The 9 best FaunaDB alternatives for 2025

If you’re looking for a FaunaDB alternative to migrate to, then you’re in the right place. This article will cover nine other platforms you can use and factors to consider when choosing an alternative:

• Convex
• MongoDB Atlas
• PlanetScale
• CockroachDB
• TiDB
• OceanBase
• Supabase
• Couchbase
• SurrealDB

The FaunaDB team announced that they are shutting down their services on May 30, 2025. You can explore the end of Life FAQ to learn more. This means their customers, which consist of 80,000+ development teams in over 180 countries, have to find a new database solution to work with.

Each section in this post will run through the following:

• A brief overview of each tool
• Key features
• Pricing info

Before we proceed, here’s a comparison table that summarizes how these platforms stack up against each other:

Platform	Pricing	Type of Database	Data Model	Query Language
Convex	Free tier, paid starts at $25/member/month	Serverless DB	Document, Real-Time, AI	❌
MongoDB Atlas	Forever free plan, paid from $0.08/hr	NoSQL	Document	MQL (MongoDB Query Language)
PlanetScale	Paid plans start at $39/month	Distributed SQL	Relational, SQL	SQL
CockroachDB	Free plan, paid starts at $0.18/hr	Distributed SQL	Relational, SQL	SQL
TiDB	Serverless from $0, paid starts at $0.44/hr	Distributed SQL	Relational, NoSQL	SQL
OceanBase	Paid plans start at $1.10/hr	Distributed SQL	Relational, SQL	SQL
Supabase	Free plan, paid plans from $25/month	Relational (PostgreSQL)	Relational, Document	SQL (PostgreSQL)
Couchbase	Free plan, paid plans start from $0.15/hr	NoSQL	Document, Key-Value, Graph	SQL++ (SQL for JSON)
SurrealDB	Free plan, paid plans start from $23/month	Multi-model	Document, Graph, Time-series, Relational	SurrealQL

Convex

Convex is a reactive database built for developers like you who want to focus on building great applications without the hassle of managing backend infrastructure. It streamlines backend operations and offers real-time data synchronization, built-in authentication, and AI integration.

With Convex, you can quickly develop scalable and high-performance applications, leaving the complexity of managing data and backend operations to the platform.

Features

• Real-time data sync — With Convex, you can easily sync data across users and devices in real-time
• Built-in authentication — Convex offers built-in solutions for handling login, registration, and user management. This means you don’t need to set up complex authentication systems
• AI integration — The platform allows you to integrate machine learning models and other AI-powered features into your applications
• Convex Chef — An AI-powered app builder for building various kinds of full-stack apps
• Components — Convex provides various customizable components to speed up your building process

Pricing

Convex has a free tier. Its paid plan starts from $25/member/month. There’s also a pricing calculator for estimating your monthly bill.

MongoDB Atlas

MongoDB Atlas is the fully managed cloud version of MongoDB. It provides a powerful, flexible NoSQL database solution for handling large amounts of unstructured data.

MongoDB Atlas offers a multi-cloud environment and integrates seamlessly with various cloud platforms, allowing you to deploy and scale your database with ease.

Features

• Scalability — It supports horizontal scaling through sharding, allowing applications to easily grow without sacrificing performance
• Fully managed — MongoDB Atlas handles provisioning, managing, and scaling databases
• Multi-cloud deployment — MongoDB Atlas supports deployment across AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, allowing you to choose your cloud environment
• Global distribution — MongoDB Atlas allows you to distribute your database across multiple geographic locations
• Mongo query language (MQL) — Allows you to perform operations on MongoDB’s collections, which store data in JSON-like BSON (Binary JSON) format

Pricing

MongoDB Atlas has a forever-free plan. Its paid plans start at $0.08/hr.

PlanetScale

PlanetScale is a distributed, serverless MySQL-compatible database built to handle the demands of modern applications. This platform, built on top of Vitess, is used by many medium and large-scale companies.

Features

• Zero-downtime schema changes — PlanetScale performs schema changes without any downtime. This allows you to update your database schema without disrupting your application
• Branching for databases — PlanetScale allows you to create database branches, making testing changes in a safe environment easier before deploying them to production
• Automatic scaling — PlanetScale automatically scales your database infrastructure in response to increased traffic
• PlanetScale Metal — An infrastructure solution designed to enhance the performance of your database. It uses Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) drives to run databases in AWS and GCP, leading to even higher performance

Pricing

Planetscale doesn’t offer a free tier, as they removed their hobby plan on March 6, 2024. Their paid plan starts at $39/month.

CockroachDB

 

CockroachDB is a distributed SQL database designed for modern applications. It offers high scalability, resilience, and ease of use. It automatically handles replication and scaling, ensuring your data is always available, even in the face of failures.

Features

• Distributed SQL — CockroachDB uses distributed SQL to scale horizontally. This enables you to run applications smoothly, even as they grow
• High availability and resilience — Automated failover and disaster recovery capabilities ensure that your applications stay up and running, even if part of the system goes down
• Global distribution — It supports global distribution, allowing you to deploy databases across multiple regions
• Fully managed cloud solution — CockroachDB Cloud handles all aspects of database infrastructure, allowing you to focus on developing your app

Pricing

CockroachDB offers a free plan, and its paid plan starts at $0.18/hr for 2 vCPUs.

TiDB

TiDB by PingCAP is a distributed SQL database that allows you to easily handle transactional and analytical workloads. It combines the best aspects of relational databases and NoSQL systems, offering high availability, scalability, and strong consistency.

TiDB offers cloud-serverless, cloud-dedicated, and self-managed environments, allowing you to work with your preferred option.

Features

• Distributed SQL — TiDB’s distributed architecture lets you scale horizontally without compromising performance. It uses familiar SQL commands, making it easy for you to integrate with your existing systems
• Hybrid transactional and analytical processing (HTAP) — TiDB allows you to handle both real-time transactional data and analytics in the same database
• High availability — TiDB automatically manages replication and failover, so your database will remain available during disruptions
• Scalability — As your app grows, TiDB scales effortlessly, ensuring smooth performance no matter how much traffic you get
• AI integration — TiDB offers AI-driven features like vector search, allowing you to support machine learning applications
• MySQL compatibility — If you’re already familiar with MySQL, you’ll find TiDB easy to adopt. It supports many of the tools and functions you’re already using, making migration simple

Pricing

• TiDB Cloud Serverless starts from $0/month
• TiDB Cloud Dedicated starts from $0.44/hr
• Pricing is available on request for TiDB self-managed

OceanBase

OceanBase is yet another distributed SQL database designed to handle large-scale, mission-critical workloads. It was developed by Ant Group and Alibaba Group in 2010, and is used by businesses of all sizes.

Features

• Multi-cloud architecture — OceanBase supports deployment across multiple clouds, allowing you to choose your cloud provider
• Active geo-redundancy — OceanBase automatically replicates your data across multiple regions, ensuring high availability and disaster recovery even when regional failures occur
• Horizontal scalability — With OceanBase, you can scale up or down based on demand without impacting performance
• Cold data archiving — This feature allows you to store infrequently accessed data more cost-effectively while keeping it accessible when needed

Pricing
Plans start at $1.10/hr for 8C32G (2 vCPUs) instances. This includes compute and storage costs.

Supabase

Supabase positions itself as “the open-source Firebase” alternative. It provides a set of powerful backend services that are easy to integrate, allowing you to quickly build applications using PostgreSQL as your database.

Features

• Database — Supabase offers a PostgreSQL database. It comes with a SQL editor, allowing you to write, test, and save queries for future use
• API generation — This tool automatically generates APIs for you based on your database. Supported languages for the API include JavaScript, Python, and Flutter
• User auth — Supabase provides built-in user management and authentication features. With a few lines of code, you can implement features like sign-ups, logins, email/password authentication, OAuth logins, and more
• Storage — Supabase allows you to store any digital content, like images, videos, and documents
• Edge functions — You can deploy JavaScript globally in seconds using Supabase Edge Functions
• Real-time sync — This feature allows you to add real-time data synchronization, user presence tracking, and broadcast capabilities to your applications
• Supabase UI — A collection of pre-built, customizable UI components built on the shadcn/ui library

Pricing

Superbase offers a free plan. Its paid plans start at $25/month.

Couchbase

Couchbase is a NoSQL database platform designed to handle diverse data storage and retrieval needs. It supports a variety of use cases, from cloud to edge applications, and integrates seamlessly with mobile and IoT environments

Features

• Document-oriented storage — With Couchbase, you store data as JSON documents, allowing you to switch your data model without worrying about a predefined schema
• SQL++ — A query language for working with JSON and other NoSQL data models, while maintaining compatibility with traditional SQL syntax
• Mobile sync — With Couchbase Mobile and Sync Gateway, you can synchronize data between mobile devices and your server, even when offline
• Couchbase Edge server — Lets you run a lightweight, offline-first database at the edge, ensuring data availability in remote locations or environments with poor connectivity
• Couchbase vector search — Allows you to index and search large-scale vector data. With this, you can perform similarity searches for images, text, and other unstructured data
• Couchbase Capella — The platform’s managed DBaaS offering that automates scaling, security, and maintenance tasks
• Capella iQ — An AI-powered assistant that helps you write code, build queries, and create tests with natural language

Pricing

Couchbase Capella has a free plan, and its paid plans start from $0.15/hr per node. Pricing details for Couchbase Server and Mobile are available on request.

SurrealDB

SurrealDB is a multi-model database that allows you to store and manage data in various formats, including document, graph, time-series, and relational models—all within a single, unified platform.

This flexibility means you can handle diverse data types and complex relationships without having to use multiple databases.

Features

• Multi-model database — SurrealDB allows you to store data in multiple models
• Surreal sidekick AI copilot — Allows you to interact with SurrealDB using natural language. It can help you generate complex SurrealQL queries, give step-by-step explanations on how a query works, help with debugging and troubleshooting, generate sample data, and more
• Full text search — Enables you to search across large datasets with textual data
• Surrealist — This is SurrealDB’s GUI, designed to simplify database management. It is available as a web app and desktop app, and you can use it to manage schemas, query and visualize data, and oversee database operations
• SurrealQL — A custom query language developed by SurrealDB with a SQL-like syntax. With it, you can easily interact with SurrealDB’s document, graph, time-series, and relational data models

Pricing

SurrealDB has a free plan, and its paid plans start from $23/month.

Factors to consider when choosing a FaunaDB alternative

Here are some key considerations when selecting an alternative solution to FaunaDB:

Database model

When choosing a database alternative, it’s crucial to consider the data model and confirm it can meet your application’s needs. Here are some data models you can choose from:

• Document-based — When your application deals with unstructured or semi-structured data, consider databases that store data as documents (e.g., JSON, BSON)
• Relational — If your application requires structured data with a fixed schema and complex relationships, relational databases might be the best fit
• Graph-based — When your application needs to model and query complex relationships between data points (e.g., social networks, recommendations), a graph might be the way to go
• Multi-model — If your application has a mix of different data types or you need the flexibility to switch between models as your needs evolve, look for multi-model databases. These allow you to store and query data in multiple formats (e.g., document, graph, key-value) within the same database

Query language and developer experience

When choosing a database alternative, the query language and overall developer experience should be a primary consideration. The ease of use, flexibility, and learning curve of the query language can significantly impact your speed and productivity.

Migration path and vendor lock-in

When moving from FaunaDB to another platform, migration ease is a key factor:

• Check if the alternative supports data migration tools or has official guides for migrating from FaunaDB
• Consider the potential for vendor lock-in with a specific database provider, and ensure that you have an exit strategy if you need to switch databases in the future

Conclusion

In this article, we’ve covered nine FaunaDB alternatives, each with unique features. However, this is by no means an exhaustive list. Many other database solutions are available that might suit your needs.

As you evaluate your options, consider factors like data models, query languages, scalability, pricing, and support to ensure the best fit for your application.

Switching from FaunaDB is not just an option, but a necessity, as its services officially ended on May 30, 2025. Existing customers must start exploring alternatives as soon as possible to ensure a smooth transition and uninterrupted service.