12 Most Popular Databases in 2024

Many businesses employ one of the many database management systems available today, picking the one that best suits their needs. Every service out there, be it a social media platform, a payment app, a booking service, etc., stores massive quantities of data on its server. So, it’s not surprising that database administrator positions are rising in the IT industry, with a 9% annual growth rate, according to the US Bureau of Labor.

Not SQL databases, also known as Not-only SQL databases, continue to experience consistent market growth. This is not surprising, given that NoSQL databases offer scalability and a cheaper investment entry point than SQL databases.

Here are some of the most popular Databases:

Elasticsearch

Elasticsearch is a free and open-source analytics and search engine based on Apache Lucene. It optimizes data for realtime searches and efficient results. It is a distributed, multitenant full-text search engine built on Java with an HTTP interface. It can process various data types, including integers, dates, texts, maps, and floating numbers, in both organized and unstructured formats.

Firebase 

As a Google product, Firebase Realtime Database is a big deal. This system is a cloud-based document store that supports clients based on JavaScript, Android, and iOS. Users access the most current data by connecting to a central database. Due to the cloud-based nature of Firebase Development Services, it is perfect for serverless projects. If a user cannot access the internet, the app will save the data in a cache and then upload it when the user is back online. This also implies that further hardware investments are optional to scale up a project.

IBM Db2

A corporation named “IBM” created the IBM DB2 database in 1990. Easy data storage and retrieval were this database’s primary design goals. Database analytical and transactional processes are both possible with IBM DB2. Some non-SQL features, such as XML, JSON, etc., are also supported by IBM DB2. Databases like IBM DB2 are built using DDL, which allows for separating logical and physical structures (Data Definition Language).

Oracle

Customers have relied on Oracle, a popular database provider, for over four decades. When it comes to data warehousing and online transaction processing, it’s among the top databases. Depending on the consumer’s demands, Oracle offers on-site, on-cloud, and hybrid products. Relational, Columnar, XML, JSON, Spatial, Graph, and unstructured data are all supported, in addition to the most popular programming languages.

MariaDB

The open-source database MariaDB is the next big thing from the folks who made MySQL; it promises to be just as good as MySQL but better in every way: more secure, more scalable, more available, and built with enterprise-level tools and services. Quite an intriguing backstory exists behind MariaDB. Due to its design as a drop-in replacement for MySQL, switching between projects’ command lines is as easy as removing MySQL, installing MariaDB, and then running the command line again.

Microsoft Access

In 1992, the Microsoft Corporation created Microsoft Access, a database management system. The Microsoft 365 suite of office products includes it as well. This database is an amalgam of Jet Database Engine and a dash of GUI-enhanced software development tools. Compared to Microsoft Excel, it is far more efficient when storing and manipulating data. 

Redis

The Redis database management system is open-source and released under the BSD license. The key-value pair is the foundation of Redis, a database that does not use SQL. Because this database’s key contains strings, hashes, lists, sets, and sorted sets, it is sometimes called a “Data Structures Database.” The Redis database was created using the C programming language. Redis supports two kinds of architecture: Redis Client and Redis Server.

MongoDB

You can see from this list that the creators of MongoDB are not exaggerating when they say it is the premier NoSQL solution. Of all document-type databases, MongoDB has the most users. Being schema-less means there’s no need to define the schema in advance, which is the biggest advantage since it saves a lot of work.

MongoDB does not lag. Its benchmarks are outstanding, and scaling is not a problem compared to similar products. You can see why it has grown so popular so quickly; it is an open-source solution, after all.

SQLite

Except for client-server engines, this is the sole Relationship Database Management System (RDBMS) we have included here. Rather, it is typically integrated into the final application as a C library. You can get all the relational database features using SQLite, but you won’t require a server’s processing capacity. To keep track of things like preferences, history, and bookmarks, Firefox, for one, employs SQLite.

Microsoft SQL Server

Among the many powerful and widely used services available, Microsoft SQL Server has been around since 1981. At first glance, the vast array of products that make up Microsoft SQL could be bewildering. However, similar to Windows, the portfolio is designed to be user-friendly. A specific product can serve every customer; determining which features is key. When it comes to this, little is more.

PostgreSQL

Among the most well-known and actively supported open-source relational databases, PostgreSQL has expanded gradually from its inception as Ingres, a database engine created at the University of California. The name change was an attempt at a pun. Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability (ACID) transactions make this engine renowned. It uses several clever strategies, such as multi-version concurrency control. Another perk of PostgreSQL is that it boasts one of the IT industry’s healthiest and most helpful communities.

MySQL

One of the most popular databases in the world, MySQL, is also open-source. In 1995, this database was created. Oracle bought MySQL later in 2009. A “structured query language” is what SQL stands for. The MySQL database uses rows and columns to organize data into tables. The three-step process is how MySQL works. Security, ease of scalability, great speed, and a dedicated community that maintains and updates MySQL to this day are some of MySQL’s well-known features. An open-source and a proprietary license are available for MySQL, which Oracle now owns. You can choose the one that best suits your needs.