Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | PostgreSQL | MongoDB | Redis | Firebase | FlinDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| In-memory speed | |||||
| Structured data | |||||
| Time-travel queries | Complex* | ||||
| Built-in versioning | |||||
| Zero configuration | Partial | ||||
| Reactive updates | Pub/Sub | ||||
| Self-contained | |||||
| Semantic search** | |||||
| Offline-first | Partial |
*PostgreSQL has temporal tables but requires complex setup
**Available in FLIN AI edition
Benchmark Results
10,000 Entity Operations
Time to complete 10,000 create/read/update operations.
Individual Comparisons
PostgreSQL is powerful but requires setup, migrations, and complex temporal table configuration for versioning.
- No Docker or installation needed
- No SQL or migrations
- Time-travel built-in, not bolted on
- 100x faster for typical operations
- PostgreSQL better for complex joins
MongoDB is flexible but requires a server, driver configuration, and has no native versioning or time-travel.
- Embedded - no separate server
- Automatic version history
- Reactive updates built-in
- Simpler query syntax
- MongoDB better for document flexibility
Redis is fast but lacks structure, relationships, and any form of version history or time-travel.
- Even faster than Redis for FlinDB ops
- Structured data with schemas
- Built-in relationships
- Version history and time-travel
- Redis better for pure key-value caching
Firebase offers real-time sync but requires cloud, has no offline-first design, and lacks version history.
- Works fully offline
- No cloud dependency
- Built-in version history
- No vendor lock-in
- Firebase better for multi-device sync
Same Task, Different Code
-- Create table
CREATE TABLE todos (
id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
title VARCHAR(255),
completed BOOLEAN DEFAULT FALSE,
created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW()
);
-- Insert
INSERT INTO todos (title)
VALUES ('Learn SQL');
-- Query
SELECT * FROM todos
WHERE completed = FALSE
ORDER BY created_at DESC;
-- No time-travel without complex setup// Define entity
entity Todo {
title: text
completed: bool = false
}
// Create
save Todo { title: "Learn FLIN" }
// Query
Todo.where(completed == false)
.order(created_at, desc)
// Time-travel included!
todo@yesterday// Connect
const client = new MongoClient(uri);
await client.connect();
const db = client.db('myapp');
const todos = db.collection('todos');
// Insert
await todos.insertOne({
title: 'Learn MongoDB',
completed: false,
createdAt: new Date()
});
// No versioning, no time-travel// No connection needed
// No configuration needed
entity Todo {
title: text
completed: bool = false
}
save Todo { title: "Learn FLIN" }
// Versioning automatic
// Time-travel built-in
todo.history()