Whether you’re a marketer or software developer, you’ve probably heard of “database”.

A database is a component of any computer system that stores and organizes data in a convenient form. The concept of database software isn’t hard to grasp as we all use databases consistently.

Imagine an Excel spreadsheet: a collection of data organized into columns and rows. A database operates similarly but usually on a larger scale across many interconnected computers and with more complex forms of data.

But getting your hands on the best database software can be challenging. Numerous options are available, and deciding which is right for you isn’t easy.

Best free database software

When choosing database software, there is no “this tool is better than that”. What you pick depends on your business requirements.

You need to consider several factors, especially when deciding on database software to develop applications. This includes asking the right questions about a software’s capabilities, ensuring whether to invest in learning a new database and figuring out what you want to achieve with your applications.

If you don’t want to pay, plenty of free database solutions are divided into two main groups: relational and non-relational. But, if you haven’t decided on the database software (paid or free) you want to use, here are a few things to consider:

• Complexity: Certain database software can be rather complex and require some technical knowledge. On the other hand, some project management software simplifies managing project-related data.
• Security: Nobody wants their data to fall into the wrong hands. Choosing software that uses cutting-edge data security protocols is essential.
• Integrations: Software integrations allow users to handle data across many applications, such as CRM software or messaging apps.
• Pricing: As we explore some of the top free database software, some applications will have premium plans that provide more features, storage capacity, and more. So choose a database solution that offers the best value for money.

Best free relational database software

A relational database is an organized collection of data elements linked together by predefined associations. These elements are arranged in a series of tables with rows and columns.

Relational database software helps businesses draw meaningful information via linked tables. Users can easily comprehend the patterns and connections or how the tables are related.

The list below contains real-user reviews of the best free relational database solutions on the market. To be included in this list, an application needs to be free and:

• Offer data storage
• Structure data in a relational model by defining a table with rows and columns
• Let users collect, update, send, or delete data

*This list is based on G2 data collected in April 2023. Some reviews may have been edited for clarity.

1. IBM Db2

IBM Db2 is a relational database management system (RDBMS) that efficiently stores, analyzes, and retrieves data. Companies of all sizes use Db2 for transactional and analytical processes as it offers continuous data availability to keep these processes running smoothly.

Db2 also supports numerous NoSQL features, such as XML, graph store, and JSON.

What users like best:

“IBM Db2 is a stable platform and Integrated Relational Database Management System that leverages high-performance, virtualization, and energy efficiency features. Also, it is supported by different media.”

–IBM Db2 Review, Sachin D.

What users dislike:

“It would be great if we could have support to have a native UI tool to view data and execute queries. The query performance might be slow sometimes for long-running processes.”

–IBM Db2 Review, Vignesh V.

2. Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)

Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) enables users to build, manage, and expand databases in the cloud. It offers scalable capacity at a low cost while automating time-consuming administrative tasks, including hardware provisioning, setup, patches, and backups. It frees businesses to focus on services and provides them with the needed performance and security.

Although RDS offers various capabilities that simplify databases, its most lauded characteristics appear during deployment. These top operational features include the Amazon RDS Management Console, the AWS RDS Command-Line Interface, and straightforward API calls for quick and easy setup. RDS handles most of the setup before a user begins their launch, even if they have minimal experience with Amazon tools.

What users like best:

“This service provides accessibility through simple API calls. So, It is easy to use, and database storage scaling is also appreciable. Suitable for a large production environment because the read operation is so quick.”

–Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) Review, Sooraj S.

What users dislike:

“RDS should have a feature within in AWS console to import and export database tables which will be helpful to work with RDS and consumes less amount of time.Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.”

–Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) Review, Muhammad Q. 

3. MariaDB

MariaDB relieves businesses of proprietary databases’ costs, limitations, and intricacy, allowing them to focus on what matters most: building creative, customer-facing apps. To accommodate workloads that traditionally needed a range of specialist databases, MariaDB employs pluggable, purpose-built storage engines.

With the elimination of complexity and limits, businesses can rely on a single comprehensive database to meet all of their requirements, whether on commodity hardware or in their preferred cloud. MariaDB provides unrivaled operational agility without losing critical corporate capabilities such as genuine ACID compliance and complete SQL.

What users like best:

“It’s a reliable database system and an open-source database which doesn’t worry the users a lot at the time of use. I used this database over oracle because of its performance and availability. We can have an impression on the customers by using the MariaDB database.”

–MariaDB Review, Tabassum K.

What users dislike:

“It’s not convenient for a big stream of data. Further, it performs relatively well in terms of clustering, and it is constantly updated with new features and functions.”

–MariaDB Review, Satyam G.

Best free document database software

A document database (often known as a document-oriented database or a document store) is a database that stores data in the form of documents. It’s a non-relational (also known as NoSQL) database well-suited for catalogs, user profiles, and content management systems, where each document is unique and changes over time.

Document database software makes it much easier for programmers to save and query data in a database because they employ the same document-model format as their codebase. Flexible indexing, robust ad hoc searches, and analytics over collections of documents are all possible with document databases.

The list below contains real user reviews from the best free document database solutions on the market. In addition to being a free application, to be included in this list, you must also:

• Offer data storage
• Structure data in a document model
• Let users retrieve data

*This list is based on G2 data collected in April 2023. Some reviews may have been edited for clarity.

1. Couchbase

Couchbase is a feature-rich database management system for small and midsize organizations and big corporations in various industries, including banking, hotels, energy, information technology (IT), retail, telecommunications, and manufacturing. These businesses can use the platform to retrieve, organize, store, alter, and aggregate pertinent business data.

Couchbase is a multi-model NoSQL database designed exclusively for mission-critical applications, allowing for richer and more tailored employee and customer experiences. It’s a document-oriented distributed database that combines two popular NoSQL technologies: Membase and CouchDB.

What users like best:

“Easy to get started. We can query over the DB using N1QL that is very similar to SQL so doesn’t need extra knowledge to get started. UI is very clear and easy to understand. Indexing is easy to implement and see all the available indices and while running the queries also we can see which index got picked up. Loved this option.”

–Couchbase Review, Amit P.

What users dislike:

“Adding authorized users was a bit challenging, however my team figured it out after some poking around.”

–Couchbase Review, Nico P.

2. ArangoDB

ArangoDB is a native multi-model, open-source database written in C++. It supports graph, document, and key-value data models, so users can easily mix all data models in a single query.

As an application grows in complexity, it commonly needs more than one NoSQL database. Employing a multi-model database can ease your design by merging many NoSQL forms into a single infrastructure.

What users like best:

“The mixture of the document, search, and graph models has made our decisions easier. We can limit our stack to use Arango and not have an explosion of vendor systems for each purpose.”

–ArangoDB Review, Kevin B.

What users dislike:

“Creating Property graphs is easy. However, there is no direct way to create an RDF/OWL graph. RDF triples are useful in machine learning.”

–ArangoDB Review, Amardeep Singh S.

3. Percona Server for MongoDB

Percona Server for MongoDB is an alternative to the open-source and free MongoDB Community Edition. It combines the advantages and functions of MongoDB Community Edition with Percona’s enterprise-class functionality.

The platform is based on MongoDB Community Edition. It offers a configurable data structure, native high availability, simple scalability, enhanced security, and dependability for optimal performance while reducing the cost of connecting to a proprietary software vendor.

What users like best:

“The best thing about this server is that it has high scalability and high availability with fault tolerance capability. The server is also very developer-friendly with almost zero latency.”

–Percona Server for MongoDB Review, Prasun P.

What users dislike:

“We need to tune MySQL for the best. Switching to Percona may not get the enhancements we’re looking for. Even with Percona, we will have to determine what enhancements are available and what settings we need to configure otherwise.”

–Percona Server for MongoDB Review, M Lukman H.

Best free graph database software

A graph database represents and stores data using graph structures for semantic queries, such as nodes, edges, and properties. A graph is an essential element in the system and connects the data items to a set of nodes and edges, where the edges indicate the nodes’ relationships.

These relationships instantly connect stored data and, in many circumstances, retrieve it in a single operation. Because relationships are preserved indefinitely in the database, querying them is quick. Graph databases can easily display interconnections, which is helpful for extensively interconnected information.

The list below contains real user reviews of the best free graph database solutions on the market. To be included in this list, not only do you have to be a free application, but also:

• Offer data storage
• Store and structure data in a topographical schema
• Let users retrieve data using a querying language

*This list is based on G2 data collected on April 2023. Some reviews may have been edited for clarity.

1. Neo4j

Neo4j is an open-source graph database that helps businesses make data-driven decisions as it shows the relationships between people, processes, and systems. Neo4j maintains interconnected data by default, making data easier to comprehend. Companies can also use the property graph model to develop machine learning and AI models.

Neo4j uses a powerful declarative query language called Cypher Query language. It builds and retrieves data relationships without requiring sophisticated queries like SQL Joins.

The platform also facilitates high-performance graph searches on massive datasets. While the graph database makes up the Neo4j core, it offers additional analytics, data discovery, and development products. The database’s core features include high availability, online backup, and “whiteboard-friendly” data modeling.

What users like best:

“Neo4j is the most interactive and easy to use or query tool I have ever worked with. The cyphers are so user-friendly that someone with no knowledge of programming or query languages can get started at any moment which gives us an edge to explain the BI analysis and parameters to our customers. Visualizations help you debug and resolve the issues way faster compared to other DBs. And their integration with most cloud services allows a smooth integration in our applications.”

–Neo4j Review, Garima G. 

What users dislike:

“Some of the functions in APOC were available in Aurora. As a result, I had to mess around with a local install. That made it more difficult to share with colleagues.”

–Neo4j Review, Matt S.

2. Dgraph

Dgraph is a graph database system with a single schema development model. Users can use the tool to develop a schema, deploy it, and receive fast database and API access without writing any code.

Dgraph allows users to choose between GraphQL and DQL, so anyone with no prior knowledge of graph databases to get started. The database also boasts simple import and data streaming capabilities and the potential to simplify business logic with Dgraph Lambda.

What users like best:

“We have opted Dgraph Cloud platform for our enterprise as its highly scalable with low latency. It’s excellent for requirements that have real-time transactional workloads as it synchronizes customer records effectively. Data retrieval is hassle-free & we can perform arbitrary depth joins without worrying about our cluster limitations.”

–Dgraph Review, Varshini S.

What users dislike:

“Dgraph requires high RAM to store a graph compared to other offerings. The managed offering doesn’t provide all the functionality possible using its Kubernetes cluster. The management has to be done by yourself or the DevOps team of the organization.”

–Dgraph Review, Aditya G.

3. Tigergraph

Tigergraph is an enterprise-focused scalable graph database. The tool can handle any amount or complexity of datasets in real time, delivering all the features users expect from an enterprise-level graph database system.

Tigergraph’s scalable graph database provides analytics tools that are simple to use, even without the technical know-how, and delivers robust solutions. It can be scaled according to the growing company demands, offering trillion-edge graphs that perform real-time analytics.

What users like best:

“Tigergraph was extremely useful for connecting data through machine learning. It helps drive our data points to make better business decisions.”

–Tigergraph Reviews, James D.

What users dislike:

“Sometimes it becomes a bit slow at times.”

–Tigergraph Review, Amit K.

Best free object-oriented database software

An object-oriented database (OOD) is a system that operates with sophisticated data objects, such as those found in object-oriented programming (OOP) languages. An object-oriented database is structured around objects rather than actions and data rather than logic.

Object-oriented databases treat data as whole objects. Instead of several tables, all information is presented in a single, instantly accessible object package.

An entity is represented as an object in OOP that is maintained in memory. Members of objects include fields, attributes, and methods. Objects have a life cycle that comprises an object’s creation, use, and disposal. Several major OOP languages are available today, including C++, Java, C#, Ruby, Python, JavaScript, and Perl.

The list below contains real user reviews of the best free object-oriented database solutions on the market. To be included in this list, you have to be a free application and:

• Offer data storage
• Store and structure data in object-based data models
• Let users create, store, and update object data models

*This list is based on G2 data collected in April 2023. Some reviews may have been edited for clarity.

1. InterSystems Caché

InterSystems Caché is a full-featured database system with all the functionality required to run mission-critical applications, including journaling, backup and recovery, and system administration tools, for healthcare, banking and financial services, government, and other industries.

It works with substantially less database management than other database solutions, reducing operational expenses. The vast majority of Caché systems in use don’t have database administrators.

What users like best:

“It’s a swift and secure database and can communicate with relational access, web pages, and object access.”

–InterSystems Caché Review, Eike Scudellari F.

What users dislike:

“The Studio editor is a bit outdated, and I feel a lack of general information on the open web.”

–InterSystems Caché Review, Andy C.

2. InterSystems IRIS

InterSystems IRIS is a high-performance data management platform that gives IT specialists the tools to develop machine learning and data connectivity applications. The software also supports database administration for SQL and NoSQL databases.

Businesses can use InterSystems IRIS to build, implement, and run data-intensive analytic applications with a single tool. It’s primarily designed for organizations that want bespoke apps to handle incoming data quickly and perform real-time data analytics.

What users like best:

“The security, performance, built-in object functionality, and tight integration ensure rapid solution development and fail-safe delivery of the most complex requirement in a simplified object structure. The business Intelligence and unstructured data capabilities are in the system’s core, provided by a single stack environment.

No other development environment provides the levels of integrated functionality and ability to develop such powerful business objects. The connectivity engine is robust and has high levels of functionality and performance.”

–InterSystems IRIS Review, André W.

What users dislike:

“BI reports (deepSee) are a bit dated, and it’s challenging to modify the generated report.”

–InterSystems IRIS Review, Lucas B.

3. GigaSpaces

GigaSpaces innovates in-memory technology to accelerate digital business transformation with unrivaled speed, performance, and scalability. The GigaSpaces Portfolio offers the most powerful, scalable, and simple-to-deploy software solutions for the most demanding business data and analytics operational needs.

Its award-winning in-memory computing technology powers the Smart Cache and Smart Digital Integration Hub (DIH) systems.

What users like best:

“At its core, InsightEdge has the foundation you need for an application: execution, messaging, and storage. By design, you also have partitioning of these three concepts. This, together with its in-memory computing and fault tolerance, gives us a platform with so much flexibility.”

–GigaSpaces Review, Roger F.

What users dislike:

“Development of the core product seemed to slow down during a few years. This has changed dramatically during the last few years, though!”

–GigaSpaces Review, Joakim S.

Best free key-value database software

A key-value database, sometimes known as a key-value store, is a non-relational database that stores data using a simple key-value approach. It stores, retrieves, and maintains associative arrays as a dictionary. Dictionaries comprise objects or records with many different fields that store data.

Keys and values can be anything, from basic to sophisticated compound objects. Key-value databases are highly partitionable and enable horizontal scaling that other types of databases cannot.

When should you choose a key-value database?

• When your application manages many small continuous reads and writes, a key-value database can be volatile. It provides quick in-memory access.
• When preserving essential data, such as client information, storing websites with the URL as the key and the webpage as the value, and storing shopping-cart contents, product categories, and e-commerce product details
• For programs that don’t need to be updated frequently or handle sophisticated queries

The list below contains real user reviews of the best free key-value database solutions on the market. To be included in this list, software must be free and:

• Offer data storage
• Store and structure data as a singular value mapped to a key
• Let users retrieve data

*This list is based on G2 data collected in April 2023. Some reviews may have been edited for clarity.

1. ScyllaDB

ScyllaDB is an open-source distributed NoSQL database. It was created to work with Apache Cassandra while delivering much greater throughputs and reduced latencies. It supports the same protocols and file formats as Cassandra but is a completely rewritten implementation with the C++20 language.

Scylla supports Cassandra’s protocols and includes the Amazon DynamoDB API. ScyllaDB and Cassandra are nearly identical: the CQL protocol and queries, Nodetool, SSTables and compaction techniques, and even JMX support. ScyllaDB is compatible with many similar open-source applications and connectors as Cassandra, including JanusGraph, Spark, Kafka, Presto, KairosDB, Kong, etc.

What users like best:

“ScyllaDB is great at scalability and Performance which makes it easy to quickly add or remove nodes from the cluster as necessary to accommodate escalating workloads or adapt to shifting traffic patterns. Because it employs a shared-nothing design, each node in the cluster is autonomous and has its own ability to function.”

–ScyllaDB Review, Hrishikesh Y.

What users dislike:

“The installation process could be bit complex for new users as the steps are not clear. The installation process be a bit more simplified for bare minimum installations.”

–ScyllaDB Review, Raj K.

2. Aerospike

Aerospike is a cloud-based, on-premise NoSQL database platform that enables e-commerce, retail, online gaming, telecoms, and advertising companies to simplify multi-site clustering, cross datacenter replication, and load balancing, among other processes, on a single platform. It protects data with encryption, authentication, role-based access controls, and website whitelisting.

Aerospike’s cluster management technology automatically identifies nodes entering and leaving the cluster and re-replicates data when nodes are added or deleted to ensure proper functioning during hardware failures. Cross datacenter replication (XDR) replicates and syncs data across several geographic locations. Companies can also design and implement audit trails to log failed database operations, security violations, authentication protocols, user management procedures, etc.

What users like best:

“Aerospike helps store data as cached and the database with complete XDR functionality. It’s an excellent database by combining the power of Redis and SQL compliant queries.”

–Aerospike Review, Imran K.

What users dislike:

“Aerospike can be tricky to size the cluster, although support is beneficial.”

–Aerospike Review, Ido B.

3. Couchbase

What users like best:

“It’s pretty fast, indexing and all can be done with just one line and it makes the queries execute 100 times faster. And the best thing I find is the documentation, many times I come across a new use case and am unable to implement then I look for that in the documentation and find all the answers to all the use case I had. Doesn’t perform well when data increases, lot of times I get ambiguous timeout exceptions. Couchbase UI is also very easy to use.”

–Couchbase Review, Amit P.

What users dislike:

“I was using it with Spring Webflux that is reactive, so while processing data parallely the load on couchbase goes very high and operations start failing. Would love to see some inbuilt support on this to handle traffic properly.”

–Couchbase Review, Amit P

So many choices, so little time

Several database management software choices can fit your database administration requirements. Other types of similar software are available for various prices, operating platforms, and special needs. Select the one that best meets your needs.

A good database serves as the foundation for a multitude of business applications. Learn how database management can support your data management strategy.