Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.data vs. SQLite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.data
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Astra DB is a vector database for developers. In 2025 Datastax, the developer and supporter of Astra DB, was acquired. Astra DB is now available as a component of the IBM watsonx.data Multicloud offering.N/A
SQLite
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
SQLite is an in-process library that implements a self-contained, serverless, zero-configuration, transactional SQL database engine. The code for SQLite is in the public domain and is thus free for use for any purpose, commercial or private. SQLite is one of the most widely deployed databases in the world.N/A
Pricing
Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.dataSQLite
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.dataSQLite
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.dataSQLite
Features
Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.dataSQLite
Vector Database
Comparison of Vector Database features of Product A and Product B
Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.data
8.0
12 Ratings
0% above category average
SQLite
-
Ratings
Vector Data Connection8.212 Ratings00 Ratings
Vector Data Editing8.56 Ratings00 Ratings
Attribute Management7.910 Ratings00 Ratings
Geospatial Analysis8.26 Ratings00 Ratings
Geometric Transformations8.06 Ratings00 Ratings
Vector Data Visualization7.77 Ratings00 Ratings
Coordinate Reference System Management:7.76 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Import/Export7.711 Ratings00 Ratings
Symbolization and Styling8.45 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Sharing and Collaboration7.69 Ratings00 Ratings
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User Ratings
Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.dataSQLite
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(46 ratings)
8.0
(14 ratings)
Usability
7.8
(4 ratings)
8.0
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
8.9
(4 ratings)
1.0
(1 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.4
(44 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.dataSQLite
Likelihood to Recommend
Discontinued Products
We've been super happy with Astra DB. It's been extremely well-suited for our vector search needs as described in previous responses. With Astra DB’s high-performance vector search, Maester’s AI dynamically optimizes responses in real-time, adapting to new user interactions without requiring costly retraining cycles.
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Open Source
SQLite is a lightweight and efficient database management system. With SQLite, performance increases as memory are added. It's reliable and well-tested before release. SQLite handles memory allocation and I/O errors gracefully. SQLite provides bug lists and code-change chronologies. All bugs are disclosed, and it's compatible with iOS, Android, MAC, and Windows. SQLite is open-source, allowing developers to tailor it to their specific needs.
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Pros
Discontinued Products
  • We need to be able to process a lot of data (our biggest clients process hundreds of milions of transactions every month). However, it is not only the amount of data, it is also an unpredictable patterns with spikes occuring at different points of time - something athat Astra is great at.
  • Our processing needs to be extremaly fast. Some of our clients use our enrichment in a synchronous way, meaning that any delay in processing is holding up the whole transaction lifecycle and can have a major impact on the client. Astra is very fast.
  • A close collaboration with GCP makes our life very easy. All of our technology sits in Google Cloud, so having Astra in there makes it a no-brainer solution for us.
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Open Source
  • Our products are using SQLite in embedded Linux and in Windows software.
  • It is truly a stable cross-platform database.
  • The fact that it is a zero-configuration database engine, it is particularly a nice advantage when you work in the embedded world.
  • Being a single database file, it provides ease for those who need to quickly transfer data to someone else, or quickly browse data.
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Cons
Discontinued Products
  • Need better fine-grained Security options.
  • The support team sometimes requires the escalate button pressed on tickets, to get timely responses. I will say, once the ticket is escalated, action is taken.
  • They require better documentation on the migration of data. The three primary methods for migrating large data volumes are bulk, Cassandra Data Migrator, and ZDM (Zero Downtime Migration Utility). Over time I have become very familiar will all three of these methods; however, through working with the Services team and the support team, it seemed like we were breaking new ground. I feel if the utilities were better documented and included some examples and/or use cases from large data migrations; this process would have been easier. One lesson learned is you likely need to migrate your application servers to the same cloud provider you host Astra on; otherwise, the latency is too large for latency-sensitive applications.
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Open Source
  • Although it is excellent at what it does, you should be really careful and plan accordingly if you know that your database is going to scale at a huge level because it is not suitable of databases which are of Enterprise level and demands top-notch security and protection.
  • If your project involves multiple people working on the same database simultaneously, then that becomes a big problem, because it only allows single write at one time. You really need to be forward thinking in a manner to predict if this database will cater to all the needs of your project.
  • The most common difficulty with this is the lack of some of the basic functionality which is present in the other premier databases like Joints, Stored Procedure calls, Security and permission grants. If you do require all those things then you are better off not using this software.
  • Lastly, if you are using this in an Andriod App development cycle then also your options are limited because it does not integrate with PostgreSQL and MYSQL.
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Usability
Discontinued Products
It's a great product but suffers with counters. This isn't a deal breaker but lets down what is otherwise a good all round solution
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Open Source
I have given this rating cause its irreplaceable in some of the areas like no more installation need except from a single library. I find dialect is simple in use cases. its suitable for any professionals with various skill levels. its easily connect with various os and devices. very less maintenance or administration required.
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Support Rating
Discontinued Products
Their response time is fast, in case you do not contact them during business hours, they give a very good follow-up to your case. They also facilitate video calls if necessary for debugging.
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Open Source
I haven't needed support yet.
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Alternatives Considered
Discontinued Products
Graph, search, analytics, administration, developer tooling, and monitoring are all incorporated into a single platform by Astra DB. Mongo Db is a self-managed infrastructure. Astra DB has Wide column store and Mongo DB has Document store. The best thing is that Astra DB operates on Java while Mongo DB operates on C++
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Open Source
We looked at other traditional RDBMS products, but found them to be cumbersome to deploy. They take up more space, and consume more computing resources than SQLite does. While the performance or direct integration to our primary applications may have been better or easier if we had gone with a traditional RDBMS, the performance of SQLite has been more than acceptable. The performance and speed to deploy made SQLite a much more attractive option for us than a traditional RDBMS.
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Scalability
Discontinued Products
We are well aware of the Cassandra architecture and familiar with the open source tooling that Datastax provides the industry (K8sSandra / Stargate) to scale Cassandra on Kubernetes.
Having prior knowledge of Cassandra / Kubernetes means we know that under the hood Astra is built on infinitely scalable technologies. We trust that the foundations that Astra is built on will scale so we know Astra will scale.
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Open Source
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Discontinued Products
  • Better uptime due to the managed service having no outages
  • Less technical debt because we don't need to worry about upgrading our Cassandra clusters
  • Lower cost on infrastructure as a whole
  • Quick and easy to integrate vector search into our tech stack
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Open Source
  • No licensing fees has a net increase on ROI
  • The active community has kept support costs low, further increasing ROI
  • The wide range of supported platforms and high level of compatibility has increased ROI by reducing time spent porting the database model to any platform specific solutions.
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