SequoiaDB
activeby SequoiaDB Corporation · since 2013 · also known as 巨杉数据库, SequoiaDB Juzhang, SequoiaSQL
Chinese distributed document database with native ACID storage, SQL instances and S3 API, used in many banks.
Overview
SequoiaDB is a distributed database from Guangzhou-based SequoiaDB Corporation, first released in 2013 and open-sourced in 2014. Its core is a natively distributed, JSON document storage engine with full ACID transactions, sharding, multi-replica high availability and elastic scale-out; on top of it the company layers SQL instances compatible with MySQL and PostgreSQL, an S3-compatible object interface and a file-system gateway, which it markets as multi-model. The vendor reports production use in more than 100 banks and clusters of up to 500 servers and 3 PB, mainly for historical-data platforms, real-time data hubs and content management in Chinese financial services. In July 2025 the main repository moved to a new GitHub home and was relicensed from AGPL-3.0 to Apache 2.0; development of the 5.x line continues.
Strengths & trade-offs
Strengths
- +Native distributed document engine with full ACID transactions
- +MySQL- and PostgreSQL-compatible SQL instances over the same data
- +S3-compatible object storage and file gateway in one platform
- +Proven in large Chinese banking deployments
- +Now under the permissive Apache 2.0 license
Trade-offs
- −Documentation and community are mostly in Chinese
- −Small ecosystem outside China; few managed offerings
- −Multi-layer architecture (engine plus SQL instances) adds operational complexity
Great for
- +Historical and full-volume data platforms in banking
- +Real-time data hubs combining JSON and SQL access
- +Content and image management with an S3-compatible API
- +Mainframe offload of read-heavy financial data
Think twice for
- −Teams needing English-first support
- −Small single-node applications
Capabilities
Native or official first-party support · 6 of 25 tracked
Scale & consistency
- Comfortable data size
- Large · ≤ 1 PB
- Horizontal scaling
- Native
- Multi-region
- Read replicas
- Transactions
- Full ACID
- Consistency
- Strong
- Schema
- Flexible
- Architecture
- Distributed, Primary replica
- Query languages
- SequoiaDB shell (JavaScript), SQL via MySQL/PostgreSQL instances
Vendor cites clusters of up to 500 physical servers and about 3 PB, with remote disaster-recovery replication.
Deployment
Ecosystem
Alternatives to SequoiaDB
The default document database: flexible BSON documents, rich queries and built-in sharding.
sequoiadb vs mongodb →MySQL-compatible distributed SQL with a row store for OLTP and a columnar replica for real-time analytics.
sequoiadb vs tidb →Alipay-proven distributed SQL with MySQL (and Oracle, in Enterprise) compatibility, HTAP and vector search.
sequoiadb vs oceanbase →Memory-first distributed JSON database with SQL++, search, vector indexes and mobile sync.
sequoiadb vs couchbase →Apache-licensed distributed SQL that reuses the PostgreSQL query layer on a Raft-replicated storage engine.
sequoiadb vs yugabytedb →Serverless Postgres from the Prisma ORM team, on unikernels, billed per operation with no cold starts.
sequoiadb vs prisma-postgres →SequoiaDB FAQ
What is SequoiaDB?
SequoiaDB is a document database by SequoiaDB Corporation, first released in 2013. SequoiaDB is a distributed database from Guangzhou-based SequoiaDB Corporation, first released in 2013 and open-sourced in 2014. Its core is a natively distributed, JSON document storage engine with full ACID transactions, sharding, multi-replica high availability and elastic scale-out; on top of it the company layers SQL instances compatible with MySQL and PostgreSQL, an S3-compatible object interface and a file-system gateway, which it markets as multi-model. The vendor reports production use in more than 100 banks and clusters of up to 500 servers and 3 PB, mainly for historical-data platforms, real-time data hubs and content management in Chinese financial services. In July 2025 the main repository moved to a new GitHub home and was relicensed from AGPL-3.0 to Apache 2.0; development of the 5.x line continues.
Is SequoiaDB open source?
Yes. SequoiaDB is open source. License: Apache License 2.0 (relicensed from AGPL-3.0 in 2025).
Does SequoiaDB support ACID transactions?
Yes. SequoiaDB supports full ACID transactions, with strong consistency.
Does SequoiaDB scale horizontally?
SequoiaDB scales horizontally out of the box, with built-in sharding or partitioning. It is comfortable at large scale (≤ 1 PB). It supports cross-region read replicas.
How can I run SequoiaDB?
You can self-host it.
What is SequoiaDB best for?
SequoiaDB is a strong fit for historical and full-volume data platforms in banking; real-time data hubs combining JSON and SQL access; and content and image management with an S3-compatible API. Think twice for teams needing English-first support.
What are the best alternatives to SequoiaDB?
Common alternatives to SequoiaDB include MongoDB, TiDB, OceanBase, Couchbase Server and YugabyteDB. The right choice depends on your workload, scale and hosting; WhichDB's smart match ranks them against your requirements.
How popular is SequoiaDB?
SequoiaDB ranks #444 of 844 databases on the WhichDB Score (3.2/100), and #39 among document databases. The score combines public adoption signals such as package downloads, GitHub activity, job posts and developer discussion.