CockroachDB vs YugabyteDB

Distributed SQL has become the go-to choice for modern applications, offering the scalability, resilience, and performance needed in today’s global landscape. However, not all distributed SQL databases are created equal.

In this comparison, we examine CockroachDB, the distributed SQL trailblazer, alongside YugabyteDB, a more complex solution that doesn’t achieve the same scale, resilience, or performance as CockroachDB.

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Why leading enterprises choose CockroachDB

Multi-region simplicity

CockroachDB’s declarative data placement makes global scaling simple and reliable. Yugabyte relies on manual configurations, increasing complexity and potential for errors.

Superior resilience

CockroachDB recovers from failures faster, and we have the receipts to prove it. Yugabyte exhibits longer outages during chaos scenarios, impacting uptime when it matters most.

Enterprise-class performance and scalability

We’ve tested clusters of 300 nodes as compared to Yugabyte’s 75 node cluster testing.

Side-by-side comparison

Features

Performance (Transactional Workloads)

Optimized for complex transactional workloads beyond simple point lookups.

Struggles with transactional efficiency due to reliance on hash-based sharding, which can hinder scaling in specific cases.

Resilience

Demonstrates fast recovery from node failures, with internal tests showing recovery times measured in single-digit seconds.

Exhibited longer recovery times in similar tests, with outages lasting up to 90 seconds.

Scalability

Enables elastic scaling with automatic sharding, achieving high performance while using fewer resources.

Supports automatic sharding but requires more resources for similar workloads, making it less efficient.

Multi-Region Management

Offers declarative data placement and survivability controls, making multi-region management simple and reliable.

Requires manual partitioning and configurations, increasing complexity and the risk of errors.

SQL Compatibility

PostgreSQL wire-compatible with Postgres v17 as of version 25.2.

Uses PostgreSQL code for its query layer but has limited compatibility, with many features not yet generally available (GA). Compatible with Postgres v15 as of version 2.25.

Two-Data Center (2DC) Support

Leads in 2DC capabilities, thanks to significant investments in features like Physical Cluster Replication (PCR) and Logical Data Replication (LDR).

2DC support is available but lags in ease of use and performance compared to CockroachDB.

Ease of Use

A single binary runs the entire database keeping hardware requirements to a single node per binary run..

Requires twice as many servers as CockroachDB, resulting in higher operational complexity and cost.

Enterprise Support

Offers follow-the-sun support (TSE+SRE) with proven reliability and global partnerships with industry leaders.

Provides support but leans heavily on the open source community for shared support.

_{Comparison data as of March 2025}

Architected to deliver the resilience modern business demands

User accounts & metadata

Deliver flawless customer experiences built on accurate, always available user data.

Payments systems

When it comes to capturing payments at scale, data consistency and high availability are priceless.

Inventory management

Sell to zero (but not beyond) with always-accurate stock counts, even when shoppers have a change of cart.

Related resources

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