FirebirdSQL vs. PostgreSQL

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Firebird
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
FirebirdSQL is an open-source database which can be embedded.N/A
PostgreSQL
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
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.N/A
Pricing
FirebirdSQLPostgreSQL
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
FirebirdPostgreSQL
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
FirebirdSQLPostgreSQL
Considered Both Products
Firebird
Chose Firebird
It is cost-effective, maintenance-free, easy to deploy and use on Linux and Windows environments and it works steadily. It has an open-source license. Installing Oracle was quite difficult in comparison to Firebird.
Chose Firebird
It came a time when the practice of SQLite was lagging behind and of course, we were looking at the cost that was being involved and so Firebird made the breakthrough for us from both. It has an open-source license and it is easy to deploy on Windows and Linux environments.
Chose Firebird
As you know, the version of an application is very good for a period in the world of information technologies, it is the first in the performance / cost table. But some periods come and that practice lags behind. When Firebird made such a breakthrough, we preferred this …
Chose Firebird
Back then I evaluated Oracle 8, IBM DB2, Mimer, SAP DB, MySQL, Borland Interbase (not Embarcadero Interbase and that one has the same roots as Firebird) and most likely other RDBMS. Firebird was free, usage was ok, it was (for my application) maintenance free and speed was ok …
PostgreSQL
Chose PostgreSQL
My expirence with other solutions is very limited, but what I saw/heard is, that on Azure the managed MS SQL Server is said to be more flexible and you can use it in a serverless-ish fashion. But on the other hand, PostgresSQL is still strong regarding its efficiency. And in my …
Chose PostgreSQL
Being open source, PostgreSQL offers the highest performance among its peers. It has a strong support community where we can find solutions to most of the queries. It's suited for GIS (Geospatial) based applications, making it unique from its peers. There are fewer databases …
Chose PostgreSQL
We had to use PostgreSQL as that is the DB preferred by our SaaS Provider.
Chose PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL holds it own against both these options. Some of these DBs are in play for certain needs but the majority are PostgreSQL because of cost and operational performance.
Chose PostgreSQL
In my experience using all of these products over many years, PostgreSQL is better than any of them in reliability, performance, productivity, cost, scalability and interoperability across operating systems.
Chose PostgreSQL
MySQL is an Oracle product which has in itself some known issues due to that (support, contract terms). Based on my knowledge, PostgreSQL support everything that MySQL support (syntax wise) and it adds more improvements and syntaxes that make the life of database engineers and …
Chose PostgreSQL
First It's open source and it's cost-effective compared to other databases.PostgreSQL can be easily integrated with numerous platforms. It is well known and appreciated so relying on it as our system database can be easily accepted by our customers. And if your developing a …
Chose PostgreSQL
For our use cases, PostgreSQL is just as feature rich as other options, costs less, and is simple to get up and running. There is also a plethora of documentation to support it which makes it a great option for a small scale startup without needing high levels of expertise to …
Chose PostgreSQL
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 …
Chose PostgreSQL
I've been using different databases for the past 20 years, solutions like MS SQL Server, MySQL, MariaDB, Interbase, Firebird, DB2, etc., and by using them I wasn't able to be neither close to the performance PostgreSQL deliver. Also, it is one of the most popular databases on …
Chose PostgreSQL
Although the competition between the different databases is increasingly aggressive in the sense that they provide many improvements, new functionalities, compatibility with complementary components or environments, in some cases it requires that it be followed within the same …
Chose PostgreSQL
We evaluated both PostgreSQL and MySQL, two popular open source relational databases. While they are very similar in most areas, PostgreSQL's reliability and performance won us over, plus it has much better support from cloud vendors we also work with.
Chose PostgreSQL
Postgres stacks up just [fine] along the other big players in the RDBMS world. It's very popular for a reason. It's very close to mySQL in terms of cost and features - I'd pick either solution and be just as happy. Compared to Oracle it is a MUCH cheaper solution that is just …
Chose PostgreSQL
A free corporate professional product. Who does not want to have such a thing, we hesitated because we did not know the product before and frankly we did not want it at first. But when we give it a chance, it has been running smoothly for years.
Chose PostgreSQL
When we were originally evaluating Redshift we ran into some issue with dates. Either way, Postgres is a better choice than Redshift because it avoids vendor lockin. We ended up choosing Postgres over MySQL because it was easier at the time to get a hosted Postgres cluster up …
Chose PostgreSQL
As I have been telling all along, PostgreSQL is much cheaper compared to the other RDBMS solutions. It has got better performance with some of the application services that we are using and is easy to maintain. Overall, we are satisfied migrating to PostgreSQL database clusters.
Chose PostgreSQL
Much more mature and stable when compared to MySQL with features such as MVCC, complex subquery plans, ORDBMS, and NoSQL support. With Oracle retaining rights to MySQL its future as an open database is less secure and is no longer in the hands of the community. PostgreSQL also …
Chose PostgreSQL
Its main characteristic is the integrity of the data. In addition, being free software, it has no costs associated with its license, which allows the number of installations to be scaled without problems.
The technical staff quickly learns about its installation, configuration …
Chose PostgreSQL
Both Oracle and MS-SQL database option fell when we evaluated the effect on our overall solution cost to our customers. customer examine the overall cost of the solution they buy, selecting Oracle or MS-SQL would leave less money in our pockets.
We are Linux based solutions and …
Chose PostgreSQL
PostgrPostgreSQL as a transaction db engine against oracle and sql server works well. TPM wise compared to MySQL and MariaDB, on an evan scale.
SQL function supports, far outweighs compared to MySQL and MariaDB. PG Extensions allow for flexibiltity and scalability. Allows …
Chose PostgreSQL
We selected PostgreSQL due to the number of employees who have used it in the past.
The data consistency guarantees.
The multiple transaction isolation levels support.
Chose PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL outperforms every other option. It is faster, more flexible, more reliable, easier to maintain, and more consistent in behaviour than any of the other offerings.
Chose PostgreSQL
The main reason for select PostgreSQL against MS SQL Server Express edition is the necessity to use open-source platform, without any issues for licensing, client licensing, etc. etc, which is usually follows developers and project managers when they start to use products and …
Chose PostgreSQL
I think Postgres stacks up great against all modern database solutions and has continued to be a trend leader in this space.
Best Alternatives
FirebirdSQLPostgreSQL
Small Businesses
InfluxDB
InfluxDB
Score 9.0 out of 10
InfluxDB
InfluxDB
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
SQLite
SQLite
Score 8.0 out of 10
SQLite
SQLite
Score 8.0 out of 10
Enterprises
SQLite
SQLite
Score 8.0 out of 10
SQLite
SQLite
Score 8.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
FirebirdSQLPostgreSQL
Likelihood to Recommend
8.3
(0 ratings)
8.3
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
8.3
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
5.0
(0 ratings)
9.3
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
FirebirdSQLPostgreSQL
Likelihood to Recommend
When looking for low maintenance and a solution suited for all kinds of pc applications. It is great when you are looking to store physical files in folder locations and you can then reference the document in the database. It has an open-source community around it along with documentation for third-party drivers of the development environment.
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Based on my experience, PostgreSQL is exactly what I imagine when thinking of a relational database: it is fast for querying and intuitive (if the underlying relations have been well written) and its writes are also efficient. Of course you need to know that a relational database is what you need, for example I would not recommend it if you have a lot of unstructured data that have no way to create a relation from and if you need to run heavy aggregations over your data, as it is not where PostgreSQL would shine.
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Pros
  • Reliable RDMS for the SMB's and we found its performance is really fast.
  • It allows us to store the physical files into the folder location and reference of the document in the database.
  • Easy to take back-ups, and portable.
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  • The stability it offers, its speed of response and its resource management is excellent even in complex database environments and with low-resource machines.
  • The large amount of resources it has in addition to the many own and third-party tools that are compatible that make productivity greatly increase.
  • The adaptability in various environments, whether distributed or not, [is a] complete set of configuration options which allows to greatly customize the work configuration according to the needs that are required.
  • The excellent handling of referential and transactional integrity, its internal security scheme, the ease with which we can create backups are some of the strengths that can be mentioned.
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Cons
  • Clustering features require alot of attention.
  • Remote access can be quite slow.
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  • The query syntax for JSON fields is unwieldy when you start getting into complex queries with many joins.
  • I wish there was a distinction (a flag) you could set for automated scripts vs working in the psql CLI, which would provide an 'Are you sure you want to do X?' type prompt if your query is likely to affect more than a certain number of rows. Especially on updates/deletes. Setting the flag in the headless(scripted) flow would disable the prompt.
  • Better documentation around JSON and Array aggregation, with more examples of how the data is transformed.
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Likelihood to Renew
Because it is free and usually zero maintenance. Just the issue of more difficult format updates in the future lower the rating a bit.
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As a needed software for day to day development activities
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Usability
Usability has improved by unifying the architecture. The only thing's missing out of the box is a simple GUI DB tool for viewing DB contents and maybe running some SQL queries.
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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.
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
PostgreSQL's availability is top notch. Apart from connection time-out for an idle user, the database is super reliable.
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Performance
No answers on this topic
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.
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Support Rating
This is an open source project. It provides a fair amount of free documentation and I think forums somewhere...
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There are several companies that you can contract for technical support, like EnterpriseDB or Percona, both first level in expertise and commitment to the software.
But we do not have contracts with them, we have done all the way from googling to forums, and never have a problem that we cannot resolve or pass around. And for dozens of projects and more than 15 years now.
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Online Training
No answers on this topic
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.
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Implementation Rating
Even somebody just starting to use RDBMS himself should get it working quickly, at least if he's got a GUI tool and some SQL knowledge.
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The online documentation of the PostgreSQL product is elaborate and takes users step by step.
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Alternatives Considered
It is cost-effective, maintenance-free, easy to deploy and use on Linux and Windows environments and it works steadily. It has an open-source license. Installing Oracle was quite difficult in comparison to Firebird.
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In my experience using all of these products over many years, PostgreSQL is better than any of them in reliability, performance, productivity, cost, scalability and interoperability across operating systems.
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Scalability
No answers on this topic
The DB is reliable, scalable, easy to use and resolves most DB needs
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Return on Investment
  • The return on investment was of course because it freed us from paid relational databases.
  • We have never experienced a negative situation.
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  • A robust and reliable platform reduces the risk of data loss and confusion.
  • Using an almost free product is economical. No license fees = minimal ownership cost.
  • Efficiency is high due to quickness and excellent resource management.
  • PostgreSQL helps us achieve our goals, and there are no time-consuming management tasks.
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ScreenShots