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Cloudflare Durable Objects vs Cloudflare Workers KV

Cloudflare Durable Objects: Single-threaded stateful actors at the edge, each with its own strongly consistent SQLite store. Cloudflare Workers KV: Globally cached, eventually consistent key-value store for read-heavy data at Cloudflare's edge.

key differences

  • Transactions: Cloudflare Durable Objects offers full ACID; Cloudflare Workers KV offers none.
  • Only Cloudflare Durable Objects has transactions, joins, secondary indexes, pub/sub, time travel.
  • Only Cloudflare Workers KV has ttl / expiry.

choose cloudflare-durable-objects for

  • +Chat rooms and collaborative editing backends
  • +Multiplayer game and session state
  • +Rate limiters and distributed counters
  • +Per-user or per-tenant databases

best at · Edge, OLTP, Sessions

choose cloudflare-workers-kv for

  • +Feature flags and configuration at the edge
  • +URL redirects and routing tables
  • +Authentication tokens and API key lookups
  • +Caching rendered pages or API responses

best at · Edge, Cache, Coordination

Cloudflare Durable ObjectsSingle-threaded stateful actors at the edge, each with its own strongly consistent SQLite store.
Cloudflare Workers KVGlobally cached, eventually consistent key-value store for read-heavy data at Cloudflare's edge.
overview
Primary model
Key-Value
Key-Value
Also supports
Relational
–
Type
Managed service
Managed service
Status
Active
Active
Developer
Cloudflare
Cloudflare
First release
2020
2018
Latest version
–
–
License
ProprietaryProprietary (Cloudflare service)
ProprietaryProprietary (Cloudflare service)
Free tier
✓
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
7.2
4.4
Rank
#346
#404
GitHub stars
–
–
Stack Overflow questions
–
12
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
Native
Multi-region
None
Read replicas
ACID
Full
None
Consistency
Strong
Eventual
Schema
Flexible
Schemaless
Architecture
Distributed, Serverless, Embedded
Distributed, Serverless
deployment
Self-hosted
—
—
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
✓
Serverless
✓
✓
Embedded
—
—
Edge
✓
✓
Clouds
Cloudflare
Cloudflare
capabilities
Transactions
✓
—
Joins
✓
—
Secondary indexes
✓
—
Full-text search
—
—
Vector search
—
—
Geospatial
—
—
JSON
✓
✓
Change data capture
—
—
Triggers
—
—
Stored procedures
—
—
Materialized views
—
—
TTL / expiry
—
✓
Pub/Sub
✓
—
Columnar storage
—
—
In-memory
—
—
Durable persistence
✓
✓
Compression
—
—
Encryption at rest
✓
✓
Role-based access
—
—
Time travel
✓
—
Branching
—
—
Online schema changes
—
—
Streaming ingest
—
—
Offline sync
—
—
Runs in WebAssembly
—
—
interfaces
Query languages
SQL (SQLite), Storage key-value API
Workers KV API
Client languages
JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Rust
JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Rust
Best for
Edge, OLTP, Sessions, Pub/Sub
Edge, Cache, Coordination, Sessions
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

Cloudflare Durable Objects vs Cloudflare Workers KV: FAQ

What is the difference between Cloudflare Durable Objects and Cloudflare Workers KV?

Cloudflare Durable Objects: Single-threaded stateful actors at the edge, each with its own strongly consistent SQLite store. Cloudflare Workers KV: Globally cached, eventually consistent key-value store for read-heavy data at Cloudflare's edge. Transactions: Cloudflare Durable Objects offers full ACID; Cloudflare Workers KV offers none. Only Cloudflare Durable Objects has transactions, joins, secondary indexes, pub/sub, time travel. Only Cloudflare Workers KV has ttl / expiry.

When should I choose Cloudflare Durable Objects over Cloudflare Workers KV?

Choose Cloudflare Durable Objects for chat rooms and collaborative editing backends; multiplayer game and session state; and rate limiters and distributed counters. Choose Cloudflare Workers KV for feature flags and configuration at the edge; URL redirects and routing tables; and authentication tokens and API key lookups.

Is Cloudflare Durable Objects or Cloudflare Workers KV more popular?

Cloudflare Durable Objects ranks #346 on the WhichDB Score (7.2/100) and Cloudflare Workers KV ranks #404 (4.4/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Cloudflare Durable Objects and Cloudflare Workers KV open source?

No. Cloudflare Durable Objects is proprietary, closed-source software. No. Cloudflare Workers KV is proprietary, closed-source software.