Always a hotly debated topic.

--jeremy

I wish I always had a choice. SQLite or DB2 are sometimes the "least horrible" option(s) - but assuming an unlimited budget, unlimited time and unlimited maintainers, I would always choose PostgreSQL (MySQL done right, in my opinion).

Besides the discussion of which database is best, which from this list is PostgreSQL, it might be a nice new category for next year to select the best multi-database GUI tool

• DBeaver
• dbschema
• sqldeveloper
• Adminer
• SQuirrel SQL
• DBVisualizer
• HeidiSQL
• FlySpeed SQL
• Valentina DB
• OmniDB
• ...

I've grown a fan for DBeaver.

FWIW there is no single database that is the perfect solution for any problem. All database suck at some point, though Oracle and MySQL suck at more points than all other options together. PostgreSQL sucks least.
Given that, dbeaver is a very nice solution for those that do not want to learn all the different interfaces that are shipped by default. mysqladmin is horrible, pgadmin4 should never have seen the daylight and there are plenty of others that only increase the amount of WTF's uttered furing stress moments.

YottaDB

PostgreSQL

I believe database system is a better term, unless you want to go all the way with 'database management system'.

Anyway, PostgreSQL had a good year, but MariaDB is what I'm using, and they had a good year as well, so it's a vote for the sea lion from me.

That said, MySQL was elected DBMS of the year 2019 over at DB Engines:
https://db-engines.com/en/blog_post/83

They've added a lot of features recently in the 8.0 series, but it's at break-neck speed - major, new features are added in patch releases along with bug fixes. At the same time, you can no longer downgrade (except from logical backup), so you have to ask what that does for stability in a production system ... Still, great features ...

I'm admittedly old school, but I still love MySQL