{"slug": "rqlite", "name": "rqlite", "category": "databases", "category_name": "Databases", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 7, "warners": 0, "score": 3.922, "rising": 1.67, "first": "2026-07-17", "latest": "2026-10-26", "why": "It looks far easier than the mass majority of clustered database architectures.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 1, "compare": 2, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 2], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "It looks far easier than the mass majority of clustered database architectures.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "rqlite.io", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://rqlite.io/", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["rqlite"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 803504096, "item_id": 50219006, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50219006", "by": "joostdecock", "date": "2026-10-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "rqlite is amazing and warmly recommend", "excerpt": "We use rqlite in production, it's the database we chose for (the control plane of) an open source observability solution we're building (morio.it). Just came here to say two things: - rqlite is amazing and warmly recommend - Philip is an exceptionally dedicated, kind, and helpful maintainer 5 stars, no notes. Thank you Philip, I'm eternally grateful for all your great work.", "context": "uses it in production for an open source observability solution", "use_case": "control plane database", "switched_from": "", "story": "Twelve years of distributed SQLite"}, {"id": 803492768, "item_id": 50218298, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50218298", "by": "chasil", "date": "2026-10-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It looks far easier than the mass majority of clustered database architectures.", "excerpt": "I have never examined this in any detail before. It looks far easier than the mass majority of clustered database architectures. https://rqlite.io/", "context": "", "use_case": "Distributed SQLite", "switched_from": "", "story": "Twelve years of distributed SQLite"}, {"id": 783136560, "item_id": 48946035, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48946035", "by": "Cthulhu_", "date": "2026-07-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "another option is e.g. rqlite", "excerpt": "Someone pointed to moving to postgres or comparable, but another option is e.g. rqlite (https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite).", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "SQLite Is All You Need"}, {"id": 766958208, "item_id": 47934888, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47934888", "by": "otoolep", "date": "2026-04-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "One application that comes up over and over again", "excerpt": "You can learn about some known use cases here: https://rqlite.io/docs/features/#common-use-cases One application that comes up over and over again -- wanting relational modeling, along with HA, but with low operational costs. People sometimes start with Postgres, then need to set up HA, and find it's a lot of work. They realize that their data set requirements are not huge, don't need fancy features, so start to thin", "context": "", "use_case": "HA relational DB with low ops", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: rqlite \u2013 the fault-tolerant DB built on SQLite \u2013 v10.0 released"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 803561360, "item_id": 50222585, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50222585", "by": "mxey", "date": "2026-10-24", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The rqlite docs however tell you to never use Strong mode and that Linearizable is sufficient.", "excerpt": "\u201cTheir tests showed that rqlite maintains linearizability of record insertion and modification, provided strong read consistency is enabled.\u201d The rqlite docs however tell you to never use Strong mode and that Linearizable is sufficient. https://rqlite.io/docs/api/read-consistency/#strong", "context": "", "use_case": "Distributed SQLite", "switched_from": "", "story": "Twelve years of distributed SQLite"}]}], "who": [{"by": "joostdecock", "context": "uses it in production for an open source observability solution", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50219006", "date": "2026-10-24"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["distributed sqlite", "benchmark comparison", "control plane database", "ha relational db with low ops"], "compared": [{"slug": "postgresql", "name": "PostgreSQL", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [{"id": 747928400, "item_id": 46745525, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46745525", "by": "otoolep", "date": "2026-01-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it's a fault-tolerant, highly available system. Reliability is the reason it exists.", "excerpt": "rqlite creator here, happy to answer any questions. As for reliability - it's a fault-tolerant, highly available system. Reliability is the reason it exists. :-) If you're asking about quality and test coverage, you might like to check out these resources: - https://rqlite.io/docs/design/ - https://rqlite.io/docs/design/#blog-posts - https://philipotoole.com/how-is-rqlite-tested/", "context": "rqlite creator", "use_case": "distributed SQLite", "switched_from": "", "story": "Many Small Queries Are Efficient in SQLite"}, {"id": 745213520, "item_id": 46575845, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46575845", "by": "otoolep", "date": "2026-01-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I did introduce Queued Writes[1] since that talk", "excerpt": "Yes, fast networks matter. I did introduce Queued Writes[1] since that talk, allowing you to trade off performance versus immediate durability. It may interest you -- network is much less of a factor then, and you should get a 10-100x increase in throughput. [1] https://rqlite.io/docs/api/queued-writes/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Rqlite: Distributed Database Built on SQLite"}, {"id": 745212784, "item_id": 46575799, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46575799", "by": "otoolep", "date": "2026-01-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I wrote a blog post on rqlite and FTS5", "excerpt": "rqlite creator here. Yes I do have practical experience to share, I wrote a blog post on rqlite and FTS5: https://philipotoole.com/building-a-highly-available-search-engine-using-sqlite/ Will it allow you to reach the same scale in terms of data set size that Elasticsearch supports? Almost certainly no, but it might be enough depending on your use case.", "context": "", "use_case": "Distributed SQLite database", "switched_from": "", "story": "Rqlite: Distributed Database Built on SQLite"}, {"id": 745145840, "item_id": 46571615, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46571615", "by": "otoolep", "date": "2026-01-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "rqlite creator here.", "excerpt": "rqlite creator here. I have performed a fair amount of performance testing, some of which I outlined in a talk to the CMU Database Group a few years ago. Details: - https://www.philipotoole.com/2021-rqlite-cmu-tech-talk - see slide 33. - There is also a recording that goes with the talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLlIAWjvHxM You can also read about Performance in the docs at: https://rqlite.io/docs/guides/perfo", "context": "rqlite creator", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Rqlite: Distributed Database Built on SQLite"}, {"id": 745077376, "item_id": 46567336, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46567336", "by": "otoolep", "date": "2026-01-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "rqlite[1] creator here, happy to answer any questions.", "excerpt": "rqlite[1] creator here, happy to answer any questions. https://rqlite.io", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Rqlite: Distributed Database Built on SQLite"}, {"id": 738023632, "item_id": 46126477, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46126477", "by": "otoolep", "date": "2025-12-02", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "In contrast one connects with rqlite over the network - HTTP specifically.", "excerpt": "rqlite[1] creator here. Nit: dqlite is a library, it is not a network-exposed database like rqlite is. Sure, it requires connecting to other nodes over the network, but local access is via in-process. In contrast one connects with rqlite over the network - HTTP specifically. [1] https://rqlite.io", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "100k TPS over a billion rows: the unreasonable effectiveness of SQLite"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50217500", "title": "Twelve years of distributed SQLite", "mentions": 7}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46564350", "title": "Rqlite: Distributed Database Built on SQLite", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48905491", "title": "SQLite Is All You Need", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47929774", "title": "Show HN: rqlite \u2013 the fault-tolerant DB built on SQLite \u2013 v10.0 released", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46742635", "title": "Many Small Queries Are Efficient in SQLite", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46124205", "title": "100k TPS over a billion rows: the unreasonable effectiveness of SQLite", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 2, "compare": 2, "neutral": 1, "warn": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 803849824, "item_id": 50240614, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50240614", "by": "mxey", "date": "2026-10-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "", "excerpt": "Looking further into this: The Linearizable mode is newer than the test, so we don\u2019t know if it would have passed. https://philipotoole.com/faster-reads-same-guarantees-linearizable-consistency-in-rqlite-8-32/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Twelve years of distributed SQLite"}, {"id": 803601057, "item_id": 50225066, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50225066", "by": "gregsadetsky", "date": "2026-10-24", "stance": "compare", "quote": "like rqlite - don't officially support BEGIN/COMMIT [0], which matters if you rely on multi-statement transactions.", "excerpt": "I feel like there should be a comparison table listing all of these engines and how they compare on their external dependencies, whether a single leader/any node can write, their shape (embeddable library vs server), etc. IMHO support for transactions is a pretty important dividing line. Some engines support full SQLite transactions while others - like rqlite - don't officially support BEGIN/COMMIT [0], which matters", "context": "", "use_case": "distributed SQLite", "switched_from": "", "story": "Twelve years of distributed SQLite"}, {"id": 803561360, "item_id": 50222585, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50222585", "by": "mxey", "date": "2026-10-24", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The rqlite docs however tell you to never use Strong mode and that Linearizable is sufficient.", "excerpt": "\u201cTheir tests showed that rqlite maintains linearizability of record insertion and modification, provided strong read consistency is enabled.\u201d The rqlite docs however tell you to never use Strong mode and that Linearizable is sufficient. https://rqlite.io/docs/api/read-consistency/#strong", "context": "", "use_case": "Distributed SQLite", "switched_from": "", "story": "Twelve years of distributed SQLite"}, {"id": 803533152, "item_id": 50220822, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50220822", "by": "tmsln", "date": "2026-10-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "https://philipotoole.com/testing-rqlite-read-consistency/", "excerpt": "https://philipotoole.com/testing-rqlite-read-consistency/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Twelve years of distributed SQLite"}, {"id": 803509986, "item_id": 50219374, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50219374", "by": "vikrantrathore", "date": "2026-10-24", "stance": "compare", "quote": "have a benchmark on it that includes rqlite", "excerpt": "Its funny, when I was reading part time parliament paper (paxos) and while learning zig and odin language created a pure paxos library and then the first application for that library was to build a multi-master sqlite. The two approaches I took are very different in case of zig I build zaxonlite (https://github.com/insanai/zaxonlite) and have a benchmark on it that includes rqlite. It uses WAL replication as strategy", "context": "", "use_case": "benchmark comparison", "switched_from": "", "story": "Twelve years of distributed SQLite"}, {"id": 803504096, "item_id": 50219006, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50219006", "by": "joostdecock", "date": "2026-10-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "rqlite is amazing and warmly recommend", "excerpt": "We use rqlite in production, it's the database we chose for (the control plane of) an open source observability solution we're building (morio.it). Just came here to say two things: - rqlite is amazing and warmly recommend - Philip is an exceptionally dedicated, kind, and helpful maintainer 5 stars, no notes. Thank you Philip, I'm eternally grateful for all your great work.", "context": "uses it in production for an open source observability solution", "use_case": "control plane database", "switched_from": "", "story": "Twelve years of distributed SQLite"}, {"id": 803492768, "item_id": 50218298, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50218298", "by": "chasil", "date": "2026-10-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It looks far easier than the mass majority of clustered database architectures.", "excerpt": "I have never examined this in any detail before. It looks far easier than the mass majority of clustered database architectures. https://rqlite.io/", "context": "", "use_case": "Distributed SQLite", "switched_from": "", "story": "Twelve years of distributed SQLite"}, {"id": 783136560, "item_id": 48946035, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48946035", "by": "Cthulhu_", "date": "2026-07-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "another option is e.g. rqlite", "excerpt": "Someone pointed to moving to postgres or comparable, but another option is e.g. rqlite (https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite).", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "SQLite Is All You Need"}, {"id": 766958208, "item_id": 47934888, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47934888", "by": "otoolep", "date": "2026-04-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "One application that comes up over and over again", "excerpt": "You can learn about some known use cases here: https://rqlite.io/docs/features/#common-use-cases One application that comes up over and over again -- wanting relational modeling, along with HA, but with low operational costs. People sometimes start with Postgres, then need to set up HA, and find it's a lot of work. They realize that their data set requirements are not huge, don't need fancy features, so start to thin", "context": "", "use_case": "HA relational DB with low ops", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: rqlite \u2013 the fault-tolerant DB built on SQLite \u2013 v10.0 released"}]}