# SlateDB

6 Hacker News commenters recommended SlateDB and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Open-source embedded database built to run directly on object storage such as S3. Critics say it is not purpose-built for streaming workloads.

## Why people recommend it

- Built to run on object storage (2 comments): "It's built specifically to run on object storage" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46330338)) "they use SlateDB under the hood, which optimizes the requests that hit S3 behind the scenes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48762455))
- Used by other projects (2 comments): "they use SlateDB under the hood, which optimizes the requests that hit S3 behind the scenes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48762455)) "super fascinating super cool user of slatedb" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48260738))
- Praised as a great project (2 comments): "There's also some really great projects like SlateDB in this space" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47281886)) "SlateDB is great, but it's not purpose-built for streaming workloads." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49426247))

## What people warn about

- Not purpose-built for streaming (2 comments): "SlateDB is great, but it's not purpose-built for streaming workloads." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49426247)) "it was forcing an unnecessary primitive on streams" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49434037))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [SQLite](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sqlite.md): 847 recommend
- [PGlite](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pglite.md): 49 recommend
- [DuckDB WASM](https://hackerapproved.com/p/duckdb-wasm.md): 11 recommend
- [Stoolap](https://hackerapproved.com/p/stoolap.md): 9 recommend
- [SlothDB](https://hackerapproved.com/p/slothdb.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "SlateDB", https://hackerapproved.com/p/slatedb/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).