Top 10 Flutter Database, that you should know about it
here we discuss some major database libraries that we must know
Hello Folks, in this article we will discuss the most used database that probably most of the flutter developer needs, and approximately most of the time we use any one of them.
let’s start to discuss one by one, So start with the most popular database is that sqflite.
Many times, your app needs to save important data on the device. If it’s structured data, chances are you want to use a SQL database. A SQL database engine that is available on almost any device, including mobile phones, is called SQLite.
In sqflite, you open a database file by calling open database.
Almost everything in sqflite is asynchronous, so you’ll have to await. You can also provide callbacks that create the database if it doesn’t exist yet or upgrade the database if it’s using an old schema. Sqflite lets you execute raw SQL on the database. And it helps you with escaping values, so you don’t accidentally corrupt your database.
if you need to store a large amount of data, store blobs, use triggers, handle multiple accesses at the same time, and need to optimize indexes, then I would recommend using another database system.SQLite should also be considered if the installation/configuration of a heavier database system is a problem.
SQLite plugin for Flutter. Supports iOS, Android, and MacOS.
- Support transactions and batches
- Automatic version management during open
- Helpers for insert/query/update/delete queries
- DB operation executed in a background thread on iOS and Android
Key Points :
- Support transactions and batches
- Automatic version management during open
- Helpers for insert/query/update/delete queries
- DB operation executed in a background thread on iOS and Android
- it Supports iOS, Android, and macOS.
Hive is a lightweight and blazing fast key-value database written in pure Dart.
The Hive implementation supports not only primitives, lists, and maps, but also any Dart object. The object must be converted to a constant type adapter before it can be stored.
Hive will fit right into any workflow that manages multiple projects. It’s also a great fit for collaboration on a per-project basis as external users can collaborate with paid users. Across a very large team, it would take more planning on how to fit multiple workflows and groups into the workspace but it can be done.
Key Points :
- 🚀Cross platform: mobile, desktop, browser
- ⚡ Great performance (see benchmark)
- ❤️ Simple, powerful, & intuitive API
- 🔒 Strong encryption built-in
- 🎈 NO native dependencies
- 🔋 Batteries included
The Floor library provides an SQLite abstraction for your Flutter applications, based on the Room persistence library. The library offers automatic mapping between in-memory objects and database rows, while still allowing full control of the database using SQL.
As a result, it’s necessary to understand SQL and SQLite in order to fully utilize Floor.
- null-safe
- typesafe
- reactive
- lightweight
- SQL centric
- no hidden magic
- no hidden costs
- iOS, Android, Linux, macOS, Windows
sembast DB stands for Simple Embedded Application Store database.
Another NoSQL persistent store solution for single-process IO. The entire document-based database resides in one file and is loaded into memory when opened. Any changes are immediately reflected in the file, and the file is automatically compacted.
Supports encryption using a user-defined codec.
- Pure dart single file IO VM/Flutter storage supported.
- Web support (including Flutter Web) through
sembast_web. - Can work on top of sqflite through
sembast_sqflite.
A more feature-rich relational DBMS solution is the drift (Moor). It is a wrapper around sqflite but offers more power and includes a querying API.
Even though web support is experimental, it works on all possible platforms. It also offers excellent support for transactions, schema migrations, sophisticated filters and expressions, and batch processes.
Drift is a reactive persistence library for Flutter and Dart, built on top of SQLite.
- Flexible
- 🔥 Feature-rich
- 📦 Modular:
- ⚡ Fast
- Reactive
- ⚙️ Cross-Platform support
- 🗡️ Battle-tested and production-ready
Object box in Flutter is a very fast NoSQL database that is optimized for very high performance on devices such as mobile desktops and is a lightweight database that stores the objects. Super-fast Flutter database for storing and syncing Dart objects
- 🏁 High performance — improving response rates and enabling real-time applications.
- 🪂 ACID-compliant — Atomic, Consistent, Isolated, Durable.
- 💻 Multiplatform — Android, iOS, macOS, Linux, Windows.
- 🌱 Scalable — grows with your app, handling millions of objects with ease.
Easy to use
- 🔗 Relations — object links/relationships are built-in.
- 💐 Queries — filter data as needed, even across relations.
- 🦮 Statically typed — compile-time checks & optimizations.
- 📃 Schema migration — change your model with confidence.
SQLite3 is a pure-Dart package, which is independent of Flutter and can be used both in standalone applications and in Flutter apps.
Moreover, this package experimentally supports WebAssembly through the web, so you can use it on any platform where you can obtain symbols from sqlite3.
Here’s how to use this library on the most popular platforms:
- Android: Flutter users can depend on the
sqlite3_flutter_libspackage to ship the latest sqlite3 version with their app - iOS: Contains a built-in version of SQLite that this package will use by default. When using Flutter, you can also depend on
sqlite3_flutter_libsto ship the latest sqlite3 version with your app. - Linux: You need to install an additional package (like
libsqlite3-devon Debian), or you manually ship sqlite3 with your app (see below) - macOS: Contains a built-in version of SQLite that this package will use by default. Also, you can depend on
sqlite3_flutter_libsif you want to include the latest sqlite3 version with your app. - Windows: You need to manually ship sqlite3 with your app (see below)
Shared preferences are collections of key-value data. They store simple data in platform-specific persistent storage (such as NSUserDefaults on iOS and macOS, SharedPreferences on Android).
Because data may be written to disk asynchronously, and no guarantee that writes will be persisted when the plugin returns, this plugin must not be used for storing critical data.
Supported data types are int, double, bool, String and List<String>.
The Firebase Realtime Database is a cloud-based database that stores data as JSON and synchronizes it in realtime to all connected clients.
All of your clients can share one Realtime Database instance through your cross-platform apps built with Flutter & Firebase and automatically receive updates as new information becomes available.
Introducing database.dart, a vendor-agnostic database access library for Flutter and other Dart projects.
- Document database API: Our document database API works with a wide range of products, including document databases, SQL databases, and search engines.
- SQL database API: You can use raw SQL when you need to.
- Search engine support: The API supports forwarding specific queries to search engines that can, for example, handle natural language queries better than transaction databases.
- There are already several search engines already supported: Algolia, ElasticSearch, and a simple search engine written in Dart.
So after all of those, it is difficult to choose between them right, let’s take a look at a reason when we use them also some comparison between those.
Hive:-It’s easy to use and the pitch talks about its speed, but for me, the greatest benefit is how easily it can be set up and how few lines of code it uses. The few times I’ve used it in projects I’ve coupled it with another DB option, which felt totally fine to do seeing as the structural overhead of adding hive to a project is very low. Also, since it’s built on shared preferences, you can’t rely on it to store critical data, as it’s possible it disappears.
Moor:-Although I liked some parts of the moor (generating streams automatically is a nice feature), I didn’t use it because of the documentation and resources. I found myself getting frustrated when I had to do more complex things with it since there aren’t as many SO questions and the like to guide you. There is some boilerplate here, but it’s pretty comparable to sqflite. I think this should improve with time though.
Sqflite:-Yes, sqflite does have some boilerplate code, and it’s low-level, but it’s pretty robust and easy to use. To me, the main downside is that there are so many different tutorials and guides out there that all suggest their own way of setting it up, Therefore, it’s hard to tell if you’ve implemented the package correctly without understanding it in-depth.
Sembast:- With this database of over 10 MB, it works flawlessly. One database is separated for purchase history and another for users’ data. With very simple usage and the option of executing custom queries, it’s a great tool.
ObjectBox: The object box has proved to be quite useful. I have a class that contains a list of another class that contains another list of another class, and it has handled it well. Once I got the nested list of classes set up, it was awesome.
So that’s all the information, that I want to describe in short, all are perfect if you deeply understand as per your usage. I took it from many websites as some research if you find out any wrong info or miscorrected, please point out or comment below.
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Have a nice day!🙂
