15 Greatest Free Database Software program for Information Administration in 2024

Whether or not you’re a marketer or software program developer, you have in all probability heard of “database”.

A database is a element of any pc system that shops and organizes information in a handy kind. The idea of database software program isn’t arduous to understand as all of us use databases persistently.

Think about an Excel spreadsheet: a set of information organized into columns and rows. A database operates equally however often on a bigger scale throughout many interconnected computer systems and with extra advanced types of information.

However getting your arms on the perfect database software program will be difficult. Quite a few choices can be found, and deciding which is best for you is not simple. We’ve compiled a listing of the highest free database software program, together with their professionals and cons. 

You’ll want to take into account a number of elements, particularly when deciding on database software program to develop functions. The database software program presents sturdy information administration capabilities, together with environment friendly information parsing for streamlined data dealing with. This contains asking the best questions on a software program’s capabilities, guaranteeing whether or not to put money into studying a brand new database and determining what you wish to obtain along with your functions.

Should you do not wish to pay, loads of free database options are divided into two predominant teams: relational and non-relational. However, for those who haven’t selected the database software program (paid or free) you wish to use, right here are some things to contemplate:

• Complexity: Sure database software program will be relatively advanced and require some technical data. However, some mission administration software program simplifies managing project-related information.
• Safety: No person desires their information to fall into the unsuitable arms. Selecting software program that makes use of cutting-edge information safety protocols is important.
• Integrations: Software program integrations enable customers to deal with information throughout many functions, reminiscent of CRM software program or messaging apps.
• Pricing: As we discover among the high free database software program, some functions can have premium plans that present extra options, storage capability, and extra. So select a database resolution that provides the perfect worth for cash.

How did we choose and consider the perfect database software program?

At G2, we rank software program options utilizing a proprietary algorithm that considers buyer satisfaction and market presence primarily based on genuine person opinions. Our market analysis analysts and writers spend weeks testing options in opposition to a number of standards set for a software program class. We offer you unbiased software program evaluations; that is the G2 distinction! We didn’t settle for fee or change hyperlinks for product placements on this record. Please learn our G2 Analysis Scoring Methodology for extra particulars.

A relational database is an organized assortment of information parts linked collectively by predefined associations. These parts are organized in a sequence of tables with rows and columns.

Relational database software program helps companies draw significant data by way of linked tables. Customers can simply comprehend the patterns and connections or how the tables are associated.

The record under comprises real-user opinions of the perfect free relational database options available on the market. To be included on this record, the developed functions have to be free and:

• Provide information storage
• Construction information in a relational mannequin by defining a desk with rows and columns
• Let customers accumulate, replace, ship, or delete information

*This record is predicated on G2 information collected in 2024. Some opinions might have been edited for readability.

1. Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)

Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) permits customers to construct, handle, and broaden databases within the cloud. It presents scalable capability whereas automating time-consuming administrative duties, together with {hardware} provisioning, setup, patches, and backups.

It frees companies to deal with providers and supplies them with the wanted efficiency and safety. High operational options embrace the Amazon RDS Administration Console, the AWS RDS Command-Line Interface, and easy API requires fast and straightforward setup. 

What customers like finest: 

“What I like finest about Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) is its skill to simplify the administration of relational databases with automated backups, scaling, and upkeep. This enables customers to deal with utility improvement with out worrying in regards to the underlying database infrastructure. The seamless integration with different AWS providers and sturdy security measures additional improve its enchantment.”

– Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) Evaluate, Cuong M. 

What customers dislike: 

“As a managed service, RDS might not provide the identical degree of customization and management as self-managed databases, which is usually a limitation for sure superior use instances.“

– Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) Evaluate, Nireeksha P. 

2. IBM Db2

IBM Db2 is a relational database administration system (RDBMS) that effectively shops, analyzes, and retrieves information. Corporations of all sizes use Db2 for transactional and analytical processes because it presents steady information availability to maintain them working easily. Db2 additionally helps NoSQL options, reminiscent of XML, graph retailer, and JSON.

What customers like finest: 

“IBM Db2 is a secure platform and built-in relational database administration system that leverages high-performance, virtualization, and vitality effectivity options. Additionally, it’s supported by completely different media.”

– IBM Db2 Evaluate, Sachin D.

What customers dislike: 

“It will be nice if we may have assist to have a local UI software to view information and execute queries. The question efficiency is likely to be sluggish typically for long-running processes.”

– IBM Db2 Evaluate, Vignesh V.

3. MariaDB

MariaDB relieves companies of proprietary databases’ prices, limitations, and intricacy, permitting them to deal with what issues most: constructing artistic, customer-facing apps. MariaDB employs pluggable, purpose-built storage engines to accommodate workloads that historically wanted a variety of specialist databases.

MariaDB supplies unequalled operational agility with out dropping essential company capabilities reminiscent of real ACID compliance and full SQL.

What customers like finest: 

“It is a dependable and open-source database system that does not fear the customers. I used this database over oracle due to its efficiency and availability. We will go away an impression on the shoppers through the use of the MariaDB database.”

– MariaDB Evaluate, Tabassum Ok.

What customers dislike: 

“It isn’t handy for an enormous stream of information. Additional, it performs comparatively nicely by way of clustering and is consistently up to date with new options and features.”

– MariaDB Evaluate, Satyam G.

A doc database (usually referred to as a document-oriented database or a doc retailer) shops information within the type of paperwork. It is a non-relational (often known as NoSQL) database well-suited for catalogs, person profiles, and content material administration methods, the place every doc is exclusive and adjustments over time.

Doc database software program makes it a lot simpler for programmers to avoid wasting and question information in a database as a result of they make use of the identical document-model format as their codebase. Versatile indexing, sturdy advert hoc searches, and analytics over collections of paperwork are all attainable with doc databases.

The record under comprises actual person opinions from the perfect free doc database options available on the market. Along with being a free utility, to be included on this record, you have to additionally:

• Provide information storage
• Construction information in a doc mannequin
• Let customers retrieve information

*This record is predicated on G2 information collected in 2024. Some opinions might have been edited for readability.

1. Couchbase

Couchbase is a feature-rich database administration system for small and midsize organizations and massive companies in numerous industries, together with banking, lodges, vitality, data know-how (IT), retail, telecommunications, and manufacturing. 

Couchbase is a multi-model NoSQL database designed completely for mission-critical functions.It’s a document-oriented distributed database that mixes two standard NoSQL applied sciences: Membase and CouchDB.

What customers like finest: 

“Simple to get began. We will question over the DB utilizing N1QL, which is similar to SQL, so it does not want additional data to get began. The UI may be very clear and straightforward to know. Indexing is straightforward to implement; we will see all of the out there indices, and whereas working the queries, we will see which index was picked up. Cherished this feature.”

– Couchbase Evaluate, Amit P.

What customers dislike: 

“Including approved customers was a bit difficult. Nevertheless, my workforce figured it out after some poking round.”

– Couchbase Evaluate, Nico P.

2. ArangoDB

ArangoDB is a extremely scalable, multi-model database that excels in dealing with advanced, interconnected information constructions. As a doc database, it is optimized for storing and querying information in a versatile JSON-like format, making it superb for functions that require speedy improvement and environment friendly information administration.

What customers like finest: 

“The combination of the doc, search, and graph fashions has made our selections simpler. We will restrict our stack to make use of Arango and never have an explosion of vendor methods for every function.”

– ArangoDB Evaluate, Kevin B.

What customers dislike: 

“Creating Property graphs is straightforward. Nevertheless, there isn’t any direct method to create an RDF/OWL graph. RDF triples are helpful in machine studying.”

– ArangoDB Evaluate, Amardeep Singh S.

3. MarkLogic 

MarkLogic is an enterprise-grade NoSQL doc database famend for its skill to deal with huge volumes of various information, together with XML, JSON, and RDF. It presents a novel mix of database, search, and utility server functionalities inside a single platform.

What customers like finest: 

“MarkLogic is a database platform managing giant dataflows and completely different datatypes. It additionally shops numerous structured and unstructured queries together with numerous dataflows that may be managed below a single system. It helps customers for quicker indexing and search from giant datasets and permits customers to deal with rising quantities of information. MarkLogic is compliant with atomicity, isolation, sturdiness, and consistency. MarkLogic will be built-in with numerous third-party instruments and supplies confidentiality, integrity, and auditing.”

– MarkLogic Evaluate, Harshit L. 

What customers dislike: 

“The license value is extraordinarily excessive and so is the quantity of house required to retailer information.” 

– MarkLogic Evaluate, Abdalla H. 

A graph database represents and shops information utilizing graph constructions for semantic queries, reminiscent of nodes, edges, and properties. A graph is an important ingredient within the system and connects the info gadgets to a set of nodes and edges, the place the sides point out the nodes’ relationships.

These relationships immediately join saved information and, in lots of circumstances, retrieve it in a single operation. As a result of relationships are preserved indefinitely within the database, querying them is fast. Graph databases can simply show interconnections, which is useful for extensively interconnected data.

The record under comprises actual person opinions of the perfect free graph database options available on the market. To be included on this record, not solely do you need to be a free utility, but in addition:

• Provide information storage
• Retailer and construction information in a topographical schema
• Let customers retrieve information utilizing a querying language

*This record is predicated on G2 information collected in 2024. Some opinions might have been edited for readability.

1. Neo4j 

Neo4j is an open-source graph database that helps companies make data-driven selections because it reveals the relationships between folks, processes, and methods. Neo4j maintains interconnected information by default, making information simpler to understand. Corporations may use the property graph mannequin to develop machine studying and AI fashions.

What customers like finest: 

“Neo4j is essentially the most interactive and straightforward to make use of or question software I’ve ever labored with. The ciphers are so user-friendly that somebody with no data of programming or question languages can get began at any second, which provides us an edge in explaining the BI evaluation and parameters to our clients. Visualizations assist you debug and resolve the problems method quicker than different DBs. And their integration with most cloud providers permits a clean integration in our functions.“

– Neo4j Evaluate, Gariba G. 

What customers dislike: 

“I didn’t discover a variety of sources to assist after I obtained caught. Additionally, the setup course of was a bit tedious, particularly with solely the documentation to go off, however I managed to determine the drivers points.”

– Neo4j Evaluate, Ian J. 

2. ArangoDB

ArangoDB is a flexible, multi-model database that seamlessly integrates graph, doc, and key-value information fashions inside a single platform. This unified method empowers builders to effectively handle and question advanced datasets. It shops and queries paperwork, graphs, and key-value information utilizing a single, declarative question language (AQL). Ensures information integrity and consistency throughout a number of operations.

What customers like finest: 

“I like that it is rather versatile with its multi-model method; you have got the facility of a doc retailer with graph search, which basically permits you to do no matter you do with each doc shops and with SQL databases, plus rather more because of the graph traversal. The AQL language may be very intuitive and so fast to be taught. Pace is nice, too. It’s simple to make use of for prototyping, and it supplies you with a great DevOps software for cluster set up on Kubernetes.”

– ArangoDB Evaluate, Delio D. 

What customers dislike: 

“It was a little bit of a studying curve on how information is shared over the nodes within the cluster, which is important to know to get good efficiency when executing queries. Whereas it is seldom you wish to change the identify of a set, that’s attainable when working with a single standalone server, however it’s not attainable in a cluster setup.

It is not possible to set most popular service hours for upkeep (upgrades) for the clusters of their cloud service, so except we provoke upgrades manually, they will begin throughout our primetime.”

– ArangoDB Evaluate, Johan S. 

3. Dgraph

Dgraph is a graph database system with a single schema improvement mannequin. Customers can use the software to develop a schema, deploy it, and obtain quick database and API entry with out writing any code.

Dgraph permits customers to decide on between GraphQL and DQL, so anybody with no prior data of graph databases to get began.

What customers like finest: 

“We have now opted for the Dgraph Cloud platform for our enterprise as it’s extremely scalable with low latency. It is glorious for necessities which have real-time transactional workloads because it synchronizes buyer data successfully. Information retrieval is hassle-free & we will carry out arbitrary depth joins with out worrying about our cluster limitations.”

– Dgraph Evaluate, Varshini S.

What customers dislike: 

“Dgraph requires excessive RAM to retailer a graph in comparison with different choices. The managed providing does not present all of the performance attainable utilizing its Kubernetes cluster. The administration must be achieved by your self or the DevOps workforce of the group.”

– Dgraph Evaluate, Aditya G.

An object-oriented database (OOD) is a system that operates with subtle information objects, reminiscent of these present in object-oriented programming (OOP) languages. An object-oriented database is structured round objects relatively than actions and information relatively than logic.

Object-oriented databases deal with information as complete objects. As a substitute of a number of tables, all data is offered in a single, immediately accessible object bundle.

An entity is represented as an object in OOP that’s maintained in reminiscence. Members of objects embrace fields, attributes, and strategies. Objects have a life cycle that includes an object’s creation, use, and disposal. A number of main OOP languages can be found right now, together with C++, Java, C#, Ruby, Python, JavaScript, and Perl.

The record under comprises actual person opinions of the perfect free object-oriented database options available on the market. To be included on this record, you need to be a free utility and:

• Provide information storage
• Retailer and construction information in object-based information fashions
• Let customers create, retailer, and replace object information fashions

*This record is predicated on G2 information collected in 2024. Some opinions might have been edited for readability.

1. IBM Db2

IBM Db2 is a scalable object-oriented database administration system (OODBMS) designed to deal with advanced information constructions and relationships. As an OODBMS, Db2 presents a versatile and intuitive method to storing and managing information, making it well-suited for functions that require superior information modeling and querying capabilities.

What customers like finest: 

“That is nice for storing and organizing our consumer’s information and provides the corporate the flexibleness to make use of recordsdata and tables as we modernize our software program platform. I exploit Run SQL scripts essentially the most to entry information to check my packages with completely different information units. The DB2 database is ideal for the monetary and demographic information that’s the spine of our system. The system may be very safe, which is ideal for all of the delicate information now we have.”

– IBM Db2 Evaluate, Chris D.

What customers dislike: 

“There are some things that may be improved. Firstly, the mixing choices should not available. The UI will be improved to help the educational curve of recent customers.”

– IBM Db2 Evaluate, Punit S.

2. InterSystems IRIS

InterSystems IRIS is a high-performance information administration platform that offers IT specialists the instruments to develop machine studying and information connectivity functions. The software program additionally helps database administration for SQL and NoSQL databases. It is primarily designed for organizations that need bespoke apps to deal with incoming information rapidly and carry out real-time information analytics.

What customers like finest: 

“It is quick, helps you to work with many applied sciences, not simply healthcare-related ones, and integrates many cool options into your initiatives by default. With out doing any additional work, you’re going to get a hint log that permits you to search and redo processes fixing errors. It features a quick and versatile database with a tree construction that can be used with common SQL.”

– InterSystems IRIS Evaluate, Jaime L.

What customers dislike: 

“I feel the most important draw back to InterSystems Iris (and is definitely small compared to what it could possibly be) is that if you wish to add customized performance, you’ll have to be taught the InterSystems Particular programming language (at the very least a bit) to get it constructed out. It follows fairly customary programming guidelines and syntax, although, so it will not take lengthy to get shifting with it.”

– InterSystems IRIS Evaluate, Victoria C.

3. InterSystems Chaché

InterSystems Caché is a full-featured database system with all of the performance required to run mission-critical functions, together with journaling, backup and restoration, and system administration instruments, for healthcare, banking and monetary providers, authorities, and different industries.

What customers like finest: 

“It is a swift and safe database and might talk with relational entry, internet pages, and object entry.”

– InterSystems Caché Evaluate, Eike Scudellari F.

What customers dislike: 

“The Studio editor is a bit outdated, and I really feel a scarcity of common data on the open internet.”

– InterSystems Caché Evaluate, Andy C.

A key-value database, typically referred to as a key-value retailer, is a non-relational database that shops information utilizing a easy key-value method. It shops, retrieves, and maintains associative arrays as a dictionary. Dictionaries comprise objects or data with many various fields that retailer information.

Keys and values will be something, from fundamental to stylish compound objects. Key-value databases are extremely partitionable and allow horizontal scaling that different forms of databases can’t.

When do you have to select a key-value database?

• When your utility manages many small steady reads and writes, a key-value database will be risky. It supplies fast in-memory entry.
• When preserving important information, reminiscent of consumer data, storing web sites with the URL as the important thing and the webpage as the worth, and storing shopping-cart contents, product classes, and e-commerce product particulars.
• For packages that do not have to be up to date continuously or deal with subtle queries

The record under comprises actual person opinions of the perfect free key-value database options available on the market. To be included on this record, software program should be free and:

• Provide information storage
• Retailer and construction information as a singular worth mapped to a key
• Let customers retrieve information

*This record is predicated on G2 information collected in 2024. Some opinions might have been edited for readability.

1. ScyllaDB

ScyllaDB is an open-source distributed NoSQL database. It was created to work with Apache Cassandra whereas delivering a lot better throughputs and diminished latencies. It helps the identical protocols and file codecs as Cassandra however is a very rewritten implementation with the C++20 language.

What customers like finest: 

“We have now been using ScyllaDB for a very long time now. It’s a dependable and extremely out there NoSQL DB on account of its replication. Making certain that the info stays there even after a number of nodes fail.

Our in-house workforce obtained an important assist from ScyllaDB assist whereas implementing the DB because of its supportability with CQL. Greatest instance of information consistency, reliability and efficiency.”

– ScyllaDB Evaluate, Chanchala B.

What customers dislike: 

“The setup and configuration complexity of ScyllaDB, which will be tough for novices. Moreover, the documentation typically lacks readability for superior options.”

– ScyllaDB Evaluate, Riya V. 

2. Couchbase

Couchbase is a distributed, NoSQL database that excels at storing and retrieving information in a key-value format. As a key-value database, Couchbase is optimized for quick information entry and excessive throughput, making it superb for functions that require speedy efficiency and scalability.

What customers like finest: 

“It is fairly quick, indexing and all will be achieved with only one line and it makes the queries execute 100 instances quicker. And the perfect factor I discover is the documentation. Many instances I come throughout a brand new use case and am unable to implement it. Then I search for that within the documentation and discover all of the solutions to all of the use instances I had. Does not carry out nicely when information will increase, a variety of instances I get ambiguous timeout exceptions. Couchbase UI can also be very simple to make use of.”

– Couchbase Evaluate, Amit P.

What customers dislike: 

“I used to be utilizing it with Spring Webflux that’s reactive, so whereas processing information, the load on couchbase goes very excessive and operations begin failing. Would like to see some inbuilt assist on this to deal with site visitors correctly.”

– Couchbase Evaluate, Amit P.

3. Aerospike 

Aerospike is a cloud-based, on-premise NoSQL database platform that permits e-commerce, retail, on-line gaming, telecoms, and promoting corporations to simplify multi-site clustering, cross datacenter replication, and cargo balancing, amongst different processes, on a single platform. It protects information with encryption, authentication, role-based entry controls, and web site whitelisting.

What customers like finest: 

“Aerospike helps retailer information as cached and the database with full XDR performance. It is a superb database by combining the facility of Redis and SQL compliant queries.”

– Aerospike Evaluate, Imran Ok.

What customers dislike: 

“Aerospike will be tough to measurement the cluster, though assist is useful.”

– Aerospike Evaluate, Ido B.

database serves as the muse for a mess of enterprise functions. Learn the way database administration can assist your information administration technique.

This text was initially revealed in 2023. It has been up to date with new data.