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FAQ

Find answers to RavenDB's most frequently asked questions below.

Yes, RavenDB is a NoSQL Database.

It is primarily a document database designed to handle data using flexible JSON documents. RavenDB is distinguished by being fully ACID-compliant, guaranteeing strong data integrity and transactional consistency across all operations. 


RavenDB also natively supports other data types, including high-performance Time Series, Distributed Counters, Attachments, and Vector Search (AI) functionality.


Yes. The RavenDB server software is available under the AGPLv3, a recognized open-source license, while its client APIs are licensed under the more permissive MIT license. 


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The Raven Query Language (RQL) is RavenDB's native query language, intentionally designed with SQL-like syntax (using FROM, WHERE, and SELECT). 


It differs from SQL by operating on indexes and projecting data either from indexes themselves or linked documents, rather than fixed-schema tables, allowing for single-operation data retrieval and eliminating the need for complex, relational joins.


RavenDB combines schema flexibility with built-in performance, security, and operational automation. 


Features like auto-indexing, self-healing clustering, zero-config setup, and enterprise-grade security remove much of the tuning and supervision other NoSQL systems require.



Yes. RavenDB provides tiered support options for both on-premise and Cloud users. 


For self-hosted instances, support ranges from the free Community forums up through paid Professional and Production tiers, with the latter offering a guaranteed 2-Hour SLA for critical issues. 

RavenDB Cloud simplifies this with a default free tier for basic availability and connectivity, and a paid Cloud Support option that unlocks the same 2-Hour SLA and grants prioritized access to the core development team.


RavenDB is used by over 12,000 organizations worldwide, including Fortune 100 enterprises, building applications that need high performance, reliability, and flexible data modeling. Our customers span high-stakes industries such as financial services, healthcare, e-commerce, manufacturing, logistics, and more.

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RavenDB is highly cross-platform, supporting deployment across multiple architectures, environments, and cloud providers. The server runs natively on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS, supporting processors based on x64, x86, ARM, and ARM64 (Intel & ARM). Deployment options include Docker, Kubernetes, and lightweight edge devices. 


RavenDB offers native client APIs for all major languages, including C#/.NET, Java, Node.js, Python, Go, Ruby, and PHP. 

As a fully managed service, RavenDB Cloud is deployed across AWS, Azure, and GCP, and is also available directly through the Azure Marketplace and AWS Marketplace.

The RavenDB license options are structured across several tiers to accommodate different use cases, from free development to large-scale enterprise production. 


The server code is licensed under the AGPLv3, an OSI-approved open-source license, which is paired with commercial tiers that provide access to advanced features and proprietary licensing relief.


The self-hosted (on-prem) license categories are: 



Specialized tiers include: 

  • AI License (bundles Enterprise with advanced AI functionality) 
  • ISV/OEM Licenses (for vendors embedding the database)


RavenDB Cloud offers a separate, subscription-based model, providing fully managed database-as-a-service (DBaaS) offerings on AWS, Azure, and GCP, with pay-as-you-go and yearly upfront options.


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RavenDB is driven by its proprietary Voron storage engine, which is optimized for transactional integrity and disk I/O. Under straightforward workloads on commodity hardware, RavenDB can routinely exceed 150,000 writes per second and 1 million reads per second. 


A core performance differentiator is that all queries are executed exclusively against indexes, preventing full-collection scans and ensuring fast performance regardless of database size.

Disclaimer: Performance will vary significantly based on your specific hardware, indexing strategy, data shape, and the complexity of your application's workload patterns.

RavenDB achieves high availability and near zero downtime through a distributed, multi-node architecture. The core mechanism is multi-master replication, where every node in a cluster accepts both reads and writes simultaneously, eliminating any single point of failure. 


The RavenDB client is topology-aware and automatically redirects failed requests to another available node in the database group. 


This combination of multi-master data synchronization and client failover ensures continuous service even when individual nodes fail.

The security certifications primarily cover the organization's operations, extending specifically to the managed service, RavenDB Cloud. 


RavenDB Cloud holds both SOC 2 Type II and ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certifications, which verify the organization's strong internal controls and security management system. 


Furthermore, HIPAA Compliant Accounts are exclusively offered within RavenDB Cloud to meet the technical and administrative safeguards required for protected health information (PHI). 

For on-premise RavenDB deployments, the core software provides security features (like X.509 and encryption), but the end-user organization is responsible for achieving and maintaining its own compliance status.

RavenDB offers comprehensive monitoring and database integration through a suite of native and external tools.

  • Built-in Tools: The primary tool is the RavenDB Management Studio, a browser-based interface that provides a real-time dashboard for tracking cluster topology, performance trends, indexing activity, and resource utilization.

  • Observability Integrations: For external monitoring stacks, RavenDB offers native metrics via a Prometheus-compatible endpoint. It also supports OpenTelemetry and provides integrations with platforms like Grafana, Datadog, Telegraf, Zabbix, and SNMP.

  • ETL Pipelines: RavenDB's built-in ETL system supports resilient, real-time synchronization with external systems. This includes streaming data to other SQL databases, OLAP systems, Snowflake, Elasticsearch, Kafka, and RabbitMQ, supporting cross-system data flows and database integration.

  • Sinks: for ingesting data directly from Kafka or RabbitMQ and reacting to messages directly in RavenDB.

RavenDB offers native, idiomatic API support through official SDKs built for seamless integration across many languages.

The primary languages with official client API support are:

  • C# / .NET: The C# client offers comprehensive features, including deep LINQ (Language Integrated Query) integration for powerful data querying.
  • Java: The Java client provides a robust, idiomatic interface suitable for enterprise environments.
  • Node.js (JavaScript): The client supports modern, asynchronous APIs designed for server-side and serverless architectures.
  • Python: This client supports all major features for integration into common data science and web development stacks.
  • Go, Ruby, and PHP: Official client libraries are provided for these languages to support broader development needs.

These native APIs abstract away low-level operations like connection pooling, caching, cluster topology discovery, and request failover.

You can find the official, up-to-date roadmap for both RavenDB and RavenDB Cloud here.


The roadmap shows what we’re working on next, upcoming features and improvements, as well as past releases and completed milestones. It’s continuously updated, so you always have a current view of where RavenDB is heading.