CouchDB vs MariaDB- Which is better?

Every day you visit grocery stores, clothing stores, e-commerce portals, or a bank. Ever wondered how they keep a track of customers, employees, and other crucial information?

The answer is Database.

Database

In simple terms, a database is a collection of information. It is organized to ensure easy accessibility, management, and updates. 

A database (DB) is useful when you need to store data or facilitate the search for particular. Storage of large volumes of data, modification of the same can be easily managed with databases. Here, the search and sorting are quick and easy. 

Types of Databases

There are various types of databases: 

1. Relational database 
2. Distributed database
3. Cloud database
4. Graph database
5. NoSQL database

Apache CouchDB

Apache CouchDB is a NoSQL database. NoSQL databases are beneficial for the management of large amounts of distributed and unstructured data. CouchDb was initially released in 2005. The current version 3.1.1 was released in September 2020. It supports cross-platform operating systems.

Apache CouchDB open-source DB employs multiple formats and protocols to store, transfer or process the given data. It is document-oriented. Being implemented in Erlang, CouchDB uses JSON for data storage. Besides, JavaScript is its query language which uses MapReduce. Further, it employs HTTP as its API.

Unlike a relational database, this does not support the storage of data in tables. Instead, it considers each database as a collection of independent documents. The most distinguishing feature of CouchDB is its multi-master replication feature. Thus, it ensures scalability that in turn aids in developing high-performance systems.

MariaDB

MariaDB is the most-used relational database. A relational DB uses a tabular structure for storing data. This ensures easy re-organization and multiple access patterns. 

MariaDB is an open-source database that is community-developed. It is highly compatible with MySQL. Thus it matches the APIs and commands of MySQL. Besides, it is inclusive of storage engines such as MyRocks, Aria, and ColumnStore. 

MariaDB is developed by MariaDB Corporation Ab and MariaDB Foundation. It was initially released 11 years ago in 2009. However, the stabilized version was released in February 2021. It is compatible with Linux, Windows, and macOS operating systems. 

A Detailed Comparison between CouchDB and MariaDB

CouchDB is inspired by Lotus Notes. It is scalable and is globally distributed. One can access it over the desktop as well as mobile phones. However, MariaDB is known for its enhanced and high availability. It is secure and has high-performance capabilities. 

DBMS

The primary database model of CouchDB is Document store and the secondary is Spatial DBMS. On the other hand, MariaDB uses a relational database management system (DBMS) as its primary database model. The secondary database models employed by MariaDB are Document Store, Spatial DBMS, as well as Graph DBMS.

When it comes to the ranking of DB engines, we see a significant distinction. CouchDB scores 16.01 whereas MariaDB scores 96.37. The overall ranking of CouchDB and MariaDB is #39 and #12 respectively. 

Both have open-source licenses. However, neither of them is restricted to cloud-only. While CouchDB uses Erlang as its implementation language, MariaDB uses C and C++. While the prior is schema-free, the latter has a data scheme. 

Programming Languages

CouchDB and MariaDB support programming languages such as C, C#, Erlang, Java, JavaScript, Objective-C, Python, OCaml, Ruby, PHP, and Haskell in common. On the flip side, CouchDB supports ColdFusion, Perl, Smalltalk, Lisp, PL/SQL, and Lua. Similarly, MariaDB supports Ada, TCL, C++, D, Eiffel, Go, Scheme too. 

Operating Systems

CouchDB is flexible and adapts itself to any given operating system. It is compatible with Android, Linux, OS X, Windows, BSD, Solaris. On the other hand, Maria is restricted only to FreeBSD, Windows, Solaris, and Linux. CouchDB employs RESTful HTTP/ JSON API as its access methods. Similarly, MariaDB uses ADO.NET, JDBC, ODBC, and Proprietary native API. 

MariaDB supports typing, SQL, and XML, unlike CouchDB. It also is compatible with foreign keys and in-memory capabilities. On the other hand, CouchDB supports MapReduce. However, both support secondary indexes, triggers, concurrency, and are durable.  

While CouchDB has sharding as the only partition method, MariaDB has several options for horizontal parting along with Sharding. Both employ multi-source and source-replica replication methods. CouchDB has eventual consistency whereas MariaDB has immediate consistency. CouchDB does not support ACID transactions, unlike MariaDB.

Famous Companies

Some of the famous companies that bank on CouchDB are Akamai Technologies, GenCorp Technologies, Hothead Games, etc. Similarly, companies like Accenture, Grooveshark, CUNY, Northrop Grumman, and others use MariaDB. 

Winding up the Comparison

On a concluding note, developers prefer CouchDB because of JSON. However, many of the others vote for MariaDB as it is a MySQL replacement. Reviews have proved that MariaDB meets the business requirements better than CouchDB as it offers high performance. Besides, MariaDB offers better product support too. The preference for MariaDB was higher than CouchDB for feature updates and roadmaps. However, if you are in search of a small and fast server in any mobile app development, CouchDB is the one for you.