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Databases · head to head

FaunaDB vs Prettier

FaunaDB logo

FaunaDB

Databases

Document-relational database whose hosted service closed in 2025 and whose core is now unmaintained Apache 2.0 code.

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Visit FaunaDBFull review
Prettier logo

Prettier

Developer Tools

Opinionated code formatter

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Visit PrettierFull review

The short version

  • Prettier is an opinionated code formatter.
  • Prettier is free; FaunaDB starts at $25/mo.
  • Where Prettier falls short: inflexible style rules that cannot be customized significantly, forcing teams to accept opinionated defaults.
  • Prices and features on this page were last checked on 13 November 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which FaunaDB and Prettier actually diverge.

Attributes where FaunaDB and Prettier differ
AttributeFaunaDBPrettier
Pricing modelFreemiumFree
PlatformsWebAPI, Editor Plugins, Build Tools
CategoryDatabasesDeveloper Tools
Founded20122016

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in FaunaDB

  • Document-relational model
  • FQL v10
  • Distributed ACID transactions
  • HTTPS access
  • User-defined functions
  • Attribute-based access control
  • Document history
  • Event streaming

Only in Prettier

Nothing recorded that FaunaDB does not also cover.

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

FaunaDB

  • Keeping an existing Fauna-backed application alive on self-hosted infrastructure while a migration is planned and fundednot Prettier
  • Extracting historical data from a Fauna dataset that can no longer be reached through the hosted APInot Prettier
  • Studying a production implementation of deterministic distributed transactions, since the full server source is now readable under Apache 2.0not Prettier
  • Forking the engine deliberately, where an organisation has JVM and distributed-systems staff and wants a document-relational store it fully controlsnot Prettier

Prettier

  • Automatically formatting TypeScript files to project style standardsnot FaunaDB
  • Enforcing consistent HTML indentation across component filesnot FaunaDB
  • Removing style-related comments from pull request reviewsnot FaunaDB
  • Formatting GraphQL queries with consistent indentationnot FaunaDB

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

FaunaDB

  • The hosted service was wound down in 2025, so there is no managed Fauna to buy; every remaining user either operates a JVM cluster themselves or migrates, and both are projects rather than tasks
  • The open-sourced repository has had no substantive activity since May 2025 and the drivers were frozen alongside it, so you inherit responsibility for security patches in a Scala distributed database that almost nobody else is running
  • FQL has no wire or dialect compatibility with anything else, so migrating off is a rewrite of every query, index and access rule in the application rather than a data export
  • No BI tool, ORM or CDC connector speaks FQL, so reporting and analytics always required exporting the data first, and that export tooling is now also unmaintained
  • The community was small before the shutdown and has dispersed since, so operational answers, tuning advice and people who have run a Fauna cluster in anger are all scarce when something breaks

Prettier

  • Inflexible style rules that cannot be customized significantly, forcing teams to accept opinionated defaults
  • Developers must format entire files rather than selective line ranges in some contexts
  • Limited language support compared to some alternatives, though it covers major languages

Pricing, plan by plan

FaunaDB

Free
  • FreeFree
    • 100K read ops
    • 50K write ops
    • 1GB storage
  • Pro$25/mo
    • Pay per use
    • Priority support
    • Advanced features

Prettier

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Prettier review.

Which should you pick?

Choose FaunaDB if

  • You need document-relational model.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want fql v10.
FaunaDB review

Choose Prettier if

  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on API, Editor Plugins, Build Tools.
Prettier review

Questions people ask

Is FaunaDB or Prettier better?
Neither clearly leads. FaunaDB starts at Free and Prettier at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, FaunaDB or Prettier?
FaunaDB starts at Free and Prettier at Free.
Does FaunaDB or Prettier run on more platforms?
FaunaDB runs on Web. Prettier runs on API, Editor Plugins, Build Tools.
Can I use FaunaDB for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is FaunaDB best used for?
FaunaDB is most often used for keeping an existing fauna-backed application alive on self-hosted infrastructure while a migration is planned and funded, extracting historical data from a fauna dataset that can no longer be reached through the hosted api, studying a production implementation of deterministic distributed transactions, since the full server source is now readable under apache 2.0, forking the engine deliberately, where an organisation has jvm and distributed-systems staff and wants a document-relational store it fully controls. Of those, keeping an existing fauna-backed application alive on self-hosted infrastructure while a migration is planned and funded and extracting historical data from a fauna dataset that can no longer be reached through the hosted api are not what Prettier is typically brought in for.
What can FaunaDB do that Prettier cannot?
FaunaDB covers Document-relational model, FQL v10, Distributed ACID transactions, HTTPS access.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

FaunaDB: Can I still sign up for Fauna as a service?

No. Fauna Inc. wound down the hosted service in 2025 and the company website is no longer serving. The only way to run Fauna now is to build and operate the open-sourced server yourself.

Prettier: Is Prettier free and open source?

Yes, Prettier is completely free and open source, available as an npm package with no licensing costs or subscriptions.

Source
FaunaDB: What licence is the open-sourced code under?

Apache 2.0, with the copyright held by a FaunaDB Foundation. That is a permissive OSI licence with no competing-use clause, so you may run it, modify it and even offer it as a service.

Prettier: Can Prettier be integrated with ESLint?

Yes, Prettier integrates with ESLint by disabling ESLint formatting rules via eslint-config-prettier, allowing both tools to work together with Prettier handling formatting and ESLint handling code quality.

Source
FaunaDB: Is the open source version the same software that ran the cloud?

It is the core database engine. The control plane, billing, dashboard and multi-tenant operational tooling that made it a service are not part of the release, so you are running the engine, not the product.

Prettier: Does Prettier support configuration customization?

Prettier is intentionally opinionated with limited configuration options to enforce consistency. You can create a .prettierrc file for basic customization, but Prettier does not support extensive rule customization like ESLint.

Source
FaunaDB: What should I migrate to?

There is no drop-in target. Teams that valued the document model with relationships usually land on Postgres with JSONB, and teams that valued the serverless HTTP access pattern usually land on DynamoDB or a managed Postgres with an HTTP driver. Either way the query layer is rewritten.

FaunaDB: How hard is it to self-host?

It builds as a fat JAR and runs as a multi-node JVM cluster. There is an OPERATING.md, but no supported packaging, no operator, no upstream releases and no support contract, so budget for a distributed-systems engineer, not a container.

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