Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

InfluxData VS Microsoft SQL

Compare InfluxData VS Microsoft SQL and see what are their differences

InfluxData logo InfluxData

Scalable datastore for metrics, events, and real-time analytics.

Microsoft SQL logo 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.
  • InfluxData Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-30
  • Microsoft SQL Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-26

InfluxData features and specs

  • High Performance
    InfluxData's InfluxDB is designed to handle high write and query loads, making it suitable for time-series data and real-time applications.
  • Open-Source
    The core InfluxDB product is open-source, allowing for transparency, community contributions, and the option to self-host the database.
  • Scalability
    InfluxDB offers horizontal scalability, enabling users to handle increasing volumes of data efficiently through clustering.
  • Built-In Data Processing
    InfluxData offers integrated tools for data processing and scripting, such as Kapacitor for real-time processing and Flux for advanced querying.
  • Rich Ecosystem
    InfluxData provides a comprehensive ecosystem including Telegraf for data collection, Chronograf for visualization, and Kapacitor for alerting and processing.
  • Time-Series Focused
    InfluxDB is optimized for time-series data, offering specialized features like time-based retention policies, continuous queries, and downsampling.
  • Easy Integration
    InfluxDB integrates well with many third-party data visualization and monitoring tools such as Grafana, making it easier to build end-to-end solutions.

Possible disadvantages of InfluxData

  • Complexity
    The comprehensive features and tools in the InfluxData ecosystem can result in a steeper learning curve, especially for novices.
  • Cost
    While the open-source version is free, the enterprise and cloud-hosted versions come with a cost, which can be significant for small to mid-sized businesses.
  • Resource Intensive
    InfluxDB can be resource-intensive, especially under high loads, requiring significant hardware resources for optimal performance.
  • Limited SQL Support
    InfluxDB doesn’t fully support SQL, which can be a hurdle for users accustomed to traditional relational databases. It uses its own query languages like InfluxQL and Flux.
  • Fragmented Documentation
    Some users find the documentation fragmented or lacking in depth, which can make troubleshooting and advanced usage more challenging.
  • Data Backup and Restore
    Managing backups and restores in InfluxDB can be intricate and may require additional effort and tools to ensure data integrity and availability.

Microsoft SQL features and specs

  • Comprehensive Feature Set
    SQL Server offers a wide range of features including advanced analytics, in-memory capabilities, robust security measures, and integration services.
  • High Performance
    With in-memory OLTP and support for persistent memory technologies, SQL Server provides high transaction and query performance.
  • Scalability
    SQL Server can scale from small installations on single machines to large, data-intensive applications requiring high throughput and storage.
  • Security
    SQL Server offers advanced security features like encryption, dynamic data masking, and advanced threat protection, ensuring data safety and compliance.
  • Integrations
    It easily integrates with other Microsoft products such as Azure, Power BI, and Active Directory, providing a cohesive ecosystem for enterprise solutions.
  • Developer Friendly
    It supports a wide range of development tools and languages including .NET, Python, Java, and more, making it highly versatile for developers.
  • High Availability
    Features like Always On availability groups and failover clustering provide high availability and disaster recovery options for critical applications.

Possible disadvantages of Microsoft SQL

  • Cost
    SQL Server can be expensive, particularly for the Enterprise edition. Licensing costs can add up quickly depending on the features and scale required.
  • Complexity
    Due to its comprehensive feature set, SQL Server can be complex to configure and manage, requiring skilled administrators and developers.
  • Resource Intensive
    SQL Server can be resource-intensive, requiring substantial hardware resources for optimal performance, which can increase overall operational costs.
  • Windows-Centric
    While SQL Server can run on Linux, it is primarily optimized for and tightly integrated with the Windows ecosystem, which may not suit all organizations.
  • Vendor Lock-In
    Being a proprietary solution, it can cause vendor lock-in, making it challenging to switch to alternative database systems without significant migration efforts.

InfluxData videos

Barbara Nelson [InfluxData] | Best Practices for Data Ingestion into InfluxDB

Microsoft SQL videos

3.1 Microsoft SQL Server Review

More videos:

  • Review - What is Microsoft SQL Server?
  • Review - Querying Microsoft SQL Server (T-SQL) | Udemy Instructor, Phillip Burton [bestseller]

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to InfluxData and Microsoft SQL)
Databases
21 21%
79% 79
Time Series Database
100 100%
0% 0
Relational Databases
0 0%
100% 100
NoSQL Databases
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 InfluxData and Microsoft SQL

InfluxData Reviews

ReductStore vs. MinIO & InfluxDB on LTE Network: Who Really Wins the Speed Race?
Maintaining consistency between multiple databases, like MinIO and InfluxDB, adds a layer of complexity. In our setup, MinIO, used for blob storage, is linked to data points in InfluxDB via its filename. Any inconsistencies or mismatches between the two could potentially result in data loss. Furthermore, we need to query both databases, which is quite inefficient. Lastly,...
Apache Druid vs. Time-Series Databases
We occasionally get questions regarding how Apache Druid differs from time-series databases (TSDB) such as InfluxDB or Prometheus, and when to use each technology. This short post serves to help answer these questions.
Source: imply.io
4 Best Time Series Databases To Watch in 2019
InfluxDB is part of the TICK stack : Telegraf, InfluxDB, Chronograf and Kapacitor. InfluxData provides, out of the box, a visualization tool (that can be compared to Grafana), a data processing engine that binds directly with InfluxDB, and a set of more than 50+ agents that can collect real-time metrics for a lot of different data sources.
Source: medium.com

Microsoft SQL Reviews

We have no reviews of Microsoft SQL yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, InfluxData seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 2 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.

InfluxData mentions (2)

  • Can i log data into excel/csv using aws?
    I would highly recommend using a proper Time Series Database like QuestDB or InfluxDB to do this instead. You can always export data from wither of those two into Excel if your boss wants it in excel, but it's much easier to do data transformations, create graphs and reports, etc. If you have all the data in a proper database. Source: about 3 years ago
  • How to stream IoT data into Excel
    I would suggest using something better suited to IoT data than ... a spreadsheet. I'd recommend looking at one of the Time Series Databases for this. 1) QuestDB or 2) InfluxDB as these are much better suited to streaming data. Source: over 3 years ago

Microsoft SQL mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Microsoft SQL yet. Tracking of Microsoft SQL recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing InfluxData and Microsoft SQL, you can also consider the following products

TimescaleDB - TimescaleDB is a time-series SQL database providing fast analytics, scalability, with automated data management on a proven storage engine.

MySQL - The world's most popular open source database

Prometheus - An open-source systems monitoring and alerting toolkit.

PostgreSQL - PostgreSQL is a powerful, open source object-relational database system.

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

SQLite - SQLite Home Page