---
title: "Deep dive into Turso, the \"SQLite rewrite in Rust\""
url: https://daily.dev/posts/deep-dive-into-turso-the-sqlite-rewrite-in-rust--kn9wn7dsd
source_url: https://kerkour.com/turso-sqlite
type: article
source: "Hacker News"
published: 2026-01-29T22:32:51.602Z
updated: 2026-01-29T22:33:11.733Z
tags: ["database", "rust", "sqlite"]
reading_time: 6
upvotes: 58
comments: 6
language: en
---

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# Deep dive into Turso, the "SQLite rewrite in Rust"

**[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 6 min read · 58 upvotes · 6 comments

## Summary

Turso is a new database engine written in Rust that maintains compatibility with SQLite's file format while addressing long-standing limitations. It adds built-in encryption, MVCC with concurrent writes support, and async I/O with io_uring. Unlike SQLite, Turso can scale from in-process usage to networked deployment across multiple machines, making it suitable for projects that start small but may need to scale. The project supports extensions through a Rust SDK and aims to combine the simplicity of embedded databases with the scalability of traditional client-server databases.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://kerkour.com/turso-sqlite>

## Community discussion

Top comments from developers on daily.dev.

**@yildirim** · 8 upvotes

> I don't think rust is holy enough to allow us rewrite the SQLite with it.

**@einswilli** · 5 upvotes

> I don’t think Turso is trying to “replace” SQLite at all.
> SQLite is incredibly battle-tested and its design trade-offs are very intentional.
>
> Turso feels more like: “what if we keep SQLite’s simplicity and file format, but adapt it to modern needs like concurrency, encryption and distributed setups?”
>
> **C** vs **Rust** here isn’t about holiness or ideology, it’s about different constraints and use cases.
> If you need ultra-portability and decades of hardening, **SQLite** is unmatched.
> If you need **SQLite-like** ergonomics but want to grow beyond single-process limitations, projects like...

**@fishws** · 2 upvotes

> I feel cringe when hearing something "rewrite in Rust", bro think it's better with Rust

**@altbenammi** · 2 upvotes

> Okay but this doesn't address the biggest limitation which is the Rust is not portable in the same way that C is, this will never replace the core SQLite project because it's throwing away the amount of testing and real world hardening the existing code base has on it's logic for type safety instead. I'd personally have a logic hardened implementation than something memory safe in this case

**@a\_meb\_a** · 0 upvotes

> oh sh1t, this is interesting!

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- [Why We Created Turso, a Rust-Based Rewrite of SQLite](https://daily.dev/posts/why-we-created-turso-a-rust-based-rewrite-of-sqlite-weanb5tiz) · The New Stack · 106 upvotes · 4 comments

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Tags: [#database](https://daily.dev/tags/database), [#rust](https://daily.dev/tags/rust), [#sqlite](https://daily.dev/tags/sqlite)

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