- SQLite can be used in production for low-latency app servers by eliminating network overhead through local storage.
- Enable Write-Ahead Logging (WAL) mode with PRAGMA journal_mode=WAL to allow concurrent reads and writes.
- Manage checkpointing explicitly (e.g., PASSIVE or RESTART) to prevent WAL file growth and latency spikes.
- Use PRAGMA busy_timeout (e.g., 5000ms) to handle SQLITE_BUSY errors gracefully with exponential backoff.
- Begin write transactions with BEGIN IMMEDIATE to avoid deadlocks and lock escalation issues.
- Optimize memory with cache_size (e.g., -64000 for 64MB) and mmap_size (e.g., 2GB) for memory-mapped I/O.
- Custom VFS layers (e.g., Litestream, LiteFS) enable replication and durability in cloud environments.
- A production-ready configuration includes WAL, NORMAL synchronous, busy timeout, cache size, mmap, foreign keys, journal size limit, and incremental auto-vacuum.
- SQLite is suitable for read-heavy workloads under a few hundred GB, offering high performance and simplicity.