Comparative Performance Analysis of Four RDBMS Systems Integrated with Django's ORM

Comparative Performance Analysis of Four RDBMS Systems Integrated with Django's ORM | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Comparative Performance Analysis of Four RDBMS Systems Integrated with Django's ORM Mahmoud Nasr, Desoky Abdelqawy, Mohammad El-Ramly This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6948352/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Object--Relational Mapping (ORM) frameworks make it easier to develop applications but often incur a significant performance overhead. This paper presents a comprehensive experimental evaluation of four popular relational databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, and Microsoft SQL Server) accessed via Django's ORM. Using the TPC-H benchmark, we measured query execution time, throughput, and resource utilization under varying query complexities and concurrency levels. PostgreSQL delivered the best overall performance under complex queries via the ORM, whereas Oracle’s superior raw SQL speed was largely offset by high ORM overhead. SQL Server showed balanced results, and MySQL performed well on simple queries but struggled with complex ones. We quantify the ORM-induced slowdown---ranging from 2.6 times in PostgreSQL to 5 times in Oracle---and demonstrate that proper indexing can improve performance by over 60% across all systems. These statistically significant findings underscore important trade-offs when using ORM frameworks. Our study provides new insights and practical guidance for selecting and tuning ORM-database combinations to achieve optimal performance. Database performance Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) RDBMS Django TPC-H benchmark query optimization scalability Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6948352","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":485668657,"identity":"b27eedb2-6d85-499b-9f9e-fbebda91cdcf","order_by":0,"name":"Mahmoud Nasr","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"","institution":"Cairo University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mahmoud","middleName":"","lastName":"Nasr","suffix":""},{"id":485668658,"identity":"2b88da3b-fd83-4df8-b73a-baf59f8c9ed7","order_by":1,"name":"Desoky Abdelqawy","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Cairo University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Desoky","middleName":"","lastName":"Abdelqawy","suffix":""},{"id":485668659,"identity":"6b709f57-c9ee-4850-97b3-54229eebfff8","order_by":2,"name":"Mohammad El-Ramly","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Cairo University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mohammad","middleName":"","lastName":"El-Ramly","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-06-22 08:08:16","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6948352/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6948352/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":95226064,"identity":"e4b17268-e6ed-4ca8-83d9-a099ad7b7ea1","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-05 16:26:08","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":837120,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"ktptkhqtmvbvmwgtkyqvjwmkzpykbsbn.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6948352/v1_covered_66fa53c0-13ad-4814-a91c-814864eb21fc.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Comparative Performance Analysis of Four RDBMS Systems Integrated with Django's ORM","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Database performance, Object-Relational Mapping (ORM), RDBMS, Django, TPC-H benchmark, query optimization, scalability","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6948352/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6948352/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Object--Relational Mapping (ORM) frameworks make it easier to develop applications but often incur a significant performance overhead. 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