When comparing CouchDB vs Orchestrate, the Slant community recommends CouchDB for most people. In the question“What are the best databases to use for Node.js applications?” CouchDB is ranked 3rd while Orchestrate is ranked 12th. The most important reason people chose CouchDB is:
CouchDB works very well even when the network is physically partitioned
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Works well between physical network partitions
CouchDB works very well even when the network is physically partitioned
Pro Available
CouchDB is considered an available DMS according to the ACP theory of database management. As such it allows every client to always read and write
Pro Useful for applications where versioning is important
CouchDB is mostly used in applications where a large amount of data needs to be accumulated and where data only changes rarely.
Pro Changes API
You can use the RESTful API to listen for changes in your database, which is something most databases can't do. It makes it really easy for clients to keep their view of data up-to-date.
Pro RESTful API
Since everything is stored as a JSON document and served over HTTP, it's perfectly suited for communicating with client-side javascript, with or without middleware.
Pro Effortless/Automatic Scaling
Orchestrate was built for scale. Orchestrate is a full-fledged distributed data system, provided as a multi-tenant service. There is no need to manage finite server resources like disk space, CPU, or memory
Pro Already set up for you
Orchestrate is a Database-as-a-Service, so there is no downloading, installation, or any other administration. It also makes configuration management and deployment easy.
Pro Great Node.js support
Orchestrate.js is a first class client for Node.js applications
Pro Fault Tolerance Baked In
As a DBaaS, Orchestrate manages replicas and sharding across multiple machines. Additionally, daily backups are managed by the company.
Pro Multiple Query types at Low Latencies
No other database provides Full-Text-Search, Time-Series, Graph, and Key/Value APIs. Moreover, as a DBaaS, the queries are pre-optimized for low latencies. Consistently under 10ms for any query.
Cons
Con Can only achieve consistency through replication and verification
Since CouchDB is considered an AP (Available, Partition-Tolerant database management system), it is not really consistent (not all clients can have the same view of the data consistently) and the only way to achieve some "eventual consistency" is through replication and verification of data.
Con Uncertain future
After a very promising start, development began to drag after major supporters like Canonical, Selenium and CouchOne either shut down or moved to other tools. Development has begun to pick up again.
Con Data are not on your server
Since it's a DBaaS, your data are completely on their server. It cannot be run on your server. Backup is handled by them as well, which may be good or not depending on your needs.
Con Not Open Source
Orchestrate is not an open source solution.