“What are the best databases worldwide that support API?”
Evidence: 74 first-party documentation rows across 14 shortlisted platforms and a 40-product aggregate of 217 independent assessment pages, distilled from 3,811 searched results. Every product below exposes a real HTTP data-plane API — REST, GraphQL, JSON-over-HTTP, or SQL-over-HTTP — and is available internationally. Counts of independent pages measure evidence breadth, not quality.
| Product | Best for | Data model | Data API style | Managed / self-host | International reach | Free entry (as documented) | Key trade-off | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Most new relational web / SaaS products | Postgres (relational) | REST + GraphQL (generated) | Managed or self-host | Multi-region read replicas | Free tier documented | Vendor lock-in cited by reviewers | supabase.com · boostup.org |
| Cloud Firestore | Mobile-first apps, offline sync, Google integration | Document | REST + RPC | Managed cloud | Multi-region | 50K no-cost reads documented | No joins; lock-in; unintuitive modeling for relational thinkers | firebase.google.com · trybuildpilot.com |
| Amazon DynamoDB | Massive AWS-native key-value workloads | NoSQL key-value / document | JSON over HTTP | Managed cloud | Multi-region active-active via Global Tables | — | Access patterns must be known upfront; no joins | docs.aws.amazon.com · trybuildpilot.com |
| Azure Cosmos DB | Enterprise global NoSQL, multiple API models | Multi-model NoSQL | REST + GraphQL | Managed cloud | Global distribution | — | RU-based billing seen as expensive or confusing | gartner.com |
| Neon | Serverless Postgres with an HTTP Data API | Postgres (relational) | REST (PostgREST Data API) | Managed cloud | Multi-region | Free plan up to 70 projects | ~500 ms cold start, best-in-class but noticeable | neon.com · pkgpulse.com |
| Turso | Edge apps needing reads near users | SQLite / libSQL | SQL over HTTP | Managed or self-host | Replicated to 300+ edge locations | — | Scaling concerns cited | docs.turso.tech · gautamkhorana.com |
| Cloudflare D1 | Apps already centered on Workers | SQLite (relational) | REST / HTTP | Managed cloud | Global read replication | Workers Free plan: 500 MB per database, 10 databases | Cloudflare lock-in | developers.cloudflare.com · reddit.com |
| Couchbase Capella | Document + mobile/edge sync over HTTPS Data API | Document / multi-model | REST (Data API, SQL++) | Managed cloud | Multi-region | Free tier documented | Troubleshooting critiqued in reviews | docs.couchbase.com · rfp.wiki |
| Neo4j Aura | Graph relationships, Cypher over HTTPS | Graph | Query API over HTTPS | Managed cloud | — | — | Specialist: not a general transactional store | neo4j.com |
| Elasticsearch | Search, observability, vector retrieval | Search / document | REST over HTTP | Managed or self-host | — | Free trial; free self-managed download documented | Specialist: retrieval engine, not system of record | elastic.co |
| Apache CouchDB | Free self-hosted HTTP-native documents + replication | Document | RESTful HTTP | Self-hosted | Peer replication | Free open-source software | You run the ops yourself | docs.couchdb.org |
| Appwrite | Open-source, self-hostable BaaS | Document | REST + GraphQL | Managed or self-host | Multi-region | — | Reviewers rate lock-in risk lowest | appwrite.io · archon-eight.vercel.app |
| Directus | REST/GraphQL + admin over an existing SQL database | Relational (yours) | REST + GraphQL | Managed or self-host | — | Usable in full and commercially without a license (per docs) | BSL 1.1 license, not permissive open source | docs.directus.io · rankingdevs.com |
| Oracle Autonomous Database | Oracle-centric enterprise via ORDS/REST | Relational + JSON | REST (ORDS) | Managed cloud | Multi-region (US, UK, FR, AU, IN, SG, JP listed) | Always Free: 2 databases, 20 GB each | Oracle ecosystem commitment | docs.oracle.com |
Method: 74 first-party documentation rows (44 + 30, deduplicated across versioned pages, SDK-language variants and naming variants; current GA docs preferred) plus one aggregated independent row per product for 40 products. Research passes searched 1,453 + 846 first-party results (528 matching rows) and 1,512 independent results (217 assessment pages); rows span many independent hosts and no single URL backs half of them. Bar length counts independent assessment pages mentioning a product — evidence breadth, not a quality score. MongoDB rows used only for the end-of-life warning. Blank cells mean the supplied rows state nothing; free offers are quoted as documented, not guaranteed permanent. Products outside the use-case shortlist (e.g. PlanetScale, Hasura, PocketBase) were cut for space.