ThimbleDB
github.com/jason-doyle/thimble- Category
- Developer Tools
- Rank
- No. 2016Tools index
Previous survey · No. 1942 ·
- Pricing
- Open Source
- Type
- TOOL
- GitHub
- 3 stars
- Latest release
- v3.3.0
- Date
About
ThimbleDB is an open-source, Cloudflare-first database built for small, read-heavy web applications. Browsers read encrypted, immutable objects through an authenticated storage broker and cache them in memory and IndexedDB, while writes and key grants go through the same lightweight authority, keeping the design low-latency and encrypted end to end.
At a glance
ThimbleDB is a Cloudflare-first database for small, read-heavy apps. It is worth evaluating when repeated reads can stay in a browser cache and you can measure the cost of a cold start.
Good fit
Developers who want to prototype authenticated, scope-specific browser caches backed by object storage.
Consider something else when
Choose another database when sub-second cold reads or interactive indexed writes are essential.
Start here
Use synthetic records under two test accounts. Compare the same read on a cold browser and after a cache hit, then confirm that each account sees only its own data.
Cost and requirements
Apache-2.0 software. The reference deployment uses Cloudflare Workers and R2 with an external identity provider. Storage and requests incur the deployment provider’s charges.
Limits to know
The author’s benchmarks report that most measured cold reads and the measured post-merge writes miss normal interactive targets. Test that path before assuming warm-cache performance carries over.
Sources checked 2026-11-05. Source-based assessment.
Why it made the leaderboard
ThimbleDB reads encrypted immutable objects straight from object storage into the browser, giving small read-heavy web apps a database layer without running a traditional server-backed database.
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