--- title: Do You Even Need a Database? | daily.dev description: A practical benchmark comparing flat-file storage strategies (linear scan, in-memory hash map, binary search on disk) against SQLite across Go, Bun, and Rust... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/do-you-even-need-a-database--bpp9ywehg twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Do You Even Need a Database? | daily.dev og:description: A practical benchmark comparing flat-file storage strategies (linear scan, in-memory hash map, binary search on disk) against SQLite across Go, Bun, and Rust... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/do-you-even-need-a-database--bpp9ywehg og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/BPP9ywEhG.png og:image:alt: Do You Even Need a Database? og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Do You Even Need a Database? **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 11 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A practical benchmark comparing flat-file storage strategies (linear scan, in-memory hash map, binary search on disk) against SQLite across Go, Bun, and Rust HTTP servers. Results show in-memory maps reach ~97-169k req/s, binary search on disk ~40k req/s, and SQLite ~25k req/s — all consistent regardless of dataset size (10k to 1M records). The post argues most applications don't need a database early on, since even SQLite on a single server can handle ~90 million DAU. It also outlines when you genuinely need a database: dataset exceeds RAM, multi-field queries, joins, multi-process writes, or ACID transactions. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [SQLite vs DuckDB on the same $16 box: every cliff moved 100x · Traceway](https://daily.dev/posts/sqlite-vs-duckdb-on-the-same-16-box-every-cliff-moved-100x-traceway-smgqxesze) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [SQLite for Everything](https://daily.dev/posts/sqlite-for-everything-rupb2mkye) · Lobsters · 7 upvotes · 1 comments - [When \(Not\) to Use Vector DB](https://daily.dev/posts/when-not-to-use-vector-db-mrm6anluk) · Towards Data Science · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [They All Write, Store, and Read Data: How to Pick The Right Database](https://daily.dev/posts/they-all-write-store-and-read-data-how-to-pick-the-right-database-qc0uzzyek) · MotherDuck · 11 upvotes · 2 comments --- Tags: [#backend](https://daily.dev/tags/backend), [#golang](https://daily.dev/tags/golang), [#rust](https://daily.dev/tags/rust), [#sqlite](https://daily.dev/tags/sqlite) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/do-you-even-need-a-database--bpp9ywehg) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Do You Even Need a Database?","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/do-you-even-need-a-database--bpp9ywehg","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/do-you-even-need-a-database--bpp9ywehg"},"datePublished":"2026-04-15T17:49:01.177Z","dateModified":"2026-04-15T17:49:38.387Z","description":"A practical benchmark comparing flat-file storage strategies (linear scan, in-memory hash map, binary search on disk) against SQLite across Go, Bun, and Rust...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--VDukGCjf--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2002","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--VDukGCjf--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2002","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hacker News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hacker News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/hn","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/do-you-even-need-a-database--bpp9ywehg","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"backend,golang,rust,sqlite","timeRequired":"PT11M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hacker News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Do You Even Need a Database?"}]} ```