Mnesia

Mnesia Mnesia is a database that comes bundled with Erlang/OTP. It doesn’t behave like your usual MySQL or PostgreSQL server — it was designed for telecom-grade systems where uptime and low latency matter more than fancy tooling. In short, it keeps data close to the Erlang app, syncs it between nodes, and survives crashes without too much drama. Core Traits

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Telegram
WhatsApp

Mnesia

Mnesia is a database that comes bundled with Erlang/OTP. It doesn’t behave like your usual MySQL or PostgreSQL server — it was designed for telecom-grade systems where uptime and low latency matter more than fancy tooling. In short, it keeps data close to the Erlang app, syncs it between nodes, and survives crashes without too much drama.

Core Traits

Aspect Details
Platform Part of Erlang/OTP, runs anywhere Erlang does
Data model Mix of relational tables and key/value storage
Storage options Memory-only, disk-based, or hybrid
Features Transactions, replication, distribution, fault tolerance
Typical use Telecom, messaging, real-time systems
License Apache 2.0 via Erlang/OTP

How It’s Actually Used

Most teams don’t “choose” Mnesia in the same way they choose MySQL. It just comes with Erlang, and systems written in Erlang (switches, chat servers, monitoring tools) lean on it because it’s already there. Developers like that it can serve data in milliseconds straight from RAM. Admins appreciate that replication and failover aren’t bolted on later — they’re part of the design from the start.

Deployment Notes

– No installer, it’s already included in Erlang.
– Tables can live fully in RAM for speed, or persist to disk when needed.
– Replication between Erlang nodes is straightforward to configure.

Common Scenarios

– Telecom switches storing subscriber sessions across multiple nodes.
– Messaging apps where high availability is a must.
– Real-time monitoring services that can’t afford downtime.

Weak Spots

Mnesia isn’t a universal database. It doesn’t scale well once datasets get huge, and SQL support is minimal. Outside Erlang ecosystems, it feels out of place. For analytics or heavy reporting, other systems (PostgreSQL, Cassandra) are more suitable.

Quick Comparison

Tool Distinctive Strength Best Fit
Mnesia Distributed, built-in to Erlang, fast in-memory mode Erlang-based, real-time systems
PostgreSQL General-purpose, feature-rich Enterprises with varied workloads
Redis Ultra-fast key/value in memory Caching, ephemeral state
Cassandra Distributed wide-column DB Very large datasets across regions

Other programs

Submit your application