Couchbase works well, but isn't the only option
June 20, 2020

Couchbase works well, but isn't the only option

Daniel Olfelt | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Couchbase

Couchbase was chosen initially to solve the problem of global distribution of data for our authentication services. We wanted our auth data to replicate globally, be flexible, and easy to query. It also had to be fast so that we could quickly direct users to the correct data center where their data existed. Couchbase solved all those problems for us. It also included simple management consoles and automatics recovery when nodes became corrupt or went missing. It was used for this and several other products.
  • Management of nodes is simple and requires minimal maintenance.
  • The ability to query is flexible and the N1QL language is convenient, though it can have pitfalls.
  • Replication provides great data resiliency, as well as speed and performance on a global scale.
  • At large query volume, it can be difficult to scale. This is mostly due to user error, but the flexibility afforded makes these issues easy to slip through.
  • The N1QL language, while convenient, obscures powerful features and hinders in-depth learning of the NoSQL principles.
  • Couchbase is self-hosted, and as such, it required internal DevOps resources to maintain.
  • Couchbase provided significantly faster transaction speeds for our authentication services.
  • Global replication increased availability for our global customers.
  • The data model flexibility removed the need for lengthy schema updates.
Couchbase has all the features you'd expect from a NoSQL database, and then some. Its scale is impressive, however, in our experience, a lot of the flexibility allowed engineers to make less than ideal design choices. With good design practices, everything scaled wonderfully, but in several cases, the bad design choices were discovered far too late. It's a double-edged sword.
Couchbase had more features than the other products we evaluated and a more flexible data model. It also has global replication and better performance. Compared to some, it was also easier to deploy, manage, and scale. The global replication, plus the ease of deploying and scaling, ultimately caused us to choose Couchbase.
Couchbase is well suited for global deployments. It also works well in a variety of cloud or on-premise environments. This flexibility makes it a great product that can be used almost anywhere. If you only use a single cloud provider or don't have any capacity to maintain a database, then choosing the NoSQL flavor of your provider might provide a better experience.

Couchbase Server Feature Ratings

Performance
8
Availability
9
Concurrency
10
Security
9
Scalability
8
Data model flexibility
10
Deployment model flexibility
10