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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Databases
  4. Databases
  5. Cassandra vs InfluxDB

Cassandra vs InfluxDB

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Cassandra
Cassandra
Stacks3.6K
Followers3.5K
Votes507
GitHub Stars9.5K
Forks3.8K
InfluxDB
InfluxDB
Stacks1.0K
Followers1.2K
Votes175

Cassandra vs InfluxDB: What are the differences?

Introduction

Cassandra and InfluxDB are both popular database management systems, but they differ in several key aspects.

  1. Data Model: Cassandra follows a wide column data model, also known as a columnar database, where data is organized in tables with dynamic row and column structures. InfluxDB, on the other hand, is a time-series database that focuses on storing and retrieving data with timestamps. It is optimized for handling time series data, making it more efficient for handling continuous data streams.

  2. Scalability: Cassandra is designed to be highly scalable and can handle massive amounts of data. It has a decentralized architecture that allows for easy distribution across multiple nodes, making it suitable for high-volume and write-intensive applications. In contrast, while InfluxDB can also scale horizontally, it is better suited for scenarios with smaller data sizes and less emphasis on distributed computing.

  3. Query Language: Cassandra uses CQL (Cassandra Query Language), which is similar to SQL but has some unique syntax and functionality specific to Cassandra's data model. InfluxDB utilizes its own query language called InfluxQL, which is designed specifically for time-series data and provides functions for data aggregation, downsampling, and filtering.

  4. Performance: Cassandra is known for its robust performance and can handle high write and read loads efficiently. It is designed to provide low-latency response times, making it suitable for real-time applications. InfluxDB, being a specialized time-series database, offers excellent write and query performance for time-based data, making it ideal for analyzing and visualizing time-series metrics.

  5. Consistency: Cassandra offers tunable consistency, allowing developers to choose the level of consistency required for their applications. It provides both strong and eventual consistency models. InfluxDB, on the other hand, prioritizes eventual consistency to ensure high availability and fault tolerance, making it more suitable for scenarios where real-time consistency is not critical.

  6. Data Compression and Retention: Cassandra provides configurable compression options to optimize storage space. It supports both row-level and block-level compression techniques. InfluxDB, being a time-series database, provides built-in compression algorithms that efficiently store and compress time-stamped data. It also offers retention policies that allow automatic data expiration based on a specified time duration.

In summary, Cassandra and InfluxDB differ in their data models, scalability, query languages, performance characteristics, consistency models, and approaches to data compression and retention.

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Advice on Cassandra, InfluxDB

Micha
Micha

CEO & Co-Founder at Dechea

May 27, 2022

Decided

Fauna is a serverless database where you store data as JSON. Also, you have build in a HTTP GraphQL interface with a full authentication & authorization layer. That means you can skip your Backend and call it directly from the Frontend. With the power, that you can write data transformation function within Fauna with her own language called FQL, we're getting a blazing fast application.

Also, Fauna takes care about scaling and backups (All data are sharded on three different locations on the globe). That means we can fully focus on writing business logic and don't have to worry anymore about infrastructure.

93k views93k
Comments
Deepak
Deepak

Sep 6, 2021

Needs adviceonJSONJSONInfluxDBInfluxDB

Hi all, I am trying to decide on a database for time-series data. The data could be tracking some simple series like statistics over time or could be a nested JSON (multi-level nested). I have been experimenting with InfluxDB for the former case of a simple list of variables over time. The continuous queries are powerful too. But for the latter case, where InfluxDB requires to flatten out a nested JSON before saving it into the database the complexity arises. The nested JSON could be objects or a list of objects and objects under objects in which a complete flattening doesn't leave the data in a state for the queries I'm thinking.

[ 
  { "timestamp": "2021-09-06T12:51:00Z",
    "name": "Name1",
    "books": [
        { "title": "Book1", "page": 100 },
        { "title": "Book2", "page": 280 },
    ]
  },
 { "timestamp": "2021-09-06T12:52:00Z",
   "name": "Name2",
   "books": [
       { "title": "Book1", "page": 320},
       { "title": "Book2", "page": 530 },
       { "title": "Book3", "page": 150 },
   ]
 }
]

Sample query: With a time range, for name xyz, find all the book title for which # of page < 400.

If I flatten it completely, it will result in fields like books_0_title, books_0_page, books_1_title, books_1_page, ... And by losing the nested context it will be hard to return one field (title) where some condition for another field (page) satisfies.

Appreciate any suggestions. Even a piece of generic advice on handling the time-series and choosing the database is welcome!

30.5k views30.5k
Comments
Anonymous
Anonymous

Apr 21, 2020

Needs advice

We are building an IOT service with heavy write throughput and fewer reads (we need downsampling records). We prefer to have good reliability when comes to data and prefer to have data retention based on policies.

So, we are looking for what is the best underlying DB for ingesting a lot of data and do queries easily

381k views381k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Cassandra
Cassandra
InfluxDB
InfluxDB

Partitioning means that Cassandra can distribute your data across multiple machines in an application-transparent matter. Cassandra will automatically repartition as machines are added and removed from the cluster. Row store means that like relational databases, Cassandra organizes data by rows and columns. The Cassandra Query Language (CQL) is a close relative of SQL.

InfluxDB is a scalable datastore for metrics, events, and real-time analytics. It has a built-in HTTP API so you don't have to write any server side code to get up and running. InfluxDB is designed to be scalable, simple to install and manage, and fast to get data in and out.

-
Time-Centric Functions;Scalable Metrics; Events;Native HTTP API;Powerful Query Language;Built-in Explorer
Statistics
GitHub Stars
9.5K
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
3.8K
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
3.6K
Stacks
1.0K
Followers
3.5K
Followers
1.2K
Votes
507
Votes
175
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 119
    Distributed
  • 98
    High performance
  • 81
    High availability
  • 74
    Easy scalability
  • 53
    Replication
Cons
  • 3
    Reliability of replication
  • 1
    Size
  • 1
    Updates
Pros
  • 59
    Time-series data analysis
  • 30
    Easy setup, no dependencies
  • 24
    Fast, scalable & open source
  • 21
    Open source
  • 20
    Real-time analytics
Cons
  • 4
    Instability
  • 1
    Proprietary query language
  • 1
    HA or Clustering is only in paid version

What are some alternatives to Cassandra, InfluxDB?

MongoDB

MongoDB

MongoDB stores data in JSON-like documents that can vary in structure, offering a dynamic, flexible schema. MongoDB was also designed for high availability and scalability, with built-in replication and auto-sharding.

MySQL

MySQL

The MySQL software delivers a very fast, multi-threaded, multi-user, and robust SQL (Structured Query Language) database server. MySQL Server is intended for mission-critical, heavy-load production systems as well as for embedding into mass-deployed software.

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is an advanced object-relational database management system that supports an extended subset of the SQL standard, including transactions, foreign keys, subqueries, triggers, user-defined types and functions.

Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft® SQL Server is a database management and analysis system for e-commerce, line-of-business, and data warehousing solutions.

SQLite

SQLite

SQLite is an embedded SQL database engine. Unlike most other SQL databases, SQLite does not have a separate server process. SQLite reads and writes directly to ordinary disk files. A complete SQL database with multiple tables, indices, triggers, and views, is contained in a single disk file.

Memcached

Memcached

Memcached is an in-memory key-value store for small chunks of arbitrary data (strings, objects) from results of database calls, API calls, or page rendering.

MariaDB

MariaDB

Started by core members of the original MySQL team, MariaDB actively works with outside developers to deliver the most featureful, stable, and sanely licensed open SQL server in the industry. MariaDB is designed as a drop-in replacement of MySQL(R) with more features, new storage engines, fewer bugs, and better performance.

RethinkDB

RethinkDB

RethinkDB is built to store JSON documents, and scale to multiple machines with very little effort. It has a pleasant query language that supports really useful queries like table joins and group by, and is easy to setup and learn.

ArangoDB

ArangoDB

A distributed free and open-source database with a flexible data model for documents, graphs, and key-values. Build high performance applications using a convenient SQL-like query language or JavaScript extensions.

CouchDB

CouchDB

Apache CouchDB is a database that uses JSON for documents, JavaScript for MapReduce indexes, and regular HTTP for its API. CouchDB is a database that completely embraces the web. Store your data with JSON documents. Access your documents and query your indexes with your web browser, via HTTP. Index, combine, and transform your documents with JavaScript.

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