Side by side
Pebble vs PGlite
Both stand on embedded databases. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.
Free plan Self-hosted
Pebble offers a focused Go storage engine with a substantial listed feature set and CockroachDB production history. It is most appropriate when its narrower scope and compatibility rules match the application.
Visit Pebble Free plan Self-hostedWeb
PGlite offers a compact way to embed Postgres across several JavaScript runtimes, with persistence options, extensions, and framework integrations. Its connection model and socket-server caveat matter when planning concurrent or server-style use.
Visit PGliteThe facts
| Pebble | PGlite | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Not published | Not published |
| Runs on | Self-hosted | Self-hosted, Web |
| Lowest paid plan | Not published | Free or on request |
| Plans published | None | 1 |
| Maker | Not published | Not published |
| Website | github.com | pglite.dev |
| On embedded databases | #24 of 30 | #20 of 30 |
Pebble: what it does well
- Open-source BSD-3-Clause license
- Go key-value store for self-hosting
- Checkpoints, snapshots, batches, and compaction
- Used as CockroachDB’s default storage engine
- Production use described at scale
What to know first
- No backups, column families, or transactions
- No universal compaction
- RocksDB compatibility has version limits
- Unsupported RocksDB features may corrupt data
PGlite: what it does well
- Runs in browsers, Node.js, Bun, and Deno.
- Package is under 3 MB gzipped.
- Supports Postgres extensions including pgvector and PostGIS.
- Open source with two listed licenses.
What to know first
- Uses one exclusive database connection.
- Socket server behavior differs from a normal Postgres installation.
- Not all socket-server use cases are guaranteed to work.
Alternatives to Pebble Alternatives to PGlite The whole list