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What is ssdb?

ideawu/ssdb — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-06-24

8,346C++Audience · developerComplexity · 3/5LicenseSetup · hard

In one sentence

SSDB is a disk-based database that works like Redis but stores data on disk instead of RAM, supporting strings, sorted sets, hashmaps, and lists with Redis-compatible client libraries.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Key-value storage
      Disk-based not RAM
      Redis-compatible
    Data Types
      Strings
      Sorted sets
      Hashmaps
      Lists
    Client Languages
      Python
      PHP
      Java
      Node.js
    Features
      Replication
      CLI tool
      Admin GUI
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Code map

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filefunction / class

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Replace Redis with SSDB when your dataset is too large to fit in memory but you still need fast key-value access.

USE CASE 2

Build a leaderboard or ranking system using SSDB's sorted sets without worrying about RAM limits.

USE CASE 3

Add SSDB as a caching layer for a web application using existing Redis client libraries without rewriting client code.

USE CASE 4

Set up a master-replica SSDB cluster to distribute read load and add redundancy for a production service.

What is it built with?

C++Redis protocol

How does it compare?

ideawu/ssdbfacebook/proxygenbrndnmtthws/conky
Stars8,3468,3458,335
LanguageC++C++C++
Setup difficultyhardhardeasy
Complexity3/54/52/5
Audiencedeveloperdeveloperdeveloper

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · hard Time to first run · 1h+

Requires compiling from C++ source on Linux or macOS, no pre-built binary is provided.

Use freely for any purpose including commercial, as long as you keep the copyright notice and do not use the project name to endorse your product.

So what is it?

SSDB is a database for storing and retrieving data quickly. It works similarly to Redis, a popular in-memory database, but with one key difference: SSDB stores everything on disk rather than in RAM. That means your data survives restarts and you are not limited by how much memory your server has. The project supports several ways to organize data, not just simple key-value pairs. You can store plain strings, sorted lists called zsets, hashmaps (which work like dictionaries), and regular lists. This makes it flexible enough to handle counters, leaderboards, queues, and structured records without needing multiple database systems. Because SSDB speaks the same protocol as Redis, most Redis client libraries work with it directly. That means if you already have code that talks to Redis, switching to SSDB is largely a matter of pointing it at a different server address. Client libraries are available for C++, PHP, Python, Java, Node.js, Ruby, and Go, among others. SSDB includes replication support, which lets you run a master server and one or more read-only copies for load distribution and redundancy. It also ships with a command-line tool for querying the database interactively and supports a GUI administration interface called phpssdbadmin. Built-in health-check commands are included so monitoring tools can verify the server is running correctly. The software is written in C++ and compiles on Linux, BSD, macOS, and Windows. Performance figures from the README show it processing tens of thousands of operations per second on modest hardware. The project was used in production by several large Chinese internet companies. It is released under the New BSD license, which places very few restrictions on use or redistribution.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
I want to use SSDB as a drop-in replacement for Redis in my Python Flask app. Show me how to connect using a Redis Python client pointed at SSDB and perform basic get, set, and zadd operations.
Prompt 2
Help me set up SSDB replication with one master and two read replicas on Ubuntu. What config changes do I need and how do I verify replication is working?
Prompt 3
Write a Node.js script that uses the ioredis client to connect to SSDB and store a sorted leaderboard of user scores, then retrieve the top 10.
Prompt 4
I need to migrate data from Redis to SSDB. Outline the steps: what commands to use, how to handle data types that differ between the two, and how to verify data integrity after migration.

Frequently asked questions

What is ssdb?

SSDB is a disk-based database that works like Redis but stores data on disk instead of RAM, supporting strings, sorted sets, hashmaps, and lists with Redis-compatible client libraries.

What language is ssdb written in?

Mainly C++. The stack also includes C++, Redis protocol.

What license does ssdb use?

Use freely for any purpose including commercial, as long as you keep the copyright notice and do not use the project name to endorse your product.

How hard is ssdb to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated hard, with roughly 1h+ to a first successful run.

Who is ssdb for?

Mainly developer.

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