SurrealDBvs
MotherDuck
MotherDuck: Both are modern cloud database platforms aimed at analytics and AI workloads, though SurrealDB spans multiple data models rather than pure analytics.
SurrealDB
Multi-model database combining documents, graphs, vectors and time-series
As of 29 August 2026, SurrealDB is free to use. SurrealDB is a multi-model, ACID-compliant database unifying documents, graphs, vectors and time-series in one engine. Softwr lists it under Databases. SurrealDB is launched in 2022, available on Web, API, Windows, macOS.
Overview
What SurrealDB does
SurrealDB is a unified, multi-model database platform that manages documents, graphs, vectors and time-series data in a single ACID-compliant engine. Founded in 2022, it positions itself as a data platform for AI applications, offering an agent memory layer with entity extraction, knowledge graph construction and hybrid retrieval. It is available as SurrealDB Cloud or self-hosted Enterprise deployments, and holds SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, GDPR and Cyber Essentials Plus certifications.
What people use it 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
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about SurrealDB.
- The listed $0.192/node/hr Scale pricing lacks transparent higher-tier rates, requiring a sales conversation for full production sizing.
- As a newer multi-model database, it has a smaller ecosystem of drivers, ORMs and community tooling than established single-model databases.
- HIPAA compliance is only available as an Enterprise add-on rather than included in standard paid tiers.
- Combining multiple data models in one engine can add query-planning complexity compared to purpose-built single-model databases.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of SurrealDB
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- SurrealDBvsTurso
Turso: Both are newer developer-focused database platforms, though Turso is SQLite-based rather than multi-model.
Pricing
What SurrealDB costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Start
Free
- 1 free instance, then from $0.021/hr
- 1GB storage free forever
- Vertical scaling to terabytes
- Best for prototypes and development
Scale
$0.192 /mo
- $0.192/node/hr
- Production-grade fault tolerance
- Horizontal scaling to petabytes
- Multi-region disaster recovery
Enterprise
On request
- Self-hosted, custom pricing
- Clustered fault-tolerant deployments
- FIPS-compliant cryptography
- Advanced observability
Capabilities
Features
Multi-model engine
Stores documents, graphs, vectors and time-series data in one database.
ACID transactions
Full ACID compliance across all supported data models.
Hybrid retrieval
Combines vector and graph search for AI agent memory and retrieval-augmented generation.
Horizontal scaling
Scale plan supports clustered, fault-tolerant deployments to petabyte scale.
Multi-region disaster recovery
Production-grade deployments support cross-region failover.
FIPS-compliant cryptography
Enterprise self-hosted deployments support FIPS-compliant encryption.
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
What does SurrealDB cost?
SurrealDB Cloud's Start plan is free with one free instance (then from $0.021/hr), the Scale plan runs $0.192/node/hr for production workloads, and Enterprise self-hosted deployments use custom pricing.
SourceIs there a free plan and what are its limits?
Yes, the Start plan includes one free instance with 1GB of storage free forever and 1GB of outbound data transfer per month, aimed at prototypes and development.
SourceHow is billing handled?
Customers are invoiced monthly based on actual usage in a pay-as-you-go model with no long-term commitments, though commitment-based discounts are available.
SourceBehind it
Who makes SurrealDB
- Company
- SurrealDB
Timeline
SurrealDB over time
- Founded2022-01-01T00:00:00.000Z
SurrealDB founded
Source
Keep looking
Where to go from SurrealDB
- SurrealDB alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- SurrealDB pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- SurrealDB badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Databases softwareThe full category
- Best Databases softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Databases software for
Compare SurrealDB with
- Turso
- MotherDuck
- Vespa
- Zilliz
- ArangoDB
- RavenDB
- DuckDB
- Oracle Database
- TimescaleDB
- Estuary
- QuestDB
- CosmosDB
- DataGrip
- Firebolt
- Google Cloud SQL
- Estuary
- QuestDB
- Microsoft SQL Server
Other Databases software
SQLite-lineage database platform for running very large numbers of small per-tenant databases, with an MIT-licensed engine.
Free, then $4.99/mo14 researched notesDistributed AI search platform for retrieval, ranking, and inference
Free plan11 researched notesMIT-licensed analytical SQL database that runs inside your process, with no server, no dependencies and one writer at a time.
Free plan14 researched notesThe world's most complete, reliable, and secure database
Free, then $47,500/processor10 researched notesTime-series database built on PostgreSQL for real-time analytics
Free plan12 researched notesReal-time data integration combining streaming, CDC, and batch
Free, then $0.5/GB10 researched notesFast open source time-series database for high throughput ingestion
Free plan10 researched notesCross-platform database IDE from JetBrains for SQL and NoSQL databases
Free, then $8.25/mo12 researched notesFully managed relational database service for MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server
Free plan9 researched notesReal-time data integration combining streaming, CDC, and batch
Free, then $0.5/GB10 researched notesFast open source time-series database for high throughput ingestion
Free plan10 researched notesEnterprise-grade relational database management system
Free plan15 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for SurrealDB, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on SurrealDB
SurrealDB alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
SurrealDB pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare SurrealDB
Put it head to head with anything we hold
SurrealDB badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
Best Databases software alternatives
Industrial process historian with published per-tag pricing and no client licence fees
Per tag band per year
NetApp-owned managed service for Cassandra, Kafka, OpenSearch, PostgreSQL and Cadence with a bring-your-own-cloud model
quote
Erlang MQTT broker for large IoT fleets, relicensed to BSL with production free use limited to one node
Per month by connection and session volume
Attribute-based access control and masking applied inside Snowflake, Databricks and BigQuery
quote
MPP analytical database with a MySQL wire protocol and sub-second aggregation on wide tables
Open source, no licence fee
Streaming database that maintains incremental materialised views in SQL instead of Flink jobs
Per RisingWave Unit hour
Centralised data access governance from the creators of Apache Ranger, now rebranding as Trust3 AI
quote
The Meta-lineage distributed SQL query engine, distinct from the Trino fork
Open source, no licence fee