Finding software can be overwhelming. Software Advice has helped hundreds of businesses choose the right database management system to organize their in-house data and improve data integrity and security
Showing 1-16 of 16 products
kintone is a cloud-based solution that allows organizations to create customized business apps. The solution allows users to create apps without the knowledge of coding. These applications help in supply chain management, asset management,... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
ManageEngine Applications Manager
ManageEngine Application Manager is an application management solution that helps businesses to monitor their data centers and applications, databases and systems. It is suitable for small to midsize businesses and mid-large enterprises.... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
Airtable is a cloud-based project management and database management solution targeting small to midsize businesses as well as departments within larger companies. This software focuses primarily on data organization and collaboration. This... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
Zoho Creator is a cloud-based database solution that helps organizations create customized applications, automate processes and store application data. The solution enables professionals to access data from remote locations using any... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
TeamDesk is a cloud-based database software that helps users create, maintain, share and organize a database of business information. Users can create databases by customizing predefined templates, or they can create their own without... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
Knack is a cloud-based database management solution suitable for government, nonprofit organizations, software, technology and educational institutions. Modules and key features include a customized relational database platform, pre-built... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
DataFox is a cloud-based business intelligence platform that helps small to large size firms get access to business data. It allows users to derive insights and compare data with overall data health report. DataFox’s key features... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
TablePlus is an on-premise database management solution that helps businesses manage multiple relational databases that include MySQL, Postgres, SQLite, Redis, Amazon Redshift and more. TablePlus is compatible with iOS devices. TablePlus... Read more
Platforms: Mac
Deployments: On premise
Business Size:
Database Performance Analyzer is an application-performance monitoring solution that helps users monitor and analyze database performance. The software is suitable for database administrators (DBAs), developers, system admins and DBA... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
dbForge Studio for SQL Server is an on-premise database management solution designed for database developers, administrators and web developers. Key features include database conversion, data replication, access permissions, performance... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: On premise
Business Size:
VividCortex is a cloud-based database management solution for midsize and large organizations. The system provides analytics, monitoring, virtualization and query management. Key features include top ranking capability, adaptive fault... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
BedrockData is a cloud-based data integration software that helps businesses unify customer information from multiple Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) channels and present on a single platform. Designed for businesses of all sizes, its... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
Etleap is a cloud-based Redshift database management tool that allows users to analyze data from disparate sources. Users can add or modify new data sources and apply custom transformations to their datasets. It works with analytical... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
DataSunrise is a database security system that offers real-time data protection, auditing and data discovery. It provides activity monitoring, database security and data masking. The data auditing tool tracks user actions and changes... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
8base is a cloud-based platform that helps front-end developers build enterprise web and mobile apps through its ready-to-use serverless, GraphQL backend-as-a-service. Front-end developers benefit from using 8base by leveraging a ready-to-use... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
ArangoDB is a cloud-based multi-model database management software that helps create queries for graphs, documents and key values in one SQL-like query language. Designed for midsize to large businesses, its flexible data model supports... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
In the digital age, data is king. The businesses that can successfully store, maintain and make sense of their data have a clear competitive advantage, while those that let the flow of information overwhelm them are destined to fall by the wayside.
With businesses sitting on more data than ever before, the demand for software to handle this vital task is at an all-time high. According to Gartner, the database management system market totaled over $34 billion in 2016 (report available to Gartner clients).
All that to say: If you're in the market for a new database management system, you're not alone. If you're confused on what to look for or where to start with this software, you're certainly not alone there either.
We're here to help. In the Buyer's Guide below, we'll go over definitions, functionality, pricing models and more to help first-time database management system buyers like yourself make sense of this complex software arena.
Click a link below to jump to that section:
What Are Database Management Systems?
Two Types of Database Management Systems
Benefits of Database Management Systems
Database Management System Pricing
Database Management System Trends
What Are Database Management Systems?
Database management systems, also known as DBMSs, are software programs that act as a connecting point between databases and the various users and applications that need to access them. The purpose of a DBMS is to provide businesses with an access point to create, retrieve, modify and organize their vast amounts of data.
Though the terms have become somewhat synonymous over time, a database and a DBMS are not the same thing. A database is simply a collection of related data. A DBMS, on the other hand, is a tool to manage and organize multiple databases. In other words, the database stores the data, while the DBMS accesses and manipulates it.
Two Types of Database Management Systems
The database management system market is rarely static. As businesses' data capabilities and needs have grown over the past 40 years, the database management system has taken on many different forms.
Here are the two most common types of DBMSs you should know about:
1) Relational database management systems (rDBMSs)
Relational database management systems connect disparate data using tables with columns (“fields") and rows (“records"). The main advantage that rDBMSs bring is the ability to spread a single database across several tables, which provides benefits in terms of data storage and access capabilities. Most rDMBSs use what's called “structural querying language" (SQL): a series of commands that allow users or applications to retrieve or update data.
According to Gartner, rDBMSs account for 89 percent of the total DBMS market, making them the bread and butter of the industry. Popular systems here include Oracle Database, Microsoft's SQL Server, MySQL and IBM's DB2.
2) Semi-structured database management systems
In contrast to the rigid tables of rDBMSs, semi-structured database management systems offer more flexibility. Data can be structured as much or as little as possible depending on the purpose, usually with tags or other markers to define attributes and categories. In the age of the internet where data takes many forms, semi-structured database management systems have become increasingly important, as they enable applications to communicate with one another with ease and without loss of information.
Semi-structured DBMSs are on the rise. While they only represent five percent of the total DBMS market, their growth rate (78 percent) was the highest of any type of DBMS in 2016 according to Gartner. Big players here include Amazon, Cloudera and MapR.
The other major type of DBMS is called a “Prerelational-era DBMS"—an antiquated category that no longer has any relevance to first-time buyers.
Benefits of Database Management Systems
DBMSs provide a number of benefits to both internal users and external parties like customers or clients. If you're having trouble convincing stakeholders in your organization that new software is a worthwhile investment, let them know that a DBMS can provide:
- Improved data access. A DBMS can make it possible for all your internal and external business applications to quickly retrieve information from a single source using ad hoc queries. Whether it's an online customer wondering if you still have that shirt in blue or someone on your marketing team wanting to know last month's ad spend, a DBMS can supply the right data in real-time.
- Sustained data integrity. Data organized using different methods across multiple databases can result in a ton of errors when applications need to communicate with one another. A DBMS can provide data standardization and structure to ensure these costly errors don't occur.
- Increased data security. Businesses big and small are concerned about data loss and hackers. A DBMS can ease these fears with features like dual authentication and data encryption to ensure that only those with authorization can access and manipulate different data sets.
Database Management System Pricing
A big headache when researching DBMS vendors is the lack of concrete pricing information. A lot of companies don't want to reveal how much their system costs for a number of reasons. The final price might vary from business case to business case or the vendor might simply want to get you on the phone to sell their system.
In general though, DMBSs will have one of two pricing models, which we explain in the table below:
| Per-user subscription pricing | This type of pricing is more common with cloud-based systems. You pay a monthly or annual fee based on how many users will have access to the DBMS. Airtable is a good example of this approach. |
| Perpetual pricing | This type of pricing is more common with on-premise systems. With this model, you pay one large fee upfront to own the software in perpetuity. Oracle Database is a good example of this model. |
Database Management System Trends
As I mentioned before, the DBMS market is always changing. Here are some trends to keep an eye on as you research different systems:
- Database platform-as-a-service (dbPaaS). More and more, businesses are dropping their bulky, expensive, in-house servers to host their DBMSs in the cloud. Scalable and flexible, dbPaaSs are increasingly popular options to handle back-end data needs for e-commerce and mobile applications.
- Open-source database management system (OSDBMS). The OSDBMS market is increasing in both system options and sophistication of features. If you have the IT bandwidth, consider an open-source DBMS for your business. Capterra breaks down some of the most popular offerings here.