SurrealDB review
A flexible open-source database for applications spanning documents, graphs, and vectors.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
SurrealDB is a Rust-based, open-source multi-model database for developers building modern applications. It brings document storage, graph relationships, vector search, full-text search, relational tables, time-series values, and geospatial values into one engine accessed through SurrealQL. Schemaless and schemafull modeling, nested objects and arrays, ACID transactions, and record- and field-level access controls make it suited to teams that want several data patterns without maintaining separate database systems.
Pricing follows a freemium structure. The Start plan provides one free instance, 1 GB of storage free forever, vertical scaling, automatic burst scaling, daily automated backups, and cloud RBAC and ABAC. The advertised paid entry price is $0.021 per hour. Scale costs $0.192 per node per hour and adds high availability, fault tolerance, multiple availability-zone deployment, horizontal scaling, multi-region disaster recovery, and object-storage-backed data. Enterprise adds self-hosted deployment, clustered fault-tolerant deployments, enterprise support, audit logging and compliance, FIPS-compliant cryptography, and distributed live queries.
Deployment flexibility is a central strength: SurrealDB can run embedded in applications, as a self-hosted server, across distributed clusters, or through SurrealDB Cloud. Interfaces include REST, GraphQL, RPC, and WebSocket, with JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, Rust, Go, and .NET SDKs. Vector search supports brute force, HNSW, and DISKANN indexes, while full-text search includes configurable analyzers and BM25 scoring. Choose SurrealDB when open-source deployment and multiple data models matter together. Teams seeking a narrowly focused database or simpler pricing may prefer a more specialized option.
SurrealDB pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Combines document, graph, vector, and relational capabilities
- Supports embedded, self-hosted, distributed, and managed-cloud deployment
- Offers REST, GraphQL, RPC, WebSocket, and SDK access
- Where it doesn't
- Scale billing is priced per node per hour
- Its broad feature set may add architectural choices
- Founded in 2021, it is newer than several alternatives
SurrealDB fact sheet, pricing and score →
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