Overview

PostgreSQL

Stacks103.0K

Followers83.9K

Votes3.5K

GitHub Stars19.0K

Forks5.2K

Riak

Stacks103

Followers137

Votes44

GitHub Stars4.0K

Forks535

PostgreSQL vs Riak: What are the differences?

Write Introduction here

1. **Data Model**: PostgreSQL follows a relational data model, organizing data into tables with rows and columns, supporting complex queries and transactions. On the other hand, Riak employs a distributed key-value data model, storing data as a collection of key-value pairs without a fixed schema, providing high availability and scalability for unstructured data.
2. **Consistency**: PostgreSQL prioritizes strong consistency, ensuring that all nodes in the database have the most up-to-date data at the cost of potential latency. In contrast, Riak focuses on eventual consistency, where changes made to the database will eventually propagate to all nodes, allowing for high availability under partitioning but may cause temporary inconsistencies.
3. **Partitioning**: PostgreSQL typically handles partitioning within a single instance through sharding or data partitioning techniques. In Riak, data is automatically partitioned across multiple nodes in a distributed system, providing fault tolerance and horizontal scalability without the need for manual partitioning.
4. **CAP Theorem**: PostgreSQL leans towards consistency and partition tolerance, sacrificing availability under network partitions. Riak adheres more closely to the partition tolerance and availability aspects of the CAP theorem, allowing the system to remain available under network partitions at the cost of potential inconsistency.
5. **Access Patterns**: PostgreSQL is optimized for complex SQL queries and joins, making it suitable for structured data and analytics. Riak, on the other hand, excels in handling high volumes of simple read and write operations on unstructured data, making it ideal for real-time applications and content delivery.
6. **Deployment**: PostgreSQL is commonly deployed on a single server or in a cluster for high availability and scalability, suitable for traditional database applications. Riak is designed for deployment in distributed systems across multiple nodes, ensuring fault tolerance and resilience to failures, making it ideal for cloud environments and distributed data storage.

In Summary, PostgreSQL and Riak differ in their data model, consistency levels, partitioning strategies, adherence to the CAP theorem, access patterns, and deployment scenarios.

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Advice on PostgreSQL, Riak

Kyle

Web Application Developer at Redacted DevWorks

Dec 3, 2019

Decidedon

PostGIS

While there's been some very clever techniques that has allowed non-natively supported geo querying to be performed, it is incredibly slow in the long game and error prone at best.

MySQL finally introduced it's own GEO functions and special indexing operations for GIS type data. I prototyped with this, as MySQL is the most familiar database to me. But no matter what I did with it, how much tuning i'd give it, how much I played with it, the results would come back inconsistent.

It was very disappointing.

I figured, at this point, that SQL Server, being an enterprise solution authored by one of the biggest worldwide software developers in the world, Microsoft, might contain some decent GIS in it.

I was very disappointed.

Postgres is a Database solution i'm still getting familiar with, but I noticed it had no built in support for GIS. So I hilariously didn't pay it too much attention. That was until I stumbled upon PostGIS and my world changed forever.

449k views449k

Comments

George

Student

Mar 18, 2020

Needs adviceon

PostgreSQL

Python

Django

Hello everyone,

Well, I want to build a large-scale project, but I do not know which ORDBMS to choose. The app should handle real-time operations, not chatting, but things like future scheduling or reminders. It should be also really secure, fast and easy to use. And last but not least, should I use them both. I mean PostgreSQL with Python / Django and MongoDB with Node.js? Or would it be better to use PostgreSQL with Node.js?

*The project is going to use React for the front-end and GraphQL is going to be used for the API.

Thank you all. Any answer or advice would be really helpful!

620k views620k

Comments

Navraj

CEO at SuPragma

Apr 16, 2020

Needs adviceon

MySQL

PostgreSQL

I asked my last question incorrectly. Rephrasing it here.

I am looking for the most secure open source database for my project I'm starting: https://github.com/SuPragma/SuPragma/wiki

Which database is more secure? MySQL or PostgreSQL? Are there others I should be considering? Is it possible to change the encryption keys dynamically?

Thanks,

Raj

401k views401k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

PostgreSQL	Riak
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.	Riak is a distributed database designed to deliver maximum data availability by distributing data across multiple servers. As long as your client can reach one Riak server, it should be able to write data. In most failure scenarios, the data you want to read should be available, although it may not be the most up-to-date version of that data.
Statistics
GitHub Stars 19.0K	GitHub Stars 4.0K
GitHub Forks 5.2K	GitHub Forks 535
Stacks 103.0K	Stacks 103
Followers 83.9K	Followers 137
Votes 3.5K	Votes 44
Pros & Cons
Pros 765 Relational database 511 High availability 439 Enterprise class database 383 Sql 304 Sql + nosql Cons 10 Table/index bloatings	Pros 14 High Performance 11 High Availability 9 Easy Scalability 5 Flexible 1 Eventual Consistency

What are some alternatives to PostgreSQL, Riak?

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

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.

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 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.

Cassandra

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.

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

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 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

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.

InfluxDB

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.