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Hive (Dart)

maintenance

by Simon Choi and the Hive community · since 2019 · also known as hive_flutter, Hive CE

Lightweight pure-Dart key-value store for Flutter; development continues in the Hive CE fork.

key-valueembedded libraryopen source (permissive)mature
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maintenance. Original hive package unreleased since 2.2.3 (June 2022); active development moved to the community fork Hive CE (hive_ce).

Overview

Hive is a key-value database written in pure Dart, popular in Flutter apps because it needs no native code, works on mobile, desktop and web, and is very fast for small reads and writes. Data lives in boxes (one file each), optionally AES-256 encrypted, and typed objects are stored via generated TypeAdapters. It works well for settings, caches and modest local state, but it has no query language or indexes beyond keys. The original package has not been released since 2.2.3 in June 2022, and the community-maintained Hive CE (hive_ce) is where fixes and new Dart support now land.

Embedded / in-processMobile & offlineCachingCoordination

Strengths & trade-offs

Strengths

  • +Pure Dart with no native dependencies, so it runs on Flutter web too
  • +Very fast key reads and writes for small objects
  • +Simple box-based API with optional AES-256 encryption

Trade-offs

  • −Original package is unmaintained; you need to switch to Hive CE for fixes
  • −No queries or secondary indexes, only key access and full scans
  • −Not built for large datasets or relational data

Great for

  • +Flutter app settings and preferences
  • +Caching API responses offline
  • +Small typed object stores in Flutter apps

Think twice for

  • −Querying or filtering large collections
  • −Relational data
  • −Multi-process access

Capabilities

Native or official first-party support · 3 of 25 tracked

✓In-memory
✓Durable persistence
✓Encryption at rest
–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
–Compression
–Role-based access
–Time travel
–Branching
–Online schema changes
–Streaming ingest
–Offline sync
–Runs in WebAssembly

Scale & consistency

Comfortable data size
Small · ≤ 100 GB
Horizontal scaling
None
Multi-region
No
Transactions
Limited ACID
Consistency
Strong
Schema
Schemaless
Architecture
Embedded
Query languages
Key lookups (Dart API)

Boxes are loaded into memory by default; lazy boxes help with larger data.

Deployment

Self-hosted Vendor-managed cloud Serverless Embedded Edge Kubernetes operator

Ecosystem

apis & protocolsDart API
client languagesDart

Alternatives to Hive (Dart)

Compare all→
IsarObject3.8

Fast Flutter/Dart object database with rich indexed queries, now stalled upstream.

hive-dart vs isar →
ObjectBoxObject12.4

Fast on-device object database with built-in HNSW vector search and an optional commercial sync server.

hive-dart vs objectbox →
MMKVKey-Value6.3

Tencent's mmap-backed key-value store for mobile apps, built as a faster SharedPreferences/NSUserDefaults.

hive-dart vs mmkv →
SQLiteRelational75.5

The in-process SQL engine that ships in every phone, browser and OS: one file, zero servers.

hive-dart vs sqlite →
Realm (Atlas Device SDK)Object25.2

Object-oriented mobile database whose MongoDB sync service is gone; the local engine survives as open source.

hive-dart vs realm →
EhcacheKey-Value17.6

The standard embedded JVM cache, with heap, off-heap and disk tiers and optional Terracotta clustering.

hive-dart vs ehcache →

Hive (Dart) FAQ

What is Hive (Dart)?

Hive (Dart) is a key-value database by Simon Choi and the Hive community, first released in 2019. Hive is a key-value database written in pure Dart, popular in Flutter apps because it needs no native code, works on mobile, desktop and web, and is very fast for small reads and writes. Data lives in boxes (one file each), optionally AES-256 encrypted, and typed objects are stored via generated TypeAdapters. It works well for settings, caches and modest local state, but it has no query language or indexes beyond keys. The original package has not been released since 2.2.3 in June 2022, and the community-maintained Hive CE (hive_ce) is where fixes and new Dart support now land.

Is Hive (Dart) open source?

Yes. Hive (Dart) is open source. License: Apache License 2.0.

Does Hive (Dart) support ACID transactions?

Partly. Hive (Dart) offers limited ACID guarantees (for example, single-record or single-partition transactions), with strong consistency.

Does Hive (Dart) scale horizontally?

Hive (Dart) does not scale horizontally; it runs on a single node, so you scale it up rather than out. It is comfortable at small scale (≤ 100 GB).

How can I run Hive (Dart)?

You can self-host it and embed it in your application.

What is Hive (Dart) best for?

Hive (Dart) is a strong fit for flutter app settings and preferences; caching API responses offline; and small typed object stores in Flutter apps. Think twice for querying or filtering large collections.

What are the best alternatives to Hive (Dart)?

Common alternatives to Hive (Dart) include Isar, ObjectBox, MMKV, SQLite and Realm (Atlas Device SDK). The right choice depends on your workload, scale and hosting; WhichDB's smart match ranks them against your requirements.

Is Hive (Dart) still maintained?

Hive (Dart) is in maintenance mode. Original hive package unreleased since 2.2.3 (June 2022); active development moved to the community fork Hive CE (hive_ce).

How popular is Hive (Dart)?

Hive (Dart) ranks #318 of 844 databases on the WhichDB Score (9.1/100), and #41 among key-value databases. The score combines public adoption signals such as package downloads, GitHub activity, job posts and developer discussion.