In this quick blog post, I’m going to assess how the databases that advertise themselves as “Cassandra API-compatible” fare in the compatibility department. But that is all I will do, only API testing, and not an extensive testing, just based on the APIs I see used often. Based on this, you can start building an informed decision on whether or not to change databases. The contenders:
So, with these results, which are not a full comparison (I have left out other parts offered in these systems), you can decide if it is compatible enough for you.
- Apache Cassandra 4.0
- Installation: Build from Source
- Yugabyte - https://www.yugabyte.com/
- “YCQL is a transactional flexible-schema API that is compatible with the Cassandra Query Language (CQL). “
- Installation: Docker
- ScyllaDB - https://www.scylladb.com/
- “Apache Cassandra’s wire protocol, a rich polyglot of drivers, and integration with Spark, Presto, and Graph tools make for resource-efficient and performance-effective coding.”
- Installation: Docker
- Azure Cosmos - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cosmos-db/
- “Azure Cosmos DB provides native support for NoSQL and OSS APIs including MongoDB, Cassandra, Gremlin and SQL”
- Installation: Azure Portal Wizard
What was tested
In this test, the following CQL APIs were tested:- Keyspace Creation
- Table Creation
- Adding a Column to a table (Alter table)
- Data Insert
- Data Insert with TTL (Time-to-live)
- Data Insert with LWT (Lightweight Transactions)
- Select Data
- Select data with a full table scan (ALLOW FILTERING)
- Creating a Secondary Index (2I)
Cassandra 4.0
- All statements worked (as expected)
CosmosDB
LWT Not supported ALLOW FILTERING Not supported 2i Is Not supportedScylla
LWT Not supportedYugabyte
2i Not SupportedResults Table
So, with these results, which are not a full comparison (I have left out other parts offered in these systems), you can decide if it is compatible enough for you.
