Frequently Asked Questions

ReifyDB is a database for application state. It helps you understand, mutate, and derive live application state under a single transactional model. State is kept in memory for low latency, persisted asynchronously for durability, and extended with application-defined logic that runs next to the data.

PostgreSQL is disk-first: durable and query-rich, but slow for real-time state. Redis is memory-first: fast, but transactions lack rollbacks and there is no derived state. ReifyDB is designed around reasoning about state - with full ACID transactions, plus incremental materialized views and programmable logic that runs inside the database.

No. ReifyDB is in active development. APIs and guarantees may change. I recommend using it for experimentation and development, but not for production workloads yet.

ReifyDB is licensed under Apache 2.0. You are free to use, modify, and distribute it under the terms of the license.

Yes. ReifyDB can run embedded in your application process or as a standalone server. This is similar to how SQLite or DuckDB work - you choose the deployment model that fits your architecture.

ReifyDB is written in Rust with a native Rust API. TypeScript/JavaScript clients are available for web and Node.js applications. More language bindings are planned.

ReifyDB is open source under Apache 2.0, so you can inspect every line. The core is written in Rust for memory safety and performance. Development is active and transparent on GitHub.

ReifyDB is suitable for prototyping, internal tools, and non-critical workloads where you want to explore the programming model. Use it to build proofs-of-concept, understand incremental derived state, or experiment with colocating logic and data. Wait for a stable release before using it for production systems.