Top 15 best databases for web applications

In this post we are exploring the Top 15 best databases for web applications.

Top 15 best databases for web applications

A database is a structured collection and organization of data which is accessed through a database management system. We can compare it to a locker room of an office that carries all the important business files.

In web applications, a file system is generally used for small databases. On the other hand, computer clusters and cloud storage are utilized for hosting large databases. All information related to your inventory, blog posts, customer details, etc. is stored in a database.

There are hundreds of databases available in the market but it is extremely essential to choose the right one. Your application?s performance, speed, scalability, flexibility, and overall success depend largely on your choice of database.

Criteria for evaluating a suitable database for web apps

Here are the most important considerations for selecting the right database for your application:

Integration: Your web app will utilize different tools and technologies that must connect well with each other. The same goes for the database you will be choosing. It must be able to integrate properly with all the tools and services you are planning to use. So don?t forget to check the compatibility of your preferred database with all other project components.

Scalability: You must know your application scaling needs before settling up on a database. If your app has limited scalability, a vertically scaling database might be enough for it. But when you plan to scale your web app tremendously, you need to look for the horizontal scalability of shortlisted databases. In such a case, it is possible to add more servers or cloud storage to match your scaling needs.

Flexibility: Some databases have a predefined structure to store data while others do not. Such data models or schemas make it necessary to define new relations, create new columns, and perform other changes every time your app requirements change. On the other hand, databases without schemas offer much more flexibility to handle your data. So choose a database that fits well with your app?s flexibility needs.

Relational Databases

Relational databases store data according to the relational model that defines the relation of data at every data point. Here the data is intuitively represented in tables. Some of the best relational databases are:

MySQL

Originally released in 1995, MySQL is now the most popular open-source database among developers. The word SQL in MySQL stands for Structured Query Language. It creates data structures by organizing them into tables and defining the relation between different data types.

Features and benefits

• MySQL is a free, open-source database with a community edition supported by a General Public License (GNU). So you will be saving database license costs.
• The use of basic SQL makes this database quite easy to use.
• Since MySQL is very popular, you?ll find many learning resources and documentation to guide you at every step of app development.
• The wide adoption of MySQL makes it a secure database. The community updates it regularly and releases CVE patches even before the announcement of vulnerabilities.

Use cases

• Developing eCommerce platforms.
• As an alternative to source-replica replication.
• Creating mission-critical apps.
• For elastic replication.
• Developing applications running on the LAMP software stack.
• For any application that demands a transactional SQL engine, including high-traffic websites.

SQLite

SQLite is an embedded database system with server-less operations. It is an open-source, in-memory library with less than 500kb size. It doesn?t even require any installation.

Features and benefits

• It is very lightweight which makes it easy to embed the database in different devices.
• SQLite is extremely fast and loads only the required data rather than the entire file.
• It doesn?t involve any configuration and installation. You can start working on your project by downloading only the SQLite libraries.
• This database comes with easy portability across different 32-bit and 64-bit OS.
• It offers reliability by continuously updating your content so no data gets lost due to unexpected power failure.

Use cases

SQLite is used for:

• Learning purposes by beginners since it doesn?t require installation.
• Changing files into smaller-sized archives.
• Developing embedded applications for mobile devices.
• Managing apps with low to medium HTTP requests.

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is a Relational DataBase Management System (RDBMS) with object-oriented features. It allows you to define complex data types and inheritance relationships.

Features and benefits

• PostgreSQL is an ACID-compliant database that offers Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability.
• It provides enterprise-grade functionality, scalability, and performance.
• It helps businesses keep their costs lower because of its open-source nature.
• PostgreSQL is compatible with many 3rd-party tools, programming languages, and data types.
• It offers full-text search to easily work on data.

Use cases

• PostgreSQL can be used:
• In apps involving complex queries.
• For developing eCommerce applications.
• In a distributed architecture to handle large data volumes.
• For all apps with high read and write requests.

Microsoft SQL Server

MSSQL Server is a proprietary database system from Microsoft Corporation. It comes in different editions to handle different workloads, including single-machine applications with few users to network applications with a large number of concurrent users.

Features and benefits

• MSSQL Server is reliable since it comes from Microsoft.
• It is secured with Transport Layer Security protocol.
• It is easy to get started with MSSQL with a one-click installation procedure.
• It delivers excellent performance because of its efficient encryption and compression capabilities.
• It has multiple editions with varying price tags to fit the needs of all developers and organizations.

Use cases

Microsoft SQL server is used for:

• Creating and maintaining databases.
• Generating reports via SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services).
• Analyzing large volumes of data with SSAS (SQL Server Analysis Services).
• Carrying out ETL (Extract, Transfer, and Load) functions for your data.

NoSQL Databases

NoSQL databases store data in non-tabular form, unlike Relational databases. They have flexible schemas and offer high scalability for modern applications. Top NoSQL databases are:

MongoDB

MongoDB is a document-oriented, open-source database system that is capable of storing large data volumes.

Features and benefits

• It is compatible with many popular programming languages, including Java, PHP, Node.js, Python, Perl, and more.
• It is a schema-less database providing more flexibility to developers.
• It focuses on Consistency, Availability, and Partition tolerance (CAP) to bring in more efficiency in data management.
• It offers horizontal scalability with sharding.

Use cases

Many big corporations like Nokia, Facebook, and eBay use MongoDB. You can also utilize its power to:

• Build applications with large volumes of data.
• Streamline the development of AI-enriched apps.
• Create software that demands a hierarchical data storage structure.
• Build enterprise-grade mobile apps with custom APIs.
• Bring flexibility to your app development process with dynamic schema.

Cassandra

Initially created at Facebook, Cassandra is now an open-source database used by thousands of companies. It is capable of handling structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data.

Features and benefits

• It is free and open source that helps businesses in cost-cutting.
• It is very flexible and can handle all forms of data.
• It supports ACID transactions.
• It can handle huge data volumes and offers excellent scalability.

Use cases

Cassandra is perfect for:

• Developing messaging applications with large data.
• Grocery and eCommerce applications that require quick input and output of product catalogs.
• Apps that receive data from different sensors or devices at a very high speed.
• Creating social media applications that offer user recommendations.

Redis

Redis stands for REmote DIctionary Server. It is an in-memory, open-source database that doesn?t store data on a disk or SSD.

Features and benefits

• It helps organizations save money due to its open-source nature.
• It is capable of delivering unparalleled performance, speed, and reliability because of in-memory data storage.
• You can perform asynchronous data replication with Redis to replicate data to multiple servers.
• It is a multi-model system that comes with many in-built data structures like Bitmaps, strings, hashes, and more.

Use cases

Redis is suitable for:

• Applications involving thousands or millions of operations per second.
• Carrying out page caching, database query caching, and session caching to reduce the load on other databases when developing an app on them.
• Applications storing session data like user profiles, credentials, etc.
• eCommerce stores that require updating their inventory in real-time.

Couchbase

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Couchbase is a document database that merges Membase and CouchDB to offer excellent scalability and performance.

Features and benefits

• It supports many popular languages like Ruby, PHP, C, Python, and Java.
• Couchbase empowers you to scale your application tremendously.
• It offers a query mechanism for easier data retrieval.
• It has a flexible data model that allows you to modify application objects quickly.
• It offers excellent speed and performance with sub-millisecond response times.

Use cases

Couchbase is used for:

• Applications that need to track and respond to real-time user activity like an automated messaging system.
• Storing user preferences just like we store data in cookies or HTTP sessions.
• Tracking and managing promotions in real-time in eCommerce applications.
• Apps that require inventory management.

NewSQL Databases

NewSQL databases are modern relational systems built to combine the benefits of SQL and NoSQL databases. They offer consistency equal to SQL systems and scalability of NoSQL databases.

CockroachDB

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CockroachDB is a distributed database system developed on a transactional key-value store. It offers popular SQL APIs for data structuring and manipulation.

Features and benefits

• It helps serve real-time data with its distributed, multi-region ACID transactions.
• It provides high-performance and high-reliability storage for large and complex data.
• It ensures high availability with data replication while also maintaining consistency between different replicas.
• CockroachDB supports foreign keys and secondary indexes.

Use cases

Twitter and Netflix utilize the power of CockroachDB. You can also use it for:

• Cloud migrations of applications.
• Apps that demand high data availability and reliability.
• Developing software with multi-region deployments.
• Creating e-commerce stores, online banking systems, or messaging apps that require distributed OLTP (Online Transaction Processing).
• Multi-datacenter app deployments.

Google Spanner

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Spanner is an enterprise-grade database developed by Google. It combines relational structures, SQL queries, and transactions with the power of the cloud to offer immense scalability.

Features and benefits

• It helps reduce operational costs with automated maintenance and synchronous replication.
• Spanner carries out workload-isolated query processing to deliver excellent speed and performance.
• It performs automatic database sharding.
• It comes with read-and-write scalability without any limits.

Use cases

Google Spanner is utilized for:

• Multi-channel inventory management in online stores or gaming apps.
• Real-time data access in digital banking applications.
• Managing user profiles and critical data securely in financial apps.
• Personalizing customer experience with real-time updates in gaming or other apps.

Graph Databases

Graph databases utilize graph structures instead of tables to store data and define relationships between different sets of data. It uses edges, properties, and nodes for data storage.

Neo4j

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Neo4j is an open-source, Java-based graph database that offers high scalability. It is schema-free and, thus, highly flexible.

Features and benefits

• It offers higher vertical scaling for growing applications.
• The database provides high availability for real-time apps with transactional guarantees.
• It is fast in retrieving and navigating data.
• It is easy to learn because of the use of CQL (Cypher Query Language).

Use cases

Neo4j is suitable for:

• Managing IT infrastructure and networks as it can handle complex data interdependencies.
• Fraud detection and analytics for applications carrying sensitive data.
• Leveraging social connections easily when developing social media apps.
• Keeping track of user identities and managing account access in eCommerce applications.
• Developing a product recommendation system in shopping apps.

Time-Series Databases

Time-series databases store and retrieve data with the help of timestamps. It involves monitoring, tracking, and aggregation of data records over time.

InfluxDB

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InfluxDB is an elastic time series database capable of storing huge amounts of data per second. It is open-source and supports data processing from Graphite software.

Features and benefits

• It is very easy to install and manage InfluxDB.
• It does away with writing server-side code because of its in-built HTTP API.
• It has no external dependencies.
• It offers excellent scalability for events, metrics, and real-time analytics.
• InfluxDB brings in resource efficiencies in the app development process.

Use cases

InfluxDB is used for:

• Collecting device metrics in IoT (Internet of Things) apps.
• Applications demanding predictive intelligence and real-time analytics.
• Central monitoring and integration of data when running software.
• Social media applications that analyze real-time engagement metrics.

Key-Value Stores

Key-value stores or databases use associative arrays as their fundamental data model. They store data in the form of hash tables, maps, and dictionaries.

Amazon DynamoDB

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DynamoDB is a proprietary, fully managed database developed by Amazon. The company offers it as a part of the Amazon Web Services portfolio.

Features and benefits

• It comes with an in-built support for data replication.
• DynamoDB offers an on-demand backup feature for data protection.
• Since it is a fully managed database, it becomes easy to upgrade crypto libraries.
• Amazon provides autoscaling with DynamoDB to efficiently run high-performance apps.

Use cases

Amazon DynamoDB is suitable for:

• Applications with strict latency need to handle large data volumes.
• Generating user recommendations by analyzing access patterns in shopping apps.
• Developing serverless apps with AWS Lambda.
• Apps with global availability that require high scaling.

Apache Cassandra

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Apache Cassandra is a wide-column, open-source database system that offers high availability without any single point of failure. It is utilized for managing high data volumes.

Features and benefits

• It offers super-fast read and write performance because of its distributed footprint.
• It is capable of handling large volumes of data.
• It is fault-tolerant because of its data replication ability.
• It comes with elastic scalability that comes from its nodal architecture.
• It utilizes CQL (Cassandra Query Language) that combines the key value with the tabular database system.

Use cases

It is suitable for:

• Applications requiring scalability in peak seasons like online stores.
• Recording visitor activity in entertainment websites to analyze data and respond accordingly.
• Offering personalized customer experience in social media and eCommerce apps.
• Real-time data analysis in mobile devices or apps using edge computing and IoT.

Document Stores

Document databases store data in the form of XML, BSON, or JSON documents. They perform schema-free data organization to manage semi-structured data.

Firebase Firestore

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Firestore is a cloud database developed by Google Cloud and Firebase. It efficiently syncs data for client and server-side development.

Features and benefits

• It offers high scalability and flexibility in data storage.
• It simplifies the app development process with its serverless technology.
• It comes with the benefits of ACID transactions to handle data efficiently.
• It provides robust security with Firebase Security Rules.

Use cases

Firestore is used for:

• Mobile apps that demand offline operations without network connectivity.
• Gaming apps or messaging systems in need of real-time data updates.
• Building serverless applications.
• Apps requiring scalable and complex user authentication.
• Developing IoT apps.

Hybrid Databases

Hybrid databases use multiple databases in a single instance. It can have both in-memory and on-disc data storage.

ArangoDB

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ArangoDB is a multi-model database carrying the power of three models in a single core. It utilizes graphs, documents, and key values along with AQL, a unified query language.

Features and benefits

• It combines the benefits of schema-based and schema-free databases.
• It minimizes the complexity of your technology stack by reducing the number of components with its multi-model structure.
• It is capable of scaling both horizontally and vertically.
• It is a fault-tolerant system with a modular architecture.

Use cases

ArangoDb can be used for:

• Applications that demand flexibility to add new ideas at a later stage of development.
• Developing software as a team.
• Apps that require the use of different data models.
• Adaptive fraud detection when developing financial applications.

Conclusion

Choosing the right database for your web application depends on your scalability, performance, and speed requirements. We recommend keeping everything simple and beginning with analyzing the minimum requirements for the app you are developing. This way, you can better match your needs with the features of the different databases listed above.

Author: Surbhi Sharma

LinkedIn ID: www.linkedin.com/in/surbhi-sharma