Why I don't use a database for my blog

A database is a go-to way to store data for most developers, and for a great reason: It's really great at retaining data. Then why did I decide to not use a database for my blog and instead opt for JSON/YAML/Markdown files? Simple! Portability, version control, and performance. Oh, and it's fun to learn something new...

Portability

When I did a redesign of my old website, it was still using a database. I hadn't worked on the website for about 2 years. I pulled the code from Github and tried to launch it on my local machine. I got it to work, but obviously, I didn't have any data for it to display. I didn't have a local installation of MySQL and didn't find a good reason to install a database engine, download a database, and import it just for 5-6 previous work records and about 30 content blocks that I was going to replace anyway. So I decided to use Markdown for the previous work and just get rid of the database altogether.

This meant that no matter where I opened the local version of my blog, I had all my content available without any hurdles. There was no need for an external system, just a Laravel application with a few content files. This means I have a consistent development and production environment and I can set up an identical blog in another place in about 2 minutes without any configuration.

Working with files instead of a CMS with a database, allows me to use any file type I want. I chose to use Markdown files for my content. Only having to care about the importance of titles, texts, and other basic content types is very liberating. When working with any other CMS I've always felt like I was bound to HTML. If I wanted to add another paragraph, I had to either use a great editor to generate this for me or manually write HTML elements. This got very tedious, slowly stopping me from creating content altogether. This is very sad because I love creating content, but the means I had to go through to create it just sucked the joy out of it for me. Being able to use markdown and just completely letting go of this has rejuvenated my pleasure of creating content.

Version control

All my content is kept in files, which means you can keep these files in some kind of version control. This is probably one of my favorite "features" of this project. I can see exactly when I've made changes to my posts, as you would in WordPress, but without any database. I have a wide range of options for a Git GUI, or just the command line if that's what I feel like at that moment. I can edit any of my posts on any system that supports Git, and have it available on another system if and when I need it. This might sound like a silly gimmick to you, but I write my posts on 3 devices at any point in time.

Performance

Fetching data from a database has been the biggest bottleneck of any of my projects. This could be due to sloppy query design, but often it has to do with the fact that your system is requesting an external service for some data. Even if the database is on the same machine, there could be a slight delay between fetching and receiving data. When you have a remote database, you will instantly notice a performance drop, because data is fetched through an internet connection. There are simply too many variables for me, especially for a simple blog. The application just needs to read data and display it to the user, adding an external dependency for this seemed like unnecessary complexity.

Having all content on the same storage device as the application makes reading the data near instant. It lets you write the content in whatever way you find the easiest to work with. I chose to write some of the configurations in JSON and some in YAML and I can do this because I have absolute control over the way I decided to save my content. You can make this as simple or as complicated as you want yourself. This way you can very quickly add or change content in a way you're comfortable with.

It's fun to learn something new

If I wanted to do the same old thing, I would've used a database. But then I would've missed out on a lot of learning opportunities. Because by restricting myself by not allowing myself to use a database, I learned to parse YAML files and handle data saved in other file types and use it however I see fit. I feel like I'm in absolute control over my own content, no matter which device I'm working on and this is very freeing and makes creating content a true pleasure.

Have you ever worked on a project that didn't use a traditional database to store content? What are your experiences with it? Did you enjoy it or absolutely despises it? Let me know on Twitter!

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