What are the disadvantages of VistaDB

Question

I am looking into using a lightweight serverless database engine like SQLite, Firebird, or VistaDB in an upcoming project.

Someone asked about What are the advantages of VistaDB.

I would like to know what are the disadvantages of using VistaDB versus other technology?

UPDATE (07/13/2010): VistaDB out of business (the real disadvantage)

I have just learned that Infinite Codex (the company that owns and makes VistaDB) is going out of business and the offices will close as of August 1, 2010. View the company press release regarding the closing.

UPDATE (02/11/2011): VistaDB product back in business!

Before Infinite Codex closed its doors, it sold the VistaDB product to eSymmetrix, Inc. The VistaDB software is now alive and well....for the time being.

Answer 1

UPDATE: VistaDB out of business

Press Release from Infinite Codex (the company that makes VistaDB) stating they are going out of business.

• License does not allow publishing performance statistics, so how it truly compares to SQLite or Firebird isn't well documented
• SQLite community is much larger so you can probably find better community support (but VistaDB has commercial support too, so that is an advantage, depending on your perspective)
• 100% managed, which means if you ever need to access the database from a non-.NET project you can't (but 100% managed also has advantages too)
• Small company product. You're relying heavily on a product, think about what impact it would have if the company stopped making new releases or supporting it. If you abstract out your VistaDB-specific code then this can be mitigated, but it's something to think about.
• Cost. IMO this is a very minor issue, but something to consider.

Answer 2

I have not used SQLite, so I will reply for Firebird and VistaDB.

1. There is no server version of VistaDB. VistaDB supports multi-user through shared network drives and the performance is very bad when using it on a network. Firebird supports both embedded and server with wonderful performance. The nice thing with firebird is that the database file is the same in both server and embedded version, so your application can scale from single-user to multi-user with minimal effort.
2. VistaDB Database manager has the basic functionality. Firebird has many third party database managers that can help in creating tables, fields, create SIUD procedures, triggers, views, show detailed sql performance analysis (indexed reads, non-indexed reads). These database managers are not free, but firebird is.
3. VistaDB has no support for monitoring tables. In Firebird, using a third party application, or querying a monitor table, you can monitor the SQL statements executed, I/O usage, memory usage, transactions etc.

Answer 3

You might want to check out MS SQL CE 4.0, it's a serverless version of MS SQL.

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/06/30/new-embedded-database-support-with-asp-net.aspx

Answer 4

Support for Shared Network Drives

Firebird SQL

Firebird server – and any databases you create or connect to – must reside on a hard drive that is physically connected to the host machine. You cannot locate components of the server, or any database, on a mapped drive, a filesystem share or a network filesystem.

VistaDB

Network multi user access from shared drives

Answer 5

You can always Choose firebird it's free forever and is better than Full SQL Server and SQL Server Compact Edition 4 and is better than VistaDB and sqlite.

http://blog.cincura.net/231742-firebird-embedded-in-comparison-to-sql-server-compact-edition-4/

And it will be supported forever, it does have a fundation type organization that will grow forever. Think that is similar like apache or debian (voluntary and is not for profit).