RethinkDB

Spec sheet

Product

RethinkDB is a distributed document database that stores JSON and pushes query results to applications in real time.Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

API

The public ReQL API includes commands such as connect, run, table, joins, reconfigure and HTTP access.Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Integrations

Official documentation covers Elasticsearch, RabbitMQ, Rails, publish-subscribe systems, Node.js libraries and multiple ORMs.Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Security

The documentation describes TLS encryption for server, client, and web UI connections, and recommends setting a password for the admin account, which has no password by default.Read 8 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

License

The Linux Foundation licenses RethinkDB under the permissive Apache License 2.0.Read 15 Oct 2026 · github.com

Architectures

The server supports x86_64, ARM and s390x on Unix-like platforms plus Windows Subsystem for Linux 2; macOS DMG packages are x86_64 only.Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Atomicity limit

Operations are not atomic across multiple keys, so the documentation says RethinkDB is not an ACID database.Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Authentication

Users and permissions are supported, but passwords are sent in plaintext unless TLS is enabled.Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Changefeeds

Changefeeds let applications subscribe to updates on query results as data changes.Read 8 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Community SDKs

The project lists community drivers for C#, C++, Clojure, Dart, Elixir, Erlang, Go, Haskell, Lua, PHP, Rust, Swift and other languages.Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Company founded

The RethinkDB company was founded in 2009 and open-sourced version 1.2 in 2012.Read 15 Oct 2026 · en.wikipedia.org

Company shutdown

The original company announced on October 5, 2016 that it was shutting down after failing to build a sustainable business.Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Consistency

RethinkDB supports single, majority and outdated read modes, with hard or soft durability and majority or single write acknowledgements.Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Current release

The homepage identifies RethinkDB 2.4.4 as the latest release.Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Documentation

The documentation includes quickstarts, tutorials, API references, cookbooks, administration, deployment, troubleshooting, integrations and architecture sections.Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Drivers

Official client drivers are listed for JavaScript, Ruby, Python, and Java, with community-supported drivers for additional languages.Read 8 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Durability

The FAQ says writes are not acknowledged until safely committed to disk by default.Read 8 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Extensibility

Developers can implement drivers using the documented ReQL wire protocol and ql2.proto definitions.Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Failover

Automatic failover requires at least three servers, at least three replicas and a majority of voting replicas available.Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Funding

Wellfound reports $12.2 million raised across four rounds, with the latest listed round dated November 25, 2013.Read 15 Oct 2026 · wellfound.com

Historical headquarters and size

Wellfound lists the company location as Mountain View and historical size as 11–50 employees.Read 15 Oct 2026 · wellfound.com

Licensing

The server and client libraries are licensed under Apache License 2.0.Read 8 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Limit: development activity

A G2 reviewer warned that development slowed sharply after the company shutdown and transition to the Linux Foundation.Read 15 Oct 2026 · g2.com

Limit: performance and storage

G2 reviewers mention slower-than-expected batch ingestion and higher disk use than alternatives in some tests.Read 15 Oct 2026 · g2.com

Limit: transactions

G2 reviewers report that the lack of atomic updates across multiple documents led some teams to move to PostgreSQL.Read 15 Oct 2026 · g2.com

Limitations

The FAQ says RethinkDB is not a good fit when full ACID support or strong schema enforcement is required, and notes that multi-document updates are not atomic.Read 8 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Node.js integration

RethinkDB supplies an official Node.js driver and documents community drivers and JavaScript ORMs such as Thinky.Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Official SDKs

Official client drivers are provided for JavaScript, Ruby, Python and Java.Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

OS X requirement

Native OS X binaries require OS X 10.7 or newer, while HTTPS support requires OS X 10.9 or newer.Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Ownership transition

On February 6, 2017, the Cloud Native Computing Foundation purchased the source-code rights and contributed them to the Linux Foundation.Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Praise: query language

G2 reviewers repeatedly praise ReQL as intuitive, programming-like and easier to use than competing NoSQL query languages.Read 15 Oct 2026 · g2.com

Praise: realtime updates

G2 reviewers repeatedly highlight change notifications and realtime queries as major benefits for applications that must react to data changes.Read 15 Oct 2026 · g2.com

Project status and community

The About page describes RethinkDB as an open-source project and a member of the Linux Foundation.Read 8 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Query capabilities

The product documents joins, secondary indexes, aggregation, map-reduce, geospatial queries, time-series data and multimedia storage.Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Query language

ReQL is an embedded, chainable query language whose queries execute on the database server.Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Rating on G2

4.3 out of 5 from 15 reviewsRead 15 Oct 2026 · g2.com

Realtime changefeeds

The database exposes changefeeds that stream updates from tables and queries to applications.Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Replication

Per-table replication can be configured through the web console or ReQL, including placement by server tags.Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Scaling

The site says clusters can be sharded and replicated through a web UI or controlled with an API.Read 8 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Security reporting

The project asks users to report database or driver vulnerabilities privately to [email protected].Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Security transport

Version 2.3 and later support TLS encryption between servers, clients and the web interface.Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Seed funding news

TechCrunch reported a $1.2 million seed round announced on April 1, 2010, backed by several venture firms and angel investors.Read 15 Oct 2026 · techcrunch.com

Self-hosting

RethinkDB is distributed as installable server software and an official Docker image, allowing users to operate their own clusters.Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Sharding

Tables can be sharded and rebalanced, with up to 64 shards per table documented.Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Supported platforms

The installation page lists official packages for Ubuntu, CentOS/AlmaLinux/RockyLinux, Debian, OS X, and Windows, plus Docker deployment; the FAQ describes server support on Linux and OS X.Read 8 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Supported systems

Official packages are listed for Ubuntu, CentOS/AlmaLinux/RockyLinux, Debian, DigitalOcean, OS X and Windows, with additional community packages.Read 15 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Use cases

The site identifies collaborative apps, streaming analytics, multiplayer games, real-time marketplaces, and connected devices as use cases.Read 8 Oct 2026 · rethinkdb.com

Plans and prices

Every RethinkDB plan and price →

Where Specifiction places it

• Document Databases#8 of 288.3