rqlite is simple to deploy, operating and accessing it is very straightforward, and its clustering capabilities provide you with fault-tolerance and high-availability. [rqlite is available for Linux, macOS, and Microsoft Windows](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/releases), and can be built for many target CPUs, including x86, AMD, MIPS, RISC, PowerPC, and ARM.
rqlite gives you the functionality of a [rock solid](https://www.sqlite.org/testing.html), fault-tolerant, replicated relational database, but with very **easy installation, deployment, and operation**. With it you've got a **lightweight** and **reliable distributed relational data store**.
You could use rqlite as part of a larger system, as a central store for some critical relational data, without having to run larger, more complex distributed databases.
And if you're interested in understanding how distributed systems actually work, **rqlite is a good example to study**. Much thought has gone into its [design](https://rqlite.io/docs/design/) and implementation, with clear separation between the various components, including storage, distributed consensus, and API.
- Super-simple to use, with a straightforward [HTTP API](https://rqlite.io/docs/api/). A [command-line interface is also available](https://rqlite.io/docs/cli/), as are various [client libraries](https://github.com/rqlite).
- Fully replicated production-grade SQL database, with full access to SQLite [full-text search](https://www.sqlite.org/fts3.html) and [JSON document support](https://www.sqlite.org/json1.html).
- Multiple options for [node-discovery and automatic clustering, including integration with Kubernetes, Consul, etcd and DNS](https://rqlite.io/docs/clustering/automatic-clustering/), allowing clusters to be dynamically created.
- Choice of [read consistency levels](https://rqlite.io/docs/api/read-consistency/), and support for choosing [write performance over durability](https://rqlite.io/docs/api/queued-writes/).
- Optional [read-only (non-voting) nodes](https://rqlite.io/docs/clustering/read-only-nodes/), which can add read scalability to the system.
- Hot [backups](https://rqlite.io/docs/guides/backup/), including [automatic backups to AWS S3](https://rqlite.io/docs/guides/backup/#automatic-backups), as well as [restore directly from SQLite](https://rqlite.io/docs/guides/restore/) and AWS S3.
How do I pronounce rqlite? For what it's worth I try to pronounce it "ree-qwell-lite". But it seems most people, including me, often pronounce it "R Q lite".
