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Ask HN: What do you use for a personal database?

35 points by Crontab ↗ HN
I was curious what the members of HN use when they need a personal database. There seems to be a lot of choices between SQL, NoSQL, and web based tools.

If anyone would like to say what they use, and why they chose it, I would appreciate hearing about it.

Thanks in advance.

45 comments

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gregjor
Not sure why anyone would need a "personal database."
theandrewbailey
Or what would one store in it. Does it mean your own personal business? Like a to-do list? Use a spreadsheet.
PaulHoule
For most hacking projects I use arangodb. I kinda wish there was an OWL-supporting database that was straightforward to write apps in but I think there still isn’t. SQLite is a second in Python where file-oriented as opposed to client-server is acceptable. In Java I’d consider some other file-based db which is pure Java.
mark_l_watson
Try rdflib for Python. It can sort-of be like SQLite in ease of use. Anyway, I have used it for years for small RDF things.
runjake
I try to use SQLite3 for everything I can, and Postgres if I need more.
spyspy
For personal projects I use Firestore. Performant and a very generous free tier.
unsupp0rted
Same here. I use Firebase/Firestore for MVPs and projects where I don't expect the data to be ultra relational in principle.

Firestore is bad at some things (e.g. try running a "where" filter query for 'date > X', but "orderBy" some field that isn't 'date').

Also obviously Firestore is very bad for any kind of text searching, especially searching for fuzzy strings.

Also Firestore gets expensive if you're expecting to do a ton of reads/writes in a day.

But for 80% ~ 90% of projects I swear by Firestore.

herghost
Obsidian.md if I'm to take 'personal database' to mean how I store my random, occasionally interlinked information. So I suppose that's effectively the file system with some nice linking in markdown over the top of it.
angryasian
Obsidian is by far the best solution and the one I've actually stuck to the most. Markdown, great plugins and all local files.
xwowsersx
Same. No other PKM ever clicked or worked for me.
sshine
HackMD is great, and the fork of it called HedgeDoc has really taken it somewhere even greater.
angryasian
not too sound dismissive, but one of the great things about obsidian is their ecosystem of plugins. I don't think this really rivals obsidian
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pwg
> I was curious what the members of HN use when they need a personal database.

Whichever seems appropriate for the given task I'm accomplishing.

I have some that are in PostgreSQL. Others in SQLite. A few that are just files organized in a filesystem directory hierarchy. There is really no "one size fits all" solution.

JCWasmx86
I use SQLite for smaller things (Think desktop applications) and MySQL for anything else
NayamAmarshe
Telegram Saved Messages, no joke.

I can send any file up to 2GB, any number of times. Can even set reminder messages. It's great because I don't have to go anywhere else to put things to remember.

etrautmann
Isn’t telegram likely infiltrated by the Russian state it is that FUD?
NayamAmarshe
Total FUD. If anything, it was banned in Russia for years because Durov refused to share any data with the government.
bovermyer
What do you mean by "personal database?"
simonw
SQLite with the open source toolchain I've been building over the past five years:

https://datasette.io as the interface for running queries against (and visualizing) my data.

https://sqlite-utils.datasette.io/ as a set of tools for creating and modifying my databases (inserting JSON or CSV data, enabling full text search text)

https://dogsheep.github.io as a suite of tools for importing my personal data - see also this talk I gave about that project: https://simonwillison.net/2020/Nov/14/personal-data-warehous...

I'm also using GitHub issues and the new GitHub projects for a bunch of personal data - my notes and TODO items specifically - much of which I can then suck into my own SQLite databases using https://datasette.io/tools/github-to-sqlite

knoebber
A postgres database that is managed by a custom app that I wrote in Elixir / Phoenix / LiveView. Hosted for free on fly.io.

it stores:

- My TODO list (items -> entries -> checkboxes)

- My credit card transactions (scraped from alert emails with gmail api)

- A running log with miles/times/routes

i've implemented misc features to organize everything like content tagging, custom markdown rendering, etc.

phkx
I like the question for how differently it gets interpreted;)

I personally would like to toy around with some graph database for knowledge management but haven’t found the time to get into it, yet.

Other than that, it’s dendron (and git).

D13Fd
For my personal scripts that need databases, I mostly use SQLite. If I need to browse one of them I'll use TablePlus, but that's rare.

A couple of my older scripts still use JSON files on disk that are loaded into memory, which are actually perfectly fast for the purpose (fast enough that I see no perceptible difference between them and SQLite).

yawnxyz
for almost all my projects (from tracking personal expenses to building apps) I've been using Airtable. Yes I could deploy some db on fly.io or whatever, but Airtable comes w/ a great UX (e.g. can add stuff on my phone) and a great API, and fairly easy to "transition out of" if I need scale (which I've never needed).

It's slow as molasses to write and read though.

_tom_
Apple notes and Elasticsearch.

Apple notes for things I type quickly.

Elasticsearch for larger things like transcripts of classes I teach or take.

fulafel
Do you mean ES over the API or some general UI?
pprotas
What is a personal database? What would I even store in it?

In any case, for files I use iCloud and for notes I use Obsidian.

falcolas
Another vote for SQLite until it needs to be accessed from multiple hosts, at which point I'd go to MySQL.

Why MySQL? I know it in and out, since I was a MySQL DBA for a few years. It doesn't surprise me anymore, and I can quickly get it to a point where it requires effectively no intervention on my side.

CaptainJustin
I use PostgreSQL in a container in my home lab. The backup is uploaded to GCP every morning 0200 with a 90 day retention policy.

PostgreSQL handles my finances, my database of quotes & collection of notes.

mamcx
Sqlite + Django work nice too.
mikewarot
I used WikidPad to store my notes, etc. It used to be widely used, and cross platform... but that's broken lately.