The best distributed databases, according to hackers
9 distributed databases recommended in Hacker News comments over the past year, ranked by how many separate people recommend each one.
- Most recommendedFoundationDB26 people recommend it
- Least regretGoogle Cloud Spanner23 recommend, 2 criticize
All distributed databases
- FoundationDBDatabase praised for strict serializable transactions, hands-off reliability and deterministic testing; the client is complicated and needs expertise to use correctly.26recommend
- Google Cloud SpannerGoogle's globally distributed relational database, recommended for strong consistency, easy scaling and smooth operations. The most common caveat is cost, which critics call high.23recommend
- CockroachDBRecommended for scaling, fault tolerance and Postgres compatibility. Critics mainly cite the move from Apache to a commercial license and extra work porting queries.19recommend
- rqliteA fault-tolerant, highly available relational database built on SQLite, valued for giving HA and relational modeling with low operational cost. Critics note it is still server-based and slower than a single-node database.13recommend
- Apache CassandraOpen-source distributed database people recommend for write-heavy workloads and high availability at scale. Common caveat: it is hard to operate, with repair, backup and data-safety pitfalls.12recommend
- TiDBOpen-source, MySQL-compatible distributed database people pick for scale, ACID transactions and fault tolerance; the most common caveat is a 2026 data leak and the company's response.11recommend
- MarmotRecommended for a fast, simple single-binary server with MySQL wire compatibility and good replication, though critics say it lacks features and integrations like Airflow.10recommend
- YugabyteDBPeople recommend it as an open-source, PostgreSQL-compatible database with real high availability and strong Postgres feature coverage. The most common caveat is a reported four-hour incident and claims that were later walked back in the docs.9recommend
- Aurora DSQLRelational database that scales without a weird system like DynamoDB, with a generous free tier. Caveat: many Postgres features, like foreign keys, are missing.5recommend