# CockroachDB vs Google Cloud Spanner

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** CockroachDB

| Attribute | CockroachDB | Google Cloud Spanner |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 65 (65% (medium)) | 54.9 (38% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 11 | - |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 235 | - |
| adoption.github_stars | 32,549 | - |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"A distributed SQL database that runs across multiple cloud platforms and on-premises environments, providing automatic failover, strong consistency, and horizontal scaling without manual sharding. It is indexed under Relational Databases.","source":"https://www.cockroachlabs.com/pricing/legacy/","question":"What is CockroachDB?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"CockroachDB offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Paid plans start at $146 per month. Prices are published openly on the vendor's own pricing page. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.cockroachlabs.com/pricing/legacy/","question":"Is CockroachDB free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"CockroachDB supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://www.cockroachlabs.com/pricing/legacy/","question":"What platforms does CockroachDB support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. CockroachDB can be deployed cloud / SaaS, hybrid, on-premise and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://www.cockroachlabs.com/pricing/legacy/","question":"Can CockroachDB be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 16 integrations for CockroachDB, including Datadog, Splunk, Dynatrace, New Relic, Terraform, Vercel, HashiCorp and pgvector, plus 8 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.cockroachlabs.com/pricing/legacy/","question":"What does CockroachDB integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA and GDPR for CockroachDB. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as CockroachDB not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://www.cockroachlabs.com/trust-center/","question":"What security certifications does CockroachDB have?","confidence":0.7}]` | `[{"answer":"Google Cloud's globally distributed, multi-model database supporting relational, graph, key-value, and search capabilities with native PostgreSQL interface and Gemini AI integration. It is indexed under Relational Databases.","source":"https://cloud.google.com/spanner","question":"What is Google Cloud Spanner?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Google Cloud Spanner offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://cloud.google.com/spanner","question":"Is Google Cloud Spanner free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Google Cloud Spanner can be deployed cloud / SaaS, hybrid, on-premise and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://cloud.google.com/spanner","question":"Can Google Cloud Spanner be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 5 integrations for Google Cloud Spanner, including Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, Gemini CLI, Model Context Protocol (MCP), Agent Development Kit (ADK) and Data Agent Kit. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://cloud.google.com/spanner","question":"What does Google Cloud Spanner integrate with?","confidence":0.6}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | A cloud-native SQL database that scales automatically across machines without manual sharding, supporting ACID transactions and multi-region deployments. It survives node, zone, and regional failures with minimal disruption and is compatible with PostgreSQL applications. | Google Cloud Spanner is a managed database service that unifies multiple data models (relational, key-value, graph, vector search) on one platform. It provides up to 99.999% uptime with globally consistent transactions through a distributed timestamp system. |
| features.capabilities | `{"hosting":"both","free_tier":true,"isolation":"serializable","sql_model":"full_sql","data_model":"relational","deployment":"managed","serverless":true,"consistency":"strong","geo_spatial":"none","replication":"consensus","sql_support":true,"engine_family":"postgresql","extensibility":false,"json_document":false,"license_class":"source_available","managed_cloud":true,"pricing_model":"tiered_plus_usage","deployment_type":"independent_multi_cloud","horizontal_scale":"distributed_native","acid_transactions":"full","automatic_failover":true,"horizontal_scaling":true,"private_networking":true,"wire_compatibility":"postgres","self_host_alternative":true,"multi_region_replication":true}` | `{"isolation":"serializable","sql_model":"full_sql","deployment":"managed","consistency":"strong","replication":"consensus","extensibility":true,"license_class":"proprietary","horizontal_scale":"distributed_native","acid_transactions":"full","automatic_failover":true,"wire_compatibility":"postgres"}` |
| integrations.count | 6 | 4 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Datadog"},{"name":"Splunk"},{"name":"Dynatrace"},{"name":"New Relic"},{"name":"Terraform"},{"name":"Vercel"},{"name":"HashiCorp"},{"name":"pgvector"},{"name":"AWS"},{"name":"GCP"},{"name":"Azure"},{"name":"Kubernetes"},{"name":"MOLT (Migration Tool)"},{"name":"PostgreSQL drivers"},{"name":"SQLAlchemy"},{"name":"Google Cloud","native":true,"category":"cloud"}]` | `[{"name":"Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform"},{"name":"Gemini CLI"},{"name":"Model Context Protocol (MCP)"},{"name":"Agent Development Kit (ADK)"},{"name":"Data Agent Kit"},{"url":"https://github.com/gemini-cli-extensions/spanner","name":"VS Code","native":false,"category":"development"},{"name":"Cursor","native":false,"category":"development"},{"name":"GitHub Copilot","native":false,"category":"development"},{"name":"Kiro","native":false,"category":"development"}]` |
| language.primary | Go | - |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | - |
| pricing | `{"type":"usage","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"Standard","summary":"From $0.057/vCPU-hr, 99.99% SLA","features":["99.99% availability SLA","Single- or multi-region on AWS and GCP","Row-level security","Column-level encryption","Private connectivity","CDC add-on available","1-hour P1 support response"],"components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"vCPU-hour"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.057,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GiB-month"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.155,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"For most applications, quick to start and less to manage.","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Mission Critical","summary":"$0.162/vCPU-hr, 99.999% SLA","features":["99.999% availability SLA with multi-region","Egress controls","CMEK","PCI DSS & HIPAA compliance","All add-ons available","30-minute P1 support response"],"components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"vCPU-hour"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.162,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"For production applications that need the highest availability and support.","contactSales":false}],"addOns":[{"name":"Change Data Capture (CDC)","components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"vCPU-hour"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.006,"currency":"USD"}]},{"name":"Physical Cluster Replication (PCR)","components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"vCPU-hour"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.023,"currency":"USD"}]}],"summary":"From $0.057/vCPU-hr. Free 30-day trial with $400 credit.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.cockroachlabs.com/pricing/","retrievedAt":"2026-10-05T10:08:18.278Z","freeTrialDays":30,"startingPrice":{"unit":"vCPU-hour","amount":0.057,"currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` | `{"type":"usage","summary":"Usage-based pricing: compute capacity (nodes/processing units, hourly), storage (monthly), backups, data replication, network bandwidth. Free 90-day trial instances. Optional 1-year and 3-year committed use discounts. Three editions available: Standard, Enterprise, and Enterprise Plus.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://cloud.google.com/spanner","retrievedAt":"2026-08-03T12:40:26.715Z","freeTrialDays":90,"billingPeriods":["hour","month"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | freemium | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | low | low |
| pricing.starting_price | `{"amount":0.057,"currency":"USD"}` | - |
| pricing.transparent | yes | - |
| reliability.sla_pct | 99.99 | 99.999 |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.certifications | `[{"name":"SOC 2 Type II","level":"Type II","status":"active","auditor":"AICPA"},{"name":"SOC 3","status":"active","auditor":"AICPA"},{"name":"ISO 27001","status":"active"},{"name":"ISO 27017","status":"active"},{"name":"ISO 27018","status":"active"},{"name":"ISO 42001","status":"in_progress"},{"name":"HIPAA","status":"active"},{"name":"PCI DSS","status":"active"}]` | - |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | - |
| security.gdpr | yes | - |
| security.hipaa | yes | - |
| security.iso27001 | yes | - |
| security.pci | yes | - |
| security.scorecard | 5.1 | - |
| security.soc2 | yes | - |
| security.trust_center | https://www.cockroachlabs.com/trust-center/ | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fcockroachdb%2Fcockroach&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | - |

## Capabilities (Relational Databases)

| Capability | CockroachDB | Google Cloud Spanner |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| SQL model | Full SQL | Full SQL |
| **Transactions** |  |  |
| ACID transactions | Full | Full |
| Highest isolation level | Serializable | Serializable |
| **Consistency** |  |  |
| Consistency | Strong | Strong |
| **Scale** |  |  |
| Horizontal scale | Natively distributed | Natively distributed |
| **Replication** |  |  |
| Replication | Consensus (Raft/Paxos) | Consensus (Raft/Paxos) |
| **Availability** |  |  |
| Automatic failover / HA | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Deployment | Managed | Managed |
| Serverless / scale-to-zero | ✓ | - |
| **Compatibility** |  |  |
| Wire compatibility | Postgres protocol | Postgres protocol |
| **Extensibility** |  |  |
| Extensions / plugins / UDFs | ✗ | ✓ |
| **Licensing** |  |  |
| Licence class | Source-available (BSL/SSPL) | Proprietary |
| **Data types** |  |  |
| JSON / document support | ✗ | - |
| Geo / spatial | None | - |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T17:47:19.817Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*