Offline-first field apps
Local-first editing with later sync, even across unstable networks.
Key features
- Offline-first
- Sync missing entries
- Conflict-free merges (CRDT)
Watch-outs
- Plan for key distribution and onboarding flows
Use Cases
Where MindooDB fits best
A quick way to self-select if MindooDB matches your product constraints and goals.
Secure collaboration
Collaborate without trusting servers with plaintext.
Key features
- End-to-end encryption
- Signed changes
- Append-only audit trail
Watch-outs
- Servers can’t run plaintext queries without client keys
Multi-tenant SaaS
Tenant isolation with a cryptographic trust model and secure sync.
Key features
- Tenant keys
- Directory trust chain
- Hybrid deployments
Watch-outs
- Define support/ops model for key recovery (if any)
Audit & compliance workflows
Full history with integrity guarantees and explainable provenance.
Key features
- Append-only history
- Time travel
- Authorship proofs
Watch-outs
- Be explicit about revocation semantics in policies
Encrypted file workflows
Chunked encrypted attachments with streaming reads and deduplication.
Key features
- Attachments
- Streaming
- Dedup by contentHash
Watch-outs
- Some metadata still exists (doc id, sizes in chunk data)
Cross-org reporting
Hierarchical Virtual Views can unify multiple origins for reporting.
Key features
- Virtual Views
- Totals
- Multi-origin views
Watch-outs
- Decide which data should be joined and where access checks live
Decision framework
When to use MindooDB
✅ Use MindooDB when you need:
- End-to-end encryption and cannot trust hosting providers
- Offline-first operation for field or remote work
- Complete audit trails with cryptographic integrity
- Multi-party collaboration across organizations
- Regulatory compliance (HIPAA, SOX, GDPR, PCI-DSS)
- Simple backups without key exposure
- Conflict-free collaboration with automatic merging
❌ Don't use MindooDB when:
- You only need simple CRUD operations without collaboration
- You always have reliable connectivity and don't need offline-first
- You need complex SQL queries with joins and aggregations
- You have very high write throughput (millions of writes/second)
- You trust your hosting provider completely with plaintext data
- You need server-side querying of decrypted data
- You have simple access control that doesn't need document-level encryption
Complexity indicators
Low complexity
- Single tenant
- Default encryption key only
- Local-only or simple sync
Medium complexity
- Multi-tenant SaaS
- Named keys for access control
- Client-server sync
High complexity
- Cross-tenant collaboration
- Complex key hierarchies
- P2P + server hybrid
See industry-specific examples: Industries | Compare with alternatives: Comparison