Why choose SQLite for DenoKV over alternatives like LevelDB?

[thelovekesh]

DenoKV utilizes SQLite for creating key-value stores and queues. Although SQLite is efficient, why not opt for a more native solution like LevelDB, which is specifically designed as a persistent key-value database?

Although I’m new to this area, I executed a script to read and write records using both DenoKV and LevelDB. Here are the results: I performed one million reads and writes with LevelDB, while I limited DenoKV to 100,000 due to significant slowdowns after 500,000 records.

LevelDB script - 1 million read and and 1 million writes

import { randomUUID } from 'node:crypto';

import { Level } from 'level';

const db = new Level('example', { valueEncoding: 'json' });

for (let i = 0; i < 1000000; i++) {
  const key = `key_${randomUUID()}`;

  await db.put(key, { message: 'Hello, World!' });
  const val = await db.get(key);
  console.log(val);
}

deno run -A script.ts  17.60s user 3.11s system 110% cpu 18.808 total

DenoKV script - 100, 000 reads and 100, 000 writes

import { randomUUID } from 'node:crypto';

const db = await Deno.openKv();

for (let i = 0; i < 100000; i++) {
  const key = `key_${randomUUID()}`;

  await db.set([key], { message: `Hello, World!` });
  const { value } = await db.get([key]);

  console.log(value);
}

deno run -A --unstable-kv script.ts  17.91s user 7.44s system 34% cpu 1:12.75 total

The scripts were executed on a machine equipped with 64 GB of DDR5 memory and the following configuration:

Architecture:             x86_64
  CPU op-mode(s):         32-bit, 64-bit
  Address sizes:          39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
  Byte Order:             Little Endian
CPU(s):                   20
  On-line CPU(s) list:    0-19
Vendor ID:                GenuineIntel
  Model name:             12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12700H
    CPU family:           6
    Model:                154
    Thread(s) per core:   2
    Core(s) per socket:   14
    Socket(s):            1
    Stepping:             3
    CPU max MHz:          4700.0000
    CPU min MHz:          400.0000

I understand there can be various reasons for these results, but from a high-level perspective, LevelDB is significantly faster at its tasks.