Exploring the Top 25 Database Management Systems: Which One Reigns Supreme?

An introduction to the collection of the best database management systems

A database management system (DBMS) allows users to create, retrieve, update, and manage data in a database. A DBMS also ensures data security and reduces redundancy.

What are the best database management systems? Which database management system is best? This article lists the 25 best database management systems.

What is a database management system?

A database management system is a type of software designed to facilitate data manipulation and database structure management. It also acts as a portal between the database and users and applications who want to view or change the data.

The general characteristics of a DBMS are:

• The catalog is accessible to users who describe metadata.
• DBMS Library Management System.
• Data abstraction and independence.
• High level of security.
• Performance monitoring.
• Activity recording and auditing.
• Concurrency and transaction support.
• Access Authorization.
• Remote access support.
• Data recovery in case of corruption.
• Ensure that the data follows the constraints of the rules set by the administrator.

The following diagram shows the position of the DBMS in the interaction between the database and the user/application:

The 25 best database management systems

Which database management system is better to use? This article presents a list of the 25 best database management systems, along with their pros, cons, and pricing details, and here’s the full ranking of the best database management systems:

MongoDB Atlas

What are the best database management systems? MongoDB stores data in JSON-like documents. The DBMS allows developers to build applications and leverage built-in tools to visualize, manipulate, and analyze data. Developers can build deployment clusters based on usage regions, instance sizes, and memory requirements.

merit

• Safety. MongoDB allows database administrators to set up role-based access, private firewalls, authorization protocols, and TLS (Transport Layer Security) encryption.
• Data exploration. Allows administrators to run queries, monitor index usage, manipulate data, and create data graphs to monitor performance.
• Integrate with third-party solutions. MongoDB’s APIs allow system integration with third-party solutions such as Tableau, Microsoft Power BI, and Qlik.
• Easy to learn. MongoDB is easy to learn and understand, making it ideal for group projects and team rotations.

shortcoming

• JOINS are not supported. MongoDB is NoSQL and doesn’t support joining, which can make data retrieval more difficult in some cases.
• Limited tool features. Data access and lookup tools have limited functionality. For example, Atlas Compass doesn’t allow users to view or switch between two data collections at the same time.

Note: Learn more about JOINS and how to use them in our MySQL JOIN guide.

price

MongoDB offers three pricing plans:

share	independent	Multi-regional
• Free • 512MB to 5GB of storage • Shared RAM• End-to-end encryption • Built-in GUI for exploring and manipulating data	• From $57 per month• 10GB to 4TB storage • 2GB to 768GB RAM• Elastic scalability and auto-scaling • Point-in-time data recovery	• From $95 per month• Cross-region replication • Geo-partitioned data storage • Multi-cloud clusters

Knack

Collection of Best Database Management Systems: Knack is a SaaS-based online DBMS that allows users to quickly build business applications, automate workflows, manage data, and easily build web applications.

merit

• No coding. This database solution enables you to build applications on both the backend and frontend without coding. It’s simple to create a data module, decide on a schema, and choose how it will be displayed to the user.
• Simple API. The API is powerful and easy to use, allowing users to build CRM or CMS applications. It provides reliable data and high application responsiveness, resulting in an improved user experience.
• Functional field type. Knack provides a number of functional field types with customizable CSS and JavaScript for each application. With proper coding skills, the database is highly customizable.

shortcoming

• Community support. One of the shortcomings most frequently cited by Knack is the lack of responsiveness to the community.
• There are no additional web themes. The number of web topics is limited. If you want more themes, you’ll have to pay a developer to create or customize them.
• Minimal design freedom. There aren’t many ways to customize your application on the front end. Users can make functional apps, but they can’t significantly change the look and feel of the user’s app.

price

Knack offers a 14-day free trial and three main pricing plans, and plans can be customized according to customer needs:

Start	Professional version	enterprise
• $39/month • 20,000 database records • 2 GB storage • Three apps • Basic support	• $79/month • 50,000 database records • 10 GB storage • Eight applications • Priority support	• $179/month • 125,000 database records • 50 GB storage • 25 apps • Premium support

Improvado

Improvado is a cloud-based DBMS that allows users to aggregate data and connect to a range of marketing platforms, business intelligence (BI), and data visualization systems. A DBMS provides instant API connectivity and automates marketing data pipelines.

merit

• No coding. Improvado does not require advanced SQL knowledge, which reduces the cost of hiring developers.
• Customize dashboards. Custom dashboards provide cross-channel optimization recommendations and alerts for all campaigns. The dashboard also tracks campaign performance and displays performance metrics.
• Flexibility. Users can instantly copy and migrate data and compare metrics side-by-side.
• Customer Support. Improvado has excellent and responsive customer support as well as clear database documentation.

shortcoming

• Opening two sessions for a side-by-side comparison results in reversing the latest entry to the latest date range.

price

Demo version	enterprise	Business Package
Improvado offers a demo version that doesn’t require a credit card.	The Enterprise version comes with customized pricing tailored for small businesses on a budget.	Includes most of Improvado’s DBMS features, starting at $100 per month.

Microsoft SQL Server

What are the best database management systems? Microsoft’s SQL Server is a relational DBMS with superior database design. SQL Server allows administrators to track database performance, monitor data lakes, and handle data warehouse operations on a single platform. The system supports a variety of data environments, including Azure SQL Database, Azure Cosmos DB, MySQL, and more.

merit

• Easy setup. It’s easy to install, set up, and configure a new database server from scratch.
• Lots of features. An RDBMS has a number of features, including a query analyzer, integration services, job scheduler, reporting services, automated alerts, and more.
• Backup. Administrators can back up and restore multiple databases to prevent data loss in the event of a disaster.
• Versatility. SQL Server is highly versatile as it supports numerous applications in the market and integrates easily.

shortcoming

• interface. The interface is not very user-friendly and sometimes not very intuitive.
• High downtime. Server maintenance and downtime can sometimes go on for a long time.

price

tryout	gratis	One-time license	Other layers
New users get a 180-day free trial.	Express and Developer editions.	SQL Server 2016, 2017, and 2019 – $931.	Enterprise – $ 13748 • Standard (per core) – $ 3586 • Standard (server) – $ 899 • Standard (CAL) – $209

PostgreSQL

Best database management system ranking: PostgreSQL is an open-source DBMS with advanced indexing and configuration capabilities, and support for Python and JSON programming languages. It also allows users to create NoSQL databases, even though it is a relational database solution.

merit

• Reliability. PostgreSQL has a large community of developers who regularly contribute to its development. The community has created a variety of tutorials and plugins that make PostgreSQL a highly reliable DBMS.
• Acid compliance. PostgreSQL is fully ACID compliant. ACID compliance allows developers to define various data types, build custom functions, and maintain data integrity using exclusion constraints, explicit locks, and primary or foreign keys.
• Easy to use. PostgreSQL is a simple DBMS that is easy to install and use on both Windows and Linux operating systems.

Note: Learn more about the ACID and BASE database transaction models.

shortcoming

• More downtime. Some of PostgreSQL’s maintenance processes are single-threaded, such as database cleanup. This leads to more downtime when doing database maintenance.
• Query speed. PostgreSQL is slower in terms of inserts and updates as compared to MySQL. In addition, PostgreSQL’s focus on better compatibility has resulted in lower speeds and poor performance in some cases.
• Number of features. As an open-source software, PostgreSQL doesn’t have as many features as other products.

price

PostgreSQL is open-source and free to use.

MySQL

Which database management system is best? MySQL is a relational DBMS designed for data logging, updating, management, and easy deployment of cloud-native applications. The software has many features, including data masking and de-identification, multi-document transaction support, high security with intrusion detection, alerts, and more.

Note: Read the detailed PostgreSQL vs MySQL comparison article.

merit

• Automation. MySQL comes with tools that help automate a variety of tasks, such as data provisioning, backups, patching, and database performance tuning.
• Safety. Database engineers can use different security features, including encryption, key generation, and digital signatures. MySQL Enterprise Firewall protects data by monitoring in real time to identify problematic queries, faulty indexes, and faulty SQL statement blocking.
• Backup and restore. Database administrators can recover data in the event of a disaster with backwards-compatible full recovery, precise one-click, point-in-time, and partial recovery.

shortcoming

• No longer fully open source. Oracle has acquired MySQL, which means it now has a proprietary closed-source module. Oracle’s acquisition has driven some developers to turn to other open source solutions, such as PostgreSQL or MariaDB.
• Downtime. The upgrade process and some hosting services require downtime, which can take a while.
• Not for big data. MySQL still has some issues when dealing with large datasets, such as the data warehouse structure. Performance issues can occur when performing complex connections. There is a risk of database corruption when performing a large number of selections and bulk inserts/updates at the same time.

price

Try it for free	Cluster Carrier Edition subscription	Enterprise subscription	Standard subscription	Classic Edition
New users get a free trial, after which they can choose between four commercial editions.	• 1-4 socket servers – from $10,000 per year • 5-socket and above servers – from $20,000 per year	• 1-4 Socket Servers – Starting at $5,000 per Year• 5+ Socket Servers – Starting at $10,000 per Year	• 1-4 socket servers – from $2,000 per year • 5-socket and above servers – from $4,000 per year	For ISVs/OEMs only.

Note: If you wish to organize your application stack and data layer using the principles provided by Kubernetes, please refer to our guide on how to deploy MySQL on Kubernetes.

Amazon RDS

A collection of the best database management systems: Amazon RDS is an RDBMS designed for users who want to set up, operate, and scale databases in the cloud. The solution allows users to launch a database instance and connect applications.

merit

• Yes. Amazon RDS supports a variety of database systems such as MySQL, PostgreF, MariaDB, Oracle, Microsoft SQL, and hybrid Aurora (both MySQL and PostgreSQL are supported).
• Automation. Amazon RDS supports automatic host replacement, automatic software patching, automated backups, and scheduled snapshots. These features help in recovering data lost due to corruption or accidental deletion.
• Safety. The DBMS has network isolation, data-at-rest and in-transit encryption, and resource-level permissions to ensure the highest level of data security.

shortcoming

• There is no direct access. Amazon RDS is limited in providing direct access to the operating system or hardware. The absence of direct access means that performance tuning must be done within the application or by tuning database engine parameters.
• Additional indicator costs. RDS comes with basic logging, but users have to pay extra to get verbose logs (with fine-grained logging that shows events every minute).

price

Free Trial)	RDS PostgreSQL	RDS for MariaDB	RDS for MySQL	RDS for SQL Server	RDS for Oracle
The free tier offer doesn’t expire. RDS also offers a 12-month free tier, starting with activation.	$0.24 ($0.48) per hour, R5 Large (R5 Oversized)	$0.25 per hour ($0.50), R5 Large (R5 Extra Large)	$0.29 per hour ($0.58), R5 Large (R5 Oversized)	$1.02 per hour ($1.52), R5 Large (R5 Extra Large)	$0.482 ($0.964) per hour, R5 Large (R5 Oversized)

Note: You can use the AWS Simple Monthly Calculator to calculate your monthly cost.

Oracle

What are the best database management systems? Oracle RDBMS is a space-saving, secure cloud DBMS that supports large databases and features fast data processing. A DBMS features self-healing, self-protecting, and self-driving data management, database maintenance automation, and the elimination of manual tasks.

merit

• High performance. Oracle DBMS is optimized for high-performance database workloads, streaming workloads, and hyperscale big data. Its performance tuning framework allows users to fine-tune Oracle12c databases.
• Easy migration. Oracle allows users to easily migrate from their current solution to Oracle’s cloud-based database.
• Safe. The solution has high security standards that meet basic data security requirements (data confidentiality, integrity, and availability).
• Flexibility. Thanks to its highly compatible reference system, it is able to run Oracle RDBMS with the same efficiency on a personal computer or a high-performance supercomputer.

shortcoming

• Price. DBMS is expensive for small businesses, although it depends on your existing software solution.
• Deterioration in performance. When there are multiple active concurrent user sessions, database performance is degraded.

price

Personal Edition	Standard Edition 2	Enterprise Edition
• $92 – $ 460 • Support for single-user development and deployments that require full compatibility with Standard Edition I, Standard Edition, and Enterprise Editions.	• $700 – $ 17,500 • A full-featured database for servers with support for up to four sockets. • Includes Oracle Real Application Clusters for increased availability.	• $4,750 – $ 47,500• Includes architecture that simplifies the process of consolidating databases to the cloud. • Enables users to combine multiple databases into one without changing the application.

The cost of Oracle DBMS depends on the type of business you have and the infrastructure you have.

IBM DB2

DB2 is IBM’s latest enterprise-class DBMS solution, with a significant increase in speed compared to previous versions. The DBMS integrates up to ten programming languages, is easy to install and set up, and supports large data volumes.

merit

• Availability. DB2 has high uptime and automatic resynchronization and recovery. In this way, your business can remain operational without interruption.
• Performance. The DBMS has high performance and runs queries incredibly fast.
• Artificial intelligence support. The software provides AI-driven setup, optimization, and diagnostics to manage and structure complex data, facilitating database management and reducing maintenance costs.
• Flexibility. DB2 is easy to manage across multiple platforms, and its backup and recovery options are flexible. The DBMS supports both private environments and cloud vendors.

shortcoming

• Cost. DBMS are expensive and may not be a good fit if price is the main factor. The free version is not supported.
• Complex graphical user interface. GUI management tools are not very friendly for managing large databases. In addition, the features can be too complex for non-developers.

price

Community Edition	Standard Edition	Advanced
• Free to use, no support is provided. • 4 cores, 16 GB RAM.	• Free for 90 days, then $1,850. • 16 cores, 128 GB RAM.	• Free for 90 days, then $7,800 per virtual processor core (VPC). • There is no upper limit on the number of cores or RAM.

Teradata

Teradata is an open RDBMS that supports massive data warehousing applications. The solution offers a wide range of deployment options and supports concurrent connections from users on multiple client platforms.

merit

• Flexibility. The DBMS allows users to analyze a wide range of data and deploy it on any platform, on-premises, or in the cloud.
• Speed. Teradata provides real-time processing and can distribute massive databases at breakneck speeds. The DBMS is equipped with fast loading and multi-loading capabilities, allowing it to handle multiple queries at the same time.
• Scalability. With high scalability options and comes with a variety of pre-built extensions.
• Strategic Intelligence. Support strategic intelligence by providing queries, intelligence tools, and utilities for strategic decision-making. These tools allow users to generate reports on business trends and make future predictions.

shortcoming

• Cost. The cost of RDBMS is very high compared to other solutions. Deploying a solution from scratch is costly.
• Poor third-party support. Teradata has poor support for third-party tools, which makes them underperforming, and its own GUI isn’t very user-friendly.

price

Teradata has adopted a pay-as-you-go solution and offers some pricing plans. The basic license price starts at $4 per year.

MariaDB

MariaDB is one of the most flexible and versatile DBMS available, supporting any workload at any scale, in any cloud. The DBMS supports transactional, analytical, and mixed workloads, as well as relational, JSON, and hybrid data models.

merit

• Scalable. MariaDB allows users to scale from standalone databases and data warehouses to fully distributed SQL for interactive, ad-hoc analysis of billions of rows.
• Lightweight. MariaDB is free-to-use, lightweight, but still high-performing, making it ideal for small to medium-sized projects.
• Community support. MariaDB took over community development, while MySQL was discontinued after the Oracle acquisition. This means that the developer community provides a lot of support for any issues you may have.

shortcoming

• Backup issues. Users report issues when backing up large databases with MariaBackup. This issue requires manual creation of shell scripts to backup and restore data.
• Migration. MariaDB is no longer fully compatible with MySQL, so users may have problems migrating their databases to Maria DB.

price

MariaDB is open-source and free to use, with the option to purchase a subscription that includes expert support for MariaDB developers.

SolarWinds DPA

Best Database Management System Rankings: SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is a DBMS that performs SQL query performance monitoring, analysis, and tuning. The solution supports cross-platform database performance optimization and tuning.

merit

• Machine learning. The DBMS uses anomaly detection algorithms to understand database wait behavior patterns.
• Versatility. DPA allows users to monitor their databases, regardless of whether their deployment type is on-premises, virtualized, or in the cloud.
• Automation. Users can use the DPA REST API to automate basic database management tasks and scalability. It also allows users to create alerts to monitor SQL statement execution times and automatically flag significant changes.

shortcoming

• Metric details. Users have to manually extract detailed metrics.
• Cost. The licensing model can be expensive on a per-instance basis.

price

Try it for free	Paid version
Fully functional two-week trial.	• A one-time payment of $1625. • Pricing model: by feature.

SAP HANA

Which database management system is best? SAP HANA is an in-memory, column-oriented RDBMS that combines OLAP and OLTP operations into a single system. The solution is scalable and suitable for a variety of uses, including HR tasks, customer overviews, order tracking, and more.

merit

• MVCC。 SAP HANA leverages Multi-Version Concurrency Control (MVCC) to manage concurrency and provide a point-in-time database snapshot for each transaction.
• Open architecture. PaaS has an open architecture that provides in-memory services that allow users to scale the system as their business grows.
• Safety. SAP HANA Cloud Identity provides basic functionality for user authentication and secure login.

shortcoming

• Complex installation. The installation process is not straightforward and often requires a team of experts to implement the DBMS.
• Expensive. The high price, especially for SAP consultants, makes the solution inaccessible to small businesses.

price

Enterprise Edition	Crash Fix	Runtime version
• Unrestricted platform. • Full SAP support. • Cloud and on-premises.	• Community support. • Cloud and on-premises. • Free access to up to 32 GB of RAM.	• Restricted Platforms. • Full SAP support. • Cloud and on-premises.

The base cost starts at $3,595 per license.

Navicat

Navicat is a DBMS that allows users to remotely adjust server configurations and improve server performance. Some of the features include a centralized architecture, detailed performance metrics, performance monitoring, custom alerts, scheduled reports, query analytics, and other tools.

merit

• Simple interface. The user interface is simple to use, and the query results are easy to understand, even for novice users.
• Versatility. DBMS is compatible with cloud databases such as Amazon Aurora, Amazon RDS, Amazon Redshift, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud, Google Cloud, and MongoDB Atlas.

shortcoming

• Expensive. The price of the database operations package is relatively high, but it does offer a lot of features.
• There is no native Linux build. Users can use Wine to run Navicat in Linux, but there is no native build for Linux.

price

Enterprise Edition	Non-Commercial
• Monthly subscription – $64.99/month. • Annual subscription – $649.99/month. • Perpetual Licenses – $1299 per license.	• Monthly Subscription – $29.99/month. • Annual subscription – $299.99/month. • Perpetual Licenses – $599 per license.

Razor SQL

RazorSQL is database software that includes SQL query tools, database browsers, SQL editors, and database management tools. RazorSQL allows users to inspect schemas, tables, unrecognized keys, schema indexes, and create, update, or delete entire SQL statements.

merit

• Flexibility. The DBMS has an automatic selection and replication mechanism for different data types. It allows users to compare query results from multiple databases.
• Easy to use. RazorSQL supports more than 20 programming languages and does not require any additional manual configuration. It also supports a variety of operating systems, including Windows, macOS, macOS X, Linux, and Solaris.

shortcoming

• Programming skills are required. You have to be a developer to know how to use the command line for advanced database comparisons.
• Complex installation. The installation process and some configuration options can be time-consuming and complex.

price

RazorSQL offers a standard license as well as one year of product updates and support. The pricing plans are calculated by the number of users:

• 1 user – $99.95.
• 2 – 9 users – $96.95.
• 10 – 19 users – $94.95.
• 20 or more users – $92.95.

Microsoft Access

Best database management system collection: Microsoft Access is a Windows-only DBMS that allows users to create and manage custom databases in a variety of formats. It combines the relational Microsoft Jet database engine with a GUI and software development tools.

merit

• Easy to use. Using the classic Microsoft UI, you can easily navigate the software and create tabular diagrams or design mock layouts. Users can also use drag-and-drop components to design forms and create reports.
• Fast. Regardless of the join type, Microsoft Access is fast when joining multiple tables.
• Comes with MS Office. Users who purchase Microsoft Access also have full access to the MS Office suite package.
• Template. MS Access allows users to reuse sample templates and user-generated templates. These templates are suitable for almost any situation where a specific database is required.

shortcoming

• Windows only. Microsoft Access only supports Windows, which is a problem for businesses using other operating systems.
• Outdated user interface. Microsoft Access’s UI has remained the same over the years, making it look outdated.
• High learning curve. The high learning curve makes it difficult to write complex reports without a lot of time and skills.

price

The license is per PC and costs $139.99. This includes Access for PC, all Office applications, and 1TB of cloud storage for Microsoft 365.

Altibase

Altibase is an open-source, enterprise-grade DBMS that delivers high data processing speeds. Its in-memory database section provides the ability to store large chunks of data on a single disk. Altibase also has a wide range of scale-out sharding options.

merit

• Hybrid architecture. Altibase combines in-memory and disk-based databases in a unified engine.
• Acid compliance. The DBMS is fully ACID compliant, offering a rich feature set and an extensive ecosystem.
• Rapidly. DBMS is fast because the entire database resides in memory. The engine is designed and optimized for memory.

shortcoming

• There is no room for error. Any misconfiguration will slow down data operations.

price

Altibase is open-source and requires no subscription or processing fees.

TeamDesk

What are the best database management systems? TeamDesk is online database software that enables teams to easily design web-based database applications or use predefined solutions to collect, share, and manage business information. DBMS also offers a free database migration service.

merit

• Customizable and scalable. TeamDesk allows businesses to build online databases that fit their company’s unique structure and requirements, crafting each database to fit unique business processes.
• Role-based user access. Allows shared databases and grants or restricts each user’s level of access to the shared database.
• Unlimited storage. TeamDesk offers unlimited storage at no additional cost.
• High availability. Almost always available online, with an availability rating of 99.8%.

shortcoming

• Database relationship issues. There are times when it comes to implementing new relationships.

price

Try it for free	Starter Edition	Team Edition	Enterprise Edition
14-day free trial.	$49/mo. Price per database, up to 5 users.	$99/mo. Price per database, up to 10 users.	$249/mo. Unlimited databases, up to 10 users.

Redis

Which database management system is best? Redis is a lightweight, open-source DBMS for applications with high availability and low latency requirements, including gaming and retail. Although Redis DBMS is a key-value store, it supports a variety of data structures.

merit

• Architectural flexibility. The flexibility of the Redis architecture helps users with session management, serving advertising content, and managing user or product profiles.
• Geography API. The Redis GEO API supports indexing by latitude and longitude, as well as other geographic commands and features. This API helps build distributed applications that need to share data across geographies.
• Cache speed. Redis is one of the best open-source caching databases on the market.

shortcoming

• There is no direct Windows support. Redis runs on Linux and does not directly support Windows. Users who want to run Redis on Windows can use outdated Windows ports.
• There are very few monitoring tools. DBMS can use more monitoring and database management tools.
• Single-threaded. Redis is a single-threaded system, which means it can’t benefit from multi-core CPUs. Conversely, to scale horizontally, you need to deploy multiple single-core instances.

price

gratis	fixed	Flexible	Annual
• 30MB RAM. • Redis module. • A dedicated database. • 30 connections. • Seamless upgrade to a fixed plan.	• $7/month – $660/month, depending on memory limits. • Memory limit is 100MB – 10GB. • Redis module. • 64 dedicated databases. • Unlimited connections. • Basic support.	• From $0.881 per hour. • Dedicated VPC. • Databases of any size or number. • Any throughput. • Redis module. • Redis-On-Flash (RoF) support. • HA in a single or multi-AZ zone. • Unlimited connections. • Data persistence. • Instant and daily backups. • Standard support.	Everything is flexible, plus: • Annual discounts. • Active-active geographic distribution. • Active-passive geographic distribution. • Customer Success Package. • Premium support.

Note: Check out our tutorial on deploying a Redis cluster on Kubernetes using ConfigMap or Helm.

OrientDB

OrientDB is a multi-model, open-source NoSQL DBMS that combines a powerful graph database and a flexible document database into a scalable, high-performance operational database. OrientDB reduces operational complexity and maintains data consistency by combining multiple data models.

merit

• Multi-model databases. The DBMS supports a variety of NoSQL models, including key-values, documents, and more.
• Free cluster support. Cluster support (Master-Master Replication + Sharding) is provided free of charge.
• Scalability. OrientDB is highly scalable due to its multi-master replication. All nodes in the cluster have read and write permissions.
• Flexibility. Available for Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, Solaris, and HP-UX, with support for Java, PHP, Nodejs, . .NET, Python, C, JavaScript, Ruby, Scala, Elixir, Android, and Perl.

shortcoming

• Learning curve. Learning how the database engine and some DBMS features work takes time, especially if you’re new to graph databases.
• Batch insertion. If you need to do bulk inserts, you may encounter an out-of-memory error.

price

community	standard	enterprise
•Gratis. • Comes with an Apache 2 license. This means that you can use OrientDB for any purpose completely free of charge.	• $5970. • Non-stop incremental backups. • 10×5 production support. •Monitor. •Analyse. • Cross-data center replication.	• $9750. • Non-stop incremental backups. • 24×7 production support. •Monitor. •Analyse. • Cross-data center replication.

SQLite

SQLite is an open-source embedded RDBMS that implements a standalone, serverless, zero-configuration, transactional SQL Database engine. As a result, it is very lightweight compared to other DBMSs. SQLite supports a wide range of platforms and programming languages.

merit

• Memory bank. No additional installation or configuration is required for users to use the memory bank.
• No dedicated server required. There is no need for a dedicated server to store the database. Instead, they can store the database on a hard drive.
• Easy to implement. The DBMS is contained in a single file, making it very lightweight and easy to implement.
• Community support. There is a lot of community to support any issues online.

shortcoming

• Not suitable for large applications. DBMS are limited in terms of table size.
• Limited scalability. Scalability is limited to small applications.
• Safe. DBMS lacks a method of data encryption.
• There is no multi-user. SQLite is a single-user DBMS, which is a problem if you have multiple people working on the same database at the same time in your project.

price

SQLite is open-source and completely free to use. There is a public support forum to address any issues, but private professional support can be purchased if you wish:

Annual maintenance subscription	Technical support	SQLite Consortium Membership
• $1500/year. • Private expert email recommendations from SQLite developers.	• $8k – $50k/year. • High-priority email and phone support directly from SQLite developers. • Guaranteed response time is available as an option.	• $85,000 per year. • Premium enterprise support, including on-site access and access to all proprietary extensions and test suites.

Cassandra

Apache Cassandra is an open-source distributed wide column store NoSQL DBMS. The system is designed to manage large amounts of data across multiple data centers. You get high availability and excellent linear scalability without sacrificing performance.

Note: Read our article to learn more about distributed databases.

merit

• Availability. Cassandra’s replication support provides lower latency and the ability to survive failed nodes by replacing them with no downtime. As a result, even if multiple nodes go down, the data is still accessible.
• Distribution. Cassandra’s distribution capabilities also prevent data loss in the event of a data center hardware failure. There is no single point of failure and no network bottlenecks because every node in the cluster is the same.
• Write speed. Due to its unique architecture, Cassandra has a high data write speed.
• Community. Cassandra DBMS has a large community of users and project contributors working together, sharing tutorials, and making improvements based on user feedback.

shortcoming

• Poor ad-hoc query performance. Ad-hoc queries don’t perform well in Cassandra because its data storage layer is a key-value storage system. As a result, the user must model the data around the query, not the other way around. In addition, aggregations such as SUM, MIN, MAX, AVG consume a lot of resources.
• Cluster management. Manually managing a large cluster in Cassandra was a big challenge, given the frequent version upgrades and automatic repairs.

price

Cassandra is open-source and completely free to use.

Couchbase

Best Database Management Systems: Couchbase Server is a distributed NoSQL cloud DBMS designed to store, manage, and retrieve data for a variety of deployments. The DBMS allows users to perform full-text search, JavaScript events, data center replication, and ad-hoc analysis. Developers can use the N1QL query language to transform JSON data and visualize query plans for large datasets.

merit

• Memory-first architecture. Couchbase is based on a memory-first architecture that allows users to perform complex join and aggregation operations using GSI (Global Secondary Index) partitions.
• Third-party platform integrations. Supports integration with Kubernetes and RedHat OpenShift. This allows developers to automate cluster scaling, configuration, and recovery.
• Safety. Couchbase ensures data protection with built-in auditing, different user access levels, security certificates, and data encryption. Users are also alerted about any critical events.
• Easy to install. The DBMS is easy to install and supports many different operating systems.

shortcoming

• Cluster management. Cluster management can be a challenge for maintenance teams, but working on a management dashboard can overcome this problem.
• Resource consumption. DBMS uses a lot of resources, and in some cases defining indexes can significantly degrade database performance.

price

Couchbase offers a free trial. A one-time license costs $2499.

Neo4j

A collection of best-in-class database management systems: Neo4j is an open-source, scalable, ACID-compliant graph database with a cluster of high-performance distributed servers. It is capable of managing multiple databases on standalone servers or clusters of servers. A DBMS allows businesses to break down large data sets into pieces and store them separately in multiple systems.

merit

• Password lookup language. Neo4j uses the Cypher query language, which is intuitive and easy to learn and use.
• Safe. Neo4j allows users to set role-based access for team members.
• Multi-database capability. The multi-database feature allows users to create separate databases for development, production, or testing.
• Processes in Java are supported. Users can use the REST API to call procedures in Neo4j, overcoming the limitations of Cypher.

shortcoming

• Complex data visualization. Sometimes, charts that visualize complex data analysis aren’t good. On the other hand, the graphical representation of less complex datasets is good.
• Java-based libraries are supported. Neo4j only supports Java-based libraries.

price

Community Edition	Enterprise Edition
•Gratis. • Full-featured native graph database. • For learning Neo4j and smaller projects. • Limited scalability and availability.	• 30-day free trial. • Enterprise-grade availability and security. • Full scaling and sharding options.

ArangoDB

Ranking of the best database management systems

What are the best database management systems? ArangoDB is an open-source, multi-model DBMS that combines graph analytics queries with JSON documents, key-value stores, and a full-text search engine. ArangoDB’s support for different data models and its microservices framework make DBMS a great tool for database management.

merit

• Convenient query language. Its AQL query language is efficient, easy to use, and flexible, making it convenient for complex queries. In addition, the AQL documentation is very comprehensive.
• Feature-rich. ArangoDB offers the possibility of document storage with connectivity, graph connectivity, and cluster support. Its graphics capabilities can be used as a single source of truth for many client applications.
• Easy to install. ArangoDB can be easily installed on different operating systems in just a few steps.

shortcoming

• Inferior built-in graphical visualization. The built-in tools for graphical visualization aren’t optimal, and third-party tools do it better.
• Small community. Compared to other DBMS solutions, the ArangoDB community is much smaller and less mature.

price

ArangoDB is open-source and free to use.

How to choose?

When choosing a DBMS for your business, you should consider several factors:

• Scalability.
• Safe.
• Manifestation.
• Operating system and programming language support.
• Custom features.
• Support for third-party tools.
• Server maintenance and reporting.
• Structured and unstructured data types are supported.

Another important factor to consider when choosing a DBMS is the size of your business. If your database is going to scale quite large, choose an enterprise-grade DBMS. Alternatively, a free DBMS solution with limited scalability is a great option for small businesses.

A summary of the best database management systems

This article provides an overview of the different DBMS solutions available in the market. You should be able to choose the right product for your business based on DBMS capabilities, the size of your business, and other preferences, while remaining productive and cost-effective.

Which database management system is best? Some DBMS solutions come with a fully functional free trial, so you can test them out in your project to determine which one best meets your needs.