this article is overly opinionated and narrow-minded.
Many startups use NoSQL. Personally I prefer NoSQL for most use cases. That said I have nothing against SQL itself but I will NEVER go back to using an ORM - They're a dirty hack; always have been and always will be. I'd rather write the SQL by hand.
I love using MongoDB; it's very simple to use. I liked RethinkDB's ReQL even more (even though the company itself had to shut down, the open source project is still great).
The main problem with SQL databases is that the powerful features offered by SQL don't scale; so if you want to build a future-proof system, you have to avoid using certain features like joins; the advantage of NoSQL is that it's built to scale; the constraints are are feature.
> you have to avoid using certain features like joins
Too bad it is kinda sorta the thing with a RDBM. Relationnal. When you have to work with data which are related and don't want to do stupid shit like updating the infos of an author in each of its written article you want SQL.
But nothing prevents you from using a NoSQL database on top or even multiple ones. If you have multiple way to use your data, having multiple read or write models is a plus.
About scale: rare are the people who can't just add more hardware to the problem.
I really agree with you. I think ORM is responsible for a lot of failed software projects, since it leads to over-engineering. I saw a lot of projects where 90% of the mapped columns or tables could be replaced with JSON, because they were simply never queried against.
One thing I learned writing SPAs is that joins are often unnecessary because with proper state management a lot of data is already present on the client side. NoSQL Query languages (for example Mongo or CouchDB queries) are more than sufficient for these use cases.
Well said. It's amazing how many engineers will make sweeping generalisations like it's a provable fact. You'd think from their training, they'd know better. But hey, he's got a blog and service, and everyone listen up now.
Many startups use NoSQL. Personally I prefer NoSQL for most use cases. That said I have nothing against SQL itself but I will NEVER go back to using an ORM - They're a dirty hack; always have been and always will be. I'd rather write the SQL by hand.
I love using MongoDB; it's very simple to use. I liked RethinkDB's ReQL even more (even though the company itself had to shut down, the open source project is still great).
The main problem with SQL databases is that the powerful features offered by SQL don't scale; so if you want to build a future-proof system, you have to avoid using certain features like joins; the advantage of NoSQL is that it's built to scale; the constraints are are feature.