Is RethinkDB worth the price?
RethinkDB's pricing is exceptionally generous, as it is entirely open-source and free.
This makes it an incredibly fair and accessible option compared to proprietary database solutions. It's best for developers and organizations looking for a powerful real-time database without any direct licensing costs.
Pricing Plans
Open Source
Free
- Full database features
- Realtime push queries
- JSON document store
- Self-hosted
Hidden Costs & Gotchas
Infrastructure hosting costs
Operational management overhead
Developer time for setup
No official commercial support
Which Plan Do You Need?
Budget-conscious developers
Open-source advocates
Self-hosting experts
How RethinkDB Compares to Competitors
Unlike commercial real-time databases like Firebase, which offers a free tier but scales to paid plans based on usage (e.g., $0.18/GB storage, $1/GB bandwidth), RethinkDB has no direct software cost. Similarly, MongoDB Atlas, another popular NoSQL database, has a free tier but quickly moves to paid clusters starting around $9/month for basic instances, whereas RethinkDB remains free regardless of scale (excluding infrastructure).
RethinkDB Pricing FAQ
How much does RethinkDB cost?
RethinkDB is free to use. No subscription or one-time fee is required for the core product.
Does RethinkDB have a free plan?
Yes. RethinkDB offers a free plan called "Open Source". It includes: Full database features, Realtime push queries, JSON document store.
Is there a cheaper alternative to RethinkDB?
Yes. Popular alternatives to RethinkDB include Firebase Firestore, Supabase, Amazon DynamoDB, CockroachDB. Free alternatives include Firebase Firestore, Supabase, CockroachDB. Compare them side-by-side on Toolradar.
Cheaper alternatives to RethinkDB
5 of 6 direct competitors below offer a free plan. Per-seat pricing varies up to 60% across this set.
