ApsaraDB for HBase offers three editions — Performance-enhanced, Standard, and Serverless — each targeting a different balance of enterprise capability, open source compatibility, and cost. This page describes each edition and helps you choose the right one.
Choose an edition
Select an edition based on your primary requirements:
| Requirement | Recommended edition |
|---|---|
| Enterprise features (global secondary indexes, full-text search, strong cross-datacenter consistency), maturity, and cost-effectiveness for general enterprise use | Performance-enhanced |
| 100% open source HBase compatibility or custom needs that Performance-enhanced does not meet | Standard |
| Low-cost learning or non-production testing | Serverless |
Performance-enhanced Edition does not support Phoenix, Kylin, or GeoMesa. For SQL querying on wide tables, see Lindorm, which provides SQL support and high-performance native secondary indexes.
Edition overview
Performance-enhanced Edition
Performance-enhanced Edition is a cloud-hosted database built on the Lindorm wide table engine. It is almost 100% compatible with the open source HBase in terms of features and service API, and has powered Alibaba's core applications — including Taobao, Alipay, Cainiao, Youku, and AMAP — for more than 10 years.
Performance-enhanced Edition is industry-leading in terms of maturity, scale, and cost-effectiveness. It provides enterprise-level features and management tools tested by the core services of Alibaba Group, making it ideal for general enterprise customers.
Key characteristics:
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Up to 7x the performance of open source HBase at half the storage cost
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Supports HBase clients for V1.x and V2.x
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Enterprise features: global secondary indexes, full-text search (Solr-compatible), hot and cold data separation, enterprise-level backup, strong consistency across data centers, and smart diagnosis and management
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Big data ecosystem integrations: Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS), Spark, Hive, and OpenTSDB
For details on performance and cost benefits, see Benefits.
Standard Edition
Standard Edition is built on open source HBase V1.1.2 (V1.1) and V2.0.0 (V2.0) and is 100% compatible with the open source HBase API. Alibaba Cloud applies upstream community patches and internal fixes while keeping custom features portable across versions.
Standard Edition supports the same big data ecosystem integrations as Performance-enhanced Edition, and also supports active/standby disaster recovery and active-active redundancy.
Use Standard Edition when Performance-enhanced Edition does not meet your compatibility or custom requirements.
Serverless Edition
Serverless Edition is a serverless service suited for low-cost learning and testing.
Feature comparison
In the following table, supported means the feature is available; not supported means the feature is unavailable.
| Feature | Performance-enhanced Edition | Standard Edition | Open source HBase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Performance optimization | Supported | Supported | Not supported |
| Global secondary index | Supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Full-text search (Solr-compatible) | Supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Hot and cold data separation | Supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Enterprise-level backup | Supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Active/standby disaster recovery | Supported | Supported | Not supported |
| Active-active redundancy | Supported | Supported | Not supported |
| Strong consistency across data centers | Supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Smart diagnosis and management | Supported | Supported | Not supported |
| Big data ecosystem (HDFS, Spark, Hive, OpenTSDB) | Supported | Supported | Supported |
Global secondary index — available on Performance-enhanced Edition only. Enables non-primary-key lookups without full table scans.
Strong consistency across data centers — available on Performance-enhanced Edition only. Ensures zero data loss during a datacenter failover.