Oracle Database Free is not a charitable donation to the open source movement. It is a masterful piece of commercial engineering. For the individual developer, student, or small non-critical project, it is genuinely useful—a free pass to learn the world’s most advanced relational database. But one must use it with eyes open. Every hour spent learning Oracle’s proprietary syntax, every application written that depends on an Oracle-specific analytic function, is a thread in a golden net that Oracle hopes will eventually pull you into a paid relationship.
| Feature | Oracle Database Free | PostgreSQL | SQLite | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Max Data Size | 12 GB | Unlimited | 281 TB | | Max RAM Usage | 2 GB | Unlimited | Configurable | | Concurrency | Full (but limited by RAM) | Full | Limited (write locks) | | Procedural Language | PL/SQL (proprietary) | PL/pgSQL (open) | Tcl, Python, etc. | | Production Use | Allowed (with limits) | Allowed (full) | Allowed (full) | | Upgrade Path | Paid Oracle editions | Free (same product) | Free (same product) | oracle database free
Oracle Database Free is available for major operating systems and deployment methods: Oracle Database Free is not a charitable donation