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.
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Microsoft SQL Server
Score 8.7 out of 10
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Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database.
$1,418
Per License
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PostgreSQL
Microsoft SQL Server
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$1,418.00
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$13,748.00
Per License
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PostgreSQL
Microsoft SQL Server
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No setup fee
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PostgreSQL
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PostgreSQL vs Microsoft SQL Server are both relational databases designed to help businesses store data in a structured manner for querying. PostgreSQL is an open-source database software, meaning businesses can access its source code for free. Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database software that is most popular with mid-sized and large enterprises. PostgreSQL is used by businesses of all sizes, though it is more popular with smaller businesses due to its open-source nature.
Features
PostgreSQL and Microsoft SQL Server both include essential relational database features such as data recovery, but they also have a few standout features that set them apart from each other.
PostgreSQL supports a wide variety of operating systems including Windows, Linux, OS X, and Unix. Additionally, PostgreSQL is a highly customizable relational database as its open source nature allows skilled development teams to contribute to the code on their own. Since PostgreSQL is open source, it is also supported by many community developers, so bugs are fixed quickly.
Microsoft SQL Server provides excellent features for Windows ecosystems such as support for C# and Visual Basic. Additionally, Microsoft SQL Server allows for the automated updating of views as tables change, so users can quickly see the results of data changes. SQL Server also provides support from the vendor, so businesses that need assistance with implementation may appreciate Microsoft support.
Limitations
PostgreSQL and Microsoft SQL Server both allow for the storage of structured data, but they also have a few limitations that are important to consider.
PostgreSQL supports a wide variety of operating systems, but it doesn’t support languages such as C# and Visual Basic. Businesses using the Windows operating system and other Microsoft technologies may prefer Microsoft SQL Server. Additionally, PostgreSQL has a lot of community produced documentation, but since it is open source there is no vendor support. Businesses looking for support from a vendor may prefer proprietary database solutions.
Microsoft SQL Server supports Windows and Linux, but doesn’t have support for other operating systems. Businesses running servers on OS X and Unix will need to consider other options. Additionally, While Microsoft SQL Server offers vendor support, it isn’t as customizable as PostgreSQL. If your organization has niche feature needs and a skilled development team, they can benefit from open source software like PostgreSQL.
Pricing
PostgreSQL is open source, so its source code is available free of charge. Many third party organizations offer support and hosting for PostgreSQL with pricing dependent on the vendor.
Microsoft SQL Server pricing is dependent on the number of cores and users. A free version exists for small amounts of data, but business licenses start at $931.00.
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.
Microsoft SQL Server is ideal for highly available SQL workloads by using SQL Server Always On availability groups. Microsoft SQL Server might not be appropriate for solutions which require a very low resource footprint, since it requires significant CPU cores and RAM memory as well as high IOPS, always depending on the usage scenario.
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).
I think it is unlikely that sql server has disappointed someone, it is likely that someone will come initially discouraged if the needs and problems that occur are very challenging, but definitely have a SQL oriented system means having a solid base to work and on which maintain the their data securely
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.
SQL Server mostly 'just works' or generates error messages to help you sort out the trouble. You can usually count on the product to get the job done and keep an eye on your potential mistakes. Interaction with other Microsoft products makes operating as a Windows user pretty straight forward. Digging through the multitude of dialogs and wizards can be a pain, but the answer is usually there somewhere.
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.
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.
We managed to handle most of our problems by looking into Microsoft's official documentation that has everything explained and almost every function has an example that illustrates in detail how a particular functionality works. Just like PowerShell has the ability to show you an example of how some cmdlet works, that is the case also here, and in my opinion, it is a very good practice and I like it.
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.
Other than SQL taking quite a bit of time to actually install there are no problems with installation. Even on hardware that has good performance SQL can still take close to an hour to install a typical server with management and reporting services.
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.
Microsoft SQL is slower than MySQL and Access but far more feature-rich and reliable. Access is almost obsolete nowadays, so not too many people are considering it, but unless budget or an open-source ethos is a factor, Microsoft SQL is superior in every way. Many commonly used tools, like Crystal Reports, support it.
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.
Increased accuracy - We went from multiple users having different versions of an Excel spreadsheet to a single source of truth for our reporting.
Increased Efficiency - We can now generate reports at any time from a single source rather than multiple users spending their time collating data and generating reports.
Improved Security - Enterprise level security on a dedicated server rather than financial files on multiple laptop hard drives.
