Document databases describe a broad class of data models that are best used when data can be stored in self-contained documents, as well as when relationships between different documents are rare.

They carry a key benefit over relational databases in storing nested attribute records that have a one-to-many or many-to-many relationship (i.e., multiple attributes in education). Both are referenced with a unique ID (a document reference).

Some broad implementations of document data storage include:

See also