Databases

DuckDB crunches gigabytes of CSV and Parquet with no database server, no import step, and no waiting around. You aim a SELECT straight at a file on disk and it answers. On 41 million rows of raw NYC taxi data, I clocked a full group-by aggregation in 20ms and a two-table join in another 20ms, read straight off Parquet with nothing loaded, copied, or indexed first. That is a multi-gigabyte analytical query returning before you lift your finger off Enter key! Every number in this post comes from a benchmark you can run yourself; the scripts and raw results live in a GitHub repo .

Turso is a distributed SQLite service built on libSQL , an MIT-licensed fork of SQLite. It adds embedded replicas: local SQLite files that sync from a primary database in the cloud. Reads happen at local-disk speed, under 200 nanoseconds in benchmarks. Writes go to one primary region. You get sub-millisecond reads and read-your-writes consistency for less than a managed Postgres bill. You install the client SDK, point it at a Turso URL and a local file path, and your app reads from a replica that stays in sync on its own.

Drizzle ORM is the better pick for edge and serverless work in 2026. It ships a 7.4 kB gzipped runtime with zero binary dependencies. Prisma is the stronger choice for teams that want a higher-level query API, a polished data browser, and a growing cloud platform. The right answer turns on where your code runs and how your team thinks about SQL.

That one-paragraph summary covers the call for most people. The reasoning behind it is the rest of this post. The two tools follow different beliefs about how TypeScript apps should talk to databases. Those differences show up in every part of the workflow, from writing queries to shipping on Cloudflare Workers.

Picking a self-hosted database in 2026 comes down to one question: when does it force you to migrate? SQLite holds until about one write-heavy app server (~10 GB, single writer). PostgreSQL 18 is the default that almost never makes you move. MariaDB 12.3 LTS earns its spot mainly when you already live in the MySQL world.

What are the best self-hosted databases for web apps in 2026?

For a self-hosted web app, three engines cover almost every case: PostgreSQL is the do-everything default, SQLite is the embedded single-file engine, and MariaDB is the MySQL-compatible community fork. All three are open source and free to run on your own box.

Five open source vector databases are worth a shortlist in 2026. Qdrant is Rust-based and wins on single-node latency and filtered ANN. Milvus 2.5 is the billion-scale pick with disk and GPU indexes. Weaviate bundles hybrid search and generative modules. Chroma is the simplest Python option for prototypes and agent memory. pgvector 0.8 is the smart bet when Postgres already runs your data. LanceDB earns a mention for multimodal, read-heavy work on S3. The right pick depends on where your data sits, how big the index gets, and whether you want strict p95 latency or built-in RAG glue.

I’ll show you how to build a real URL shortener in under 200 lines of Python. We’re going to use FastAPI for the web layer, SQLite for storage, and base62 encoding for short codes. I’ll walk you through a redirect endpoint, a click counter, and rate limiting with SlowAPI . In my experience, this simple stack handles millions of links on one server.

Architecture and Tech Stack Choices

Before I write any code, I want to walk you through why I picked this stack. Picking the wrong stack for a small project either over-engineers it or under-builds it. I’ve seen systems fall over at a few hundred users, and I want to help you avoid that.