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Dameng (DM)

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by Wuhan Dameng Database Co., Ltd. · since 1988 · also known as DM, DM8, DM9, 达梦数据库, Dameng Database

China's leading home-grown RDBMS; DM9 (2026) adds distributed, HTAP and AI features.

relationalcolumnar / olapdocumentdatabase engineproprietarymature
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Overview

Dameng's DM database is a fully self-developed relational database from Wuhan Dameng Database Co., which listed on Shanghai's STAR Market in 2024. Unlike several Chinese competitors it is not a PostgreSQL fork, yet it offers strong Oracle compatibility (PL/SQL-like DMSQL, similar system views), a shared-storage cluster (DMDSC), MPP for analytics and data-guard style replication. DM8 has been the workhorse in government, power-grid and finance migrations; DM9, released in April 2026 after a seven-year gap, adds a unified centralized/distributed architecture, HTAP and AI capabilities. Like its peers, it is almost entirely focused on the Chinese market.

Transactional apps (OLTP)Analytics (OLAP)Hybrid (HTAP)Data warehouse

Strengths & trade-offs

Strengths

  • +Independently developed kernel, not a fork, which matters for Chinese procurement rules
  • +Strong Oracle compatibility in SQL, PL/SQL and system catalogues
  • +Shared-storage cluster (DMDSC) and MPP options cover OLTP HA and analytics
  • +Large installed base in government, power and finance migrations

Trade-offs

  • −Ecosystem, docs and support are almost entirely Chinese
  • −DM9 is new; most production references are still on DM8
  • −Vendor performance claims are rarely independently benchmarked

Great for

  • +Replacing Oracle in government and state-owned enterprises
  • +Power-grid and energy management systems
  • +Financial back-office systems on domestic infrastructure

Think twice for

  • −International deployments
  • −Teams needing open-source licensing
  • −Cloud-native serverless apps

Capabilities

Native or official first-party support · 13 of 25 tracked

✓Transactions
✓Joins
✓Secondary indexes
✓Full-text search
✓JSON
✓Triggers
✓Stored procedures
✓Materialized views
✓Columnar storage
✓Durable persistence
✓Compression
✓Encryption at rest
✓Role-based access
–Vector search
–Geospatial
–Change data capture
–TTL / expiry
–Pub/Sub
–In-memory
–Time travel
–Branching
–Online schema changes
–Streaming ingest
–Offline sync
–Runs in WebAssembly

Scale & consistency

Comfortable data size
Large · ≤ 1 PB
Horizontal scaling
Addon
Multi-region
Read replicas
Transactions
Full ACID
Consistency
Strong
Schema
Strict
Architecture
Client server, Primary replica, Shared storage, Distributed
Query languages
SQL, DMSQL (PL/SQL-compatible)

DMDSC shared-storage clustering, MPP for analytics and a distributed architecture in DM9.

Deployment

Self-hosted Vendor-managed cloud Serverless Embedded Edge Kubernetes operator

Ecosystem

apis & protocolsJDBC, ODBC, DPI (C API), .NET Provider
client languagesJava, C, C#, Python, Go, PHP

Alternatives to Dameng (DM)

Compare all→
KingbaseESRelational0.0

Chinese PostgreSQL-derived RDBMS with Oracle, MySQL and SQL Server compatibility modes.

dameng vs kingbase →
Huawei GaussDBRelational6.8

Huawei's distributed enterprise RDBMS built on openGauss, aimed at replacing Oracle in Chinese finance.

dameng vs huawei-gaussdb →
OceanBaseRelational19.4

Alipay-proven distributed SQL with MySQL (and Oracle, in Enterprise) compatibility, HTAP and vector search.

dameng vs oceanbase →
Oracle DatabaseRelational56.9

The enterprise heavyweight: RAC, Data Guard and a converged engine for SQL, JSON, graph and vectors.

dameng vs oracle-database →
TiDBRelational35.9

MySQL-compatible distributed SQL with a row store for OLTP and a columnar replica for real-time analytics.

dameng vs tidb →
Alibaba PolarDBRelational2.7

Alibaba Cloud's shared-storage relational service in MySQL-, PostgreSQL- and Oracle-compatible editions.

dameng vs polardb →

Dameng (DM) FAQ

What is Dameng (DM)?

Dameng (DM) is a relational database by Wuhan Dameng Database Co., Ltd., first released in 1988. Dameng's DM database is a fully self-developed relational database from Wuhan Dameng Database Co., which listed on Shanghai's STAR Market in 2024. Unlike several Chinese competitors it is not a PostgreSQL fork, yet it offers strong Oracle compatibility (PL/SQL-like DMSQL, similar system views), a shared-storage cluster (DMDSC), MPP for analytics and data-guard style replication. DM8 has been the workhorse in government, power-grid and finance migrations; DM9, released in April 2026 after a seven-year gap, adds a unified centralized/distributed architecture, HTAP and AI capabilities. Like its peers, it is almost entirely focused on the Chinese market.

Is Dameng (DM) open source?

No. Dameng (DM) is proprietary, closed-source software.

Does Dameng (DM) support ACID transactions?

Yes. Dameng (DM) supports full ACID transactions, with strong consistency.

Does Dameng (DM) scale horizontally?

Dameng (DM) scales horizontally through an official extension, proxy or edition rather than in the core engine. It is comfortable at large scale (≤ 1 PB). It supports cross-region read replicas.

How can I run Dameng (DM)?

You can self-host it.

What is Dameng (DM) best for?

Dameng (DM) is a strong fit for replacing Oracle in government and state-owned enterprises; power-grid and energy management systems; and financial back-office systems on domestic infrastructure. Think twice for international deployments.

What are the best alternatives to Dameng (DM)?

Common alternatives to Dameng (DM) include KingbaseES, Huawei GaussDB, OceanBase, Oracle Database and TiDB. The right choice depends on your workload, scale and hosting; WhichDB's smart match ranks them against your requirements.

How popular is Dameng (DM)?

Dameng (DM) ranks #355 of 844 databases on the WhichDB Score (6.7/100), and #113 among relational databases. The score combines public adoption signals such as package downloads, GitHub activity, job posts and developer discussion.