SingleStore vs SurrealDB
A detailed comparison to help you choose between SingleStore and SurrealDB.
Quick Verdict
3.8/5
SingleStore
0 reviews
3.6/5
SurrealDB
0 reviews
SingleStore is rated higher (3.8 vs 3.6). SingleStore (formerly MemSQL) is a cloud-native database combining OLTP and OLAP in a single system. Handles real-time analytics and transactions without ETL. Used by financial services and gaming companies. SurrealDB is a multi-model database that handles relational, document, graph, and full-text queries in a single database. Schema-optional, built-in auth, and real-time subscriptions.
SingleStore Real-time analytics and transactions in one database | SurrealDB Multi-model database with built-in real-time sync and WebSocket support | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.8 (0 reviews)✓ | 3.6 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | usage-based | freemium |
| Starting price | Free tier available | Free tier available |
| Best for | Teams with genuinely mixed transactional and analytical workloads — fraud, risk, adtech, IoT, live gaming — that need sub-second freshness and want to retire a separate warehouse and sync pipeline. | Teams building real-time, multi-model applications that would otherwise combine a document database, a search engine and a graph store |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | — | 0 vCPU |
| RAM | — | 1 GB |
| Storage | — | 1 GB |
| Bandwidth | — | — |
| SLA uptime | — | — |
| Data-center count | — | 3 |
| €/GB RAM/mo | — | €0.00 |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ||
| Automated backups | ✓ | |
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ✓ | |
| Free tier | ||
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | — | AWS Ireland (aws-euw1), AWS US East N. Virginia (aws-use1), AWS US West Oregon (aws-usw2) |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tiermanaged optioneu datacenterus datacenterapi access | free tieropen sourceself hostableapi access |
| Visit SingleStore → | Visit SurrealDB → | |
SingleStore
Pros
- + Transactions and analytics in one engine — no ETL pipeline between an operational database and a warehouse
- + Published, itemised rate card: workspace sizes, credit burn, storage tiers and every multiplier are public
- + Genuine free evaluation tier plus $500 of credits on Standard
- + MySQL-compatible wire protocol shortens migration from MySQL-based stacks
- + Documented compliance posture (ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA, CCPA, GDPR) and a BYOC option for data residency
Cons
- - Stacking multipliers (Enterprise 1.5x, Multi-AZ 1.3x, region tier, scaling) make real bills hard to predict from headline prices
- - Distributed-engine concepts (shard keys, distribution, reference tables) are overkill for simple CRUD applications
- - Free Shared tier is explicitly non-production and self-support only
- - Self-managed licensing and BYOC/Dedicated pricing require a sales conversation
SurrealDB
Pros
- + One engine for relational, document, graph, time-series and geospatial data, plus full-text and vector search
- + Transparent published rate table with a real free instance (0.25 vCPU, 1 GB memory, 1 GB storage)
- + Hourly billing keeps development and prototype instances cheap
- + Granular permissions at table, document and field level defined in the schema
- + Self-hostable under BSL 1.1 with open-source (Apache 2.0 / MIT) SDKs as an exit path
Cons
- - Young database: 1.0 in 2023 and the storage engine is still being replaced
- - Only three AWS regions (Ireland, N. Virginia, Oregon) — nothing in APAC
- - Smaller ecosystem, tooling and hiring pool than PostgreSQL or MongoDB
- - Scale plan requires a three-node minimum; several advertised features are still marked coming soon
- - Custom SLAs only at Enterprise tier; backup retention policy for free instances is ambiguous in the docs
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