Databases · alternatives
Alternatives to SurrealDB
22 databases tools sit alongside SurrealDB in this directory. Below is what separates each from SurrealDB on the figures we hold, price, model, tier count and rating, and a direct comparison for every one.
- Alternatives listed
- 22
- With a free tier
- 17
- Cheaper to start
- 0
- SurrealDB starts at
- Free
Why people look past SurrealDB
Nothing on the record flags a reason to move. SurrealDB has a free tier, and starts at Free against a category median of $112/month. People still switch over fit and workflow, and those are not things a catalogue entry can measure, which is what the comparisons below are for.
What each alternative does differently
Ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry. Differences are drawn from price, pricing model, tier count and rating, the fields the category listing carries. For a feature-level difference, follow the head-to-head link on each card: those pages read both full records.
Serverless analytics data warehouse built on DuckDB
- Starts $250 a month dearer, at $250/month.
SQLite-lineage database platform for running very large numbers of small per-tenant databases, with an MIT-licensed engine.
- Starts $4.99 a month dearer, at $4.99/month.
- Sold on a freemium model rather than usage-based.
- 4 tiers to SurrealDB's 3.
MPP analytical database with a MySQL wire protocol and sub-second aggregation on wide tables
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee model rather than usage-based.
- 1 tier to SurrealDB's 3.
The Meta-lineage distributed SQL query engine, distinct from the Trino fork
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee model rather than usage-based.
- 1 tier to SurrealDB's 3.
Erlang MQTT broker for large IoT fleets, relicensed to BSL with production free use limited to one node
- Starts $234 a month dearer, at $234/month.
- Sold on a Per month by connection and session volume model rather than usage-based.
- 4 tiers to SurrealDB's 3.
Apache 2.0 MPP analytical database built for joins on open table formats
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee model rather than usage-based.
- 2 tiers to SurrealDB's 3.
Every SurrealDB alternative at a glance
A dash means the catalogue entry carries no figure, not that the answer is nothing.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Tiers | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SurrealDB (this page) | Free | Usage-based | 3 | |
| MotherDuckBoth are modern cloud database platforms aimed at analytics and AI workloads, though SurrealDB spans multiple data models rather than pure analytics. | Free, then $250/month | Usage-based | 3 | vs SurrealDB |
| TursoBoth are newer developer-focused database platforms, though Turso is SQLite-based rather than multi-model. | Free, then $4.99/month | Freemium | 4 | vs SurrealDB |
| Apache Doris | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs SurrealDB |
| Presto | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs SurrealDB |
| EMQX | Free, then $234/month | Per month by connection and session volume | 4 | vs SurrealDB |
| StarRocks | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs SurrealDB |
| Solace PubSub+ | Free | Quote | 4 | vs SurrealDB |
| Tinybird | Free, then $25/month | Per month by compute and storage | 4 | vs SurrealDB |
| Dremio | Free, then $0.2/hour | Per Dremio Compute Unit consumed | 3 | vs SurrealDB |
| VerneMQ | Free | Quote | 3 | vs SurrealDB |
| Timeplus | Free, then $199/month | Per month for cloud, quoted for self-hosted | 3 | vs SurrealDB |
| RisingWave | Free, then $0.227/hour | Per RisingWave Unit hour | 4 | vs SurrealDB |
| NATS | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs SurrealDB |
| Redpanda | Free | Source-available community edition with paid enterprise and cloud tiers | 1 | vs SurrealDB |
| RabbitMQ | Free | Open source, no licence fee; managed services billed separately | 1 | vs SurrealDB |
| Canary Labs | $3000/year | Per tag band per year | 4 | vs SurrealDB |
| Instaclustr | On request | Quote | 1 | vs SurrealDB |
| Immuta | On request | Quote | 1 | vs SurrealDB |
| Privacera | On request | Quote | 1 | vs SurrealDB |
| TIBCO Enterprise Message Service | On request | Quote | 1 | vs SurrealDB |
| Apache Solr | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs SurrealDB |
| Apache Pulsar | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs SurrealDB |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry; Softwr hosts no reviews of these products. How each figure is used is set out on the SurrealDB badges page.
Cheaper ways to solve the same problem
Free to start (17)
These publish a tier that costs nothing, so they can be evaluated before any money changes hands.
- MotherDuck , Free, then $250/month
- Turso , Free, then $4.99/month
- Apache Doris , Free
- Presto , Free
- EMQX , Free, then $234/month
- StarRocks , Free
- Solace PubSub+ , Free
- Tinybird , Free, then $25/month
What you would be giving up
SurrealDB is most often brought in for ai agent memory and retrieval-augmented generation, applications needing documents, graphs and vectors in one database, knowledge graph construction from unstructured data, regulated workloads requiring soc2/iso27001/hipaa-eligible hosting. Anything replacing it has to cover the ones you actually depend on, and a cheaper tool that misses one of them is not cheaper.
Two things this page cannot settle. It compares on price, model, tier count and rating, because those are the fields the category listing carries, feature-level differences need both full records, which is what the head-to-head pages load. And the ratings are third-party aggregates imported with each entry rather than reviews written here, so a 0.2 difference between two tools is noise rather than a finding.
If SurrealDB is broadly right and the question is cost, the SurrealDB pricing breakdown covers every tier and what each one adds. If you want the whole field rather than a shortlist, the Databases category lists everything the directory holds, and best databases tools ranks them.
SurrealDB runs on web, api, windows, mac, linux. Platform coverage is not carried on the category listing for the alternatives, so it is one more thing to check on each head-to-head page rather than here.
Questions about SurrealDB alternatives
- What are the main alternatives to SurrealDB?
- 22 other databases tools are listed in this directory, led by MotherDuck, Turso, Apache Doris, Presto. They are ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry, not by any Softwr ranking.
- What is the best free alternative to SurrealDB?
- 17 of the alternatives listed here can be used without paying: MotherDuck, Turso, Apache Doris, Presto, EMQX.
- Is there a reason to switch away from SurrealDB?
- Nothing in the data flags one. SurrealDB has a free tier, and starts at Free against a category median of $112/month. Fit and workflow are the usual reasons to move, and those are not things this record can measure.
- What would I give up by switching from SurrealDB?
- SurrealDB is most often brought in for ai agent memory and retrieval-augmented generation, applications needing documents, graphs and vectors in one database, knowledge graph construction from unstructured data, regulated workloads requiring soc2/iso27001/hipaa-eligible hosting. Anything you replace it with has to cover the ones you actually rely on, the side-by-side comparisons linked from each alternative below put the two feature records against each other.
- Is there an open-source alternative to SurrealDB?
- None of the databases tools listed here are recorded as open source. That is what the licence field on each entry says, and the field is not always filled in, so it is worth checking directly for any tool you are serious about.
- How were these SurrealDB alternatives chosen?
- They are the tools filed in the same category, Databases, ordered by the aggregated rating on each entry. There is no editorial shortlist, and nothing on this page is paid: no sponsored placement runs on alternatives pages and the order cannot be bought. Softwr has not used these products.
- Where can I compare SurrealDB against one of these directly?
- Every alternative below has a side-by-side page against SurrealDB covering price, platforms, features and what each one is used for. Those pages read the full record for both products rather than the summary shown here.
- Does this list cover every databases tool?
- No. It covers what this directory holds in the Databases category, 22 tools beside SurrealDB. The category page lists the rest of the catalogue as it grows.