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Firebird SQL vs PostgreSQL comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Firebird SQL
Ranking in Open Source Databases
3rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Embedded Database (4th)
PostgreSQL
Ranking in Open Source Databases
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
125
Ranking in other categories
Vector Databases (12th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Open Source Databases category, the mindshare of Firebird SQL is 15.2%, down from 20.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PostgreSQL is 16.6%, down from 19.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Open Source Databases Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
PostgreSQL16.6%
Firebird SQL15.2%
Other68.2%
Open Source Databases
 

Featured Reviews

Ruben Conti - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers good performance for up to a hundred end users, open source and easy to setup
Firebird can compete with well-known names like Oracle and SQL Server when you don't have more than a few hundred thousand users. It's a level below SQL Server, and the application of SQL is a kind of database you can rely on for situations where you don't have too much information to deal with. For example, you can use it for the internet or national projects, but when you have millions of users, then it's not possible for other services.
PavithrarajShetty - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers simplicity and is cheaply priced
I haven't gone through the scalability aspect since I was using MySQL Server. I haven't worked to a high level in PostgreSQL, but with MySQL Server, I have managed clustering and partitioning. I think I haven't put much focus on PostgreSQL, so I am not sure how it behaves or how it works.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"We are happy with the event capabilities of Firebird SQL database. We can raise events from it and display them in our application."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is reliable, offers good performance, and is easy to use."
"The reliability and ease of management are very valuable."
"Robustness is the absolutely main feature."
"The solution is very useful for stock management."
"I like that we don't have to pay external fees to migrate this data. So, we are looking to relocate from Postgres or EDB."
"The documentation is very well written."
"Firebird SQL is an open-source solution and can run on most operating systems, such as Linux, Unix, and Windows."
"The database has excellent performance."
"The solution has many valuable features such as it easy to use and the interface is intuitive."
"Scalable, stable, and easy to manage database system, with a straightforward installation."
"Initial setup is simple."
"It is very simple to manage."
"It has completely met our needs. It works, and it is robust. We haven't had any problems with what PostgreSQL does for us and the way it does it. That's why we've been using it for so long. We understand it, and it does the job."
"PostgreSQL is stable. It's available, stable, and reliable."
"The performance is good."
 

Cons

"I don't think the solution is very scalable, because the scalability of the performance when using more than one process is not very good."
"We would like to improve the management of very large databases."
"It would be interesting if they added functionality with redundancy, reputation, and variability."
"The solution could improve by providing partitioning and encryption. It is not at the higher level of database solution but it could be with some upgrades."
"In the next release, it should support JSON, XML, and replication with third-party tools."
"It is not easy to integrate the tool with Visual Studio."
"On large databases, we have some difficulties."
"Database sharing is a capability that Firebird SQL lacks."
"Sometimes, the views create problems. If you don't have the view, sometimes what happens is you need to have the drivers properly set up for PostgreSQL."
"They need to have a better graphical interface. There is a tool called pgAdmin 4 that they use, which is free. It is written in Java, and it is slow. They need to have a better product that is similar to Toad for Oracle, but, of course, it is hard to get something that's really great and free. Other than that, it is great."
"A better graphic user-interface would be nice to see."
"Integration with other platforms could be improved."
"I had some issues when I integrated with the Jupyter Notebook."
"The interface climate could be better."
"Instead of the installation agent downloading all the packages for the install, it should allow the user to download the packages separately on their own to do the install."
"As PostgreSQL is an open-source product, you do have to do a bit more configuration and management yourself."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is open source."
"Firebird SQL is an open-source solution, which means it is a free product."
"It's open-source and free."
"There is a yearly maintenance fee for the use of the solution."
"It is a public domain system as every customer can install it on their system without paying any license fee."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is freely available."
"We are using the free solution, so there is no cost involved."
"I was using the free version of Firebird SQL."
"It is open source. There is no licensing."
"Our company pays for it. There are free versions available, but for advanced features, you obviously have to pay."
"Affordable solution."
"We use the open-source version of PostgreSQL and not the enterprise edition."
"It could be much cheaper. If you would like to build an application on Amazon today, PostgreSQL is the standard database with Redshift. If you want other databases, you can add them, but PostgreSQL is the basis of everything. It's a question of money, that's it."
"There is an annual license."
"This solution can offer a cheaper choice for customers since it is open-source."
"The solution requires a license."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business58
Midsize Enterprise26
Large Enterprise45
 

Questions from the Community

How does Firebird SQL compare with PostgreSQL?
PostgreSQL was designed in a way that provides you with not only a high degree of flexibility but also offers you a cheap and easy-to-use solution. It gives you the ability to redesign and audit yo...
What do you like most about Firebird SQL?
Firebird SQL is an open-source solution.
What do you like most about PostgreSQL?
It's a transactional database, so we use Postgres for most of our reporting. That's where it's helping.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PostgreSQL?
The tool is free of cost. For now, it's not about making money. But once we perfect it, we can offer it to customers willing to pay for support and other services. Most of my deployments are free.
What needs improvement with PostgreSQL?
Postgres should focus on building a stronger knowledge base. They also need to expand their integration capabilities, so more tools and resources are available to manage it. But it is more secure t...
 

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Find out what your peers are saying about Firebird SQL vs. PostgreSQL and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
870,623 professionals have used our research since 2012.