For single-tenant and edge workloads, SQLite isn't a toy. It's frequently the right answer. Notes from shipping it for real.
“SQLite is just for prototypes” is one of those received opinions that stops being true the moment you look closely. For single-writer, single-tenant, or edge-replicated workloads it's not a compromise — it's often the best fit available.
- WAL mode gives you concurrent reads without drama.
- One file means backups and forks are a copy command.
- No network hop to the database means latency you can't buy elsewhere.
The database that runs in your process is faster than any you can reach over a network.
It's not for everything — high write concurrency across many tenants still wants Postgres. But the range where SQLite is correct is far wider than its reputation suggests.