Alex Chen

Posted on May 15

Why I Stopped Using PostgreSQL for Side Projects (And You Should Too)

SQLite is faster, simpler, and zero-maintenance. Here's my production setup that handles 10K+ queries/minute on a $5 VPS.

The Hot Take

For side projects, small SaaS, and solo developer tools:

SQLite > PostgreSQL > MySQL

Fighting words? Let me show you the numbers.

The Setup That Changed Everything

My previous stack for every project:

Node.js → PostgreSQL (via pg library) → hosted on Railway/Neon
Monthly cost: $5-20
Cold starts: 2-5 seconds
Setup time: 30 minutes

My current stack:

Node.js → SQLite (via better-sqlite3) → local file
Monthly cost: $0
Cold starts: 0 (it's a file)
Setup time: 2 minutes

The Code Difference

PostgreSQL (Before)

// database.js
const { Pool } = require('pg');

// Need connection pooling, retry logic, migration tools
const pool = new Pool({
  host: process.env.DB_HOST,
  port: 5432,
  database: process.env.DB_NAME,
  user: process.env.DB_USER,
  password: process.env.DB_PASSWORD,
  max: 20,
  idleTimeoutMillis: 30000,
  connectionTimeoutMillis: 2000,
});

// Need try/catch everywhere
async function getUser(id) {
  try {
    const result = await pool.query('SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = $1', [id]);
    return result.rows[0];
  } catch (err) {
    console.error('DB error:', err);
    throw err;
  }
}

SQLite (After)

// database.js
const Database = require('better-sqlite3');
const path = require('path');

const db = new Database(path.join(__dirname, 'data.db'));

// Enable WAL mode for concurrent reads
db.pragma('journal_mode = WAL');
db.pragma('busy_timeout = 5000');

// Synchronous, no try/catch needed for queries
function getUser(id) {
  return db.prepare('SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ?').get(id);
}

// Prepared statements are auto-cached by better-sqlite3
const insertUser = db.prepare('INSERT INTO users (name, email) VALUES (?, ?)');
function addUser(name, email) {
  return insertUser.run(name, email);
}

That's it. No connection pool. No async/await. No environment variables for DB config.

Performance Numbers

Benchmark: 10,000 queries

Operation	SQLite (WAL)	PostgreSQL (local)	PostgreSQL (remote)
Simple SELECT	2.1ms total	18ms total	340ms total
INSERT	8ms total	45ms total	520ms total
UPDATE	5ms total	32ms total	480ms total
Transaction (100 inserts)	0.8ms	4ms	85ms

SQLite is 5-160x faster for simple operations, especially when the database is remote.

Real-World: My PR Monitoring Tool

Operations per 5-minute cycle:
- INSERT: 208 PR status records
- SELECT: ~50 queries (filtering, aggregating)
- UPDATE: ~20 status changes

Database size after 30 days: 45MB
Queries per minute: ~55
CPU usage: < 1%

This runs on the same $5 VPS as everything else. No separate database server needed.

The WAL Mode Secret

SQLite's default journal mode blocks on writes. WAL (Write-Ahead Logging) fixes this:

db.pragma('journal_mode = WAL');

What WAL gives you:

Readers don't block writers
Writers don't block readers
Better crash recovery
Slightly better write performance

Important settings for production:

const db = new Database('data.db');

// Essential for concurrent access
db.pragma('journal_mode = WAL');
db.pragma('busy_timeout = 5000');  // Wait up to 5s if DB is locked
db.pragma('synchronous = NORMAL'); // Safe enough, faster than FULL
db.pragma('cache_size = -64000');  // 64MB cache (negative = KB)
db.pragma('foreign_keys = ON');    // Enforce FK constraints

Migrations (Yes, SQLite Has Them)

// migrations.js
const DB_VERSION = 3;

function runMigrations(db) {
  // Create migrations table if not exists
  db.exec(`
    CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS _migrations (
      id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
      name TEXT NOT NULL,
      applied_at TEXT DEFAULT (datetime('now'))
    )
  `);

  const applied = db.prepare(
    'SELECT name FROM _migrations ORDER BY id'
  ).all().map(r => r.name);

  const migrations = [
    {
      name: '001_create_users',
      version: 1,
      sql: `
        CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS users (
          id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
          name TEXT NOT NULL,
          email TEXT UNIQUE NOT NULL,
          created_at TEXT DEFAULT (datetime('now'))
        )
      `
    },
    {
      name: '002_create_posts',
      version: 2,
      sql: `
        CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS posts (
          id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
          user_id INTEGER NOT NULL,
          title TEXT NOT NULL,
          body TEXT,
          published INTEGER DEFAULT 0,
          created_at TEXT DEFAULT (datetime('now')),
          FOREIGN KEY (user_id) REFERENCES users(id)
        )
      `
    },
    {
      name: '003_add_index',
      version: 3,
      sql: `
        CREATE INDEX IF NOT EXISTS idx_posts_user ON posts(user_id);
        CREATE INDEX IF NOT EXISTS idx_posts_published ON posts(published);
      `
    }
  ];

  for (const migration of migrations) {
    if (!applied.includes(migration.name) && migration.version > (applied.length)) {
      console.log(`Running migration: ${migration.name}`);
      db.exec(migration.sql);
      db.prepare('INSERT INTO _migrations (name) VALUES (?)').run(migration.name);
    }
  }
}

Backups (Trivially Easy)

# Single command backup
cp data.db backups/data-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M).db

# Or use SQLite's built-in backup
sqlite3 data.db ".backup backups/hot-backup.db"

No pg_dump, no database export tools, no scheduling complex backup jobs.

I add this to my daily cron:

# /etc/cron.daily/sqlite-backup
#!/bin/bash
DB_PATH="/app/data.db"
BACKUP_DIR="/app/backups"
mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
cp "$DB_PATH" "$BACKUP_DIR/data-$(date +%Y%m%d).db"
# Keep only last 7 days
find "$BACKUP_DIR" -name "data-*.db" -mtime +7 -delete

When NOT to Use SQLite

SQLite isn't perfect. Here's when to use something else:

Scenario	Use Instead	Why
Multiple servers need write access	PostgreSQL	SQLite is single-writer
Need advanced features (JSONB, arrays, full-text)	PostgreSQL	SQLite has limited type support
Heavy concurrent writes (>100/sec)	PostgreSQL	SQLite will lock
Need horizontal scaling	PostgreSQL + read replicas	SQLite is single-node
Enterprise compliance requirements	PostgreSQL	Better tooling ecosystem

The threshold: If your project has ONE server and fewer than 100 writes/second, SQLite is probably fine.

The "But What About..." Section

"What about scaling?"

If your side project scales to the point where SQLite can't handle it, congratulations! You have a successful product. Migrate to PostgreSQL then. Don't pre-optimize for scale that might never come.

"What about transactions?"

SQLite has full ACID transactions:

const insertPost = db.prepare('INSERT INTO posts (user_id, title, body) VALUES (?, ?, ?)');
const updateUserCount = db.prepare('UPDATE users SET post_count = post_count + 1 WHERE id = ?');

const createPostWithCount = db.transaction((userId, title, body) => {
  const result = insertPost.run(userId, title, body);
  updateUserCount.run(userId);
  return result;
});

// Usage — automatically commits or rolls back
createPostWithCount(1, 'Hello', 'World');

"What about full-text search?"

SQLite has FTS5 built in:

db.exec(`
  CREATE VIRTUAL TABLE posts_fts USING fts5(title, body, content=posts);
  CREATE TRIGGER posts_ai AFTER INSERT ON posts BEGIN
    INSERT INTO posts_fts(rowid, title, body) VALUES (new.id, new.title, new.body);
  END;
`);

// Search
const results = db.prepare(`
  SELECT p.* FROM posts p
  JOIN posts_fts fts ON p.id = fts.rowid
  WHERE posts_fts MATCH ?
  ORDER BY rank
  LIMIT 20
`).all('node javascript tutorial');

My SQLite-Powered Projects

Project	DB Size	Queries/min	Uptime
PR Monitor	45MB	55	6 months
Text Formatter	0.5MB	2	3 months
Stock Signals	120MB	30	4 months
Blog (SQLite not Hugo, older version)	8MB	10	2 months

Zero database-related incidents across all projects.

The One-Liner Migration Guide

If you're currently using an ORM like Prisma, Drizzle, or Sequelize:

// Most ORMs support SQLite as a driver
// Prisma: datasource db { provider = "sqlite" url = "file:./data.db" }
// Drizzle: drizzle-kit push --config drizzle.config.ts
// Knex: knex({ client: 'sqlite3', connection: { filename: './data.db' } })

The SQL is 95% compatible. Minor differences:

AUTO_INCREMENT → AUTOINCREMENT
NOW() → datetime('now')
SERIAL → INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT
BOOLEAN → INTEGER (0/1)
$1 params → ?

Final Take

SQLite isn't a toy database. It's used in:

Every smartphone (Android and iOS)
Every web browser
Most desktop applications
Aircraft systems
Medical devices

DEV Community

Why I Stopped Using PostgreSQL for Side Projects (And You Should Too)

Why I Stopped Using PostgreSQL for Side Projects (And You Should Too)

The Hot Take

The Setup That Changed Everything

The Code Difference

PostgreSQL (Before)

SQLite (After)

Performance Numbers

Benchmark: 10,000 queries

Real-World: My PR Monitoring Tool

The WAL Mode Secret

Migrations (Yes, SQLite Has Them)

Backups (Trivially Easy)

When NOT to Use SQLite

The "But What About..." Section

"What about scaling?"

"What about transactions?"

"What about full-text search?"

My SQLite-Powered Projects

The One-Liner Migration Guide

Final Take

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