Fast, Enjoyable & Secure NoSQL Database

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Hive is a lightweight and blazing fast key-value database written in pure Dart. Inspired by Bitcask.

Documentation & Samples 📖

Features

  • 🚀 Cross platform: mobile, desktop, browser
  • ⚡ Great performance (see benchmarks)
  • ❤️ Simple, powerful, & intuitive API
  • 🔒 Strong encryption built in
  • 🎈 NO native dependencies
  • 🔋 Batteries included

New features in Hive CE

Hive CE is a spiritual continuation of Hive v2 with the following new features:

  • Tooling
    • Hive CE Inspector DevTools extension to browse and search the contents of your boxes
  • Platforms
    • Isolate support through IsolatedHive
    • Flutter web WASM support
  • Code generation
    • Generate adapters with the GenerateAdapters annotation instead of annotating every type and field
    • Generate adapters for classes outside the current package
    • Register every generated adapter in one call with the HiveRegistrar extension
    • Support for Freezed, constructor parameter defaults, and named imports
  • Types
    • Built-in support for Set and Duration
    • DateTime and Duration keep microsecond precision
    • Type IDs up to 65439 instead of 223
  • Performance
    • Faster batch writes and opening of large boxes, including encrypted boxes
    • Lazy boxes open several times faster
    • IsolatedHive individual writes are faster than Hive CE
    • See the benchmarks

Getting Started

Hive CE requires Dart 3. Ensure that you have the following in your pubspec.yaml file:

environment:
  sdk: ^3.0.0

Usage

You can use Hive just like a map. Writes are readable immediately, but a write can be lost if the process is killed before its future completes. On the VM, flush() waits for pending writes and flushes them to disk.

import 'package:hive_ce/hive_ce.dart';

void example() {
  final box = Hive.box('myBox');
  box.put('name', 'David');
  final name = box.get('name');
  print('Name: $name');
}

Benchmarks

Run on an M3 Max MacBook Pro with values of a class with ten int fields. See the benchmark code.

Speed

Times are averaged over several runs. Runs that took longer than 1 minute were stopped.

Individual writes

Writing values one at a time, then flushing once. Hive v4, sqflite, drift, and ObjectBox commit every write.

Database 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
Hive CE 16 ms 167 ms 1.57 s 14.89 s
IsolatedHive 13 ms 132 ms 1.25 s 12.52 s
Hive v2 14 ms 148 ms 1.51 s 19.35 s
Hive v4 140 ms 1.62 s 19.67 s > 1 min
sqflite 402 ms 4.04 s 43.85 s > 1 min
drift 286 ms 4.22 s 44.67 s > 1 min
sembast 64 ms 729 ms 7.77 s > 1 min
ObjectBox 4.21 s 43.79 s > 1 min > 1 min

Batch writes

Writing every value with a single addAll, then flushing.

Database 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
Hive CE 750 µs 8 ms 107 ms 1.10 s
IsolatedHive 1 ms 12 ms 138 ms 1.46 s
Hive v2 867 µs 9 ms 105 ms 3.08 s
Hive v4 2 ms 26 ms 267 ms 2.94 s
sqflite 5 ms 59 ms 623 ms 6.86 s
drift 4 ms 44 ms 466 ms 4.97 s
sembast 16 ms 172 ms 1.73 s 17.79 s
ObjectBox 5 ms 10 ms 47 ms 461 ms

Opening and reading

Opening a database and reading every value.

Database 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
Hive CE 1 ms 10 ms 135 ms 1.22 s
IsolatedHive 1 ms 11 ms 154 ms 1.40 s
Hive v2 1 ms 12 ms 142 ms 3.71 s
Hive v4 1 ms 14 ms 159 ms 1.65 s
sqflite 811 µs 7 ms 94 ms 1.06 s
drift 1 ms 13 ms 174 ms 1.86 s
sembast 2 ms 29 ms 347 ms 3.84 s
ObjectBox 326 µs 882 µs 9 ms 108 ms

Queries

Finding the tenth of the values within a range of an integer field, right after opening. sqflite, drift, and ObjectBox index the field. Hive has no query API, so Hive boxes filter their values in Dart, and Hive v4 reads them from disk first.

Database 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
Hive CE 38 µs 1 ms 3 ms 29 ms
IsolatedHive 760 µs 7 ms 60 ms 637 ms
Hive v2 21 µs 573 µs 2 ms 26 ms
Hive v4 1 ms 13 ms 158 ms 1.65 s
sqflite 147 µs 746 µs 7 ms 91 ms
drift 216 µs 1 ms 15 ms 167 ms
sembast 273 µs 3 ms 47 ms 501 ms
ObjectBox 272 µs 341 µs 4 ms 42 ms

Encrypted and lazy boxes

Hive v2 → Hive CE. Lazy boxes only load keys when opened.

Values Encrypted batch write Encrypted open Lazy open
10,000 41 ms → 33 ms 28 ms → 20 ms 6 ms → 5 ms
100,000 412 ms → 266 ms 308 ms → 205 ms 84 ms → 56 ms
1,000,000 6.08 s → 2.59 s 5.58 s → 2.19 s 3.06 s → 624 ms

Database size

Database 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
Hive CE 0.11 MB 1.10 MB 10.97 MB 109.67 MB
Hive v2 0.11 MB 1.10 MB 10.97 MB 109.67 MB
Hive v4 1.00 MB 5.00 MB 30.00 MB 295.00 MB
sqflite 0.05 MB 0.38 MB 4.00 MB 40.98 MB
drift 0.05 MB 0.37 MB 3.89 MB 39.84 MB
sembast 0.24 MB 2.44 MB 24.58 MB 247.74 MB
ObjectBox 0.32 MB 2.45 MB 23.74 MB 236.66 MB

Hive v4 sizes grow with the length of model field names. sqflite, drift, and ObjectBox sizes include the query index.

Memory usage

Peak memory with 1,000,000 values, including native memory, averaged over three runs. Regular Hive boxes keep every value in memory while open. Lazy boxes keep only keys and read values with getAt.

Database Batch write Open Open and read
Hive CE 579 MB 476 MB 492 MB
Hive CE (lazy) 475 MB 240 MB 367 MB
Hive v2 577 MB 470 MB 485 MB
Hive v4 470 MB 1 MB 1,400 MB
sqflite 1,545 MB 1 MB 558 MB
drift 534 MB 1 MB 789 MB
sembast 1,687 MB 1,128 MB 1,443 MB
ObjectBox 367 MB 1 MB 342 MB

Libraries

hive
hive_ce