Firebird 3.0 Is Available Now

With major improvements in performance, security and SQL features

April 19, 2016 -- The Firebird Project is pleased to announce the release of version 3 of Firebird, its open source relational database management system. 

This version is the most extensive re-architecture of the Firebird DBMS since its initial release more than 14 years ago.  Its new multi-threaded engine processes and shared page caching enable better utilization of multi-core hardware and large address spaces.  With these changes, this release features dramatic performance increases, while maintaining compatibility with old client libraries.

In addition, Firebird 3.0 includes a long list of SQL improvements (including Window and statistical functions), enhanced security features such as wire and database encryption and multiple security databases, and more -- over 100 significant improvements.  Yet even with its new enterprise-level features, it retains the tiny footprint and simple deployment and management that have made it "the right tool for the job" for so many applications. 

Steve Summers, President of the non-profit Firebird Foundation, said: "We're very excited about this release. Re-architecting a system as complex as a relational database system is a very difficult task. We're extremely impressed with the skills shown by Firebird's development team and the great job they've done."

Dmitry Yemanov, the core team leader, agreed. "Firebird 3.0 development was quite a challenge but we've finally completed the work and ensured that it complies with our QA standards. Besides the scalability and security features that were our top priority tasks, I'm particularly happy about the performance improvements in garbage collection and incremental backup areas. With the renewed architecture and significantly refactored code, this release establishes a solid platform for our further progress. Thanks to all the Firebird developers and contributors."

Mr. Summers added: "If you're building a system that needs to store structured data at end-users' sites, from a few megabytes to hundreds of gigabytes, on a desktop or a network with thousands of users, Firebird has always been a great choice. It's an even better choice now. You owe it to yourself to at least take a look!"

Pricing and Availability

Firebird 3.0 is an open source database system that is completely free of charge for any use – including deployment as part of commercial products (not just non-profit, private or educational use like some of its competitors).  Both binary packages and the complete source code can be downloaded at no cost through the Firebird Project website.  No registration or activation is required. 

As of today, Firebird 3.0 is available in 32 and 64 bit versions for both Windows and Linux. OS X and other platforms will be available soon. Drivers for JDBC (Java), .NET, ODBC, Python and more are also available through the FirebirdSQL.org web site, along with documentation. Additional tools (drivers, administration, replication, UDF (user-defined-function) libraries, etc.) are also available through third parties.

About the Firebird Foundation

The Firebird Foundation is a non-profit organization that supports the development and maintenance of the Firebird relational database system. The Foundation was incorporated in 2002 and is currently supported by more than 300 active members and 23 sponsors. If you find Firebird useful, and especially if it is helping you earn money, please join us to help ensure the future of this valuable tool.  For details, please click the Community tab on our website.

For more information, contact:

Steve Summers, [email protected], or

Alexey Kovyazin, [email protected]