Cassandra vs ScyllaDB comparison

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Cassandra

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 7, 2025

Cassandra and ScyllaDB are both competitors in the NoSQL database space. ScyllaDB seems to have an edge in environments that require high-speed data processing due to its performance optimizations.

Features: Cassandra offers high availability, linear scalability, and a masterless architecture for fault tolerance. ScyllaDB, being built in C++, is optimized for high throughput and low latency, providing efficient resource utilization and performance.

Room for Improvement: Cassandra could improve on reducing setup complexities and performance tuning for specific deployment needs. ScyllaDB may require enhanced ease of use for less experienced users and better transparency in performance metrics for continuous assessment. Both databases could benefit from more comprehensive integration options with other technology stacks.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cassandra provides extensive documentation and community resources that facilitate its setup process. ScyllaDB offers a streamlined deployment model with built-in monitoring tools. Its customer service is highly responsive, assisting effectively during deployments.

Pricing and ROI: Cassandra usually incurs lower initial setup costs due to its open-source nature. ScyllaDB, while potentially higher in initial investment due to enterprise features, yields better ROI for high-speed data handling and lower latency situations, making it ideal for performance-driven applications.

To learn more, read our detailed Cassandra vs. ScyllaDB Report (Updated: September 2026).

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Cassandra vs. ScyllaDB

September 2026

Helped 920,769 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Cassandra

Ranking in NoSQL Databases

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Vector Databases (11th)

ScyllaDB

Ranking in NoSQL Databases

9th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the NoSQL Databases category, the mindshare of Cassandra is 8.8%, up from 8.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ScyllaDB is 5.6%, down from 8.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

NoSQL Databases Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cassandra	8.8%
ScyllaDB	5.6%
Other	85.6%

NoSQL Databases

Featured Reviews

Monirul Islam Khan

Head, Data Integration & Management at a non-profit with 10,001+ employees

Has maintained secure document storage and efficient data distribution with peer-to-peer architecture

The functions or features in Cassandra that I have found most valuable are that it is a distributed system similar to Mongo. It's good enough for comparison with another SQL database, so it's smooth and organized for distributed database system. The peer-to-peer architecture in Cassandra is helpful for network decentralization, and I have already introduced that feature. Cassandra features in peer-to-peer as well as another monitoring, so basically, it's good enough for our service. The tunable consistency level in Cassandra is good, and we are using that feature already. In terms of built-in caching and lightweight transactions in Cassandra, the transaction level is good, and it's optimized, so there are no more issues in that database. Based on my experience, Cassandra is good for document management system, as well as distributed database system, and the automatic recovery process is there. Additionally, the database monitoring system or auditing system is well-comparable with other database systems, so we are actually happy to be using this Cassandra database.

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Manikandan Gunasekaran

Director of Engineering at Ola

Reliable data management with great reliability and performance

From a sales pitch standpoint, it needs to deliver on promises of better ROI and compaction. Additionally, ticketing and support systems could be improved due to the time it takes to get answers. There's also an issue with compatibility when attempting to switch back from the enterprise to the community version.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Our primary use case for the solution is testing."

"Based on my experience, Cassandra is good for document management system, as well as distributed database system, and the automatic recovery process is there."

"The use of Cassandra in real-time data analytics has been pivotal for our e-commerce platform. As our platform operates 24/7, providing services to sellers and customers alike, the need for real-time updates is paramount."

"We have experienced zero downtime using Cassandra, it is highly stable."

"Cassandra is a stable solution."

"Since I haven't had years of experience with it, it's still new to me. One valuable feature is its distribution, so I can run it partly in the cloud and part on-prem. That's a feature I'd like to use but haven't yet because we're trying to move to Azure. I don't know if or when that will happen. Ideally, we'd have it distributed over the cloud and on-prem simultaneously, so if something happens to our on-prem, we can keep going in the cloud, like a pay-as-you-go model with Azure."

"The most valuable features of this solution are its speed and distributed nature."

"It's used as our cloud based backend store as a temporary cache and for storing data that streams through our data pipe."

More Cassandra pros

"The performance and scalability are good, and we hardly see any major issues with ScyllaDB."

"The database is easy to use, fast, and accessible for applications because the API is straightforward."

"The product's most valuable features are efficiency and reliability."

"Firstly, if I update something, it's most likely to finish within milliseconds."

"I like how fast it is to query data from the ScyllaDB node!"

"The best features of ScyllaDB are how it synchronizes data and its failover system. There's a unique formula to decide the number of nodes you need and the minimum required, which I find helpful. It also offers encryption and supports APIs, making it great for distributed systems and scaling databases across different regions. While it's easy to use, having prior experience helps configure it properly. There are many configurations; if you don't understand them, you might mess up the design. So, understanding your system's needs, like whether it requires more read or write operations, is crucial for setting up the correct configuration."

"The performance aspects of Scylla are good, as always... A good point about Scylla is that it can be used extensively."

"ScyllaDB allows fine-tuning of the table structure. Speed is probably the most critical factor because we perform a lot of heavy data ingestion. One of its core features is its ability to handle high volumes and maintain speed when accessing data. Additionally, high availability and partitioning are built-in features of ScyllaDB."

More ScyllaDB pros

Cons

"The initial setup of Cassandra can be difficult in the configuration. There might be a need to have assistance. The implementation process can six months for connecting to certain databases."

"The secondary index in Cassandra was a bit problematic and could be improved."

"One of the issues with the solution is that you cannot drop write like you're able to in MongoDB and MySQL, where you can join tables."

"The clustering needs to be better; it is getting there."

"Interface is not user friendly."

"Cassandra is very complex to manage. Sometimes, I need to involve a senior DevOps engineer if we encounter a problem."

"If you have a requirement of aggregation and joints, Cassandra doesn't support a solution that can give the aggregation."

"The solution is limited to a linear performance."

More Cassandra cons

"Some of the regular commands in NoSQL do not work."

"The documentation is not well established for new developers."

"If you don't have the best computing resources, then it's not easy to set up. In such cases, we have to run ScyllaDB in developer mode."

"Data export, along with how we can purchase the data periodically, needs to be improved so that the storage is within control. Then, we could optimize it even better."

"Support and the availability of support need improvement. I would give them a six out of ten."

"The product needs to add more features and improve the response time of the support team."

"From a sales pitch standpoint, it needs to deliver on promises of better ROI and compaction."

"The documentation of Scylla is an area with shortcomings and needs to be improved."

More ScyllaDB cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I don't have the specific numbers on pricing, but it was fairly priced."

"We pay for a license."

"There are licensing fees that must be paid, but I'm not sure if they are paid monthly or yearly."

"We are using the open-source version of Cassandra, the solution is free."

"I use the tool's open-source version."

"Cassandra is a free open source solution, but there is a commercial version available called DataStax Enterprise."

"It is an expensive tool compared to its competitor."

"The paid version of ScyllaDB is not that expensive. The main advantage of the paid version is direct support from the ScyllaDB team, which can resolve issues faster—typically within a day, compared to two to three days with the free version. The paid version also offers better guidance and support, while the free version has good documentation and is more high-level. I’d rate their support team nine out of ten because of the quick responses from their community."

"It's free."

"I believe that there is a yearly licensing cost and that it's expensive."

"It's a bit expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Construction Company

Manufacturing Company

Outsourcing Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Financial Services Firm

Transportation Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	14

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	8

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cassandra?

The pricing for Cassandra is a little bit high, so it would be better for our community services if they consider community pricing for any non-profit organization like an NGO or other things. It w...

What needs improvement with Cassandra?

Regarding areas of improvement for Cassandra, currently, we are not facing significant issues. Some issues arise from our vendors like Apache slowness and distribution or load balancing from HAProx...

What is your primary use case for Cassandra?

My use case for Cassandra is for a document and other unstructured data management system as well as structured data for ultra-poor member community edition, community members' PII information, so ...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Scylla?

From what I’ve seen (and experienced), ScyllaDB pricing is very dependent on how you deploy it, and that’s where most of the confusion comes from.

What needs improvement with Scylla?

What is your primary use case for Scylla?

We dump a lot of our data, such as every entry created with respect to when a user rides a scooter, every record gets updated to ScyllaDB. It is used as a single source of truth and it manages mass...

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Product Reports

Download Cassandra product report

Cassandra

October 2026

Download ScyllaDB product report

October 2026

Overview

Cassandra is a distributed and scalable database management system used for real-time data processing.

It is highly valued for its ability to handle large amounts of data, scalability, high availability, fault tolerance, and flexible data model.

It is commonly used in finance, e-commerce, and social media industries.

Apache

ScyllaDB is known for its remarkable speed, efficiency, and reliability. It operates with minimal resources, supports large data volumes, and allows for meticulous fine-tuning. Enhanced by Seastar, it offers a performance edge over Cassandra and prioritizes ease of use with robust data synchronization.

ScyllaDB stands out for its capability in high-volume data handling, making it ideal for distributed systems. It integrates easily with APIs and supports user-defined types, providing flexibility through Cassandra SDK and DynamoDB. High availability, effective partitioning, easy updates, and rapid query responses enhance its appeal for organizations dealing with real-time analytics and time-series data management. However, users have noted the complexity in setup compared to MongoDB or Postgres and have highlighted the need for improvements in areas like data export, deletion processes, and documentation. There are also challenges with transactions, support response, compatibility, and AWS integration, with some requiring custom commands which may affect universality.

What are the key features of ScyllaDB?

Exceptional Speed: Achieves high performance through Seastar technology.
Efficiency: Consumes minimal computing resources while supporting substantial data volumes.
Reliability: Offers robust failover systems and data synchronization capabilities.
Flexible Integration: Supports APIs, user-defined types, Cassandra SDK, and DynamoDB.
High Availability: Ensures continuous access and effective partitioning.

Which benefits and ROI should users look for in reviews?

Cost Efficiency: Maximizes resource utilization with minimal expense.
Performance: Provides fast data querying crucial for real-time analytics.
Scalability: Easily manages large-scale and high-volume data needs.
Security: Ensures safe and secure data storage within distributed systems.

Industries like telecommunications, advertising, mobility services, and security implement ScyllaDB for managing extensive datasets and securing real-time data access. Its scalability and efficiency make it a preferred choice for data transformation services, harmonizing complex data flows with real-time analytics needs.

Sample Customers

1. Apple 2. Netflix 3. Facebook 4. Instagram 5. Twitter 6. eBay 7. Spotify 8. Uber 9. Airbnb 10. Adobe 11. Cisco 12. IBM 13. Microsoft 14. Yahoo 15. Reddit 16. Pinterest 17. Salesforce 18. LinkedIn 19. Hulu 20. Airbnb 21. Walmart 22. Target 23. Sony 24. Intel 25. Cisco 26. HP 27. Oracle 28. SAP 29. GE 30. Siemens 31. Volkswagen 32. Toyota

IBM, Investing.com, mParticle, Comcast, GE, Fanatics, Ola, CERN, adgear, Samsung