Skip to content

Docs

Sign In

Running

Running SurrealDB

You can start with SurrealDB in more than one way. This section orders them from the least to the most involved, so you can pick how much you want to set up.

The ways to run SurrealDB, from least set-up to most control. Studio Sandbox runs in the browser in under a minute with nothing to install, but keeps no data. SurrealDB Cloud takes about 5 minutes and keeps data on a managed instance. Installing the surreal CLI takes about 10 minutes and gives full control. On your own infrastructure you then choose a single node in memory with SurrealMX, a single node on disk with SurrealKV, a multi-node cluster, or any of these in Docker.The ways to run SurrealDB, from least set-up to most control. Studio Sandbox runs in the browser in under a minute with nothing to install, but keeps no data. SurrealDB Cloud takes about 5 minutes and keeps data on a managed instance. Installing the surreal CLI takes about 10 minutes and gives full control. On your own infrastructure you then choose a single node in memory with SurrealMX, a single node on disk with SurrealKV, a multi-node cluster, or any of these in Docker.

Try it without installing

  1. SurrealDB Studio Sandbox (under a minute) - Open SurrealDB Studio in the browser and use the built-in Sandbox. There is nothing to install. Data is not persistent, which suits quick experiments and learning SurrealQL.

  2. SurrealDB Cloud (about 5 minutes) - Create a free SurrealDB Cloud instance (you will need an email to sign in). You keep persistence and a managed database without running a server on your own machine. The default is a serverless SurrealDB Earth instance, which scales to zero when idle.

  3. Installation (about 10 minutes) - Install the surreal CLI and run SurrealDB locally or on your own infrastructure. This is the path when you want full control, offline work, or production self-hosting.

How you run the database on your own infrastructure

After you are running SurrealDB (locally or on servers you manage), you can choose storage and topology:

Was this page helpful?

Previous

Zed

Next

SurrealDB Studio Sandbox