Can we use Realm database for free like alternative to Sqlite and CoreData?

Question

I was doing a React-Native project. I was required to save data locally and then I decided to this in Realm.

Soon I found out it has pricing options for cloud database. I'm not able to find out if this DB can use an alternative like sqlite or CoreData like it has mentioned:

"Used by 100k+ developers and downloaded over two billion times. Realm Database is a fast, easy to use, and open source alternative to SQLite and Core Data."

Can I use Realm for free for saving data locally?

Answer 1

I spent considerable amount of time and found out :

Self hosted “realm platform/ros” - not free starting 3.5.0

• “Starting with Realm Object Server 3.5.0, a feature token is required to run the server. You can get your own feature token here.”
• Above is the same as the pricing page
• Standard is $30/month and Dedicated Cloud for custom pricing

“Realm platform/ros” - not open source

• https://www.npmjs.com/package/realm-object-server points to https://github.com/realm/ros which gives 404, implies private repo
• https://github.com/realm/realm-object-server is open source, but it is just tracking of issues related to the Realm Object Server and other general issues not related to the specific SDK's

“Realm platform/ros” - data integration needs license/unmaintained/create data connector/create APIs

• “The Realm Platform allows for easy integration with your existing backend whether that is databases, microservices, APIs, etc. There are three common ways to do this:”
• • MSSQL Data Connector (MSSQL needs license/paid)
• • Postgres Connector (Distribution of the Postgres data connector package is currently paused. This page is only available for reference. We apologize for the inconvenience.)
• • Own data connector (we do not currently support out of the box (i.e. MongoDB, MySQL, etc))
• • Server SDK + data change event handlers in server SDK (Javascript and .NET) + via GraphQL (available via GraphQL endpoints for users whose backend is not natively supported by our SDKs (i.e. Java, Python, etc))

“Realm platform/ros and cloud” - data querying/exporting

• Uses GraphQL to browse data in realm cloud instances and “Realm platform/ros and the same can be used for data export/data pipeline jobs to send data to analytics platform

Hope this saves time for other readers !

Answer 2

Yes definitely you can use Realm for free to save unlimited data locally. Realm is only charging for cloud storage.

Realm Cloud Storage Pricing

Answer 3

I currently use realm in a production application with exactly this use case. Pros: Fast read and writes good documentation. Cons: Models get messy Clogs up JS thread Impossible to debug Realm objects make tranlating to the redux store a major pain

My advice is use watermelonDb