What Is Couchbase?
Couchbase is a NoSQL distributed document database (JSON) with many of the best features of a relational DBMS: SQL, distributed ACID transactions, and much more. Couchbase Capella™ is the easiest way to get started, but you can also download and run Couchbase Server on-premises.
What does Couchbase do?
Couchbase serves the modern needs of application developers by providing the greatest strengths of SQL, NoSQL, and NewSQL in a single database. Couchbase is built for microservices and for serverless, consumption-based computing on the cloud, delivering edge computing for mobile and IoT devices that are connected only occasionally or locally.
Couchbase’s distributed architecture is designed to avoid a single point of failure. This enables elastic scaling, workload isolation, and real-time data replication for high availability, global geo-distribution, and disaster recovery.
- A flexible database to store JSON data without a rigid schema
- A familiar SQL standard for queries on your JSON data
- The speed of a built-in managed cache, providing microsecond latency
- Scale that can accommodate a startup and grow to support a massive enterprise
Couchbase Overview
Couchbase Capella
Capella is a fully managed cloud Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS). It's the easiest and fastest way to get started with Couchbase.
Couchbase Server
Couchbase Server can be downloaded and installed anywhere, including Windows, Linux, and Mac.
Couchbase Mobile
Couchbase Lite runs as a standalone embedded database on mobile, desktop, and edge devices and is capable of reading/writing data even while offline. Data can be synchronized automatically with Sync Gateway or Capella App Services.
Autonomous Operator
Couchbase runs more easily within Kubernetes when you use the official Couchbase Autonomous Operator. This operator provides a Couchbase-specific API for managing your database clusters.
Couchbase Features
Couchbase is a multi-model database that supports capabilities including key-value, SQL++, full-text search, analytics, eventing, cross data center replication, and more.
SQL++
Access NoSQL JSON data with a full implementation of the familiar and popular SQL syntax (yes, this includes JOINs!).
Full-text search
Add a real-time search engine-like index to your data without copying or moving it into another tool.
Analytics
Perform complex BI and analytics queries on your data without impacting performance. Includes a full SQL implementation.
XDCR
Synchronize data in real time between data centers using cross data center replication (XDCR).
How to get started
Couchbase Capella is the easiest and fastest way to get started. You can sign up for a free trial with no credit card right now, and get started with your own cluster in a few minutes.
Try Couchbase Capella Free
No credit card required
- Try it now and be live in under 3 minutes
- 50GB of storage
- Try our SQL for JSON query language
- Sample datasets, tools, and tutorials
- Flexible JSON docs, key-value speed, full-text search, support for relational design, and more
- Blazing-fast performance with simple maintenance
You can also start coding right away in the Couchbase Playground. No installation is needed, so you can execute and modify code samples right in your browser. You can also connect the Playground to your Capella trial.
FAQs
Have questions? We're here to help.
Flexibility, performance, and scalability.
Couchbase is ideal for a wide and growing variety of use cases, including user profile, session management, catalogs, content management, and financial tech.
Yes, Couchbase Capella.
Couchbase Capella can deploy clusters to AWS, GCP, and (soon) Microsoft Azure. Couchbase Server can run on Windows, Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, and even ARM platforms. Couchbase Lite can run on iOS, Android, Xamarin, Java, and even embedded devices with C.
For Capella and Couchbase Server, SDKs are available for .NET, C, Go, Java, Kotlin, Node.js, PHP, Python, Ruby, Scala, and Rust. For Couchbase Lite, SDKs are available for Android, C, .NET, Java, JavaScript, Objective-C, and Swift. There are many libraries and integrations available (e.g., Spring Data, ASP.NET, Linq, Ottoman.js, and more).
NoSQL databases access and store data differently than relational databases. However, Couchbase supports many of the best features of relational databases, including SQL and ACID.
Couchbase shares some things in common with other NoSQL databases, but Couchbase also has a variety of features and services that most NoSQL competitors can't match. These include a memory-first, shared-nothing architecture (built-in caching), full SQL capabilities, offline-first mobile capabilities, and more.
Despite the similar names and some shared history long ago, Couchbase and Apache CouchDB are two different technologies. Couchbase is not a fork of CouchDB (and vice versa), and they don’t have compatible APIs.