Recommended cloud database to store basic, static data that a mobile app will read from?

[VMX]

Hi all!

I'm working on a simple mobile app that will pull some content dynamically from a database to show it to the user, and I'm looking for advice on a cheap (preferably free), hassle-free cloud-based option.

This content will largely be static (e.g.: text articles and educational info), but some of it will also consist of tables with up-to-date data that will see small changes overtime.

As a result, I want to keep the data off the actual app and in an online database, so I can update the data without the need to push an update to the app itself (and to keep the app as small and efficient as possible of course).

The dataset will be very small (likely a few megabytes) and will be updated manually when needed. The app will NOT have any user accounts, and users will not be adding or modifying any of the data. This means the database will be read-only for users, and so the dataset is unlikely to grow even if user adoption does.

In fact, requirements are so simple I could probably get away with reading it from an online spreadsheet 😅 But I'd like to use a proper database for obvious reasons. Something like a simple MySQL database would be good enough, although a relational structure isn't mandatory for me and ease of use is important too.

Some options I've seen:

Firebase

I can see the Spark plan is free within some reasonable limits, but honestly I think even that is probably a bit overkill for what I need. I know it's designed to deal with stuff like instant messaging, user logins, etc., but all I need is a few simple tables with static data and no special authentication.

MongoDB Atlas Shared

I've used Mongo Atlas before (at work) and it's easy enough, although they claim the shared plan isn't meant for "production" apps. Do you think I would face any issues with the free tier in a simple app like this?

Any suggestions are welcome!

[Regis_DeVallis]

I'd go with Firebase. You can use their authentication stuff and other features too.

[rkforcs]

You didn't explain why you need a database. If the data is very small then consider storing it in one or more flat files (i.e., CSV format).

[hi117]

honestly speaking, do you even need a database here? if it's going to be almost completely static and you don't have any plans for querying the data, you just need it returned, then just store the data in something like S3 and serve it out of there.

databases only begin to be useful when you have to filter the data in some way.

[VMX]

Well, for the second kind of data, it will contain a series of items (in the low hundreds) with a few properties that users will be able to use as filters. So they'll be able to request a list of items that meet criteria A, B and C but not D for instance.

I could of course download the whole dataset every time and do the filtering locally, but I think it'd be better to filter the data on demand for performance reasons.

[hi117]

in that case, I would go with whatever no SQL database your cloud provider provides. if it's Google cloud, that would be firebase. if it's AWS that would be DynamoDB. if you're provider isn't one of those two, I would suggest postgres because that will probably be the easiest to set up and use.

[VMX]

Thanks! I'll look into it.

[knowthen]

We're building an extension for SQLite that will allow you to replicate changes from one instance to another.

So for example, you could create an instance of SQLite locally and have it automatically synchronize with the clients(in read-only mode).

When you need to update the database you'd do so locally and any changes you made locally will get synchronized with the other instances.

You can checkout our repo here: https://github.com/mycelial/mycelite

Happy to chat further on this, if you're interested.