bbolt

Windows · Mac · Linux · Android · iPhone · Self-hosted

Freedom report

Three barsScore 6.7

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely5 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

bbolt is ranked #5 of 31 in embedded databases on Freedom251. It runs on Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Self-hosted, Windows. There is a free plan.

bbolt plans and pricing

All plans

bbolt Free Open-source Go library and command-line utility · no paid plans listed github.com · 4 Oct 2026

Compared on embedded databases

Supported platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android
Database model: key-value
Query interface: api

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The record

Purpose: bbolt is a maintained fork of Bolt, a pure Go embedded key/value store for applications that do not need a full database server.
Storage: A database is stored as a single file on disk and represents a consistent snapshot of the data.
Data organization: It organizes key/value pairs into buckets, supports nested buckets, and stores bucket keys in byte-sorted order.
Transactions: bbolt supports serializable ACID transactions with one read-write transaction at a time and multiple concurrent read-only transactions.
Backup: A read-only transaction can write a consistent hot backup without blocking other database reads and writes.
Monitoring: The database exposes operation statistics that can be logged or sent to a service such as statsd.
Integrations: The README lists projects using Bolt, including Consul, Containerd, InfluxDB, Prometheus Annotation Server, and NATS Streaming.
Mobile support: The project documents using gomobile bindings to run database logic on iOS and Android.
Install: The README instructs Go developers to install the library with go get go.etcd.io/bbolt@latest and the CLI with go install go.etcd.io/bbolt/cmd/bbolt@latest.
Workload fit: The project describes bbolt as suitable for read-intensive workloads and range scans, while warning that random writes can be slow.
Access limitation: A database file uses an exclusive write lock and cannot be shared by multiple processes; read-only mode permits multiple processes to read it.
Scale and memory: The project says databases can exceed physical RAM if the memory map fits the process virtual address space, and notes this may be problematic on 32-bit systems.
Data-file limitation: Deleting large amounts of data does not reclaim file space; freed pages remain in the file for later reuse.
License and support: The repository identifies an MIT license and directs users to its issues and discussions for project interaction; it does not list a paid support plan.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Embedded Databases in 2026#5 of 31

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Sources

github.com/etcd-io/bbolt· checked 4 Oct 2026