SQLite Is Enough for Your Side Project — Full-Text Search, JSON, and WAL Mode Included

Every developer tutorial starts with "first, install PostgreSQL" or "set up MongoDB." For most side projects, SQLite is all you need. Why SQLite Zero setup — it is a file. No server, no config, no Docker. Built into Python — import sqlite3 works everywhere. Handles millions of rows — tested up to 281 TB databases. ACID compliant — yes, even for concurrent reads. Production-ready — Airbus, Apple, and every Android phone use it. Getting Started import sqlite3 # Create database (or open existing) conn = sqlite3 . connect ( " app.db " ) # Create table conn . execute ( """ CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS users ( id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT, name TEXT NOT NULL, email TEXT UNIQUE, created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ) """ ) # Insert conn . execute ( " INSERT INTO users (name, email) VALUES (?, ?) " , ( " Alice " , " alice@example.com " )) conn . commit () # Query users = conn . execute ( " SELECT * FROM users " ). fetchall () 5 Things SQLite Does That Surprise People 1. Full-Te