StackShareStackShare
Follow on
StackShare

Discover and share technology stacks from companies around the world.

Follow on

© 2025 StackShare. All rights reserved.

Product

  • Stacks
  • Tools
  • Feed

Company

  • About
  • Contact

Legal

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. In-Memory Databases
  4. In Memory Databases
  5. MemSQL vs Microsoft SQL Server

MemSQL vs Microsoft SQL Server

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

MemSQL
MemSQL
Stacks86
Followers184
Votes44
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server
Stacks21.3K
Followers15.5K
Votes540

MemSQL vs Microsoft SQL Server: What are the differences?

Write Introduction here
  1. Database Architecture: MemSQL is a distributed, in-memory, columnar database designed for real-time analytics, while Microsoft SQL Server is a traditional disk-based relational database management system. MemSQL uses lock-free data structures and parallel processing to achieve high performance, whereas SQL Server relies on traditional disk I/O operations.
  2. Scalability: MemSQL is highly scalable and can easily scale out by adding more nodes to the cluster to handle increased workload. On the other hand, SQL Server has limitations in terms of scalability due to its monolithic architecture and reliance on a single server instance for processing.
  3. Real-Time Analytics: MemSQL is optimized for real-time analytics by supporting both transactional and analytical workloads in one system, enabling users to run complex queries on live data with minimal latency. SQL Server, while capable of handling analytical workloads, may not provide the same level of real-time performance as MemSQL.
  4. Data Processing Speed: MemSQL is known for its high-speed data processing capabilities, achieved through an in-memory architecture and parallel processing of queries. SQL Server, while efficient for traditional OLTP operations, may not match the data processing speed of MemSQL for analytical workloads.
  5. High Availability: MemSQL offers built-in high availability features such as automatic failover and data replication to ensure data consistency and minimize downtime. SQL Server also provides high availability options, but they may require additional configurations and maintenance compared to MemSQL's out-of-the-box solutions.
In Summary, MemSQL and Microsoft SQL Server differ in their database architecture, scalability, real-time analytics support, data processing speed, and high availability features.

Share your Stack

Help developers discover the tools you use. Get visibility for your team's tech choices and contribute to the community's knowledge.

View Docs
CLI (Node.js)
or
Manual

Advice on MemSQL, Microsoft SQL Server

Erin
Erin

IT Specialist

Mar 10, 2020

Needs adviceonMicrosoft SQL ServerMicrosoft SQL ServerMySQLMySQLPostgreSQLPostgreSQL

I am a Microsoft SQL Server programmer who is a bit out of practice. I have been asked to assist on a new project. The overall purpose is to organize a large number of recordings so that they can be searched. I have an enormous music library but my songs are several hours long. I need to include things like time, date and location of the recording. I don't have a problem with the general database design. I have two primary questions:

  1. I need to use either @{MySQL}|tool:1025| or @{PostgreSQL}|tool:1028| on a @{Linux}|tool:10483| based OS. Which would be better for this application?
  2. I have not dealt with a sound based data type before. How do I store that and put it in a table? Thank you.
668k views668k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

MemSQL
MemSQL
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server

MemSQL converges transactions and analytics for sub-second data processing and reporting. Real-time businesses can build robust applications on a simple and scalable infrastructure that complements and extends existing data pipelines.

Microsoft® SQL Server is a database management and analysis system for e-commerce, line-of-business, and data warehousing solutions.

ANSI SQL Support;Fully-distributed Joins;Compiled Queries; ACID Compliance;In-Memory Tables;On-Disk Tables; Massively Parallel Execution;Lock Free Data Structures;JSON Support; High Availability; Online Backup and Restore;Online Replication
-
Statistics
Stacks
86
Stacks
21.3K
Followers
184
Followers
15.5K
Votes
44
Votes
540
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 9
    Distributed
  • 5
    Realtime
  • 4
    Sql
  • 4
    JSON
  • 4
    Concurrent
Pros
  • 139
    Reliable and easy to use
  • 101
    High performance
  • 95
    Great with .net
  • 65
    Works well with .net
  • 56
    Easy to maintain
Cons
  • 4
    Expensive Licensing
  • 2
    Microsoft
  • 1
    Replication can loose the data
  • 1
    Allwayon can loose data in asycronious mode
  • 1
    Data pages is only 8k
Integrations
Google Compute Engine
Google Compute Engine
MySQL
MySQL
QlikView
QlikView
No integrations available

What are some alternatives to MemSQL, Microsoft SQL Server?

MongoDB

MongoDB

MongoDB stores data in JSON-like documents that can vary in structure, offering a dynamic, flexible schema. MongoDB was also designed for high availability and scalability, with built-in replication and auto-sharding.

Redis

Redis

Redis is an open source (BSD licensed), in-memory data structure store, used as a database, cache, and message broker. Redis provides data structures such as strings, hashes, lists, sets, sorted sets with range queries, bitmaps, hyperloglogs, geospatial indexes, and streams.

MySQL

MySQL

The MySQL software delivers a very fast, multi-threaded, multi-user, and robust SQL (Structured Query Language) database server. MySQL Server is intended for mission-critical, heavy-load production systems as well as for embedding into mass-deployed software.

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is an advanced object-relational database management system that supports an extended subset of the SQL standard, including transactions, foreign keys, subqueries, triggers, user-defined types and functions.

SQLite

SQLite

SQLite is an embedded SQL database engine. Unlike most other SQL databases, SQLite does not have a separate server process. SQLite reads and writes directly to ordinary disk files. A complete SQL database with multiple tables, indices, triggers, and views, is contained in a single disk file.

Cassandra

Cassandra

Partitioning means that Cassandra can distribute your data across multiple machines in an application-transparent matter. Cassandra will automatically repartition as machines are added and removed from the cluster. Row store means that like relational databases, Cassandra organizes data by rows and columns. The Cassandra Query Language (CQL) is a close relative of SQL.

Memcached

Memcached

Memcached is an in-memory key-value store for small chunks of arbitrary data (strings, objects) from results of database calls, API calls, or page rendering.

MariaDB

MariaDB

Started by core members of the original MySQL team, MariaDB actively works with outside developers to deliver the most featureful, stable, and sanely licensed open SQL server in the industry. MariaDB is designed as a drop-in replacement of MySQL(R) with more features, new storage engines, fewer bugs, and better performance.

RethinkDB

RethinkDB

RethinkDB is built to store JSON documents, and scale to multiple machines with very little effort. It has a pleasant query language that supports really useful queries like table joins and group by, and is easy to setup and learn.

ArangoDB

ArangoDB

A distributed free and open-source database with a flexible data model for documents, graphs, and key-values. Build high performance applications using a convenient SQL-like query language or JavaScript extensions.

Related Comparisons

Bootstrap
Materialize

Bootstrap vs Materialize

Laravel
Django

Django vs Laravel vs Node.js

Bootstrap
Foundation

Bootstrap vs Foundation vs Material UI

Node.js
Spring Boot

Node.js vs Spring-Boot

Liquibase
Flyway

Flyway vs Liquibase