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Exploring RavenDB: First Impressions and Key Features 🚀

At the recent conference (https://devworldconference.com), I was impressed by the possibilities and feature set of RavenDB. It’s not just another NoSQL database—it delivers on its promises with ease of use, powerful features, and high performance.

In this post, I’ll share my first-hand experience with RavenDB, highlighting its key features, what makes it stand out, and my thoughts after testing it in a real-world pet project. Let’s dive in! 👇

List of features:

  • Database Management Studio & Open-Source NoSQL Document Database – Ease of Use
    It's not just a slogan—it’s true. It took me around 5 minutes to run RavenDB and its Database Management Studio on my laptop. You can start experimenting with this DB locally in just a few minutes, without digging through tons of tutorials or manuals. No need to install dozens of tools and subsystems—just a few minutes, and you have a full sandbox for exploring and learning everything this DB has to offer.

  • ACID Database Transactions – Per Document, Per Database
    One of the most important features—you can trust that all your changes will either be fully applied or NOT at all across all documents. This is critical for ensuring data consistency.

  • Multi-Platform Database
    Run RavenDB anywhere—on Mac, Windows, Linux, or in the cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure). While not a must-have feature for everyone, it’s still an impressive level of flexibility.

  • Free Community License
    You don’t need to buy anything to start using RavenDB in a test environment. Before deciding to use it in a commercial project, you can try it out in a sandbox environment, explore its capabilities, and verify if it meets your needs.

  • Integration with Relational Databases + Built-in ETL Processes + Time Series Support
    This feature set really caught my attention. From audits to data transfers between databases, these built-in tools cover many business needs. The best part? You don’t need to install additional plugins or external applications—just configure and use it.

  • Documentation, Documentation, and Again… Documentation!
    The quality of RavenDB’s documentation is fantastic! It’s well-structured, easy to navigate, and clearly explains each feature and possibility. Finding what you need is simple, making learning the database much easier.

  • High-Performance NoSQL DB
    Last on my list, but definitely not least in importance. From my local testing, it feels incredibly fast.
    According to RavenDB: "Using its in-house storage engine, Voron, RavenDB can perform over 150,000 writes per second and 1 million reads on simple commodity hardware." If these claims hold true, this performance level could support a wide range of products!

Summary

Before using any technology in a commercial project, double-check and verify everything—discuss with colleagues and test it thoroughly in pet projects.

My thoughts so far? I played with RavenDB locally—tested inserting, searching, and updating data.
It’s easy to use, simple, and really fast!

A lot of ready-to-use examples in different client libraries (Go, .NET, etc.) help you build applications quickly and cleanly.

Currently, I’m migrating my existing pet project to RavenDB. So far, I haven’t encountered any blockers, problems, or limitations. Let’s see how it goes, but for now—it looks really promising! 🚀

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