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Astra DB

Astra DB

Overview

What is Astra DB?

Astra DB from DataStax is a vector database for developers that need to get accurate Generative AI applications into production, fast.

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What is Astra DB?

Astra DB from DataStax is a vector database for developers that need to get accurate Generative AI applications into production, fast.

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  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.datastax.com/products/datas…

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DataStax Astra DB Vector Experience

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Building real-time apps fast and scaling without limits with DataStax

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Product Details

What is Astra DB?

DataStax Astra DB is a vector database for developers, that can be used to get Generative AI applications into production quickly. Astra DB gives users APIs, data pipelines, and a complete ecosystem integrations to build Gen AI applications on real-time data for more accurate AI that can be deployed in production. Built on Apache Cassandra, Astra DB is a vector database that can make vector updates immediately available to applications and scale to the largest real-time data and streaming workloads securely on any cloud.


According to DataStax, Astra DB is purpose-built to manage mixed workloads, including diverse data types like vectors, non-vectors, and streaming data, all while handling concurrent updates and queries with precision and efficiency. Built on Apache Cassandra it allows for simultaneous search and update on distributed data and streaming workloads with ultra-low latency. This helps developers to create more responsive, more accurate production Gen AI applications that reduce hallucinations.
AI Native JSON APIs also abstracts the complexity of indexing vectors, non-vectors and any data for Gen AI.

Astra DB Features

  • Supported: Multi-model
  • Supported: Multi-region
  • Supported: Change Data Capture (CDC) for Astra DB
  • Supported: Storage Attached Indexing (SAI)
  • Supported: Serverless

Astra DB Video

Vector Search on Astra DB

Astra DB Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo
Supported CountriesAMER, EMEA, APAC

Frequently Asked Questions

Astra DB from DataStax is a vector database for developers that need to get accurate Generative AI applications into production, fast.

Amazon DynamoDB, MongoDB, and Azure Cosmos DB are common alternatives for Astra DB.

Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 8.9.

The most common users of Astra DB are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Reviews and Ratings

(43)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 31)
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Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
When our engineering team started developing ChatStack, we needed a backend solution that could meet all our requirements within our budget constraints. DataStax was the right fit.Their platform enabled seamless deployment across multiple clouds, ensuring ChatStack would operate smoothly as we scaled up users. Performance remained consistently fast even with substantial user growth, thanks to DataStax's low latency capabilities.Onboarding with the DataStax team was straightforward. Their engineering expertise allowed simple integration for our developers. Having their support significantly reduced deployment stress and provided valuable learning opportunities.Additionally, DataStax integrated well with our existing tools, avoiding a full stack rebuild. Their pay-as-you-go pricing delivered cost-effective scaling by eliminating the overhead of managing our own servers.In summary, DataStax provided the robust, flexible solution essential for launching ChatStack on time and on budget. Their technology and engineering knowledge were instrumental in delivering our product within constraints. We highly recommend DataStax to engineering teams needing a reliable, scalable backend platform. Our developers were satisfied with the seamless integration into our stack.
  • DataStax provides a resilient backend platform that allows easy deployment across multiple clouds. This ensures high availability and flexibility.
  • Their solution delivers consistently fast performance even as user loads increase substantially. This enables smooth scaling without degradation.
  • The DataStax engineering team is highly skilled and provides excellent assistance with integration, optimization, and ongoing support. Their expertise was invaluable during onboarding and deployment.
  • The pay-as-you-go pricing model can sometimes make long-term costs hard to predict.
  • While DataStax integrates well with many common tools, expanding integration support for less common or emerging tools could increase appeal.
Astra DB works well for cloud-native applications needing highly scalable and resilient data storage with millisecond response times but is less ideal for situations requiring advanced SQL functionality or total control over the infrastructure.
Matthew Hirst | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Astra DB to power core components of our application including our Feed, Chat & AI Vector search.
All our user feeds and chat data and stored and loaded from Astra DB in real time.
The vector search is used to power our recommendations engine.
  • It's very resilient and scalable, no downtime and no issues scaling up to meet our needs.
  • Low latency reads and writes
  • Cost effective - The on demand model worked out cheaper than running our own clusters
  • Great support for any of our questions or issues
  • It can be a little difficult to tell how many credits are used by each database by just seeing reads & writes.
  • Nothing else particularly, we haven't run into any real problems.
The perfect use case for Astra DB is if you have an existing Cassandra setup and would like to move to a cost-effective managed service.
Even if you aren't using Cassandra yet, if you have workloads with very high writes that need low latency, it's a great choice.
Any no-sql key-value or wide column workloads.

It's also great for vector search.

It's not great for very relational data models with a lot of joins, etc.
Edoardo Conte | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We connected Astra DB as a vector database to our backend. The main use case for it is that we store the embeddings of our main data entities. In Restworld, we have something similar to a marketplace made of job opportunities and job seekers. We use text embedding models to create vectors out of them and we exploit Astra DB vector database capabilities to power our recommendation and personalization algorithms.
  • Scalability
  • Flexibility
  • Enterprise support
  • Simplification of API choices
Well suited:
- Retrieval augmented generation. It is best combined with LLM solutions for generative AI applications
- Recommendation algorithms. Whenever you need to show personalized content to your users, using vector search is an easy and effective solution to implement
- Semantic search. Similar to previous, just with a different vie angle to your data.


Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Astra DB as our primary vector database. It is used to store vector embeddings for unstructured data as well as other business metrics that can be fetched with a quick semantic search.
  • Semantic search.
  • MMR
  • Langhian integration.
  • Text search
Astra DB is very well suited for scenarios where you need to use vector search. It offers all the functionality that other databases do and is always on the cutting edge of new technology. The fact that it is based on Cassandra makes it even easier for people looking for a do-it-all database. The only reason you might not want to consider it is if your existing database solution also provides vector search capabilities along with traditional DB features.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Astra DB to scale our databases horizontally to handle large amounts of data and high-traffic loads. High scalability with equally high performance provides smooth operations to be carried out. Astra's DB built-in replication and fault tolerance ensures its high availability which is the main use case when downtime is not acceptable.
  • High availability.
  • Cost optimization due to serverless model.
  • Reporting and Analysis becomes much easier
  • Query optimization by enhancing speed.
  • Data Migration into Astra DB can be simplified.
  • UI for management tools can be more friendly.
Astra DB supports both SQL and No SQL model making it versatile for a wide range of applications. Being based on Cassandra, if one is familiar with Cassandra query language will have a shorter learning curve when starting with Astra DB. If one has to reduce cost on the basis of usage, Astra DB provides good plans.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We utilize Astra DB because it is critical for applications that demand continuous horizontal scalability. It can easily handle increasing workloads and is well-suited for applications with quickly expanding data quantities and traffic. Astra DB's importance is seen in its built-in high availability and disaster recovery capabilities via multi-region deployments.
  • Astra DB supports multi-model databases, which allow you to deal with a variety of data types, such as document, key-value, tabular, and JSON-like data.
  • Through DataStax Insights, Astra DB has built-in monitoring and metrics, allowing you to keep a close check on the health and performance of your database and make data-driven adjustments.
  • Because Astra DB is a fully managed database service, DataStax handles typical database administration chores such as maintenance, backups, and scalability.
  • Astra DB might be difficult to understand for people who are unfamiliar with Apache Cassandra. Improving the initial experience for newcomers, as well as offering better documentation and lessons, might be advantageous.
  • The Astra DB ecosystem may be enhanced by expanding the ecosystem of plugins, integrations, and community-contributed solutions.
Astra DB's design, which is built for distributed data storage and retrieval, can benefit applications dealing with enormous datasets scattered over numerous nodes. Astra DB is ideal for applications requiring a flexible data model. It adheres to the NoSQL data paradigm, which allows for dynamic and developing data formats.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Astra DB is built to scale seamlessly. We simply scale our database up or down to match changes in the workload of your application. It enables multi-region deployments, which lets us duplicate our data across multiple geographic areas for high availability and disaster recovery. It has strong security features like as encryption at rest and in transit, role-based access control (RBAC), and interface with authentication systems such as LDAP and OAuth.
  • Astra DB is built for horizontal scalability, so you can easily scale your database to accommodate increasing demands.
  • Astra DB may be deployed across several regions, offering excellent availability and fault tolerance.
  • As enterprises increasingly demand real-time analytics and machine learning capabilities, improving Astra DB's interface with analytics and machine learning tools might be a priority.
  • The Astra DB ecosystem may be enhanced by expanding the ecosystem of plugins, integrations, and community-contributed solutions.
  • While Astra DB has numerous capabilities and versatility, it might be difficult for newbies, particularly those who are unfamiliar with Apache Cassandra.
Astra DB excels in dealing with applications that have quickly increasing and unexpected demands. It is built for horizontal scalability, letting us add additional capacity as the demands of our application expand. Astra DB's design, which is built for distributed data storage and retrieval, might benefit applications that deal with enormous datasets scattered over numerous nodes.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Astra DB is a versatile database service built on Apache Cassandra. Someone who has knowledge of Cassandra will have a smoother experience with Astra DB. If you know Cassandra in and out, Astra DB should be the choice from all of the fully-managed, cloud database services out in the market. The interface on this one is much simpler though.
  • Helps in harnessing real-time data for further services.
  • Astra DB supports CQL.
  • Suits well with high scalability demands.
  • Will be a bit difficult for someone who doesn't know CQL.
  • Complex queries will be a challenge to perform.
  • Will take some time to get used to if you're new to distributed systems.
In the case of data availability, Astra DB ensures high availability by leveraging the distributed architecture with no single-point failure of Cassandra. It promises data durability. Also like Cassandra, Astra DB has low-latency writes for applications that require frequent updates.
September 28, 2023

Makes life a bit easy!

Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We at edii use astra with ease as it provides amazing cassandra features which makes all of our lives easy. We have solved scalability issues over the period of time of its use. Safe to say the database operations are simpler now.
  • Handles volumes which it is made for, pretty decently
  • Makes maintaining Cassandra a piece of cake.
  • Makes learning for a newbie easier.
  • There must be a less time-consuming process to train people for AstraDB.
  • Price range can be made attractive.
  • Integration and tools can be made a little better.
If one is already using cassandra, then this is a relief for him/her. Feature packed and easy to use. Can make it a one-stop for anything they want to achieve.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Astra DB has been a phenomenal tool, we have gained an organized workplace due to it. The data structure is so well maintained, and our employees rely working on Astra DB on daily basis. Its simple to use nature and cost effectiveness is an eye catcher. We have been working with Astra DB since the past few years and it has been of great help.
  • Firstly, its an open source Apache Cassandra, which is a huge gain.
  • It decentralizes the data.
  • Easy Installation by our employees.
  • If a user guide was provided.
  • Integration with other Apache products.
It has a really good performance and high scalability. Astra DB is really easy to configure and really simple to learn for our employees. I hope Astra DB really tweaks their game in sales, such as webinar or other marketing techniques like the other platforms or Astra DB competitor are doing.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Astra DB is used as one of the databases for developing our product. Since we at Edii have been working with CQL, it wasn't difficult to onboard everyone on the team. Astra DB helps us manage data easily which in return helps us develop a better application.
  • Migrating from any other database is simplistic and well-supported.
  • Astra CLI is a blessing for everyone who has previously worked with CQL.
  • It provides a simplified sense of security with high scalability.
  • Requires getting used to for a newbie.
  • Pricing can be a bit less.
If one doesn't want to maintain a database and run a serverless database for their applications, Astra DB is the go to thing. Takes care of your data needs to the last bit.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Astra DB as our main database provider. It has helped us keeping our data secured and organized. The working environment has become more efficient due to this. This tool is highly recommended for easy to manage database uses. It has definitely helped us combat our unorganized data structure.
  • The installation is pretty easy
  • Decentralization of data
  • Best-in-class Apache distribution
  • Needed integration with other apache products
  • It could be a little cost saving
Astra DB is a great tool to improve training and organization throughout our company. It has horizontal infinite scalability, distributed capacity, and availability. The ease of the backup tool was one thing I hoped to see in their upcoming major version. Possibly flexible integration within OpsCenter. Astra DB is a great tool to be used.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Astra Db is used in creating databases with minimum time spent. Easy to set up and use. Solves all of our data problems in one place. Astra Db is provided with very efficient tools. Makes working with data uncomplicated.
  • Data loader and bulk loader work as smooth as a knife in butter.
  • SDK and tools provided, such as Stargate API are easy to use.
  • Documentation is thoroughly made, the best one I have come across yet.
  • Customer service can get better.
  • Pricing can be lower on the basis of its factors.
The monthly credit for Database is always welcomed for low scale models. It will be suitable for high scale as well because of the ease of tools it comes with.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Astra DB is used as the primary source of data operations at Edii. Provides a high scale solution for all the data needs and handles queries very well.
  • Makes migration from other platforms quite easy.
  • Documentation is very well written and easy to follow.
  • Maintenance of data becomes hassle free.
  • Some tools and APIs need optimization such as some of the Stargate APIs
  • Pricing can be on the lower side.
  • Connection with apache products other than spark.
At a high scale it a relief for the developer but would not recommend for low scale businesses mainly because of the pricing.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Astra DB handles all of the databases queries our product generates. It is the backbone of our product. Every data operation is done through Astra DB. All in all relief for developers.
  • Data management becomes easy.
  • Handles volumes well.
  • Migration of the data was not as difficult as it was supposed to be.
  • API features like LWT need optimization
  • Documentation could also be focused towards novice user.
  • Pricing should have been less or at par with the competition in the market.
While handling data at a large scale is where Astra DB really shines. The scalability and maintenance department takes 5 stars whereas the security and the ease of learning department falls short. But the overall performance is truly on the positive side of the scale.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Astra DB has helped us creating a secure database for our clientele information. It has also helped in integrating and organizing employees. It counters the problem of cluttering data untidily. Our database has become more organized now, would definitely recommend others to use Astra DB as it is a very easy to use database.
  • Outstanding distributing of Apache
  • Keeps track of data
  • Customer and Support service is fabulous
  • Needs more tutorials or better documentation
  • Need improved admin tools
  • It can get a little time consuming
Managing data and keeping track of data is so easy. It is highly recommended by our organization and it is simply very easy to use. The best thing about Astra DB is they offer support on Cassandra which in general is difficult to install and maintain. It is the best tool we could ask for.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We run an advertising company with thousands of websites. A lot of data is generated from each of the auctions for each ad unit on all of those websites, and we need fast response times to make near-instant bidding decisions for those auctions.
AstraDB helps store all of that data in a fast, efficient, and easy way to use.
  • Great documentation
  • Easy to use. If you've used a Cassandra database before, Astra will be second nature
  • Great customer support
  • For languages not officially supported, there is a sidecar application which will expose Astra as if it were a native Cassandra cluster
  • While there are libraries for many popular languages, it is a little rough hooking up an application written in a language not in the list. The ability is there, but docs for the sidecar are hard to find.
Astra is great for when you need a quick and affordable Cassandra cluster with zero maintenance overhead. Setup is easy, and you can get running in minutes. Response times across the globe are quick. Monitoring your cluster is easy using provided prometheus and grafana graphs.
Astra does limit the amount of control you have over your cluster and sharding. (not a ton, but more restrictive than running your own cluster, as expected.) So if you really need fine-tuned control, Astra may not be the best fit. That being said, the point of having a managed cluster is that you do not need to perform all of that management yourself.
Emilio Figueroa Torres | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it as a data lake for some of our products and as a resource for research used by our Data team.
  • Astra DB helps you to onboard really fast and guides you in your use-cases.
  • Astra DB provides very good documentation, SDKs and different options to connect.
  • Astra DB offers edge products and services to have the last features available for your team.
  • Astra DB can improve in their monitoring options.
  • Astra DB can improve in their cost management tools.
  • Astra DB could improve in providing easier tools and process to explore data at the first steps.
I recommend Astra DB for any scenario where you need to store immutable data (it can be updated, but it fits better when your data is immutable), also with an access pattern of shard-key + sort-key, and where there's a need to have massive and fast writing speed and high availability. In particular, Astra DB serverless is a great option if you need a full managed solution capable to grow on demand.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I wanted to quick start my crypto trading bot quickly and for free.
AstraDB allowed me to have something quick and running in a few minutes.
I could focus on my main algorithm which was already complex enough with a lot of price streams coming from exchanges.
My order book was simple enough to be held in AstraDB
  • Simple storage
  • Always up
  • Free
  • Websocket and realtime streams
  • Simplicity of web sockets
  • The community is too small for now
  • More working examples
AstraDB is well suited for scenarios where you require a highly scalable and distributed database to handle large amounts of data with low latency. In my experience, using AstraDB for a chatbot application was an excellent choice as it allowed me to efficiently store and retrieve user messages and chatbot responses, providing a seamless conversational experience.AstraDB's support for Cassandra Query Language (CQL) made it easy to query data, and its built-in security features such as encryption and token-based authentication added an extra layer of protection for user data. Additionally, AstraDB's serverless architecture allowed me to focus on developing my application without worrying about managing infrastructure or scaling.However, AstraDB might not be the best choice for scenarios where you need strong ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) properties, as it prioritizes availability and partition tolerance over strict consistency. In cases where you require real-time data consistency, such as financial applications or inventory management systems, a traditional relational database might be more appropriate. Furthermore, if your application requires complex joins or transactions, AstraDB's NoSQL nature could be limiting, and you may want to consider an alternative solution like a SQL-based database.
Henning Kosmack | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are using Astra DB for our mission critical database. We use to host our own Cassandra database but were happy to learn, that somebody can do that for us. Our database comprises of millions of users and their data from the game. The database needs to scale quickly, be reliable and fast. The entertainment sector is very time-sensitive.
  • Scale up and down
  • Fast
  • Reliable
  • The payment via pre-purchased credits is a bit counter-intuitive, but obviously just a small thing
For usage that can quickly go up, and perhaps even down again, Astra DB is very well suited. That is why Internet applications that a truly mass-market, like games, should consider such a database. For small niche applications, it might be a bit overkill, because it is a sophisticated database.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is a simple tool and really great for managing our data. The integration was smooth. It has simplified our data storing process and data security is top-notch. It is fast and has reduced deployment time, definitely value for money. Our business has improved training and organization with the help of DATASTAX. We have greatly improved as a team thanks to its assistance in integrating our departments and personnel, particularly in terms of scalability. It is easy to manage and has high performance. The customer service is exceptional.
  • It is very easy to manage and integrate
  • It has high availability and perfermance
  • this database is definitely value for money
  • You can rely upon it's top notch security
  • Expand the features linked to queries in the Cassandra workload.
  • Astra DB has a learning curve, which I think takes expertise to get through and impart to others.
  • More webinars and promotion, just like rivals.
We use Astra DB to improve our management systems. Storing data has become hassle-free and quite simple. When launching a Cassandra-based cloud application, Astra DB is exactly what you need. In addition to the standard training programs and videos, the extended support and training require significant additional effort to activate and cover which I feel is a bit more tedious task.
Revital Kremer | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Supplant is collecting data from sensors in the field. A lot of data from lots of sensors.
This data is processed in near real-time to provide the farmers' insights and proactive recommendations.
In addition, AI models utilize the data for complex analysis, anomalies and predictions.
Astra DB is used for:
1. big data solution for storing all raw data
2. real-time data processing per unit (client)
3. multi-tier data processing - from raw data to daily accumulations, and also for storing AI features and predictions.
  • quick access to data (read and write)
  • fully managed solution with excellent support
  • high scalability
  • backup and restore
  • crash recovery
  • dashboard security (MFA)
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use Astra DB to store actual & forecasted energy consumption, aggregation & analytical calculations, and data quality validations.
  • Cassandra as a service without any operational efforts
  • Scale to zero for DEV DBs
  • Increased transparency on rate limits/guard rails
  • Better cost analysis reports
I gave Astra DB an eight because it is the perfect replacement for users of a self-managed Cassandra DB.
Rahul Singh | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
At at our clients we use it to reduce overhead labor costs related to managing servers and APIs. It’s a good replacement for on premise / self managed Cassandra only work loads but also allows new use cases with GraphQL/REST end points. Some of the specific use cases are for clients running global multi tenant SaaS applications that have several regions and uses around the world. With Astra the management of infrastructure becomes a moot point.

Internally we do a lot of R&D for tools that we create for our clients and also to prototype new applications. With AstraDB it’s easy to start a project and expect that later it will scale and perform as needed without having to worry about migration to another database.

  • Ready to go API in the form of REST/GraphQL/Document
  • Transactional access with CQL / Analytical access via Spark
  • Ability to automate with Devops tooling
  • UI for Modeling Tables / Editing Data
  • Low code data imports from external sources
  • NoCode / Lowcode integration to Zapier / Make
Astra is great for storing and retrieving information that is coming from users, APIs, “things”. It’s both a transactional data store and a “cache” replacement because of its scale and speed. It’s also a great starting point to build APIs that don’t need immediate business logic because tables automatically have APIs available.

It is not for databases that require Joins or analytics. Though joins and aggregate operations can be done in SparkSQL or Presto / Trino it is not going to be as fast. It is not for that. There are better relational databases for that.

If there’s a need to store and retrieve data for tens of thousands of users / systems (or more) simultaneously this is a must since relational databases can become prohibitively expensive.


Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Astra DB used for region replication, efficient scaling scale out using serverless architecture and storing our business data efficiently. We also explored their REST API and Document API
  • scales to fit your needs
  • cost saving on infrastructure
  • prevent application downtime
  • realtime data ingestion from different data sources
If someone want self managed database service which can scale in scale out effectively and you will be only charged for your usage then astra DB is best suitable
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