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Updated 2 days ago · Independent Analysis
SurrealDB vs TiDB
Capability Overview
SurrealDBvs TiDB
-0.1 vs TiDB
Only in SurrealDB
- ✦ Multi-Model (Document + Graph + Relational)
- ✦ SurrealQL (SQL-like Query Language)
- ✦ Real-Time Live Queries
✓ Free plan30k+ users · est. 2021
TiDBvs SurrealDB
4.6G2+0.1 vs SurrealDB
Only in TiDB
- ✦ HTAP (Hybrid Transactional/Analytical)
- ✦ MySQL Wire Protocol
- ✦ Horizontal Scaling
✓ Free planFrom $1800/mo3k+ users · est. 2015
Quick VerdictIndependent Analysis
SurrealDB and TiDB are both Databases tools. Compare features, pricing, and ratings below to find the best fit for your team.
When to Choose SurrealDB vs TiDB
The question that matters: “In what situation will I regret choosing A over B after 3 months?”
TiDB Unique Strength
Scale OLTP to 1 Billion Rows Without Application Rewrites
TiDB's horizontal scaling adds storage and compute nodes without schema changes or connection string updates, extending a MySQL-compatible application to multi-terabyte scale transparently.
→ Choose TiDB if this scenario applies to you. SurrealDB doesn't offer a comparable solution.
TiDB Unique Strength
Run Analytics on Live Transactional Data via TiFlash
TiDB's TiFlash columnar replica allows analytical SQL queries to run against real-time transactional data without ETL delay, replacing nightly data warehouse loads for operational reporting.
→ Choose TiDB if this scenario applies to you. SurrealDB doesn't offer a comparable solution.
TiDB Unique Strength
Online DDL on Live Tables Without Locking
TiDB performs column additions, index builds, and table restructuring on live tables without locking, avoiding the scheduled maintenance windows that interrupt MySQL deployments during schema changes.
→ Choose TiDB if this scenario applies to you. SurrealDB doesn't offer a comparable solution.
Pricing Comparison & PlansHigh· Verified Jun 7, 2026
SurrealDB Plans
Free tier available
Start
FreeBest for: This free tier is ideal for individual developers, small projects, and evaluating SurrealDB's capabilities
- ✓Best for prototypes, testing, and development
- ✓Only pay for what you use
- ✓Scale vertically to terabytes
- ✓Automatic burst scaling
- ✓Daily automated backups
View on vendor site
MOST POPULARScale
Contact SalesBest for: The Scale plan is designed for growing teams and applications requiring more robust performance and support
- ✓For production workloads requiring fault-tolerance and high availability
- ✓Highly-available and fault-tolerant
- ✓Multiple availability-zone deployment
- ✓Scale horizontally to Petabytes
- ✓Multi-region disaster recovery
View on vendor site
Enterprise
Contact SalesBest for: Enterprise offers comprehensive solutions for large organizations with complex needs, including advanced security, dedicated support, and custom integrations
- ✓On-premises or in your own private cloud
- ✓Full control, your infrastructure
- ✓Highly available, fault tolerant
- ✓Horizontal scalability
- ✓Audit logging and compliance
View on vendor site
TiDB Plans
Free tier available
TiDB Cloud Starter
Free- ✓25 GiB of row storage
- ✓25 GiB of column storage
- ✓250M Request Units (RUs) for free per month for each organization
- ✓Pay only for the storage and capacity you use (beyond free limits)
- ✓Set spend limits so you don't go over budget
View on vendor site
MOST POPULARTiDB Community
Free- ✓Most advanced, open-source, distributed SQL database
- ✓Core capabilities
- ✓Deploy on infrastructure of choice
- ✓Highly compatible with Kubernetes
- ✓Integrations available with Apache Spark, Apache Kafka, Apache Flink, and others
View on vendor site
TiDB Dedicated
$317/mo- ✓Fully-managed DBaaS with zero operational overhead
- ✓Node-based pricing
- ✓Up to 500 TBs of storage
- ✓4 vCPU to 16 vCPU per node available
- ✓Broadest configuration control
View on vendor site
TiDB Cloud Premium
$1800/mo- ✓Provisioned compute with autoscaling to support unlimited growth
- ✓Enterprise-grade security featuring CMEK, PrivateLink, and VPC Peering
- ✓99.99% availability with multi-zone protection
- ✓Usage-based pricing with predictable costs
- ✓Dedicated isolation with elastic RCU scaling
View on vendor site
TiDB Cloud Essential
Contact Sales- ✓Provisioned compute with autoscaling up to 100K Request Units
- ✓Point-in-time backup and up to 30-day retention
- ✓Encrypted in transit and at rest
- ✓99.99% availability with multi-zone protection
- ✓Usage-based pricing with predictable costs
View on vendor site
TiDB Self-Managed
Contact Sales- ✓Deploy on infrastructure of choice (public/private cloud, on-prem, hybrid)
- ✓Highly compatible with Kubernetes
- ✓Integrations available with Apache Spark, Apache Kafka, Apache Flink, and others
- ✓Open source, distributed SQL database
- ✓Enterprise-grade compliant
View on vendor site
Capability Breakdown
6 differences found across 10 standardized features
Feature
SurrealDB
TiDB
Horizontal Scaling
✗
✓
Managed Cloud
✗
✓
Full-Text Search
✓
✗
Time Series
✓
✗
Multi-Model
✓
✗
Serverless
✗
✓
Total (raw)
16
16
SurrealDB Features
- •Multi-Model (Document + Graph + Relational)
- •SurrealQL (SQL-like Query Language)
- •Real-Time Live Queries
- •Built-in Auth (JWT/Sessions)
- •Record Links (Graph)
- •Geospatial Support
- •Full-Text Search
- •Transactions
- •Schema-Full and Schema-Less
- •Time Series Support
- •WebSocket API
- •REST API
- •SDKs (Rust, JS, Python, Go)
- •In-Memory Mode
- •RocksDB Storage
- •Embedded Mode
TiDB Features
- •HTAP (Hybrid Transactional/Analytical)
- •MySQL Wire Protocol
- •Horizontal Scaling
- •TiFlash (Columnar Engine)
- •ACID Transactions
- •Geo-Distributed Deployments
- •Online DDL
- •Change Data Capture (TiCDC)
- •Auto-Sharding
- •Real-Time Analytics
- •Partition Pruning
- •Hot Spot Detection
- •Kubernetes Native (TiDB Operator)
- •TiUP Deployment
- •Monitoring (Grafana)
- •Backup/Restore
Strengths & Limitations
Evaluative strengths and weaknesses: not feature lists
Pros
- +Multi-model flexibility: document, graph, and relational in one
- +Built-in auth eliminates separate auth layer for simple apps
- +Real-time live queries via WebSocket
- +Strong developer community enthusiasm
Cons
- −Managed cloud still in preview: not production-ready
- −Business Source License limits some use cases
Pros
- +HTAP eliminates separate analytics warehouse for many use cases
- +MySQL compatibility reduces migration complexity
- +Strong horizontal scaling for high-write workloads
- +Free serverless tier for development
Cons
- −It is very unusual and jarring that the IDs in different tables jump and do not start from zero.
- −TiDB Cloud can be improved, particularly because the interface is very old.
At a Glance
User Rating
4.5/5vs4.6/5
SurrealDB
TiDB
▲
Starting Price
Free tiervs$1800/mo
SurrealDB
TiDB
▲
Feature Count
16 featuresvs16 features
SurrealDB
TiDB
User Base
30vs3
SurrealDB
▲
TiDB
SurrealDB · Price & Data SyncLast verified: May 30, 2026 · CE-DB-2026W23-977363 · ✓ Pricing updated May 30, 2026
TiDB · Price & Data SyncLast verified: Jun 7, 2026 · CE-DB-2026W23-D6FFFA · ✓ Pricing updated May 30, 2026
Recent Price History
SurrealDB
SurrealDB removed the "Cloud Professional" plan
Plan removed · May 30, 2026
SurrealDB
SurrealDB removed the "Cloud Starter" plan
Plan removed · May 30, 2026
SurrealDB
SurrealDB removed the "Cloud Enterprise" plan
Plan removed · May 30, 2026
SurrealDB
SurrealDB removed the "Cloud Sandbox" plan
Plan removed · May 30, 2026
SurrealDB
SurrealDB added a new "Enterprise" plan (Custom pricing)
Plan added · May 30, 2026
TiDB
TiDB removed the "TiDB Serverless" plan
Plan removed · May 30, 2026
TiDB
TiDB added a new "TiDB Cloud Starter" plan at $0/mo (Free)
Plan added · May 30, 2026
TiDB
TiDB added a new "TiDB Cloud Premium" plan at $1800/mo
Plan added · May 30, 2026
TiDB
TiDB updated "TiDB Dedicated" from Custom to $316.8/mo
Price change · May 30, 2026
TiDB
TiDB added a new "TiDB Cloud Essential" plan (Custom pricing)
Plan added · May 30, 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Comparisons
SurrealDBFree plan
TiDBFree · from $1800/moSources & Data Trail · SurrealDB
- 1.Official Pricing Page·Source of verified tiers(Checked: 2026-05-30)
- 2.Official Website·Official vendor website
- 3.PeerSpot·PeerSpot enterprise peer reviews
Sources & Data Trail · TiDB
- 1.Official Pricing Page·Source of verified tiers(Checked: 2026-06-07)
- 2.Official Website·Official vendor website
- 3.G2·G2 verified reviews · 4.6/5 · 67 reviews
- 4.PeerSpot·PeerSpot enterprise peer reviews