Cloudant vs Turso

What Cloudant is

IBM Cloudant is a proprietary managed JSON document database built on Apache CouchDB, with a compatible HTTPS API and replication protocol. The Lite plan is free for evaluation and fixes capacity at 20 reads, 10 writes and five global queries per second with 1 GB storage. Standard begins at one provisioned capacity block—100 reads, 50 writes and five global queries per second—includes 20 GB and bills capacity plus excess storage hourly. Dedicated Hardware adds workload isolation, private networking and selected compliance and key-management options. A Cloudant service is not the same as self-hosting CouchDB.

What Turso is

Turso runs SQLite at the edge, letting you place database replicas close to users and create a database per tenant cheaply. A database per tenant becomes realistic here, because creating one is cheap rather than a provisioning project. The constraint is SQLite's model: writes go to a primary, so write-heavy or highly relational workloads are a poor fit.

What Cloudant is built to do

JSON document database

Stores schema-flexible documents, attachments and secondary indexes behind HTTPS APIs.

CouchDB-compatible replication

Supports replication patterns between Cloudant regions and compatible CouchDB systems.

Provisioned throughput

Scales read, write and global-query capacity in linked blocks through the dashboard or API.

IBM IAM and SDKs

Integrates IBM Cloud access controls and provides supported Java, Node.js, Python, Swift, Go and mobile clients.

What Turso is built to do

Edge replicas

Places read replicas near users to cut query latency.

Database per tenant

Creates many small isolated databases instead of one shared schema.

SQLite compatibility

Uses libSQL so existing SQLite tooling and queries apply.

Choose Cloudant if

• Offline or distributed applications that benefit from CouchDB-style replication
• JSON workloads dominated by key lookups and well-designed partitioned queries
• Teams able to test request-class capacity, 429 handling and multi-region conflicts

Skip Cloudant if

• The application depends on relational joins, broad ad-hoc SQL or multi-document ACID transactions
• Traffic is too unpredictable to provision and monitor request-class capacity
• A free Lite instance is being treated as a production SLA or scalable datastore

Choose Turso if

• Apps with many small databases — the free tier allows 100 databases and 5 GB
• Developers who want per-tenant SQLite in the cloud from $4.99/month
• Read-heavy apps: Scaler at $24.92/month includes 100 billion rows read

Skip Turso if

• You need SSO, HIPAA or SOC 2 — Pro is $416.58/month
• You expect Postgres or MySQL semantics; Turso is SQLite-based
• Your writes are heavy: free tier allows 10M rows written a month

Cloudant: pros & cons

• Managed document service: IBM handles database servers, upgrades, patching and core high-availability infrastructure.
• CouchDB lineage: Compatible HTTP APIs and replication ease selected CouchDB application and migration patterns.
• Explicit capacity model: Read, write and global-query throughput are provisioned in documented blocks.
• Multi-region option: Application-managed replication can support active-active regional architectures.
• Lite is evaluation capacity: It cannot scale and blocks new writes above its storage limit.
• Capacity dimensions scale together: A workload dominated by one request class may pay for unused allowances in the others.
• Exceeding throughput returns 429: Applications need retry, backoff and load testing rather than assuming automatic unlimited scale.
• Cross-region is not automatic application resilience: Conflict behavior, traffic routing, monitoring and recovery remain design responsibilities.

Turso: pros & cons

• Very low latency reads at the edge
• Database-per-tenant is affordable
• SQLite semantics are familiar
• Writes go to a primary region
• SQLite limits apply
• Younger platform