WonderDB
discontinuedby Vilas Athavale · since 2013 · also known as wonderdb
Small Java NoSQL caching store built on relational internals (B+trees, block cache, JDBC); abandoned 2015.
discontinued. No commits since May 2015; wonderdb.org is a parked domain. Use MapDB, Ehcache or Chronicle Map for Java caching.
Overview
WonderDB was a one-developer Java project by Vilas Athavale that applied relational database machinery (block caching, record-level locking, B+tree indexes, variable-size blocks, SQL and JDBC) to a disk-backed key-value cache. The published version exposed only get, put and remove against a local cache, with values in a disk-backed concurrent list, and the author reported around 33,000 operations per second for 1 KB payloads on an EC2 m3.xlarge. Development stopped in 2015 and the wonderdb.org domain is now parked. It is only of interest as a small code example.
Strengths & trade-offs
Strengths
- +Shows how B+trees, block caching and record locking can back a cache
- +Small, readable Java code
Trade-offs
- −Abandoned single-developer project
- −No licence, so reuse is legally unclear
- −Only local caching APIs were finished
Great for
- +Code reading on cache and B+tree internals
- +Historical catalogue entry
Think twice for
- −Any production use
Capabilities
Native or official first-party support · 3 of 25 tracked
Scale & consistency
- Comfortable data size
- Small · ≤ 100 GB
- Horizontal scaling
- None
- Multi-region
- No
- Transactions
- Limited ACID
- Consistency
- Strong
- Schema
- Schemaless
- Architecture
- Single node, Embedded
- Query languages
- Java API (get/put/remove), SQL
Deployment
Ecosystem
Alternatives to WonderDB
Embedded Java database exposing concurrent Maps, Sets and Queues backed by disk or off-heap memory.
wonderdb vs mapdb →The standard embedded JVM cache, with heap, off-heap and disk tiers and optional Terracotta clustering.
wonderdb vs ehcache →Off-heap, memory-mapped key-value store for Java with microsecond latency and cross-process sharing.
wonderdb vs chronicle-map →Fast pure-Java SQL engine for embedded, in-memory and test databases, with compatibility modes.
wonderdb vs h2 →Tiny reactive in-memory store for tables and values, with persisters and CRDT sync.
wonderdb vs tinybase →A distributed, memory-first SQL database and compute grid; Ignite 3 rebuilt it around Raft and Calcite.
wonderdb vs apache-ignite →WonderDB FAQ
What is WonderDB?
WonderDB is a key-value database by Vilas Athavale, first released in 2013. WonderDB was a one-developer Java project by Vilas Athavale that applied relational database machinery (block caching, record-level locking, B+tree indexes, variable-size blocks, SQL and JDBC) to a disk-backed key-value cache. The published version exposed only get, put and remove against a local cache, with values in a disk-backed concurrent list, and the author reported around 33,000 operations per second for 1 KB payloads on an EC2 m3.xlarge. Development stopped in 2015 and the wonderdb.org domain is now parked. It is only of interest as a small code example.
Is WonderDB open source?
No. WonderDB is proprietary, closed-source software. License: No licence specified (source published on GitHub).
Does WonderDB support ACID transactions?
Partly. WonderDB offers limited ACID guarantees (for example, single-record or single-partition transactions), with strong consistency.
Does WonderDB scale horizontally?
WonderDB 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 WonderDB?
You can self-host it and embed it in your application.
What is WonderDB best for?
WonderDB is a strong fit for code reading on cache and B+tree internals; and historical catalogue entry. Think twice for any production use.
What are the best alternatives to WonderDB?
Common alternatives to WonderDB include MapDB, Ehcache, Chronicle Map, H2 Database and TinyBase. The right choice depends on your workload, scale and hosting; WhichDB's smart match ranks them against your requirements.
Is WonderDB still maintained?
WonderDB is discontinued. No commits since May 2015; wonderdb.org is a parked domain. Use MapDB, Ehcache or Chronicle Map for Java caching.
How popular is WonderDB?
WonderDB ranks #678 of 844 databases on the WhichDB Score (0.1/100), and #132 among key-value databases. The score combines public adoption signals such as package downloads, GitHub activity, job posts and developer discussion.