# Which Database to choose when?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/which-database-to-choose-when/188076>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [May 5, 2010, 11:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/which-database-to-choose-when/188076 "2010-05-05T11:25:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![christoph\_j](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@christoph\_j](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/christoph_j)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 11:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/which-database-to-choose-when/188076/1 "2010-05-05T11:25:09Z")

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Hi folks,

I’m developing Ruby and Rails application for a while, but was mostly  
tight  
to MySQL or SQlite3. There is a lot of buzz about schema free DBs and I  
hear  
a lot of names like Redis, MongoDB, CouchDB etc.

So my question is what is (really) the difference between those and when  
do  
you choose one over the over. Especially when dealing with the  
enterprise  
ecosystem.

I know that this is one of the “tell-me-your-OPINION” topic, but I want  
to  
expand my horizon and don’t have the experience and background right now  
with those (NoSQL) databases.

Thank for any comments from experts.

Cheers,  
Chris

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**Author:** ![christoph\_j](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@christoph\_j](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/christoph_j)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 6:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/which-database-to-choose-when/188076/2 "2010-05-05T18:58:21Z")

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Christoph J. wrote:

> I’m developing Ruby and Rails application for a while, but was mostly  
> tight  
> to MySQL or SQlite3. There is a lot of buzz about schema free DBs and I  
> hear  
> a lot of names like Redis, MongoDB, CouchDB etc.

I really don’t think this is the appropriate forum to discuss this. It  
is not directly related to Ruby on Rails. I doubt that most people here  
really want to do your research for you. All those options you have  
listed have their own web sites with their own documentation that  
explains their strengths and trade-offs.

Go read about them and decide which is best for what you want to do.

[http://code.google.com/p/redis/](http://code.google.com/p/redis/)

> **[MongoDB: The Developer Data Platform](https://www.mongodb.com/)**
>
> Get your ideas to market faster with a developer data platform built on the leading modern database. MongoDB makes working with data easy.

[http://couchdb.apache.org/](http://couchdb.apache.org/)

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**Author:** ![christoph\_j](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@christoph\_j](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/christoph_j)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 11:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/which-database-to-choose-when/188076/3 "2010-05-06T23:28:17Z")

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Thanks Robert.

So I’ll do the research on my own, now.

Chris