H2 Database Engine vs. PostgreSQL

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
H2 Database
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
H2 Database Engine is an open source, embeddable database management system (RDMS) written in Java.N/A
PostgreSQL
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
PostgreSQL (alternately Postgres) is a free and open source object-relational database system boasting over 30 years of active development, reliability, feature robustness, and performance. It supports SQL and is designed to support various workloads flexibly.N/A
Pricing
H2 Database EnginePostgreSQL
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
H2 DatabasePostgreSQL
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
H2 Database EnginePostgreSQL
Best Alternatives
H2 Database EnginePostgreSQL
Small Businesses
InfluxDB
InfluxDB
Score 8.8 out of 10
InfluxDB
InfluxDB
Score 8.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
SQLite
SQLite
Score 9.6 out of 10
SQLite
SQLite
Score 9.6 out of 10
Enterprises
SQLite
SQLite
Score 9.6 out of 10
SQLite
SQLite
Score 9.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
H2 Database EnginePostgreSQL
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.3
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
H2 Database EnginePostgreSQL
Likelihood to Recommend
This really depends on the use case. For an in-memory replacement database for running unit test cases with, H2 Database Engine is an excellent option. However, if you are looking for a general purpose database for your production systems, then H2 Database Engine is not suited for this purpose.
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PostgreSQL is ideal for handling databases that contain large volumes of information due to its efficiency, speed and above all because of the good management it makes of our resources, it also behaves very well in distributed environments of high demand, if you want a database of stable data and excellent performance PostgreSQL is one of the best.
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Pros
  • Can run as an in-memory database.
  • Simple and quick to get started with, and is light weight (only 2MB).
  • SQL compliant so it compatible with most relational databases.
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  • Advanced spatial capabilities by using PostGIS extension
  • Very fast data processing and support of native ANSI SQL language syntax allows maintaining capability and scalability of database
  • Fast data aggregation, even by SQL or stored routines/functions
  • Well documented, free for use, great community. A lot of examples, and for this reason - lesser threshold for junior developers to start with
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Cons
  • There's a warning in official FAQ "Is it Reliable?"-section which makes it seem like H2 is not yet a mature product.
  • If raw SQL queries are used there maybe be differences between MySQL & H2. ORM library should be used.
  • Support seems to be community-based only.
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  • The performance of PostgreSQL has been enhanced through the years, but always is better to have as much performance as we can.
  • The replication services could be done directly within the database, and more easily.
  • The Object Orientation of the Database could be extended, and albeit it manages inheritance of tables, and accepts XML and JSON as primary types, it would be wonderful if one could attach methods more easily to tables (to make them more like classes), and instances (rows for example).
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
As a needed software for day to day development activities
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Usability
No answers on this topic
Postgresql is the best tool out there for relational data so I have to give it a high rating when it comes to analytics, data availability and consistency, so on and so forth. SQL is also a relatively consistent language so when it comes to building new tables and loading data in from the OLTP database, there are enough tools where we can perform ETL on a scalable basis.
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
PostgreSQL's availability is top notch. Apart from connection time-out for an idle user, the database is super reliable.
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Performance
No answers on this topic
The data queries are relatively quick for a small to medium sized table. With complex joins, and a wide and deep table however, the performance of the query has room for improvement.
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Support Rating
No answers on this topic
AWS, Heroku, and Digital Ocean all provide Postgres-as-a-service, where you pretty much never need to administrate it yourself but they do it for you. The Postgres community also has developed awesome and reasonably priced extensions, such as Citus DB and CockroachDB in case you need additional support for running it. If you need documentation, Postgres's docs are super thorough and their official forms are active.
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Online Training
No answers on this topic
The online training is request based. Had there been recorded videos available online for potential users to benefit from, I could have rated it higher. The online documentation however is very helpful. The online documentation PDF is downloadable and allows users to pace their own learning. With examples and code snippets, the documentation is great starting point.
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Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
The online documentation of the PostgreSQL product is elaborate and takes users step by step.
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Alternatives Considered
Both MySQL & H2 [Database Engine] are relational databases & use same query language. Application features can be implemented with both but if it's expected that the application will be used by large user base or is complex MySQL is better. Cloud providers provide scaling support for MySQL and also it's more battle-tested. H2 is good when it's a small application as H2 is easier & quicker to set up.
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In this case, Postgres is preferred because it handles large data sets and requires fewer hardware resources than its competitor, MySQL. Compared to PostgreSQL, Microsoft products are excellent, but the installation process for MS SQL is lengthy. PostgreSQL has an advantage over its competitors in that it can adapt or configure third-party programs, applications, or settings.
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Scalability
No answers on this topic
The DB is reliable, scalable, easy to use and resolves most DB needs
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Return on Investment
  • Doesn't take time from developers, once it's configs are set up for testing it works in everyone's development environments
  • Easy to integrate in application, no need to setup separate database software, no maintenance
  • No need to deal with infrastructure related issues/costs - database runs in same machine as the application that uses it.
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  • Easy to administer so our DevOps team has only ever used minimal time to setup, tune, and maintain.
  • Easy to interface with so our Engineering team has only ever used minimal time to query or modify the database. Getting the data is straightforward, what we do with it is the bigger concern.
  • It's free. You can't beat that.
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ScreenShots