Which Databases Dominated 2019? Rankings, Trends, and Management Insights

Open‑Source Databases

Open‑source databases are developed by community contributors, with source code freely downloadable and modifiable. Popular examples include MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, and MongoDB.

Commercial Databases

Commercial databases are created and maintained by companies, accessed via licensing, and cannot be altered. Popular examples include Oracle, SQL Server, and DB2.

Database Rankings

Rankings are sourced from DB‑Engines, a widely cited reference used by Gartner, InfoWorld, and other sites.

The table below shows the top‑20 database systems. MySQL experienced a sharp upward spike this month.

Single vs Hybrid Database Strategies

More than 44 % of organizations now employ multiple database types, while 55.7 % still rely on a single system.

SQL + NoSQL Combinations

Over 75.6 % of organizations combine SQL and NoSQL databases, leveraging the strengths of both relational and non‑relational models.

Most Popular Multi‑Database Combinations

The top combination is MySQL + MongoDB; the second most popular is MySQL + PostgreSQL, which, despite being competitors, are often used together for different data sets.

Time‑Consuming Database Management Tasks

Monitoring accounts for the largest share of DBA effort (12.6 %). Backup, disk‑space management, and scaling each consume 11.6 %. Other notable tasks include view maintenance (8.7 %), reinstallations (7.2 %), upgrades (6.5 %), and various miscellaneous activities such as migration, query tuning, and replication.

Key Database Performance Metrics

Query response time dominates performance monitoring (51.8 %). Reliability follows (18.2 %), and memory usage ranks third (8.2 %). Implementing high‑availability frameworks is crucial to keep databases online during data‑center outages.

Thanks to DB‑Engine and DeveloperWeek for the survey data. Whether SQL or NoSQL, relational or non‑relational, the database landscape continues to evolve dramatically.