This guide explains the key differences between relational, NoSQL, and vector databases, highlighting their strengths, best use cases, and examples. Relational databases are best for structured data and transactions, NoSQL excels at scalability and flexibility, while vector databases power AI and semantic search. Learn how to choose the right database—or combine them in a polyglot approach—for your project.
The best open-source databases for startups in 2025 combine low cost, scalability, and flexibility, making them ideal for fast-growing businesses. Relational options like PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MariaDB provide reliable foundations, while FerretDB offers a MongoDB-compatible alternative. For speed and real-time performance, startups can turn to Redis, Valkey, and ScyllaDB, while ClickHouse and TimescaleDB shine in analytics and time-series workloads. AI-driven startups benefit from Neo4j for graph databases and Milvus for vector search, ensuring they can handle modern data challenges. Choosing the right database depends on your use case — SaaS, fintech, e-commerce, IoT, or AI — but open-source ensures freedom, strong community support, and enterprise-grade scalability without vendor lock-in.
FerretDB is emerging as the leading MongoDB alternative, offering full MongoDB compatibility while running on top of PostgreSQL. Unlike MongoDB’s restrictive SSPL license, FerretDB is true open source under Apache 2.0, giving developers freedom from vendor lock-in. This blog explores why FerretDB is gaining traction, its key benefits, how it compares to MongoDB, and why it’s positioned as the future of open-source document databases.
Discover the complete guide to open-source databases in 2025 — including SQL, NoSQL, Time-Series, Graph, and Vector databases. Learn use cases, best options, and how to choose the right one for your applications.
In today’s data-driven world, businesses need tools that simplify data exploration and visualization without compromising on flexibility or scalability. Enter Metabase, an open-source business intelligence (BI) tool that seamlessly integrates with PostgreSQL, one of the most popular relational databases. Together, they form a powerful combination for businesses looking to unlock insights from their data effortlessly. At OctaByte, we specialize in deploying and managing open-source software like Metabase and PostgreSQL, so you can focus on deriving value from your data. In this blog post, we’ll explore why Metabase + PostgreSQL is a winning combination, how it compares to other BI tools, and how OctaByte can help you get started. ...