Key Tips to Choose the Ideal Database Solution for Your Mobile App
The tech stack for a mobile app development company is incomplete without a database. An app may need simple data storage or real-time data processing, so you need to choose a database based on this need. The choice of database can greatly influence the app’s performance, scalability, and user experience.
How do you choose the right database for your app? Here’s a detailed guide to help you with this.
First Consider the Data Types and Needs
First, consider the type of data the apps need to manage. Mobile apps need to deal with a wide range of data, from basic text and numerical data to rich media data. Second, consider the frequency of data interactions and data volume. Here, we explain a few varieties of data.
- Structured Data: Apps like Fintech or e-commerce need more refined, structured, and organized data. These apps mostly require relational databases such as MySQL and PostgreSQL, which use highly structured query language (SQL).
- Unstructured Data: Apps like social media or media streaming apps need to handle multilayered and variable data. These apps find it more appropriate to use NoSQL databases like MongoDB and Cassandra.
- Real-Time Data: Apps like chat platforms need real-time user feedback and interactions. These types of apps need fast-responsive database solutions like Firebase and Redis.
Many consumer-focused apps choose a hybrid approach to combine the best of both worlds. Fashion e-commerce apps like Myntra, G3+ Fashion, and Fab India mostly opt for a hybrid database approach. They use MySQL databases to process structured data like user information, orders, and inventory and a NoSQL database like MongoDB to deal with unstructured data like product catalogs, product videos, and user reviews.
Scalability Concerns
Any app on a steady growth trajectory needs to consider the increasing volume of data that needs to be managed with the growth of users. The choice of a scalable database solution is crucial for app development. Consider these scalability options with databases.
- Horizontal vs. Vertical Scaling: Relational databases need more well-equipped hardware systems as they scale vertically. On the other hand, NoSQL databases need more servers to accommodate growing data as they scale horizontally. The latter is a more cost-efficient solution to data growth.
- Cloud-Based Solutions: Cloud databases are becoming increasingly popular as they ensure inbuilt scalability. Cloud-based databases such as Amazon RDS or Google Cloud Firestore ensure seamless elasticity based on traffic and usage.
Speed and Performance
Quick response time and smooth performance are key to a satisfactory app user experience, and the choice of database can play a pivotal role in this. Ensure the databases are optimized enough to read and write data at scale and speed. Here are some key considerations.
- Apps requiring rigorous reading such as blogs or news apps should use MongoDB, widely appreciated for its quick and scalable data reading ability.
- Apps requiring frequent data override and updates such as collaborative content creation apps will find Redis and Cassandra more suitable for their high-performance data writing ability.
- Lastly, you should avoid databases known for high latency and resulting slow response time. If you want to optimize the response time, consider databases like Firebase that allow seamless real-time syncing and data updates without latency.
Find a Balance Between Consistency and Availability
When designing the database solution for your app, finding the right balance between data consistency and availability is crucial. This becomes even more crucial for apps that depend on distributed systems.
- If maintaining data consistency across all users and devices is your priority, database solutions like PostgreSQL can be ideal. This is often crucial for financial and banking apps showing users consistent information across all touch points.
- NoSQL database solutions like Cassandra are more appropriate if your app focuses on making the data available quickly across platforms and devices. In e-commerce and consumer apps where faster uptime and availability are critical, you can shift priority from consistency to availability.
Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability (ACID)
Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability, which are together called ACID compliance, are crucial for databases used by apps handling transactions or sensitive financial and personal data. Any apps allowing transactions or bookings should consider this metric seriously when choosing a database.
- Relational SQL databases like MySQL and PostgreSQL are ACID-compliant, so you can be assured of seamless transactions without concerns over data integrity.
- There are also NoSQL options like MongoDB, which have limited ACID compliance. When facilitating transactions is not your main priority, you can choose NoSQL databases.
Offline Access
An increasing number of apps allow usage without an internet connection. This is common in productivity apps, travel apps, note-taking apps, etc. When choosing a database, you should consider whether you need offline functionality.
- There are lightweight, file-based database solutions like SQLite that store data locally in devices and thereby more easily can offer offline access.
- Many apps may allow offline work but must be synced with the cloud when internet connectivity is available. These apps will find database solutions like Firebase more appropriate as they support the offline-first approach.
Data Security, Compliance & Reliability
Data security is vital for preventing and neutralizing cybersecurity threats, especially for apps that deal with sensitive user information. This is why any app handling personal user information, payment data, transaction data, and health records should check the security features of the database solutions.
- Always opt for database solutions guaranteeing end-to-end data encryption, whether for data at rest or data in transit.
- Choose database solutions supporting advanced authentication and authorization protocols like OAuth, Firebase Authentication, and AWS Cognito.
- Ensure the database is well-equipped to adhere to the latest international data security and privacy compliance standards. Healthcare and finance apps, in particular, need to check database compliance with standards like GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS.
- Always consider streamlined data backup well in advance. AWS RDS and Google Cloud SQL allow regular backup schedules and restoration points to be set up.
- For apps with a global audience and large storage needs, reliability can be increased with multi-region data replication. This will ensure uninterrupted service in case of a failure in any data center.
Look for Best Pricing and Cost Advantage
The price you pay for your app database solution depends on the traffic, storage requirements, and additional database features. Here are some cost components and pricing models to consider.
- Cloud-based database solutions now offer Pay-As-You-Go pricing models, which can help reduce costs when you have a low traffic and usage footprint. Both Amazon DynamoDB and Google Cloud Firestore offer this pricing model, allowing customers to pay only for the resources they use.
- It also depends upon the size of the business, app growth, and user base. Expensive enterprise-level databases like Oracle or SQL Server are good for only large enterprise apps.
Conclusion
So, the maze of crucial factors in choosing the right database is complex and multifaceted enough for careful assessment. There is hardly any one-size-fits-all database solution out there. This is why you must make strategic choices based on your long-term needs. Taking a hybrid approach with SQL and NoSQL in the tech stack often proves effective. Feature-rich and scalable cloud databases have also been gaining traction across all sizes and niches of apps in recent years.
Author Bio:
Juned Ghanchi is a co-founder and CMO at IndianAppDevelopers company, prominent brand among leading mobile app developers in India for iOS and Android platforms. His expertise in building brand loyalty stems from 10 years of experience in online marketing and technology space and committed to finding and writing useful information to help the business succeed.