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Databases · head to head

FaunaDB vs Privacera

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
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Privacera logo

Privacera

Databases

Centralised data access governance from the creators of Apache Ranger, now rebranding as Trust3 AI

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only FaunaDB has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: 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.; Privacera the company is mid-rebrand to Trust3 AI as of March 2026, so documentation, contracts and support channels are in transition and buyers should confirm which entity and which product name their agreement actually names.
  • They diverge on capability: FaunaDB covers Document-relational model, Privacera covers Centralised policy authoring.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which FaunaDB and Privacera actually diverge.

Attributes where FaunaDB and Privacera differ
AttributeFaunaDBPrivacera
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelfreemiumquote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWebWeb, Linux
Founded2012Unknown

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Databases).

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
  • Document history
  • Event streaming
  • Apache 2.0 core

Only in Privacera

  • Centralised policy authoring
  • Native enforcement
  • Dynamic masking and row filtering
  • Sensitive data discovery
  • Encryption and de-identification
  • Audit reporting
  • AI governance agent

Both cover

  • Attribute-based access control

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

Privacera

  • An enterprise running both Databricks and Snowflake that needs one masking policy honoured identically in both rather than two sets of grants to reconcilenot FaunaDB
  • A bank that must produce a single access audit across its analytics estate for a regulator without stitching together per-engine logsnot FaunaDB
  • A Hadoop shop with years of Apache Ranger policies migrating to cloud analytics and wanting to carry the policy model across rather than rewrite itnot FaunaDB
  • A team exposing governed data to LLM applications that needs the same row and column restrictions to apply when an agent queries on a user behalfnot 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.

Privacera

  • The company is mid-rebrand to Trust3 AI as of March 2026, so documentation, contracts and support channels are in transition and buyers should confirm which entity and which product name their agreement actually names.
  • Investment is visibly shifting towards agentic AI governance, which raises a fair question about how much engineering continues to go into the classic data access governance modules that most existing customers actually bought.
  • Native enforcement depends on each engine supporting the policy constructs you need, so what you can express on Databricks may not be enforceable identically on a less capable source, and coverage must be verified source by source.
  • It sits between the data platforms and their own governance features, and as Databricks Unity Catalog and Snowflake native governance mature, single-platform customers find the case for a separate layer weakening.
  • Pricing is unpublished and scales with connected sources, so an organisation that keeps adding data platforms discovers the governance layer cost grows alongside the platform costs it was meant to rationalise.

Pricing, plan by plan

FaunaDB

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

Privacera

On request
  • Privacera Platform$undefined/year
    • Quoted by connected data sources, users and deployment model
    • Self-managed and Privacera Cloud SaaS options
    • Free trial available for Privacera Cloud and Trust3 AI

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 Privacera if

  • You need centralised policy authoring.
  • You work on Web, Linux.
  • You also want native enforcement.
Privacera review

Questions people ask

Is FaunaDB or Privacera better?
Neither clearly leads. FaunaDB starts at Free and Privacera at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, FaunaDB or Privacera?
FaunaDB has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for FaunaDB and On request for Privacera.
Does FaunaDB or Privacera run on more platforms?
FaunaDB runs on Web. Privacera runs on Web, Linux.
Can I use FaunaDB for free?
Yes. FaunaDB has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Privacera starts at On request.
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 Privacera is typically brought in for.
What can FaunaDB do that Privacera cannot?
FaunaDB covers Document-relational model, FQL v10, Distributed ACID transactions, HTTPS access. Privacera covers Centralised policy authoring, Native enforcement, Dynamic masking and row filtering, Sensitive data discovery. Both handle Attribute-based access control.

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.

Privacera: Did Privacera merge with Immuta?

No. They remain independent competitors, and Privacera still publishes comparison material against Immuta. What did happen is a rebrand to Trust3 AI announced in March 2026.

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.

Privacera: Is it the same as Apache Ranger?

It is built on Ranger by Ranger creators, but it adds multi-engine enforcement, discovery, a managed cloud option and support. Ranger alone does not cover Snowflake or cloud storage in the same way.

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.

Privacera: Does it slow down queries?

It pushes policy into the underlying engine rather than proxying, so query execution stays native. Policy synchronisation, not query latency, is the usual operational concern.

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.

Privacera: What does it cost?

Not published. Quoted by connected sources, user count and whether you self-manage or use Privacera Cloud. A free trial of the cloud product is available.

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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