When comparing MySQL vs Couchbase, the Slant community recommends MySQL for most people. In the question“What are the best databases to use for Node.js applications?” MySQL is ranked 6th while Couchbase is ranked 14th. The most important reason people chose MySQL is:
MySQL is made to handle a lot of data and to be used in large applications. This makes it extremely scalable and fast, even under a lot of workload.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Scalable
MySQL is made to handle a lot of data and to be used in large applications. This makes it extremely scalable and fast, even under a lot of workload.
Pro Multiple third-party tools that help working with MySQL
Since MySQL is one of the most popular relational databases, maybe the most popular, there exist many third-party tools and applications that help developers to use MySQL in their development.
Pro Easy to start working with
Because of it's popularity there are a lot of tutorials and guides out there that help developers install and work with MySQL. The installation process itself is not very hard and there are multiple powerful GUI tools that make it extremely easy to work with MySQL for a beginner.
Pro Open source
Couchbase and Couchbase Mobile are open source and released under the Apache License.
Pro Easy to implement N1QL queries
Pro Ability to run ad-hoc SQL like queries on realtime big data
Couchbase N1QL allows native SQL processing over JSON data with high performance indexing for low latency queries at scale.
Pro Easy sync protocol to mobile devices
The minimal code needed to pull data down to a device
Pro Available on Windows, Linux & macOS
Pro Ability to make predefined fast queries
With Couchbase you can make "Views" of data, which are practically predefined queries which are fetched with an O(1) algorithm.
Cons
Con Error messages usually are not very detailed
When you are trying to do something in MySQL and something goes wrong it will simply give you an error message with an error code. Which does not say much about what went wrong unless you look it up online. This can be a little cumbersome during development.
Con Vendor lock-in
Con No model mapper for Android
Couchbase does not have a model mapper for Android built-in and out of the box, instead you will have to write your own from scratch.
Con Not Compatible with couchdb
Since version 2 the sync-protocol is no longer compatible with couchdb. This makes couchbase nearly worthless
