Skip to content

Why EventSourcingDB

This guide explains why we created EventSourcingDB and which kinds of problems it is designed to solve.

If you're already familiar with the principles of event sourcing, this document will help you understand the specific challenges that arise when building or operating an event store – and why a purpose-built database can make a significant difference.

You'll learn what sets EventSourcingDB apart, which use cases it addresses, and how it simplifies working with event-sourced systems in practice.

Further information can be found in Introduction to Event Sourcing.

The Need for a Purpose-Built Event Store

Event sourcing fundamentally changes how data is stored: instead of saving only the current state, each change is recorded as an immutable event. While this approach offers many benefits – such as traceability, auditability, and reproducibility – it also introduces new technical requirements.

Many teams try to implement event sourcing using traditional relational or document-oriented databases. Others rely on log-based systems or event streaming processors. While these tools can store events, they are not designed to act as dedicated event stores. As a result, teams often encounter limitations or end up reinventing critical infrastructure components to make things work reliably.

EventSourcingDB was created to solve exactly this problem: to provide a lightweight, reliable, and focused solution for storing and querying event streams – without the operational overhead of building an event store from scratch.

For a detailed explanation, see Comparing EventSourcingDB with Other Tools.

Common Challenges When Storing Events

Teams that adopt event sourcing quickly face recurring challenges when trying to implement or operate an event store:

  • Reliable persistence: Events must be stored immutably, in the exact order they occurred, and without duplicates – even under concurrent load or network issues.
  • Concurrency and consistency: When multiple writers append to the same stream, the system must handle concurrent access safely. EventSourcingDB supports optimistic concurrency control to ensure consistency without locking.
  • Efficient access: Applications need to query event streams efficiently – whether reading full streams, fetching the latest events, or filtering by type, time range, or metadata.
  • Schema evolution and replays: As business requirements change, so do event schemas. Event stores must support versioned events and enable safe, repeatable replays.
  • Snapshots: Rebuilding state by replaying long event streams can be slow. A good event store supports snapshots to cache intermediate state and accelerate reconstruction.
  • Transactional boundaries: Systems often need to emit events and notify other services (e.g. via a message queue) in a consistent, atomic way. Without proper support, this leads to the classic dual-write problem and complex workaround patterns like the transactional outbox.
  • Operational concerns: An event store must be easy to operate, observable, testable, and automatable – ideally without introducing proprietary complexity or tight infrastructure coupling.

These challenges are real – and solving them reliably takes time and expertise. EventSourcingDB was built to take care of these concerns out of the box, so you can focus on your domain instead of your infrastructure.

Why a Dedicated Database?

Event sourcing is not a corner case of traditional data storage. Instead, it is a distinct persistence model with its own requirements. Using general-purpose databases or log systems often leads to:

  • Workarounds for immutability, ordering, and stream separation
  • Increased risk of inconsistent data or failed event publication
  • Complicated infrastructure for replay, snapshots, and evolution
  • Poor developer experience and hard-to-maintain custom code

A dedicated event store addresses these challenges directly. It reduces complexity, improves robustness, and enables best practices by design.

Further information can be found in Design Principles.

What Sets EventSourcingDB Apart

EventSourcingDB is designed specifically for event-sourced systems. It focuses on doing one thing well: managing event streams in a clear, robust, and efficient way. Key features include:

  • Append-only storage with guaranteed immutability and strict ordering
  • HTTP-based API for writing, reading, and observing events – simple to use and easy to integrate
  • Stream separation and metadata support to organize and query events flexibly
  • Replay support with filtering and pagination for efficient consumption
  • Snapshot and versioning support for evolving systems without friction
  • Lightweight and infrastructure-agnostic – no broker, cluster, or custom protocol required

All of this is packaged in a system that is transparent, observable, and easy to operate – whether in development, test, or production.

Who Should Use EventSourcingDB?

EventSourcingDB is built for teams that take event sourcing seriously and want a simple, reliable foundation for their systems. It is particularly well suited for:

  • Applications with complex domain logic and long-lived aggregates
  • Systems with audit, compliance, or reproducibility requirements
  • Architectures that rely on CQRS, eventual consistency, or reactive designs
  • Teams that want to focus on business logic – not low-level persistence infrastructure

If you're building or operating event-sourced systems, EventSourcingDB can help you do so with clarity, stability, and confidence.

For more information, see Use Cases.