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Replacing Memcached for Scalability

Facing Memcached issues? Couchbase can help.

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Whitepaper

High-performance applications with distributed caching: Choosing the right solution

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CHALLENGES

Couchbase vs. Memcached

Memcached is a simple cache, while Couchbase is a scalable, persistent NoSQL database with advanced features.

  • CHALLENGE #1

    Cold cache

    Memcached failures overload the RDBMS. Couchbase ensures high availability with automatic data replication.

    Memory storage

  • CHALLENGE #2

    Limited features

    Memcache functionality limits use cases. Couchbase is multipurpose.

    Services

  • CHALLENGE #3

    Scalability

    Memcached scaling is complex and disruptive. Couchbase has auto-sharding and online rebalancing.

    Scaling

  • Challenge #4

    Monitoring

    Memcached lacks unified management. Couchbase offers a built-in admin console and APIs for streamlined cluster control.

    Metrics, alerts, events

FEATURES

Couchbase vs. Memcached

Compare Couchbase and Memcached to see how Couchbase adds persistence, replication, querying, and scalability beyond simple key-value caching.

What’s included
In-memory caching
Scaling/sharding/clustering
Persistent storage option
Data access: SQL
Data access: text search
Data access: vector
Mobile capabilities
Role-based access control
Cross data center replication (XDCR)
Couchbase
Memcached

CUSTOMERS

What customers are saying

“Couchbase is a highly scalable, distributed data store that plays a critical role in LinkedIn’s caching systems.”

Michael Kehoe, Senior SRE, LinkedIn

10+

million queries
per second

<4

ms average latency
for 2.5B+ items

Read Customer Story
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Ephemeral buckets

Memory-only storage comparable to Memcached with the scaling benefits of Couchbase.

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Resources

Explore related resources

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FAQ’s

Memcached frequently asked questions

Common questions and answers about memcached and Couchbase

Nothing. “memcache” is the software, “memcached” is the daemon program name. Most people now just say “memcached” for both due to naming convention and common usage.

Is it memcached (as in “I just cached it”) or is it memcache-dee? Both are used widely in technical circles, but if you hold to its UNIX roots, you would pronounce it “memcache-dee.

Couchbase once supported memcached-compatible buckets – still possible, but now deprecated and not recommended for new projects.

If you want memory-only storage, use an Ephemeral bucket. If you want memory-first with persistence to disk, use a Couchbase bucket.

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