What should I use for an app database if I'm on Rails or Django?

If you’re building an app with Rails or Django, the default and usually best choice for the database is:

Use PostgreSQL

It’s the most common recommendation for both frameworks because it’s:

• Reliable and battle-tested
• Great for relational data
• Well-supported by Rails and Django
• Feature-rich: JSON support, indexing options, constraints, full-text search, etc.
• Easy to scale for most normal app workloads

Typical setup

• Rails + PostgreSQL
• Django + PostgreSQL

When to choose something else

• SQLite: good for local dev, prototypes, tests, or very small apps
• MySQL/MariaDB: fine if you already use it or your hosting requires it
• Redis: not a primary app database, but useful for caching, sessions, queues, etc.

Practical recommendation

• Development: SQLite is okay for quick local work, but PostgreSQL is better if you want fewer deployment surprises.
• Production: PostgreSQL unless you have a strong reason not to.

If you want, I can also give you a Rails-specific or Django-specific database setup recommendation, including hosting options.