YugabyteDB vs CockroachDB
YugabyteDB is the better choice for you if:
- You are on PostgreSQL and are struggling with scale or resilience.
- You are looking for a highly PostgreSQL-compatible database.
- You want to use a 100% open source database that doesn’t tie you down with a proprietary software license.
- Your global applications need multi-region databases for data residency, resilience, or low latency access.
- You are modernizing your legacy Oracle, DB2, or SQL Server databases to a cloud native database.
- You want the flexibility and capacity of multiple APIs, including PostgreSQL, Apache Cassandra, and MongoDB compatible APIs.
What are the differences between YugabyteDB and CockroachDB?
1. YugabyteDB is the most PostgreSQL-compatible distributed database
YugabyteDB offers superior PostgreSQL compatibility by reusing PostgreSQL’s query layer code. This approach allows YugabyteDB to retain all the power and familiarity of PostgreSQL, pairing its trusted API with a precision-engineered, distributed, cloud native architecture. Essentially, YugabyteDB is distributed PostgreSQL for modern cloud native applications.
Developers using YugabyteDB benefit from the full range of familiar PostgreSQL features they are used to — such as stored procedures, triggers, and native read committed isolation levels — as well as the extensions and tools they love. They can start quickly with a familiar API.
In contrast, CockroachDB is rewriting the query layer from scratch and implementing PostgreSQL features piecemeal. As a result, it lacks key PostgreSQL features that developers expect and doesn’t behave as developers expect from a PostgreSQL-compatible database. This also makes migrations from PostgreSQL to CockroachDB more challenging.
A third-party benchmark, the PostgreSQL Compatibility Index, provides an objective comparison of PostgreSQL feature support across databases. According to this benchmark, CockroachDB achieved a compatibility score of 53.66%, while YugabyteDB significantly outperformed it with a score of 85.08%.
For more details, the benchmark results are available on GitHub: PostgreSQL Compatibility Index.
2. YugabyteDB has built-in replication for flexible multi-region deployments
Global applications need multi-region databases for ultra-resilience, data residency, and low-latency access across different geographies. With YugabyteDB, you can design and deploy the ideal architecture for your global application.
YugabyteDB offers a wider range of multi-region blueprints using built-in synchronous and asynchronous replication, allowing you to achieve the optimal balance of latency, resilience, and consistency. These include globally-consistent multi-region clusters, read replicas, xCluster asynchronous replication for disaster recovery, two-data-center configurations, row-level geo-partitioning, and more.
3. YugabyteDB makes migrations simpler
Database migrations are notoriously painful and error prone, often resulting in delays and downtime. But, with the right tool, they can be more manageable, maybe even pain free. YugabyteDB Voyager offers a unified solution to simplify the migration of both schema and data to YugabyteDB from a wide range of legacy and single-cloud databases—including live migration from Oracle. Built-in fail-forward capabilities also minimize migration risks. We are committed to simplifying the full migration lifecycle for enterprises with large portfolios of databases.
CockroachDB offers a schema conversion toolkit, but relies on AWS Data Migration Service (DMS) for data loading, limiting the source or target to AWS.
4. YugabyteDB is 100% open source with no feature gating
YugabyteDB is fully open source and freely available to all under the Apache 2.0 license. Moreover, YugabyteDB has all the advanced features that enterprises need, such as multi-region deployments, backups, disaster recovery, data encryption, and more.
While other database vendors are going back on their commitment to open source by changing their licensing model, we choose to remain 100% open source. Our commercial product, YugabyteDB Aeon, is a database-as-a-service that simplifies the deployment and operation of YugabyteDB at scale.
In contrast, Cockroach Labs changed the license for CockroachDB Core from Apache 2.0 to the more restrictive Business Source License several years ago. Recently, Cockroach eliminated its free-to-use Core offering, forcing all organizations with revenue over $10M to pay for the expensive CockroachDB Enterprise license. Without a free Core plan to fall back on, customers are locked in even if their relationship with Cockroach sours.
Learn how our open source software compares with YugabyteDB Aeon in the Compare Deployment Options page.
5. You can run relational and semi-relational workloads on YugabyteDB
YugabyteDB offers a fully-relational API that is runtime compatible with PostgreSQL as well as a flexible-schema semi-relational API with roots in Apache Cassandra query language (CQL) best suited for internet-scale OLTP apps. This API flexibility allows you to run a wide range of applications on YugabyteDB.
CockroachDB on the other hand has only a relational API, which is wire-compatible with PostgreSQL.
YugabyteDB Supports More Widely Used SQL Features
| Feature | CockroachDB | YugabyteDB |
|---|---|---|
| PostgreSQL Runtime Compatibility | Only wire compatible | |
| PostgreSQL Extensions (PG supports extensions as a way to extend its functionality) | ||
| Change Data Capture (Using PG logical replication syntax) | Custom syntax not compatible with PG logical replication | |
| Built-in connection pooling | ||
| Supports SQL, NoSQL, and MongoDB APIs | ||
| Foreign Data Wrappers | ||
| User Defined Functions | partial | |
| Stored Procedures | partial | |
| Triggers | partial | |
| Cursors | partial | |
| Common Table Expressions | partial | |
| xCluster asynchronous replication | partial | |
| Row Level Security | partial | |
| User Defined Data Types | partial | |
| Sequences | partial | |
| Native observability (pg_stat_ |
Market Leaders Trust YugabyteDB
FAQ
YugabyteDB re-uses the upper half of PostgreSQL allowing us to offer advanced features and provide a seamless transition to distributed SQL. Below the API layer, Yugabyte has completely re architected a distributed, transactional storage layer to seamless handle spreading the database across numerous nodes. Think of YugabyteDB as PostgreSQL for the cloud native world.
YugabyteDB offers a range of deployment options to suit diverse infrastructure needs and preferences. You can deploy it as a fully managed DBaaS on your preferred cloud platform (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud). You can also deploy it as a self-managed DBaaS on public clouds, on-premises, or in a hybrid setup. Additionally, YugabyteDB can be installed on VMs, containers, or bare-metal systems.
Yes, like PostgreSQL, the YugabyteDB database is 100% open source under the Apache 2.0 license and is available for download on Github. Our commercial DBaaS solutions include support and a powerful control plane for easy deployment and scalable management.