The fastest and simplest library for SQLite3 in Node.js.
The fastest and simplest library for SQLite3 in Node.js.
The fastest and simplest library for SQLite in Node.js.
better-sqlite3 is used by thousands of developers and engineers on a daily basis. Long nights and weekends were spent keeping this project strong and dependable, with no ask for compensation or funding, until now. If your company uses better-sqlite3, ask your manager to consider supporting the project:
get()
select 100 rows all()
select 100 rows iterate() 1-by-1
insert 1 row run()
insert 100 rows in a transaction
better-sqlite3
1x
1x
1x
1x
1x
sqlite and sqlite3
11.7x slower
2.9x slower
24.4x slower
2.8x slower
15.6x slower
You can verify these results by running the benchmark yourself.
npm install better-sqlite3
Requires a currently supported Node.js version. Prebuilt binaries are available for major platforms/architectures. If you have trouble installing, check the troubleshooting guide.
const db = require('better-sqlite3')('foobar.db', options);
const row = db.prepare('SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ?').get(userId);
console.log(row.firstName, row.lastName, row.email);
Though not required, it is generally important to set the WAL pragma for performance reasons.
db.pragma('journal_mode = WAL');
import Database from 'better-sqlite3';
const db = new Database('foobar.db', options);
db.pragma('journal_mode = WAL');
node-sqlite3 uses asynchronous APIs for tasks that are either CPU-bound or serialized. That's not only bad design, but it wastes tons of resources. It also causes mutex thrashing which has devastating effects on performance.node-sqlite3 exposes low-level (C language) memory management functions. better-sqlite3 does it the JavaScript way, allowing the garbage collector to worry about memory management.better-sqlite3 is simpler to use, and it provides nice utilities for some operations that are very difficult or impossible in node-sqlite3.better-sqlite3 is much faster than node-sqlite3 in most cases, and just as fast in all other cases.In most cases, if you're attempting something that cannot be reasonably accomplished with better-sqlite3, it probably cannot be reasonably accomplished with SQLite in general. For example, if you're executing queries that take one second to complete, and you expect to have many concurrent users executing those queries, no amount of asynchronicity will save you from SQLite's serialized nature. Fortunately, SQLite is very very fast. With proper indexing, we've been able to achieve upward of 2000 queries per second with 5-way-joins in a 60 GB database, where each query was handling 5–50 kilobytes of real data.
If you have a performance problem, the most likely causes are inefficient queries, improper indexing, or a lack of WAL mode—not better-sqlite3 itself. However, there are some cases where better-sqlite3 could be inappropriate:
For these situations, you should probably use a full-fledged RDBMS such as PostgreSQL.
Upgrading your better-sqlite3 dependency can potentially introduce breaking changes, either in the better-sqlite3 API (if you upgrade to a new major version), or between your existing database(s) and the underlying version of SQLite. Before upgrading, review:
No open issues yet, or sync has not completed.