Announcing the Top Rated Relational Databases for 2018

Today, we awarded the 2018 TrustRadius Top Rated badges for Relational Databases. The TrustRadius Top Rated awards are unique in that they are an unbiased reflection of customer sentiment, based solely on user satisfaction scores.

Here are the winners in each segment, listed in order of research frequency on TrustRadius. We have also provided insights on how to pick the right relational databases based on your needs and current industry trends.

Overall Top Rated

• Microsoft SQL Server
• Oracle Database
• Oracle Database 12c
• DB2
• Sequel Pro

Top Rated by Enterprises

• Microsoft SQL Server
• Oracle Database
• Oracle Database 12c
• DB2

Top Rated by Mid-Sized Companies

• Microsoft SQL Server
• Amazon Relational Database Service
• Oracle Database 12c
• SQL Developer

Top Rated by Small Businesses

• Microsoft SQL Server
• MySQL
• Sequel Pro

What are relational databases?

Many new database types have emerged in the last 10 years, including Hadoop, NewSQL, and NoSQL. But the primacy of the standard, relational database workhorse remains in place. Relational databases continue to be a critical component of data architectures. Relational databases differ from other database types in that the data is stored in a highly structured form that still forms the foundation for information infrastructure in most organizations.

A relational database presents information in tables with rows and columns. A table is referred to as a relation in the sense that each row contains data that is related to a single entity, while each column represents different keys or concepts. When each row in a table is different, it is possible to use one or more columns to identify a particular row. There is always a “primary key” which serves as the unique identifier for each entity or record. For example, in the case of a table of company employees, the primary key might be employee number.

Data is retrieved from the table using a specialized language called Structured Query Language or SQL. SQL allows users to query the data using SELECT statements and WHERE clauses. A group of SQL statements can be called as a mini-program or executable which is called a stored procedure.

SQL is a widely understood language with a deep bench of practitioners in the marketplace. For this reason, tools using SQL are being developed to query non-relational big data stores like Hadoop, which use less well known, and harder to use, interfaces to retrieve data.

Choosing the right relational database

While relational databases are largely a commodity technology today, there is nevertheless some market segmentation. For example, some relational databases are architected to be very fast, enabling them to be run on modest hardware. Some come with a very powerful set of reporting tools. Furthermore, some SQL dialects have slightly different feature sets and different strengths. Another vector of differentiation is open-source versus proprietary systems. Most open-source systems offer paid support services through the vendor or third-parties. Reviews of relational databases on TrustRadius can help to clarify some of the tradeoffs between different systems.

Top Rated Criteria

Products included in the 2018 Top Rated Relational Databases list must have been in the top tier of their category TrustMap on April 27, 2018, to earn a Top Rated badge. To qualify for the Relational Databases TrustMap, products must have 10 reviews and ratings on TrustRadius. Every reviewer is verified and every review is vetted before publication. Products are plotted on the map based on end-user data, including users’ likelihood to recommend scores as well as buyer research patterns. To learn more about TrustMaps and Top Rated methodology, check out this page.