Software Alternatives & Startups
Register | Login

Postgres-XC VS Starcounter

Compare Postgres-XC VS Starcounter and see what are their differences

Postgres-XC

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

Rating
0 reviews
Alternatives Is it good?
Starcounter

The Starcounter database is built with the real-time systems of today in mind.

Rating
0 reviews
Alternatives Is it good?
Rclone UI
The cross-platform GUI for Rclone. sponsored

Which is more popular?

Databases popularity
49% vs 51%
alternatives listed
17 vs 18

Base details

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

Postgres-XC
Starcounter
Website sourceforge.net starcounter.com
Listed in
Databases NoSQL Databases Relational Databases Document Databases +1
Databases Relational Databases NoSQL Databases Database Management +1

Features and specs

What each product offers, as listed by its team.

Postgres-XC 0 features
Starcounter 5 features

No features have been listed yet.

  • High Performance
    Starcounter offers high-performance in-memory database capabilities which can lead to fast read and write operations, making it suitable for real-time applications.
  • Unified Database Architecture
    It uses a single architecture that allows both SQL and NoSQL data models, providing flexibility in how data can be structured and queried.
  • Low Latency
    Being an in-memory database, it boasts low latency in data operations, which is crucial for applications that require immediate data retrieval.
  • Scalability
    Starcounter is designed to handle increasing amounts of data and users without a significant drop in performance.
  • Efficient Use of Hardware Resources
    The platform is optimized for modern hardware, making efficient use of multi-core processors and vast amounts of memory.

Possible disadvantages

  • Limited Adoption
    Starcounter is not as widely adopted or known as other database solutions, which can lead to a smaller community and fewer resources for support.
  • Complexity
    The unified model for operating with both SQL and NoSQL paradigms can add complexity, especially for developers who are not familiar with such integration.
  • Cost
    Licensing and operational costs might be a concern for smaller companies or startups, especially when compared to open-source alternatives.
  • Limited Third-Party Integrations
    There might be fewer third-party tools or extensions available for Starcounter, limiting flexibility in some use cases.
  • In-Memory Limitations
    As an in-memory database, the size of your dataset is limited by the amount of available RAM, which can be a limiting factor for very large datasets.

Analysis

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

Postgres-XC
Starcounter

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

Overall verdict

  • Starcounter is a solid choice for organizations needing an in-memory database and application server that delivers extremely high transactional throughput with low latency, thanks to its unique architecture that keeps data in RAM and eliminates traditional data mapping overhead.

Why this product is good

  • In-memory database architecture delivers very high performance and low-latency transaction processing
  • Combines the database and application server in one runtime, reducing data-transfer and object-relational mapping overhead
  • Uses SQL querying so developers can work with familiar syntax
  • ACID-compliant transactions ensure data integrity for mission-critical applications
  • Designed to scale for high-throughput workloads such as retail, gaming, and real-time systems

Recommended for

  • Enterprises building high-performance, real-time transactional applications
  • Retail and e-commerce platforms handling large volumes of concurrent transactions
  • Developers seeking to reduce complexity by combining database and app server
  • Use cases requiring low-latency data access such as gaming, finance, or IoT
  • Applications where traditional disk-based databases become a performance bottleneck

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
Postgres-XC
Starcounter
49% 49%
Databases
51% 51%
49% 49%
Relational Databases
51% 51%
49% 49%
NoSQL Databases
51% 51%
100% 100%
Document Databases
0% 0%

User comments

Share your experience with using Postgres-XC and Starcounter. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

Log in or Post with

Alternatives to Postgres-XC and Starcounter

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

Loading...