Every Free Database You Can Use in 2026 (With Setup Commands)

You don't need to pay for a database I've used 15+ databases across side projects, client work, and production apps. Most of them have generous free tiers — and some are completely free forever. Here's my complete list with the exact setup command for each one. Relational Databases 1. PostgreSQL (Free Forever) The gold standard. Powers Instagram, Spotify, and probably your favorite startup. # Install brew install postgresql@16 # macOS sudo apt install postgresql # Ubuntu # Start & create database pg_ctl start createdb myapp psql myapp -c "CREATE TABLE users (id SERIAL, name TEXT, email TEXT);" Best for: Everything. Seriously, start with Postgres unless you have a specific reason not to. 2. SQLite (Free Forever, Zero Setup) A database in a single file. No server, no config, no process to manage. # Already installed on macOS/Linux. Just: sqlite3 myapp.db "CREATE TABLE logs (ts DATETIME, event TEXT, data JSON);" import sqlite3 conn = sqlite3 . connect ( ' myapp.db ' ) conn . execute ( ' I