Canonical Dqlite
Relational databases
Database software
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
Take the quiz to check if Canonical Dqlite and its alternatives fit your requirements.
Completely free
Free Trial unavailable
Free version
Small
Medium
Large
- Accommodation and food services
- Arts, entertainment, and recreation
- Agriculture, fishing, and forestry
What is Canonical Dqlite
Canonical dqlite is an embedded relational database that combines SQLite with a Raft-based replication layer to provide high availability across a small cluster. It is typically used by software vendors and platform teams that need a lightweight SQL datastore inside distributed systems (for example, control planes, appliances, or edge deployments). dqlite aims to keep the SQLite programming model while adding leader-based replication and automatic failover characteristics suited to constrained environments.
SQLite-compatible SQL engine
dqlite uses SQLite as its underlying database engine, so it supports standard SQL features and the SQLite file-based data model. This can reduce application changes for teams already using SQLite libraries and tooling. It is well-suited to embedding into products where a separate database service would add operational overhead.
Built-in Raft replication
dqlite adds consensus-based replication using Raft to maintain a consistent database state across nodes. This enables failover and continued operation when a node goes down, which standalone embedded databases do not provide. It targets small clusters where a full managed database service is not practical.
Lightweight operational footprint
The design focuses on minimal dependencies and a small runtime footprint compared with full-scale database servers. This fits edge, appliance, and control-plane scenarios where CPU, memory, and storage are constrained. It can be deployed as part of an application stack without requiring a separate database administration layer.
Not for large-scale OLTP
dqlite is generally oriented to small clusters and embedded use cases rather than high-throughput, horizontally scaled transactional workloads. SQLite’s concurrency model and single-writer characteristics can become limiting under heavy write contention. Organizations needing large multi-tenant workloads typically use dedicated database servers or managed services.
Smaller ecosystem and tooling
Compared with mainstream relational database platforms, dqlite has a narrower set of third-party administration tools, monitoring integrations, and managed hosting options. Teams may need to build more operational automation themselves. This can increase time-to-production for organizations that rely on mature DBA tooling.
Operational complexity of consensus
Although lightweight, Raft-based systems still require careful handling of membership changes, quorum, and network partitions. Misconfiguration or unstable networking can lead to reduced availability or write unavailability when quorum is lost. This makes it less straightforward than a single-node embedded database for simple applications.
Plan & Pricing
Pricing model: Open-source / free (LGPLv3) Free tier/plan: Permanently free (source: official Dqlite pages) Paid plans: No paid/subscription tiers published on Canonical's official Dqlite pages. The product is distributed as an open-source library with no licence fees. Canonical can arrange a paid support contract on request (FAQ) but no published pricing for such support was found on the Dqlite pages. Support & commercial options: Support is not provided 24/7 by default; Canonical can arrange commercial support contracts. For other database products (e.g., Charmed MongoDB/MySQL) Canonical publishes per-node support pricing, but no equivalent published pricing exists for Dqlite on the vendor site.
Seller details
Canonical Ltd.
London, United Kingdom
2004
Private
https://canonical.com/
https://x.com/Canonical
https://www.linkedin.com/company/canonical-ltd-/
