and security features to manage database access and ensure data integrity.

Possible disadvantages of Firebird

  • Relative Popularity
    Firebird is less popular compared to other database systems like MySQL and PostgreSQL, which can result in a smaller community and fewer third-party tools or extensions.
  • Limited Documentation
    While there is official documentation available, some users may find it less comprehensive compared to the documentation of more popular databases.
  • Learning Curve
    New users who are not familiar with Firebird might encounter a steep learning curve, especially if they are used to working with other database management systems.
  • Limited Cloud Integration
    Firebird does not have the same level of support and optimization for cloud services as some other databases, potentially complicating cloud deployment.
  • Community Support
    While there is a community, the support response time might not be as fast or as comprehensive as databases with larger user bases.

PostgreSQL features and specs

  • Open Source
    PostgreSQL is an open-source database management system, which means it is free to use, modify, and distribute. This reduces the cost of database management for individuals and organizations.
  • ACID Compliance
    PostgreSQL is fully ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) compliant, ensuring reliable transactions and data integrity.
  • Extensible
    PostgreSQL is highly extensible, allowing users to add custom functions, data types, and operators. This enables tailored solutions to specific requirements.
  • Advanced SQL Features
    PostgreSQL supports advanced SQL features like full-text search, JSON and XML data types, and complex queries, providing powerful tools for database operations.
  • Community Support
    There is a strong and active community around PostgreSQL, offering extensive documentation, forums, and collaborative support, which aids troubleshooting and development.
  • Multiple Indexing Techniques
    PostgreSQL offers a variety of indexing techniques such as B-tree, GIN, GiST, and BRIN, allowing for optimized query performance on various data types.
  • Cross-Platform Availability
    PostgreSQL runs on all major operating systems (Windows, MacOS, Linux, Unix), giving flexibility in deployment and development environments.

Possible disadvantages of PostgreSQL

  • Complex Configuration
    Setting up and configuring PostgreSQL can be complex and time-consuming, especially for beginners, requiring a good understanding of its parameters and best practices.
  • Heavy Resource Consumption
    PostgreSQL can be resource-intensive, consuming significant CPU and memory compared to other database systems, which may affect performance on lower-end hardware.
  • Backup and Restore Process
    The backup and restore process in PostgreSQL is not as straightforward as in some other database systems, requiring more manual intervention and understanding of tools like pg_dump and pg_restore.
  • Replication Complexity
    While PostgreSQL supports replication, setting it up can be more complex than some other databases. Advanced configurations like multi-master replication can be particularly challenging.
  • Steeper Learning Curve
    Due to its advanced features and extensive capabilities, PostgreSQL can have a steeper learning curve, making it harder for new users to get started compared to simpler database systems.
  • Less Third-Party Tool Support
    PostgreSQL has less support from third-party tools compared to more widely adopted databases like MySQL, which can limit options for auxiliary functions like administration, monitoring, and development.

Firebird videos

The Best Budget Drag Car Ever! Pontiac Firebird TransAm Review!

More videos:

  • Review - 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am | Retro Review
  • Review - Firebird Review Six Flags America Former Apocalypse Roller Coaster

PostgreSQL videos

Comparison of PostgreSQL and MongoDB

More videos:

  • Review - PostgreSQL Review
  • Review - MySQL vs PostgreSQL - Why you shouldn't use MySQL

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Firebird and PostgreSQL)
Databases
18 18%
82% 82
NoSQL Databases
21 21%
79% 79
Relational Databases
10 10%
90% 90
Development
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Firebird and PostgreSQL

Firebird Reviews

Top 10 free database tools for sys admins 2019 Update
DBeaver is an open source universal database tool for developers and database administrators that has a low memory footprint. It supports JDBC compliant databases such as MySQL, Oracle, IBM DB2, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Firebird, SQLite, and Sybase. Its main features include the ability to browse and edit databases, create and execute SQL scripts, export data, transaction...

PostgreSQL Reviews

Data Warehouse Tools
Peliqan acts as a bridge, allowing you to e.g. effortlessly pull your PostgreSQL data into Google Sheets for easy access and analysis using its one-click connector. Additionally, Peliqan’s platform provides a user-friendly environment for data exploration, transformation with Magical SQL, and visualization capabilities, all without needing to switch between multiple tools.
Source: peliqan.io
Top 5 BigQuery Alternatives: A Challenge of Complexity
For over three decades, the open-source object-relational database system PostgreSQL has maintained its reputation as a top SQL server due to its features, performance, and reliability. (Heck, Redshift is even based on Postgres!) It's the go-to database solution for large corporations and organizations across a variety of industries from ecommerce to gaming to...
Source: blog.panoply.io
10 Best Database Management Software Of 2022 [+ Examples]
Applications Manager offers out-of-the-box health and performance monitoring for 20 popular databases including RDBMS, NoSQL, in-memory, distributed, and big data stores. It supports both commercial databases such as Oracle, Microsoft SQL, IBM DB2, and MongoDB as well as open source ones like MySQL and PostgreSQL.
Source: theqalead.com
ClickHouse vs TimescaleDB
Recently, TimescaleDB published a blog comparing ClickHouse & TimescaleDB using timescale/tsbs, a timeseries benchmarking framework. I have some experience with PostgreSQL and ClickHouse but never got the chance to play with TimescaleDB. Some of the claims about TimescaleDB made in their post are very bold, that made me even more curious. I thought it’d be a great...
9 Best MongoDB alternatives in 2019
PostgreSQL is a widely popular open source database management system. It provides support for both SQL for relational and JSON for non-relational queries.
Source: www.guru99.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, PostgreSQL should be more popular than Firebird. It has been mentiond 16 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Firebird mentions (3)

  • GitHub - neondatabase/neon: The serverless open source alternative to AWS Aurora Postgres - Written in Rust
    Y'know, this situation is why Firefox bounced off the names Phoenix and Firebird before settling. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Leaving MySQL
    Another big open source DB I'd like to hear about more often is Firebird (https://firebirdsql.org/) which was forked from the Interbase code released by Borland (don't remember how they were called at the time). Four choices of connection model (process-by-connection, thread-by-connection, some weird mix, and in-process), full ANSI SQL, runs on all major platforms, and uses single file databases. Seems to be the... - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago
  • Any RBDMS that supports in-memory and multi-threaded writes?
    For C/C++ Firebird could be an option, although that isn't really "in memory" as it persists all data to disk. Source: about 4 years ago

PostgreSQL mentions (16)

  • Convert insert mutation to upsert
    In this quick post, we’ll walk through implementing an Upsert operation in Hasura using PostgreSQL and GraphQL. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Perfect Elixir: Environment Setup
    I’m on MacOS and erlang.org, elixir-lang.org, and postgresql.org all suggest installation via Homebrew, which is a very popular package manager for MacOS. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Rust & MySQL: connect, execute SQL statements and stored procs using crate sqlx.
    According to the documentation, crate sqlx is implemented in Rust, and it's database agnostic: it supports PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, and MSSQL. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Really tired. Is PostgreSQL even runnable in Windows 10? pgAdmin4 stucks at Loading whatever I try.
    Solution is just downloading and installilng pgAdmin from official pgAdmin homepage version, not the one that is included in the postgresql.org package. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Why SQL is right for Infrastructure Management
    SQL immediately stands out here because it was designed for making relational algebra, the other side of the Entity-Relationship model, accessible. There are likely more people who know SQL than any programming language (for IaC) or data format you could choose to represent your cloud infrastructure. Many non-programmers know it, as well, such as data scientists, business analysts, accountants, etc, and there is... - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Firebird and PostgreSQL, you can also consider the following products

MongoDB - MongoDB (from "humongous") is a scalable, high-performance NoSQL database.

MySQL - The world's most popular open source database

Microsoft SQL Server - Microsoft Azure is an open, flexible, enterprise-grade cloud computing platform. Move faster, do more, and save money with IaaS + PaaS. Try for FREE.

Microsoft SQL - Microsoft SQL is a best in class relational database management software that facilitates the database server to provide you a primary function to store and retrieve data.

CouchBase - Document-Oriented NoSQL Database

SQLite - SQLite Home Page