Size Isn’t Everything with Databases
Size Isn’t Everything with Databases – Nor When It Comes to Database Driver size.
With QStudio and Pulse, we get to work hands-on with 30+ databases. That gives us a lot of appreciation for teams that do more with less – especially some of the smaller teams building compact databases and drivers that deliver an outsized amount of value.
In both Pulse and QStudio, we bundle a core set of JDBC drivers and optionally download others when a user adds a specific database. We do this deliberately to keep the applications lightweight. We care about every megabyte and don’t want to bloat either our product or our users’ SSDs.
Database Driver Size
Notice:
- DuckDB – An entire database that is smaller than both the Snowflake and the Arrow/flight SQL driver.
- H2 – Another full database (Java-specific) that is smaller than roughly a third of the drivers we ship.
- Kdb+ – Supports JDBC and has the fastest industry wide bulk inserts while being one .java file (1900 lines, 60KB)
Obviously, a smaller driver or database isn’t always “better” in isolation. But having worked closely with these three in production settings, we can say they are exceptional pieces of engineering. The performance these teams achieve with such compact codebases is a testament to strong engineering discipline and a relentless focus on efficiency end-to-end. Huge congratulations to the teams behind them.
Scale matters but Efficiency is what makes scale sustainable.
Database Driver Size
Full Sizes (in KB):
42776 flight-sql-jdbc-driver-18.1.0.jar
27644 snowflake-jdbc-3.13.6.jar
19144 athena-jdbc-3.2.0-with-dependencies.jar
16696 kyuubi-hive-jdbc-shaded-1.7.1.jar
13904 ignite-core-2.15.0.jar
12728 sqlite-jdbc-3.42.0.0.jar
10284 kylin-jdbc-5.0.0-alpha.jar
10180 neo4j-jdbc-driver-4.0.9.jar
9856 trino-jdbc-422.jar
9652 presto-jdbc-0.282.jar
8984 redshift-jdbc42-2.1.0.28.jar
6564 jt400-20.0.0.jar
6504 presto-jdbc-350.jar
6268 mongodb-jdbc-2.0.2-all.jar
5652 taos-jdbcdriver-3.2.4-dist.jar
4964 gemfirexd-client-2.0-BETA.jar
4400 ojdbc8-19.19.0.0.jar
4060 jdbc-1.30.22.3-jar-with-dependencies.jar
3856 omnisci-jdbc-5.10.0.jar
3600 derby-10.15.2.0.jar
2556 h2-2.2.224.jar
2540 mysql-connector-j-9.1.0.jar
1628 hsqldb-2.7.2-jdk8.jar
1608 hsqldb-2.7.2.jar
1488 jdbc-3.00.0.1-jar-with-dependencies.jar
1456 redis-jdbc-driver-1.4.jar
1380 clickhouse-jdbc-0.6.0.jar
1368 jdbc-1.30.22.5-jar-with-dependencies.jar
1324 ngdbc-2.17.12.jar
1324 ngdbc-2.17.10.jar
1308 mssql-jdbc-10.2.1.jre8.jar
1268 avatica-core-1.17.0.jar
1240 clickhouse-jdbc-0.4.6.jar
1204 terajdbc-20.00.00.11.jar
1136 sqream-jdbc-4.5.9.jar
1084 solr-solrj-9.2.1.jar
1080 solr-solrj-9.3.0.jar
1064 postgresql-42.7.4.jar
1060 jdbc-4.50.4.1.jar
952 snappydata-store-client-1.6.7.jar
792 x-pack-sql-jdbc-7.9.1.jar
752 crate-jdbc-2.7.0.jar
516 nuodb-jdbc-24.1.0.jar
380 ucanaccess-5.0.1.jar
300 clickhouse-jdbc-0.2.6.jar
284 taos-jdbcdriver-3.2.1.jar
248 csvjdbc-1.0.40.jar
228 ignite-core-3.0.0-beta1.jar
124 lz4-pure-java-1.8.0.jar
100 hive-jdbc-1.2.1.spark2.jar