Mastering SQL: From Fundamentals to Advanced Techniques

Difference Between SQL and NoSQL

Board Infinity
Board Infinity
Difference Between SQL and NoSQL

    Introduction To SQL: A Complete Guide

    SQL Commands-An Introduction

    Char and Varchar in SQL

    ORDER BY in SQL

    5 Resume Writing Myths That You Need to Stop Following Now!

    GROUP BY in SQL

    Learn How to Perform Union in SQL?

    Joins and Its Types in SQL

    Rename column name in SQL

    Learn How To Compare Two Or More Datetime Entities In SQL With Examples

    Difference Between SQL and NoSQL

    Constraints in SQL

    Learn about Aggregate Functions in SQL

    SQL Subqueries

    Nested Queries in SQL - Query In Query

    SQL WITH Clause – Tutorial and Examples

    How to Drop a Table in PostgreSQL?

    How to Perform Pivot in SQL?

    SQL Window Function

    Find Nth Highest Salary in SQL

    Working of Correlated SubQueries in SQL

    Learn about Stored Procedures in SQL

    Triggers in SQL: An Overview and Example

    PL/SQL Explained

Introduction

There are two types of data structures present i.e relational database and non-relational database. The main difference between SQL and NoSQL is SQL is a relational database language(RDBMS)  whereas NoSQL is a non-relational database language or distributed. This article mainly explains the differences between SQL and NoSQL. The factors on which they are different are discussed in the below article:

Type:

SQL is a relational database (RDBMS) compared to NoSQL is a non-relational or distributed database.

Language:

SQL (Structured Query Language) is one of the most versatile and widely used database languages for complex queries. SQL uses already-defined schemas for the structure of the data. For working on such kinds of databases we have to use the pre-defined schemas present. This is considered to be a disadvantage because it requires a lot of preparation to change the structure because it is considered to be difficult and disturbs the whole database. Compartelivy, a NoSQL is a dynamic schema that has unstructured data. Data in NoSQL can be stored in many ways like document-oriented, column-oriented, graph-oriented, and key-value pairs. NoSQL doesn't have any pre-defined schema to be followed to write complex queries.

Scalability:

SQL is considered to be vertically scalable which means that it can increase the load on one single server by expanding the size of RAM, and increasing CPU time and SSD. Comparatively, NoSQL is horizontally scalable which means that it can increase or decrease the number of servers according to  the needs of the user. Therefore NoSQL can become larger and more powerful compared to SQL.

Properties:

SQL follows the ACID property (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) on the other hand NoSQL follows the  Brewers CAP theorem  (Consistency, Availability, and Partition tolerance).

For a better understanding of what are the differences between SQL and NoSQL, the below table is used:

SQL

NoSQL

SQL is a relational database (RDBMS)

NoSQL is used for a non-relational database.

SQL uses already-defined schemas and they cannot be changed. They have predefined schemas which cannot be modified.

NoSQL doesn't have any pre-defined schemas and they can be changed.

This data is stored in form of tables, and entity relationship models

This data is stored in form of graph-oriented, column-oriented, document-oriented, etc.

SQL is considered to be horizontally scalable.

NoSQL is vertically scalable.

SQL follows ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability)  properties.

NoSQL doesn't follow ACID properties instead it follows the Brewers CAP theorem  (Consistency, Availability, and Partition tolerance).  


SQL is not considered to be preferred for hierarchical data storage.

NoSQL is considered to be suitable for hierarchical data storage.

Examples of SQL languages are MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle,  etc:


Examples of NoSQL languages are Django, GraphQL, Cassandra, etc

Conclusion:

Key differences between SQL and NoSQL are discussed in the above article.

SQL is used for Relational databases whereas NoSQL is used for non-relational databases. Examples of SQL languages are MySQL, Oracle, etc. Examples of NoSQL Django, GraphQL, etc.