Comparing SQL Server 2008, MySQL and PostgreSQL/PostGIS

July 21st, 2008 · 9 Comments · GIS

Regina Obe has developed a table to compare the new SQL Server 2008 with PostgreSQL/PostGIS (with MySQL thrown in there to boot). The table does a wonderful job showing the comparative strengths and weaknesses of all three relational databases.

Tags: Microsoft·MySQL·PostGIS·PostgreSQL·sql server 2008

9 responses so far ↓

1 Question // Jul 21, 2008 at 12:00 pm

Hopefully Regina can ad Oracle to the matrix. I’d love to see how Oracle Spatial fits into the mix.
2 SEWilco // Jul 22, 2008 at 10:16 am

“This article is a compliment to our Postgres OnLine Magazine May/June 2008 issue…”

Yes, it is a very nice complement.
3 JW // Jul 22, 2008 at 11:32 am

“Hopefully Regina can ad Oracle to the matrix. I’d love to see how Oracle Spatial fits into the mix.
“

Nah, you won’t, because Oracle isn’t part of the mythical “Evil Empire”.

What about DB2, Informix….ESRI? The blatant hounding of MS these days is pretty astounding. MSSQL isn’t even the #1 spatial database.

From the cross table comparison:

“from reports Oracle also uses some sort of R-Tree indexing scheme and can use quadtree, “

uh yeah, that would be Oracle Spatial. get out from under the rock and acknowledge the players that have been here for quite some time.
4 Regina // Jul 22, 2008 at 4:46 pm

I guess a lot of people are using Oracle. We didn’t include it because its out of our price range (and the price range of our customers) and we haven’t used it since the 7 series so we didn’t feel we were the best candidates to do a fair analysis of it.

I guess there is a lot of demand for comparing so we shall consider doing another comparison with same feature set but looking at Oracle, IBM DB2 and maybe Informix. How many people still use Informix these days or would that not be of interest to anyone?
5 Bill // Jul 22, 2008 at 7:21 pm

@Regina,

Oracle and DB2 can be had as free downloads for internal development. With Oracle, it’s even full Spatial, not just Locator. That should give you what you need for a comparison.

Not sure about demand for Informix but there’s a good bit of DB2 out there. I just finished a DB2 project and plan to look at the Spatial Extender a little more closely.

FWIW, I think your comparison was great. I would imagine that others who would like similar comparisons of other platforms could always just do it themselves and post the results.

Bill
6 Ralphie // Jul 23, 2008 at 8:36 am

Students of Dr. Art Lembo’s Special Topics class at Salisbury University recently did a hands-on comparison of SQL Server Express 2008 CTP, Oracle Spatial Express, and PostgreSQL/PostGIS. A summary of their experiences is available here:

ftp://forum.manifold.net/attachments/F7/66039/databases_small.pps
7 Regina // Jul 23, 2008 at 12:03 pm

Ralphie,

That looks good, but it appears to be only downloadable via http not the ftp link you have
so I think should be

http://forum.manifold.net/attachments/F7/66039/databases_small.pps

I am curious to revisit Oracle again so maybe I’ll take Bill’s advice and revisit.

One other comment - why did you group choose to import the data in PostGIS in a case sensitive way. I think it would have looked simpler without the “” which would not have been needed with lowercase import.
8 Adam Estrada // Jul 23, 2008 at 1:46 pm

Has anyone done any testing with SpatialLite? This is the spatial extension to SQLite and I believe it uses the GEOS library which is pretty popular I think. After some initial testing with the ODBC Connector for SQLite, I think this technology looks promising!
9 Ralphie // Jul 23, 2008 at 5:23 pm

Regina–I have nothing to do with that group, so I can’t answer why they did things the way they did.

I was just aware of the comparison, so I posted it.