XTDB
Shares rank 18 of 22 databases by recommenders
Free database people recommend for fintech-style work, now with SQL-like queries instead of Datalog. Main caveat: it must run as its own top-level database.
Free database people recommend for fintech-style work, now with SQL-like queries instead of Datalog. Main caveat: it must run as its own top-level database.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 63%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not 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 doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 1.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not 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
Strong fit for fintech
“This category of databases is just fantastic for industries like fintech.”
Comment from 5 Jan 2026 in “Databases in 2025: A Year in Review” SQL-like query interface
“mostly tend to use XTDB nowadays, which used to have a Datalog API but I think they removed in favor of SQL-like way instead, which was kind of a shame.”
Comment from 4 Nov 2025 in “Optimizing Datalog for the GPU”
Other databases people recommend
The four most recommended other 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PostgreSQL | 816 | 233 | 78% | 13 | 10 yrs42 owners | Approved |
| MySQL | 124 | 107 | 54% | 12 | — | — |
| Microsoft SQL Server | 73 | 59 | 55% | 12 | 20 yrs6 owners | — |
| Microsoft Access | 62 | 39 | 61% | 12 | — | — |
| XTDBThis page | 5 | 3 | 63% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
7 of the 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it seems like a huge miss that these ones don't”
“they made the choice to use XTDB as a default, which is a huge cognitive burden for newcomers”
“There are some fantastic databases also starting with Datomic”
“That said, it's kind of frustrating that XTDB has to be its own top-level database instead of a storage engine or plugin for another.”
“xtdb and datomic can't keep up with their SPARQL graph traversal”
“This category of databases is just fantastic for industries like fintech.”
“mostly tend to use XTDB nowadays, which used to have a Datalog API but I think they removed in favor of SQL-like way instead, which was kind of a shame.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.