6 best al­tern­at­ives to Apache Cassandra

Apache Cassandra is popular all over the world. The database man­age­ment system is used by lots of large companies and is designed for dealing with big data. But if you’re thinking about switching or want to try a different approach, these six al­tern­at­ives to Cassandra are worth con­sid­er­ing.

What is Cassandra and what al­tern­at­ives are there?

Apache Cassandra is one of the most suc­cess­ful column-oriented NoSQL databases in the world. Released in 2008, the open-source solution is used by major companies such as Apple, Netflix, Spotify and X (formerly Twitter) and it has its own query language CQL (Cassandra Query Language). The primary purpose of the database man­age­ment system is the storage and man­age­ment of large volumes of data. Apache Cassandra scores par­tic­u­larly well with its ho­ri­zont­al scalab­il­ity, which can expand to ac­com­mod­ate in­creas­ing volumes of data. The system is extremely reliable, thanks to the use of multiple nodes, which lend them­selves to the overall flex­ib­il­ity of the database. While the speed of the solution makes it superior to many other databases, the database does have some dis­ad­vant­ages.

Cassandra is a highly flexible tool, but unlocking its full potential comes with a sig­ni­fic­ant learning curve. This challenge extends beyond its custom query language, which—while inspired by SQL—is not par­tic­u­larly intuitive. Designing, im­ple­ment­ing, and managing complex databases can be es­pe­cially daunting for beginners. Ad­di­tion­ally, the pos­sib­il­ity of storing data re­dund­antly can make it harder to maintain a clear overview. Depending on your specific needs, it may be worth exploring al­tern­at­ives to Cassandra. Below, we introduce some of the best options.

MongoDB—The best option for large amounts of data

One of the best al­tern­at­ives to Cassandra is un­doubtedly MongoDB. The approach of this document-oriented NoSQL database is already reflected in its name: derived from ‘huMONGOus’, meaning ‘gigantic’ or ‘enormous’. MongoDB is pro­pri­et­ary and has been available since 2009. It stores data in the binary JSON format BSON and stands out par­tic­u­larly for its scalab­il­ity, avail­ab­il­ity, and flex­ib­il­ity. Even complex and het­ero­gen­eous datasets can be stored and retrieved in MongoDB easily and clearly. Data is stored in the form of documents, which are grouped into col­lec­tions. You can modify these documents simply by adding or removing in­di­vidu­al fields.

The ad­vant­ages of MongoDB at a glance

• Ho­ri­zont­ally scalable on a large scale
• High avail­ab­il­ity thanks to numerous nodes
• Flexible thanks to soph­ist­ic­ated ar­chi­tec­ture
• Data rep­lic­a­tion possible
• Easy to use
• Very secure thanks to sharding (the par­ti­tion­ing of the database)
• Ad-hoc queries possible

MySQL—The re­la­tion­al solution with strong per­form­ance

MySQL takes a com­pletely different approach. The open-source system uses a re­la­tion­al model and stores datasets in tables, unlike Cassandra and other al­tern­at­ives. Data is queried using the well-known and widely used SQL query language. Compared to many other database man­age­ment systems, MySQL could almost be called a ‘classic’. First released in 1995, it has been con­tinu­ously developed ever since. Numerous web services and content man­age­ment systems rely wholly or partly on this solution—examples include Google, YouTube, and WordPress. Today, pro­pri­et­ary versions of MySQL are also available, dis­trib­uted by software and hardware provider Oracle.

The ad­vant­ages of MySQL at a glance

• Open source
• Stable and reliable
• High com­pat­ib­il­ity with many systems, platforms and pro­gram­ming languages
• SQL query language is simple, logical and widely used
• Strong per­form­ance
• High avail­ab­il­ity
• Easy to learn
• Large community and long de­vel­op­ment history

Firebase—A smart choice for mobile ap­plic­a­tions

While Cassandra and other al­tern­at­ives take a broad approach and are ideally suited to handling big data, Firebase is a more spe­cial­ised solution. Although the de­vel­op­ment platform is also able to process large amounts of data, it is primarily designed for use with mobile web ap­plic­a­tions like gaming apps, chat programs and social networks. Mobile web ap­plic­a­tions like these benefit from Firebase’s real-time syn­chron­isa­tion. Firebase, first released in 2011 and now part of Google, is used by Duolingo, the New York Times, Twitch and Venmo, among others. Today the solution is more than just a database. Firebase is a complete ecosystem with a total of 18 free and paid services.

The ad­vant­ages of Firebase at a glance

• Real-time pro­cessing
• Strong per­form­ance
• Ideal solution for mobile ap­plic­a­tions
• Extensive ecosystem and good in­teg­ra­tion of various services such as Google Analytics
• Soph­ist­ic­ated cloud solutions
• Several test services
• Machine Learning Kit
• Cross-platform

Post­gr­eSQL—A flexible SQL solution

The found­a­tion for Post­gr­eSQL was already laid in the 1980s. However, the current object-re­la­tion­al database man­age­ment system was first released in 1996. Post­gr­eSQL, or simply ‘Postgre’, is cross-platform and in­teg­rates well with other databases. Although it is an open-source re­la­tion­al system, it also allows columns with nested values, making it sig­ni­fic­antly more flexible than many other SQL options. Scaling is vertical only, but the database is well-suited for large volumes of data. Post­gr­eSQL is known for its robust security ar­chi­tec­ture, which is one reason major companies like Apple, Spotify, and Twitch rely on it. A dedicated community also helps ensure its ongoing de­vel­op­ment.

The ad­vant­ages of Post­gr­eSQL at a glance

• Open source
• Large community
• Strong security ar­chi­tec­ture
• Flexible and scalable despite SQL approach
• Numerous in­ter­faces
• High data integrity
• Good query pro­cessing and indexing
• Wide range of ap­plic­a­tions

Redis—The NoSQL database for par­tic­u­larly low latencies

Redis, short for REmote DIc­tion­ary Server, is also one of the NoSQL databases. This open-source solution has been available since 2009 and was written in ANSI C. The system’s main focus is speed, offering response times of under one mil­li­second. This is achieved by storing data directly in RAM, which reduces latency but increases memory usage. Redis supports both ho­ri­zont­al and vertical scaling. While it doesn’t have its own query language, it is re­l­at­ively easy to use, as demon­strated in our Redis tutorial. Companies such as Airbnb, Slack, and Uber rely on this database.

The ad­vant­ages of Redis at a glance

• Open source
• Very high speeds
• Ho­ri­zont­ally and ver­tic­ally scalable
• High avail­ab­il­ity
• Virtual memory man­age­ment
• Com­pat­ible with numerous languages, platforms and systems
• Very user-friendly
• Flexible data struc­tures
• Large and active community

MariaDB—The open-source MySQL fork

MariaDB is a powerful re­la­tion­al database that ori­gin­ated as a fork of MySQL. After Oracle acquired the rights to MySQL, the original developer community—led by Michael ‘Monty’ Widenius—created an in­de­pend­ent, open-source al­tern­at­ive. Since its release in 2009, MariaDB has steadily evolved and today impresses not only with full com­pat­ib­il­ity with MySQL, but also with ad­di­tion­al features and high per­form­ance in the direct ‘MariaDB vs MySQL’ com­par­is­on. It is es­pe­cially popular with companies that value long-term in­de­pend­ence and trans­par­ency. The re­la­tion­al structure allows for struc­tured data man­age­ment in tra­di­tion­al tables, while modern ex­ten­sions like Column­Store also support ana­lyt­ic­al workloads.

The ad­vant­ages of MariaDB at a glance

• Open source with an active community
• Com­pat­ible with MySQL (incl. SQL syntax)
• High per­form­ance and stability
• Extensive security features
• Scalable and suitable for large data volumes
• Broad support for platforms and pro­gram­ming languages