2. Roles of a database in Backend Development

Why have a database?

Databases are critical for web development
Mainly because databases allow you to store, retrieve and manage data for web applications
They provide persistent data storage, so a user can come back to your site later and their data will be there waiting for them

As we’ve mentioned before, there are two main types of databases:
- Relational (SQL) databases
- Non-relational (NoSQL) databases
Relational databases are frequently used when the data we’re working with the is structured data with complicated relationships
- Such as e-commerce or finance data
Non-relational databases are frequently used when the data isn’t as structured or there’s more real-time data
- Such as with social media apps
Realistically, either type of database can work, if you want it to
- They both have their advantages and disadvantages, which one you end up choosing is up to you
- You might just have to do more work to get a certain type of database to fit your use case