Introduction

Great that you’ve taken time to check out the TinyDB docs! Before we begin looking at TinyDB itself, let’s take some time to see whether you should use TinyDB.

Why using TinyDB?

  • tiny: The current source code has 1200 (with about 40% documentation) lines of code (+ 600 lines tests). For comparison: Buzhug has about 2000 lines of code (w/o tests), CodernityDB has about 8000 lines of code (w/o tests).
  • document oriented: Like MongoDB, you can store any document (represented as dict) in TinyDB.
  • optimized for your happiness: TinyDB is designed to be simple and fun to use by providing a simple and clean API.
  • written in pure Python: TinyDB neither needs an external server (as e.g. PyMongo) nor any dependencies from PyPI.
  • works on Python 2.6 – 3.4 and PyPy: TinyDB works on all modern versions of Python and PyPy.
  • easily extensible: You can easily extend TinyDB by writing new storages or modify the behaviour of storages with Middlewares.
  • nearly 100% test coverage: If you don’t count that __repr__ methods and some abstract methods are not tested, TinyDB has a test coverage of 100%.

In short: If you need a simple database with a clean API that just works without lots of configuration, TinyDB might be the right choice for you.

Why not using TinyDB?

  • You need advanced features like multiple indexes, an HTTP server, relationships, or similar.
  • You are really concerned about high performance and need a high speed database.

To put it plainly: If you need advanced features or high performance, TinyDB is the wrong database for you – consider using databases like Buzhug, CodernityDB or MongoDB.

« Welcome to TinyDB! | Getting Started »

Table Of Contents

Useful Links