Database Systems Comparison
Comparison of database types: Relational, Document, Key-Value, Column-Family, Graph, and Vector databases with examples and best-fit use cases.
The main families of database systems and what each is best for: relational, document, key-value, column-family, graph and vector, extended with time-series, search, distributed SQL, in-memory and multi-model systems. Each row gives the data model and example products.
Use it when
- You are picking a category of database for a new system.
- You need quick examples of each category.
Watch out for
- Categories overlap and products borrow from each other; PostgreSQL stores JSON and supports vectors, for example.
- Examples are illustrative, not rankings or recommendations.
The data
Databases
11 rows
| Type | Examples | Model | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Relational | PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite | Tables with rows and columns | Structured data, ACID transactions, complex queries |
| Document | MongoDB, CouchDB | JSON-like documents | Flexible schemas, rapid development, hierarchical data |
| Key-Value | Redis, DynamoDB | Key-value pairs | Caching, session storage, high throughput |
| Column-Family | Cassandra, HBase | Columns grouped in families | Time-series, write-heavy workloads, big data |
| Graph | Neo4j, ArangoDB | Nodes and edges | Relationship-heavy data, social networks, recommendations |
| Vector | Pinecone, Weaviate, pgvector | High-dimensional vectors | Semantic search, similarity matching, RAG |
| Time-Series | InfluxDB, TimescaleDB, Prometheus | Timestamped measurements optimized for append and range queries | Metrics, IoT sensor data, monitoring and financial ticks |
| Search Engine | Elasticsearch, OpenSearch, Apache Solr | Inverted indexes over documents with relevance scoring | Full-text search, log analytics, faceted navigation |
| Distributed SQL (NewSQL) | CockroachDB, TiDB, Google Spanner | Relational tables with SQL and distributed transactions | Horizontally scaled applications that need SQL and strong consistency |
| In-Memory | Redis, Memcached, SAP HANA | Data held primarily in RAM | Caching, session stores, leaderboards, low-latency analytics |
| Multi-Model | ArangoDB, Azure Cosmos DB, SurrealDB | Several data models behind one engine | Applications mixing document, graph and key-value access |
Fields
The shape of this dataset, read from the data itself: every column, its type and a real value. Agents can use this to plan a query without fetching the whole document.
| Section | Field | Type | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| databases | type | string | Relational |
| databases | examples | string | PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite |
| databases | model | string | Tables with rows and columns |
| databases | best_for | string | Structured data, ACID transactions, complex que… |
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