How is Couchbase different than other leading databases?

While depending on the database, customers typically come to Couchbase for four common reasons: Performance, Flexibility, Mobile, and Lower TCO. Couchbase delivers superior performance, flexibility for rapid development, a robust offline-first mobile solution, and lower total cost of ownership through efficient scaling and architecture. Find out more about how Capella compares to other cloud databases.

Is Couchbase the same as CouchDB?

Couchbase delivers superior performance, data consistency, query capabilities, and development tools, while also offering Capella, our Database-as-a-Service. Find out more here.

How is Couchbase architected?

Couchbase is a highly available distributed database that performs operations in-memory. Data is stored in JSON and queried via SQL++ or KV. The architecture includes a distributed cache and multi-model services for full-text, vector, eventing, and analytics, with synchronization to mobile/edge devices via Couchbase Lite.

What is Couchbase used for?

Couchbase is used by companies across industries for caching, user profile management, dynamic product catalogs, customer 360, offline-first mobile/IoT apps, and operational analytics. For more customer use cases, see our customer stories.

Is Couchbase a relational database?

Couchbase is a NoSQL database that uses SQL++ as its query language. Data is stored as JSON documents, providing a flexible schema that can evolve over time. Each document can represent an object instance similar to a relational table row, but with greater flexibility and schema variation.

Couchbase Architecture Innovations

Architected for performance, versatility, and scale

The Couchbase memory-first architecture is designed to meet modern performance and scalability demands. By providing direct in-memory access to the underlying key-value engine, search, and eventing services, Couchbase ensures low latency and high throughput for mission-critical applications.

This Couchbase database architecture supports a flexible JSON data model, enabling developers to store, query, and analyze data efficiently with SQL++ — including vector search for AI-powered applications. Couchbase scales linearly, provides enterprise-grade security with encryption at rest, supports more than a dozen SDKs, and runs seamlessly across all major clouds.

Unique advantages

Eventing

Build user-defined functions, capture data changes, react to events, and stream data to and from external sources.

Learn about the Eventing service

Cache, HA & autosharding

The Couchbase architecture delivers high performance and scalability through efficient caching, automatic sharding, and dynamic resource optimization in the cloud.

Learn about clusters

SQL++ query execution

The NoSQL database architecture makes it as easy as SQL for JSON, supporting schema flexibility, JOINs, and AI vector queries for modern workloads.

Learn about the Query service

High-performance indexing

Couchbase provides collection-level indexes with hyperscale capabilities and composite vectors to improve query performance across large data sets.

Learn about the Index service

Key-value access

Fast performance for real time, operational, and AI.

Learn about the Data service

Full-text search

Full-text, vector, and geo search in one platform.

Learn about the Search service

Replication & mobile sync

Global replication lowers latencies while synchronizing to Couchbase Lite anywhere on or above the planet.

Learn about mobile sync

Operational analytics

Large-scale aggregations in real time powered by SQL++.

Learn about the Analytics service

Related resources

WHITEPAPER

Get under the hood

Explore Couchbase’s distributed, multi-model NoSQL database

Get the whitepaper

DOCUMENTATION

High availability clustering explained

Understand how Couchbase handles outages

Clustering and availability

PRODUCT PAGE

Take your applications anywhere

Learn why only Couchbase offers peer-to-peer sync among mobile clients

Go mobile

Customer case studies

Amadeus ensures high availability and performance for over 8 million travel booking queries per second with Couchbase.

20M

operations/second

<2.5 milliseconds

Response times

Viber gains the scalable performance to process up to 15 billion calling and messaging events per day for over 1B mobile users with Couchbase.

60%

reduction in number of total servers

Sky keeps viewers happy with high performance and availability and cuts disaster recovery time from hours to minutes with Couchbase.

50%

reduction in sign-in time

Revolut combines machine learning with Couchbase’s speed, agility, and scalability to monitor card transactions and reduce fraud.

75%

improvement in fraud prevention

$3M+

in savings

Frequently asked questions

How is Couchbase different than other leading databases?

While depending on the database, customers typically come to Couchbase for four common reasons.
• Performance: Their current databases are failing in the areas of throughput, latency, and high availability. Often it is not just one thing, but the overall architecture.
• Flexibility: Their databases are rigid and do not support rapid application development.
• Mobile: They want a robust, proven offline-first product. Couchbase Mobile launched in 2014.
• Lower TCO: Their databases don’t scale to meet demands without add-on technologies and/or huge costs.

Find out more about how Capella compares to other cloud databases.
Is Couchbase the same as Couch DB?

Couchbase delivers superior performance, data consistency, query capabilities, and development tools, while also offering Capella, our Database-as-a-Service. Find out more here.
How is Couchbase architected?

Couchbase is a highly available distributed database that performs operations in-memory. Data is stored in JSON and queried via SQL++ or KV. The architecture includes a distributed cache and multi-model services for full-text, vector, eventing, and analytics, with synchronization to mobile/edge devices via Couchbase Lite.
What is Couchbase used for?

Couchbase is used by companies across all industries and a variety of operational use cases. Common cases include caching to speed of legacy applications, user profile management/personalization, dynamic product catalogs, customer 360, offline-first mobile/IoT apps, and operational analytics. For more customer use cases, see customer stories.
Is Couchbase a relational database?

Couchbase is a NoSQL database, but it does use SQL++ as the query language. The Couchbase data model, based on JSON, provides a flexible schema that can evolve by applications over time. Documents often represent a single instance of an object in application code. A document can be considered equivalent to a row in a relational table; with each of the document’s attributes being equivalent to a column. Couchbase provides greater flexibility than an RDBMS in that it can store JSON documents with varied schemas. Developers can express many-to-many relationships without requiring a reference or junction table. Documents can refer to each other by key. Couchbase does contain dynamic data structures that can be modeled to align to a relational data schema making migration easier. Learn more on data modeling.

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