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FaunaDB

A distributed multi-model database with document and graph capabilities, accessed via its custom Fauna Query Language (FQL). Supported ACID transactions and global distribution. Service was shut down in 2025.

Overall rank
#61
First released
2016
License
Apache-2.0
Built with
Scala

Details

Vendor
Fauna Inc
Type
Multiple
Category
Emerging
Status
Deprecated — Service shut down in 2025.
License
Apache-2.0
Language
Scala
Query Languages
FQLGraphQL
Protocols
HTTP/REST

Feature scores

Community & Business

Active development
0%
No updates in 6+ months
Commercial support
✓
Paid support available
Live community
0%
No community activity data
Open Source
50%
Source available but restrictive
Pricing
✓
Pricing publicly available
Trendiness
✓
Growing or stable trend

Deployment

Containerization
✓
Docker image available
Work as dedicated instance
✓
Can run as standalone server
Work as embedded
0%
Standalone only
Testing in-memory version
0%
No in-memory option

Platform

Operating on Linux
✓
Linux officially supported
Operating on Windows
0%
Not supported
SaaS offering
✓
Cloud service available

Operations

Automatic updates
0%
Manual updates only
Client side caching
0%
No client-side caching
Data versioning support
✓
Version control for data
Live backups
✓
Hot backup supported

Distribution

Cluster Re-balancing
0%
No auto-rebalancing
Data Distribution
✓
Data sharding supported
High-Availability
✓
HA mechanisms available
Query Distribution
✓
Distributed query execution
Replication support
✓
Replication available

Developer Experience

Data types defined
50%
Basic data types only
Logging/Auditing
✓
Event logging supported
Object-Graph Mapper
0%
No object mapper
Reactive programming
0%
No reactive programming
Documentation up-to-date
✓
Docs current with latest version
Binary protocol
0%
Text-based protocols only
CLI
✓
Command-line interface
GUI
0%
No GUI

Data Model

Multi-database
0%
Graph-only
Graph-native data
✓
Native graph storage
REST API
0%
No REST API
Query Language
✓
Standard query language (Cypher/Gremlin)

Transactions

Granular locking
0%
No granular locking
Multiple isolation levels
0%
Read uncommitted only
Read committed transaction
0%
Not available
Transaction support
✓
ACID transactions

Schema & Security

Constraints
✓
Full constraint support
Schema support
✓
Schema definition tools
Secondary indexes
✓
Secondary indexes supported
Server side procedures
✓
Stored procedures supported
Triggers
0%
No triggers
Authentication
✓
Authentication supported
Authorization
✓
Role-based access control
Data encryption
0%
No encryption
Sources 9 references

Protocols HTTP/REST

Custom FQL delivered over an HTTPS API with token auth, no persistent connections; the Fauna cloud service itself was shut down on 2025-05-30.

License Apache-2.0

Corrected from 'Proprietary': that was accurate while FaunaDB was Fauna Inc.'s closed hosted service (2016-2025), but Fauna shut the service down in 2025 and the FaunaDB Foundation subsequently open-sourced the core engine under Apache-2.0.

  • FaunaDB is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this software except in compliance with the License.
    LICENSE.txt · reviewed 2026-08-02

Released 2016

Confirms current value; Fauna's own launch announcement describes the database as production-ready and publicly available in managed beta in September 2016.

Language Scala

Confirms current value; the open-sourced repository is 99.2% Scala per GitHub, and its own README describes a JVM/sbt-based build (sbt is the standard Scala build tool).

  • FaunaDB runs on the JVM and requires a JDK version 17 installed. Fauna uses sbt as its build tool.
    GitHub - fauna/faunadb · reviewed 2026-08-02

url https://web.archive.org/web/20250618121636/https://fauna.com/

fauna.com no longer belongs to the database company: the plain-http site now 301-redirects to faunarobotics.com, an unrelated humanoid-robotics startup recently acquired by Amazon. The FaunaDB service itself was sunset May 30, 2025, so the archived snapshot is the best stable link.

  • The Fauna service will be ending on May 30, 2025. For more information, read the announcement .
    Fauna | The Distributed Serverless Database · reviewed 2026-08-02
  • Fauna Robotics has officially joined Amazon. We will continue selling Sprout Creator Edition robots, supporting existing customers, and building for the future as Fauna Robotics, an Amazon company.
    Fauna Robotics joins Amazon · reviewed 2026-08-02

status deprecated

Fauna Inc. sunset the hosted database service on May 30, 2025 and has not resumed it; this matches the catalogue's existing status.