# Designing Data-Intensive Applications

Source: https://listme.name/books/designing-data-intensive-applications
Website: https://dataintensive.net/

Martin Kleppmann's book on reliable, scalable and maintainable data systems

Designing Data-Intensive Applications is an O'Reilly book by Martin Kleppmann about databases, replication, partitioning, transactions and stream processing. It explains the trade-offs behind data systems rather than one product. The author's site says the book is available in print and ebook formats from bookstores.

The book covers how data systems store, replicate, partition and process data, and why the trade-offs matter. Chapters move from data models and storage engines to distributed systems, batch processing and stream processing. The focus is on concepts that stay useful as individual databases change.

The author's site lists the book as available in print and ebook formats. It suits software engineers and architects who choose databases, queues and data pipelines, and it does not teach one product in depth. The main trade-off is density: the text is long, and it takes time to work through its reasoning. The site offers no free full text.

- Paid | Print
- Price: Print and ebook editions from bookstores; no free full text
- Checked: 2026-10-10

## Strengths

- Clear explanation of distributed data trade-offs
- Focuses on concepts, not one database product
- Covers storage, replication and stream processing

## Limits

- Dense, long reading
- No free online edition on the author's site

## Rankings

- #1 of 11 in [best Programming books](https://listme.name/best/programming-books), score 94.0: The strongest guide here to the trade-offs in data systems, covering replication, transactions and stream processing. It is paid and dense, so it suits engineers making design decisions rather than beginners.

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