Top 7 Databases for Mobile App Development in 2024

In the ever-evolving mobile app development landscape, selecting the correct database is crucial for building efficient and robust applications. Based on the requirements of the project, the database can be local or remote. With the generation of smartphones and the increasing demand for feature-rich mobile experiences, developers have many choices for selecting the right database.

In this article, we will delve into Top-7 database-tuned for mobile app development in 2024 by exploring its features and advantages.

What is a Database?

Before discussing different mobile databases, let’s first look at what a database is. In the computing world, a database is a structured collection of data that is organized and stored in such a way that it enables efficient data retrieval, manipulation, and management. For modern applications, databases are the backbone that provides reliable and scalable data access and storage.

A database can be categorized into two main types

1. Local database

As its name suggests, the local database resides locally on the device where an application is installed or running. With a local database, users can store data without the need for any network connectivity. The local database is used in mobile applications to store user preferences, cached data, or user-specific data. Since data is stored locally, it stores and retrieves data quickly.

2. Remote database

A remote database is a database that stores data on remote servers and requires network connectivity, such as the Internet. Unlike local databases, data stored in a remote database can be accessed from multiple devices, which gives users the ability to access data from anywhere. The remote database follows the client-server architecture, where applications run on client devices and communicate with the data server to perform data operations.

Top 7 Databases for Mobile App Development in 2024

1. Firebase

Owned by Google, Firebase is the first choice for mobile platforms due to its features such as authentication, a real-time database, cloud storage, cloud messaging, and hosting services. It offers easy integration with mobile platforms such as Android and iOS. Along with online, Firebase also supports offline data storage that can be synced once network connectivity is available.

Key Features

• Realtime database: With a realtime database, Firebase offers a NoSQL cloud database that allows the storage and retrieval of data in real time among the users. This feature is particularly useful when a real-time update of data is required, such as in chat applications.
• Cloud Firestore: Firebase’s Cloud Firestore feature is a next-generation cloud-native NoSQL database that offers more advanced features such as retrieving data using queries, offline support, real-time synchronization, and scalability.
• Authentication: Authentication is one of the great features supported by Firebase. It allows developers to integrate social media logins such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, GitHub, and a few more. This allows users to log into the application easily using their social media accounts.
• Cloud messaging: Firebase Cloud messaging, commonly known as FCM, allows developers to send push notifications and specific messages to targeted devices and audiences. It supports platforms such as Android, iOS, and the Web.
• Hosting: For static and dynamic content Firebase offers secure and fast web hosting.

2. SQLite

SQLite is a lightweight, embedded database that is widely used in mobile application development. Similar to SQL, SQLite also stores data in the form of a tabular, which means rows and columns. SQLite is well known for its simplicity, reliability, and compatibility with mobile platforms such as Android and iOS. Developers mostly choose SQLite due to its small footprint and ease of integration into mobile platforms like Android and iOS.

Key Features

• Zero Configuration: SQLite integration on mobile platforms is very easy as it requires minimal setup and administration. It doesn’t require a separate server or configuration file. Developers can start using SQLite by just adding the needed library to the project.
• Cross-Platform Support: The SQLite database is cross-platform and works seamlessly on various platforms and OSs, such as Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS. With this support, developers can use the same database on multiple platforms.
• ACID compliance: SQLite follows the ACID principles, which are atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability. Support for these properties ensures that database transactions are reliable, consistent, and durable.
• SQL compatibility: The SQLite database supports a large subset of the SQL92 standard, which provides comprehensive SQL syntax for creating, querying, and manipulating databases. It also supports common SQL operations such as transactions, sub-queries, joins, triggers, and views.
• Low memory requirement: SQLite is designed for efficiency and requires a small memory footprint, which makes it suitable for memory-constrained environments such as mobile platforms.
• High Performance: Despite its lightweight nature, SQLite provides high-performance database operations.

3. Realm

Realm is a mobile database that is a replacement for SQLite and core data. It provides real-time data synchronization, mapping of objects, and a simple API that makes it suitable for mobile platforms. It is designed in such a way that it works well with mobile devices to provide efficient performance.

Key Features

• Object-Oriented: Realm is an object-oriented database, which means Realm stores data in object form. Developers can fetch and save native objects such as classes in Android and structs in Swift directly without the need for any kind of data parsing method.
• Real-time data sync: The Realm database offers real-time data synchronization, which allows multiple devices and provides access to and updates to the same database in real-time. This feature makes it an ideal choice for multi-user applications.
• Fast and Efficient: Realm is well known for its high-performance capabilities. It offers fast read and write operations compared to traditional databases like SQLite. To achieve this performance, it uses memory-mapped files and other optimization techniques.
• Encryption and Security: Realm comes with built-in support for data encryption and security, which ensures that sensitive data stored in the database remains protected. It allows developers to encrypt entire databases or particular objects using standard encryption algorithms.
• Easy Integration: Realm allows developers a very easy way to integrate into mobile platforms like ReactNative, Xamrine, and Flutter. It provides native libraries and APIs for seamless integration in mobile apps.

4. Couchbase Mobile

Couchbase Mobile is a complete NoSQL database solution that includes Couchbase Lite, a lightweight embedded NoSQL database, and a Couchbase server. Couchbase database provides features such as data synchronization, offline data support, and full-text search, which makes it more suitable for mobile applications that require offline capabilities.

Key Features

• Sync gateway: Couchbase Sync Gateway offers bidirectional data synchronization between the Couchbase cloud server and the ClouchLite database stored on mobile devices.
• JSON document store: As a primary data format, Couchbase Mobile uses JSON, which makes it easy to work with structured and semi-structured data. With Couchbase, developers can store complex data structures directly as JSON documents, which eliminates the need for relational data mapping.
• Conflict Resolution: Couchbase Mobile has a built-in conflict resolution mechanism to resolve conflicts that may arise during data synchronization. It has flexible conflict resolution policies such as last-write-win and custom conflict resolution handlers.
• Security and Authentication: Couchbase Mobile supports robust security features such as encryption, user authentication, and role-based access control. It ensures protection for sensitive data.
• Developer Tools and Integration: It provides a comprehensive set of developer tools that includes SDKs, APIs, and client libraries that streamline the development and integration processes.

5. Amazon DynamoDB

Provided by Amazon Web Services, Amazon DynamoDB is a fully managed NoSQL database service. It offers high availability, scalability, and performance, which makes it suitable for mobile platforms that require these capabilities. It also supports essential features such as data encryption, backup, and restore.

Key Features

• Fully managed service: DynamoDB is a fully managed service, which means administrative tasks such as hardware provisioning, setup, scaling, backup, and maintenance are handled by AWS.
• High Performance: For reading and writing operations, it delivers single-digit millisecond latency. It makes it suitable for applications that require fast and responsive data access.
• Global Tables: For high data availability and disaster recovery, developers can use Global Tables, which allow them to replicate data across multiple AWS regions.
• Backup and Restore: It provides automated and on-demand backup and restore capabilities, which allows developers to create full backups of their tables for their data protection.
• Consistent and Predictable Performance: Regardless of the volume of traffic or data size, Dynamo DB offers consistent and predictable performance.

6. MongoDB Realm

MongoDB Realm is a mobile database platform that offers a combination of Realm’s local storage and MongoDB’s scalable backend. It provides features such as user authentication, synchronization, and serverless functions, which make it suitable for developing mobile applications with real-time data sync and offline data support.

Key Features

• GraphQL Support: It supports GraphQL, a query language and runtime for querying and manipulating data. Developers can use GraphQL to execute complex queries against data.
• Authentication and Authorization: MongoDB Realm supports built-in authentication and authorization services that allow developers to authenticate securely.
• Serverless Functions: This feature enables developers to run backend and business logic in response to events triggered by client applications.

7. PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is a powerful RDBMS (relational database management system) known for its robustness, extensibility, and adherence to SQL standards. Though it is designed primarily for server-side deployment, there are efforts to extend it to support mobile platforms, called PostgreSQL Mobile.

Key Features

• Relational Database: The core feature of PostgreSQL is that it supports relational data modeling, SQL querying, transactions, and indexes. It allows developers to store and manipulate data using familiar SQL syntax.
• Embedded Database Engine: PostgreSQL Mobile is designed to be directly embedded into mobile applications, which allows developers to leverage the power of PostgreSQL.
• Offline data access: PostgreSQL offers offline data access by storing data locally on mobile devices. This allows users to use data even when their device does not have network connectivity.

Conclusion

These databases provide a range of features and capabilities that fulfill specific requirements of mobile applications, which include offline support, real-time data synchronization, scalability, and performance. Developers can evaluate the requirements of their projects and choose the database that matches their requirements, as all databases have distinct features and advantages. For remote databases, developers need to consider price criteria as those databases are free up some context.