ShardingSphere-Proxy is a free, self-hosted database proxy that exposes a database server through a binary protocol for clients written in different programming languages. It distributes storage and computing across underlying databases for horizontal scaling, and provides distributed transactions through a hybrid XA and BASE engine. Read/write splitting balances reads using SQL semantics and awareness of database topology. Other capabilities include data migration with sharding, federated queries, transparent data encryption, and data masking. The quick start describes theoretical client protocol support for MySQL, PostgreSQL, openGauss, and Firebird. Users can deploy a binary distribution, Docker image, or Helm deployment. The binary package requires Java JRE 8 or higher, while Docker requires no additional dependency. A MySQL backend requires adding mysql-connector-j-8.4.0.jar to the Proxy ext-lib directory. Support for system databases and tables such as information_schema and pg_catalog is limited, which may lead to errors in some graphical database clients. The downloads page recommends checking release files with GPG or SHA-512 signatures.
Who it is for
ShardingSphere-Proxy suits teams that self-host database infrastructure and need sharding, read/write splitting, or federated queries. It may fit installations using its described client protocols, provided they account for runtime and backend setup requirements.
What is good
- Free, self-hosted deployment.
- Offers binary, Docker, and Helm deployment options.
- Read balancing uses SQL semantics and database topology.
- Includes distributed transactions and data migration.
- Lists MySQL, PostgreSQL, openGauss, and Firebird protocols.
What to know first
- Binary distribution requires Java JRE 8 or higher.
- MySQL backend requires an added connector JAR.
- System database and table support is limited.
- Some graphical database clients may show errors.
Verdict
ShardingSphere-Proxy provides database sharding, routing, transactions, and federation in a free self-hosted package. Check its runtime and MySQL connector requirements, as well as the noted limits for system databases and tables.
ShardingSphere-Proxy plans and pricing
All plansCompared on database proxy software
- Free plan
- Yes
- Deployment model
- self-hosted
- Connection pooling
- Yes
- Query routing
- Yes
- Load balancing
- Yes
- Automatic failover
- Yes
- Supported databases
- MySQL, PostgreSQL, openGauss, Firebird
