# selfstore vs RxDB
Source: https://selfstore.dev/compare/rxdb

RxDB is a reactive client database platform with premium storages and replication plugins; selfstore is a small MIT library for the persistence loop.

## What RxDB is

An ambitious reactive database for JavaScript apps: schema'd collections,
live queries that push updates into your UI, swappable storage engines,
encryption plugins, and replication protocols for CouchDB, GraphQL, HTTP,
WebRTC and more. It is genuinely powerful, and for observable-driven apps
with heavy local querying it has few rivals.

Two structural notes, stated without spin: parts of the platform sit behind
**premium** licensing (certain storages and features), and its replication,
like PouchDB's, is designed around **endpoints you provide**: RxDB gives the
protocol, you bring and operate the server side.

## What selfstore is

Not a database platform. A focused MIT library for the loop around your app
state: working copy in IndexedDB, portable encrypted backups with an
[open spec](https://selfstore.dev/docs/format), durable homes on user-owned storage, serverless
deterministic merge, headless status. Your data stays plain JSON you already
own in memory; there is no schema DSL, no query language, no plugin economy.

| | RxDB | selfstore |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Category | Reactive client database | Persistence loop library |
| Queries | Live, Mango-style | None (snapshot model) |
| Reactivity | Observables everywhere | One subscribe + stable state |
| Sync | Protocols to endpoints you run | Serverless, via user-owned storage |
| Encryption | Plugin (premium for some setups) | Built in, AES-256-GCM + Argon2id |
| User-holdable backup | Export utilities | First-class, spec'd ZIP |
| License | Apache-2.0 core + premium tiers | MIT, everything |
| Mental surface | Large (schemas, plugins, storages) | Small (two functions + a store) |

## Use RxDB when

- Your UI is built around live queries over substantial local data.
- You are building replication against your own backend anyway, and want a
  mature protocol for it.

## Use selfstore when

- You want durability, portability and device convergence **without** taking
  on a database platform, or a backend, or a license matrix.
- Auditability matters: small MIT surface, a published
  [threat model](https://github.com/selfstoredev/selfstore/blob/main/THREAT-MODEL.md),
  and a file format anyone can implement in an afternoon.

Map of this site for a model: https://selfstore.dev/llms.txt
Every page in one file: https://selfstore.dev/llms-full.txt