Marmot
Hacker ApprovedRanked 7 of 9 distributed databases by recommenders
Recommended for a fast, simple single-binary server with MySQL wire compatibility and good replication, though critics say it lacks features and integrations like Airflow.
Recommended for a fast, simple single-binary server with MySQL wire compatibility and good replication, though critics say it lacks features and integrations like Airflow.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 77%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fast, simple deployment
“We gave it a proper deployment and were blown away by the speed but in the end we need a lot of features.”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Marmot – Single-binary data catalog (no Kafka, no Elasticsearch)” “The key focus being on simplicity, in terms of both deployments and usability.”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Marmot – Single-binary data catalog (no Kafka, no Elasticsearch)” “Marmot even right now is easier to spin up, plus it's leaderless.”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “Marmot – A distributed SQLite server with MySQL wire compatible interface” - Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Marmot – Single-binary data catalog (no Kafka, no Elasticsearch)”
Handles large data volumes
“Marmot was the only thing that I was able to get to work with the amount of data I was pulling in.”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “Marmot – A distributed SQLite server with MySQL wire compatible interface” “My local benchmarks show pretty decent QPS with less than GB of RSS on DBpedia dataset.”
Comment from 10 May 2026 in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (May 2026)” Replication and Debezium support
“Marmot already supports debezium, so you can do way more than just basic S3 backups.”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “Marmot – A distributed SQLite server with MySQL wire compatible interface” “Marmot can give you better easy DDL and better replication guarantees.”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “Marmot – A distributed SQLite server with MySQL wire compatible interface”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Missing features and integrations
“We gave it a proper deployment and were blown away by the speed but in the end we need a lot of features.”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Marmot – Single-binary data catalog (no Kafka, no Elasticsearch)” “What we missed on marmot was existing integrations with Airflow”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Marmot – Single-binary data catalog (no Kafka, no Elasticsearch)” Looks AI-generated
“AI probably generated the mysql thing, and OP just went with it.”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “Marmot – A distributed SQLite server with MySQL wire compatible interface” “Looks like yet another AI generated project.”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “Marmot – A distributed SQLite server with MySQL wire compatible interface”
Other distributed databases people recommend
The four most recommended other distributed databases, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FoundationDB | 26 | 6 | 81% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Google Cloud Spanner | 23 | 2 | 92% | 9 | — | Approved |
| CockroachDB | 19 | 11 | 63% | 11 | — | — |
| rqlite | 13 | 4 | 76% | 5 | — | Approved |
| MarmotThis page | 10 | 3 | 77% | 4 | — | Approved |
What people said
20 of the 22 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it looks like it shifts the chokepoint around rather than eliminating it”
“My local benchmarks show pretty decent QPS with less than GB of RSS on DBpedia dataset.”
“We have an exciting product, marmot, that is AI-native, both in the interface as well as in development”
“Marmot can give you better easy DDL and better replication guarantees.”
“But this will let you do it today.”
“Marmot even right now is easier to spin up, plus it's leaderless.”
“Marmot already supports debezium, so you can do way more than just basic S3 backups.”
“AI probably generated the mysql thing, and OP just went with it.”
“Looks like yet another AI generated project.”
“weird choice considering SQLite is more similar to PostgreSQL”
“every time I see it I’m impressed with the project”
“Marmot was the only thing that I was able to get to work with the amount of data I was pulling in.”
“This will instantly solve 80% of the problems for most of consumption today.”
“I’ve reached a point where it works with WordPress, which theoretically covers a huge chunk of the web.”
“V2 looks very impressive.”
“We gave it a proper deployment and were blown away by the speed but in the end we need a lot of features.”
“The plugin links here don't work”
“What we missed on marmot was existing integrations with Airflow”
“The key focus being on simplicity, in terms of both deployments and usability.”
“Marmot is a single Go binary backed by Postgres.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.