PostgreSQL vs Oracle: the most in-demand databases in German IT contracts
Listings name PostgreSQL (21%) most often, followed by Oracle (17%). SQL Server (10%) is third. The percentages are shares of all mentions of a database. Summed by kind, the mentions fall to SQL databases (relational; 65%), Data warehouses and data platforms (19%), NoSQL databases (8%) and Search engines (7.6%). Overall, 31% of the developer and engineering contracts in Germany name a database or SQL – most recently 1,137 new listings a month. This analysis covers 52,306 listings, broken down by database, developer role and month.
Databases compared: which is most in demand in Germany?
The chart compares the databases with each other: each database's share of all mentions of a database, 100% together. A listing naming two databases counts for both.
How many contracts ask for PostgreSQL, Oracle or SQL Server?
The second chart shows how widespread each database is overall: the share of all developer and engineering contracts naming it. These shares do not add up to 100%, because most contracts name no database at all, and some name several.
7.9% of the developer and engineering contracts name PostgreSQL (1,362 listings), 5.1% name Oracle (891) and 3.1% name SQL Server (535). Together, 5,454 of 17,318 contracts name a database or SQL in general, which is 31%. SQL as a language is part of the comparison of the programming languages.
The two charts count differently: the first counts all listings, including those for administration, consulting or project management – there, 1,537 listings name PostgreSQL and 1,255 name Oracle. The second counts only the developer and engineering contracts.
SQL or NoSQL, Databricks or Snowflake: which kind of database is in demand?
The next chart sums the databases by their kind. Of all mentions of a database, the shares are SQL databases (relational; 65%), Data warehouses and data platforms (19%), NoSQL databases (8%) and Search engines (7.6%).
The data warehouses and data platforms include Databricks (9.1% of all database mentions), Microsoft Fabric (4.6%), Snowflake (3%) and BigQuery (1.3%). The NoSQL databases include MongoDB (2.8%) and Redis (2.3%); DynamoDB has 62 listings. Among the SQL databases, the first three are followed by SAP HANA (6.5%), MySQL (4.3%) and DB2 (3.3%); the search engines are Elasticsearch (5.5%) and OpenSearch (2.1%). How much demand there is for the clouds these platforms run on is covered in the comparison of the cloud providers.
PostgreSQL or Oracle as a contractor: which roles ask for which database?
Which database pays off for you depends on your role. Of the listings for Java backend developers, 30% name PostgreSQL and 18% Oracle; of those for C#/.NET developers, 29% name SQL Server and 7.4% PostgreSQL. For data engineers it is 26% Databricks, 10% Oracle and 8.3% SQL Server. The table gives the shares for every role:
| Role | Listings of the role | PostgreSQL | Oracle | SQL Server | Databricks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Engineer | 1,416 | 4.9% | 10% | 8.3% | 26% |
| Java Backend Developer | 1,272 | 30% | 18% | 4.1% | 0% |
| DevOps / Platform Engineer | 2,109 | 8% | 4.2% | 1.3% | 1.8% |
| Java Fullstack Developer | 811 | 24% | 16% | 3.7% | 0.2% |
| ML / AI Engineer | 905 | 4.6% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 13% |
| C# / .NET Developer | 625 | 7.4% | 9.1% | 29% | 2.1% |
| SAP Developer | 1,208 | 0.1% | 1.8% | 0.2% | 0.2% |
| Test Engineer | 1,443 | 1.3% | 1.8% | 0.3% | 0.5% |
| Python Developer | 372 | 26% | 4% | 1.9% | 1.9% |
| React Developer | 422 | 17% | 1.9% | 0.7% | 0% |
| Angular Developer | 422 | 27% | 6.2% | 1.4% | 0% |
| Security Engineer | 1,204 | 1.2% | 0.8% | 1.2% | 0.2% |
| Low-Code Platform Developer | 1,065 | 0.1% | 0.9% | 2.3% | 0.4% |
| Cloud Solution Architect | 454 | 4.2% | 1.1% | 4.6% | 4.2% |
The PostgreSQL contracts fall mostly to the roles Java Backend Developer (28%), Java Fullstack Developer (15%) and DevOps / Platform Engineer (12%), the Oracle contracts to Java Backend Developer (26%), Data Engineer (16%) and Java Fullstack Developer (14%). Remote share, contract length and typical contracts are on the role pages Data engineer and Java backend developer, what the roles pay on the rate pages for data engineers and Java backend developers.
Databricks, Snowflake and Microsoft Fabric: how much demand for data platforms?
3.4% of the developer and engineering contracts name Databricks (584 listings), 1.7% Microsoft Fabric, 0.9% Snowflake and 0.5% BigQuery. Of the listings for data engineers, 26% name Databricks; the Databricks contracts fall mostly to the roles Data Engineer (62%), ML / AI Engineer (21%) and DevOps / Platform Engineer (6.7%).
Which databases are gaining, which are losing?
Gained share from May–July 2026 to August–October 2026: Databricks (+2.0), Microsoft Fabric (+1.2). Lost share: SQL Server (−1.6), MariaDB (−1.2) (in percentage points). The comparison is between the shares among the databases in the latest three months (August–October 2026) and the three months before (May–July 2026).
| Database | May–July 2026 | August–October 2026 | Change (percentage points) |
|---|---|---|---|
| PostgreSQL | 21% | 21% | 0.0 |
| Oracle | 17% | 17% | +0.5 |
| SQL Server | 12% | 9.9% | −1.6 |
| Databricks | 7.8% | 9.8% | +2.0 |
| SAP HANA | 6% | 6.8% | +0.8 |
| Elasticsearch | 6% | 5.1% | −0.9 |
| Microsoft Fabric | 3.8% | 5% | +1.2 |
| MySQL | 4% | 4.4% | +0.4 |
| DB2 | 3.8% | 3.1% | −0.7 |
| Snowflake | 2.4% | 3.4% | +0.9 |
| MongoDB | 3.4% | 2.4% | −0.9 |
| Redis | 2.3% | 2.3% | −0.1 |
| OpenSearch | 1.9% | 2.2% | +0.4 |
| MariaDB | 2.3% | 1.1% | −1.2 |
| BigQuery | 1.5% | 1.1% | −0.4 |
| MS Access | 0.9% | 1.1% | +0.2 |
| DynamoDB | 0.9% | 0.8% | −0.1 |
| Apache Cassandra | 1% | 0.7% | −0.4 |
| Azure Synapse Analytics | 0.5% | 0.8% | +0.3 |
| InfluxDB | 0.7% | 0.6% | −0.1 |
| Amazon Redshift | 0.3% | 0.5% | +0.2 |
| Cosmos DB | 0.3% | 0.5% | +0.2 |
| SQLite | 0.7% | 0.3% | −0.4 |
Grey: a change within the variation this number of listings produces by chance.
The share of database contracts among the developer and engineering contracts stayed about the same from May–July 2026 to August–October 2026 (31.3%). This article compares shares, not absolute numbers, because the number of analysed listings varies from month to month.
Which roles ask for database skills?
Most database contracts fall to the role Data Engineer (22%), followed by Java Backend Developer (14%). The chart shows how the database contracts are spread over the developer roles; under each role is the share of its own listings that are database contracts. Contracts without one of the listed roles are missing, so the bars do not add up to 100%.
Database contracts month by month
The table shows, per month, the developer and engineering contracts, how many of them are database contracts, their share, and the listings of the three most named databases (counted across all listings, not only developer and engineering contracts).
| Month | Developer and engineering contracts | Database contracts | Share | PostgreSQL | Oracle | SQL Server |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2026 | 178 | 65 | 37% | 34 | 9 | 10 |
| June 2026 | 2,646 | 928 | 35% | 245 | 253 | 173 |
| July 2026 | 3,594 | 1,051 | 29% | 289 | 194 | 133 |
| August 2026 | 3,364 | 976 | 29% | 309 | 234 | 116 |
| September 2026 | 3,602 | 1,141 | 32% | 302 | 282 | 161 |
| October 2026 | 3,934 | 1,293 | 33% | 358 | 283 | 185 |
How to find database contracts in Germany
- Filter by your database: Projectmatch shows the current contracts naming PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server or Databricks from five project boards.
- Name the databases you have worked with in your profile: PostgreSQL by itself is named by 7.9% of the developer and engineering contracts.
- Have new projects matched against your profile automatically instead of searching every board – try it now.
See also: The most in-demand programming languages, The most in-demand cloud providers, The most in-demand IT skills, The most in-demand developer roles, Which skills are asked for together and Hourly and day rates of IT contractors.
Frequently asked questions
Which database is most in demand in German IT freelance contracts?
Listings name PostgreSQL (21%) most often, followed by Oracle (17%). SQL Server (10%) is third. The percentages are shares of all mentions of a database in 52,306 listings (May 2026 – October 2026).
PostgreSQL or Oracle: which is asked for more often in Germany?
Listings name PostgreSQL (21%) most often, followed by Oracle (17%). 7.9% of the developer and engineering contracts name PostgreSQL, 5.1% name Oracle. Of the listings for Java backend developers, 30% name PostgreSQL and 18% Oracle.
SQL or NoSQL: which is more in demand in German freelance contracts?
65% of all database mentions are SQL databases, 8% NoSQL databases. MongoDB is named by 206 listings, Redis by 170.
How much demand is there for Databricks and Snowflake?
3.4% of the developer and engineering contracts name Databricks (584 listings), 0.9% name Snowflake (162). Among all database mentions Databricks has 9.1%, Microsoft Fabric 4.6% and Snowflake 3%; the Databricks contracts fall mostly to the roles Data Engineer (62%), ML / AI Engineer (21%) and DevOps / Platform Engineer (6.7%).
How many IT contracts in Germany ask for database skills?
31% of the developer and engineering contracts name a database or SQL, most recently 1,137 new listings a month.
Method
An AI model reads every project description and records the skills it asks for. Different spellings are merged into one name. A database counts for a listing that names it; PL/SQL counts for Oracle, T-SQL and Azure SQL for SQL Server. “Oracle” on its own counts as the database, although some listings mean the vendor. Data warehouses and data platforms such as Databricks, Snowflake and Microsoft Fabric are included, because listings ask for them like a database. Every listing counts at most once per database.
A database contract is a listing naming at least one database or a general term such as SQL, NoSQL or database development; the general terms are not part of the comparison of the databases. In the summary by kind, the mentions of the databases of a kind are added up: a listing naming PostgreSQL and Oracle counts twice there. Developer and engineering contracts are the listings assigned to a technical role of the developer roles analysis; listings for project management, consulting or operations are not among them. Databases with fewer than 30 listings are summed in the charts, and roles with fewer than 30 listings are left out. The first month, May 2026, is only partly covered.
A change counts as a gain or a loss only when it is at least one percentage point and larger than the variation this number of listings produces by chance. The figures refer to the projects first listed in a month and are updated monthly. They are published under the CC BY 4.0 licence: you may use them freely, also commercially, crediting “Projectmatch (projectmatch.io)” and, online, linking to this page.