When should a relational DB be picked over XTDB?

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Tricky question perhaps… but straightforward.

What would be XTDB’s team recommendation, for someone to determine if XTDB is going to bottleneck operations in comparison to a relational DB like Postgresql.

Yes I know that Postgregsql can be used through a JDBC so really, this is like comparing “Postgresql with single table schema vs Postgresql with typical relational multi-table schema”.

This is the one question that makes me uneasy about picking XTDB for any/every project, fearing that the shape of the data might be better served by a relational DB (or not), and not knowing the answer.

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XTDB’s current sweet spot is where you have strong bitemporal requirements and you want to avoid working with SQL. But otherwise Postgres is still a pretty awesome piece of tech and is a safe default choice for most teams…for now :slight_smile: Our upcoming work on v2 includes first-class SQL and will make a bigger case for XT (particularly in regards analytical performance and long-term retention vs. Postgres) - we hope that will set us apart more clearly.

You might also find this interesting: XTDB compared to other databases

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