Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Realm.io VS Automerge

Compare Realm.io VS Automerge and see what are their differences

Realm.io logo Realm.io

Realm is a mobile platform and a replacement for SQLite & Core Data. Build offline-first, reactive mobile experiences using simple data sync.

Automerge logo Automerge

A JSON-like data structure (a CRDT) that can be modified concurrently by different users, and merged again automatically.
  • Realm.io Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-04
  • Automerge Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-02

Realm.io features and specs

  • Easy Integration
    Realm is designed to be easy to set up and integrate into existing projects, with straightforward APIs and comprehensive documentation.
  • Performance
    Realm provides high performance with minimal overhead. It's faster than many traditional databases for many use cases, especially with large datasets and complex queries.
  • Cross-Platform Support
    Realm supports multiple platforms including iOS, Android, and React Native, allowing for easy cross-platform development.
  • Real-Time Data Sync
    Realm offers real-time synchronization of data between devices and a server, ensuring consistency and enabling collaborative features.
  • Rich Data Types
    Realm supports complex data types such as lists and objects, making it more flexible for various types of applications.

Possible disadvantages of Realm.io

  • Learning Curve
    Despite extensive documentation, there can be a learning curve for developers new to Realm, particularly if they are accustomed to traditional SQL databases.
  • Storage Size
    Realm databases can become large quickly, especially if not properly managed, potentially impacting app performance and storage costs.
  • Limited Query Language
    While powerful, Realm's query language isn't as mature or feature-rich as SQL, which might limit some advanced querying needs.
  • Tooling
    The tooling ecosystem for Realm is not as extensive as those for more established databases like SQLite or MongoDB, which could impact developer productivity.
  • Vendor Lock-In
    Using Realm might lead to vendor lock-in, as migrating away from it to another database system can be complex and time-consuming.

Automerge features and specs

  • Conflict Resolution
    Automerge uses CRDTs to offer automatic conflict resolution, allowing concurrent edits without manual merging.
  • Offline Support
    Automerge enables applications to work offline by keeping track of changes locally and syncing when back online.
  • Ease of Use
    The library provides a simple API that makes it easy to integrate into applications that require real-time collaboration.
  • No Central Server Requirement
    Automerge allows peer-to-peer communication, which can reduce the need for a centralized server to handle document changes.
  • Version Control
    Automatically keeps track of document history and changes, which can be useful for version control and auditing purposes.

Possible disadvantages of Automerge

  • Performance
    Automerge can consume significant memory and processing power, particularly in large documents or with frequent updates.
  • Complexity of CRDTs
    For developers unfamiliar with Conflict-free Replicated Data Types, understanding and implementing them can present a steep learning curve.
  • Limited Ecosystem
    As a relatively niche tool, Automerge has a smaller community and fewer available third-party integrations compared to more established libraries.
  • Data Structure Limitations
    Automerge supports a limited set of data structures, which can constrain the kinds of applications for which it is suitable.
  • Network Overhead
    The peer-to-peer and CRDT nature of Automerge may lead to increased network traffic, which can be problematic in bandwidth-constrained environments.

Realm.io videos

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Automerge videos

Automerge: a new foundation for collaboration software

More videos:

  • Review - Creating Local-First Collaboration Software with Automerge • Martin Kleppmann • GOTO 2023

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Realm.io and Automerge)
Databases
79 79%
21% 21
NoSQL Databases
84 84%
16% 16
Developer Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Data Integration
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Realm.io should be more popular than Automerge. It has been mentiond 25 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Realm.io mentions (25)

  • Release Radar · September 2024: Major updates from the open source community
    From the team at MongoDB comes Realm, a mobile database that runs directly inside phones, tablets, or wearables. It's built for mobile, and designed for offline use. The latest release comes with built-in Swift 6 language mode, and Xcode 16 support. Some breaking changes include removal of Atlas App Services and Atlas Device Sync functionality, Strings and Data now considered different types and thus queries won't... - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • I built a WebComponents-based framework
    Looks really cool, I like to make very minimalistic dependency choices for the web apps I work on. Web Components look interesting and it's great to see frameworks that build upon it and provide features that are currently missing from it. When I landed on the page I remembered another Realm framework I used a lot long time ago. https://realm.io has the same name and the logo looks very similar too. Not sure if... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Realm Database, Expo SDK 49 and Expo Router Getting Started
    Realm is a fast, scalable alternative to SQLite with mobile to cloud data sync that makes building real-time, reactive mobile apps easy. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • Looking for android java developer mentor
    I would focus on Kotlin instead of Java, there's really no point in sticking to Java at this point. And when it comes to databases, some local ones that are pretty easy to get into are Realm and ObjectBox, SQLite can definitely be a bit overwhelming at the beginning. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Want to build a simple database app....Where do I start
    Just to add to this, there's also Realm and ObjectBox as alternatives. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

Automerge mentions (5)

  • Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (October 2024)
    A sqlite extension that provides a virtual table backed by an Automerge document (https://automerge.org/). I believe that there are plenty of applications that could benefit from the collaboration or sync-ability that CRDTs provide, but that don't need to manage the CRDTs directly. Moving the CRDT management into the database seems like a natural fit. It's very early, and not public anywhere, but I'd be happy to... - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Comparing local-first frameworks and approaches
    Ink & Switch released automerge to automatically achieve this merge. If you have two documents you are collaboratively editing, you can use automerge to make concurrent changes. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • 5000x Faster CRDTs
    > The most popular, highly ergonomic, best implementations of CRDTs actually break the academic rules of CRDTs. There's a popular, highly ergonomic implementation called Automerge[0] that would beg to disagree with you. [0]: https://automerge.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Using CRDTs to build collaborative Rust web applications
    If you plan to build production-grade CRDT-based software and don’t want to build every piece of it by hand, I recommend Automerge as a library for handling all your CRDT needs, but it’s always good to look under the hood to build intuition and understanding for the underlying concepts. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Figma Is a File Editor
    Take a look at https://automerge.org/ and the stack those folks are building. You're exactly right that it's a difficult balance (specifically the trick is proving commutativity for the domain-specific data of your application). But automerge (and then https://github.com/inkandswitch/peritext) show it's at least possible. Good stuff. - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Realm.io and Automerge, you can also consider the following products

ObjectBox - ObjectBox empower edge computing with an edge device database and synchronization solution for Mobile & IoT. Store and sync data from edge to cloud.

PouchDB - Open-source JavaScript database inspired by Apache CouchDB that's designed to run well within the browser

CompactView - Viewer for Microsoft® SQL Server® CE database files (sdf)

Yjs - A CRDT framework with a powerful abstraction of shared data, Shared data types for building collaborative software

Microsoft SQL Server Compact - Bring Microsoft SQL Server 2017 to the platform of your choice. Use SQL Server 2017 on Windows, Linux, and Docker containers.

RxDB - A fast, offline-first, reactive Database for JavaScript Applications