Database Triggers vs Event Sourcing

Developers should learn and use database triggers when they need to enforce complex data constraints, automate logging or auditing of data changes, or implement cascading actions that must occur consistently across all applications accessing the database meets developers should use event sourcing when building systems that require strong auditability, temporal querying, or complex business logic with undo/redo capabilities, such as financial applications, e-commerce platforms, or collaborative tools. Here's our take.

Database Triggers

Nice Pick

Developers should learn and use database triggers when they need to enforce complex data constraints, automate logging or auditing of data changes, or implement cascading actions that must occur consistently across all applications accessing the database

Pros

• For example, triggers are useful for automatically updating a 'last_modified' timestamp on record updates, validating data before it's committed, or synchronizing related tables in real-time without relying on application code
• Related to: stored-procedures, database-constraints

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

Event Sourcing

Developers should use Event Sourcing when building systems that require strong auditability, temporal querying, or complex business logic with undo/redo capabilities, such as financial applications, e-commerce platforms, or collaborative tools

Pros

• It is particularly valuable in microservices architectures for maintaining consistency across services and enabling event-driven communication, as it decouples state storage from business logic and supports scalability through event replay
• Related to: domain-driven-design, cqrs

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

These tools serve different purposes. Database Triggers is a database while Event Sourcing is a concept. We picked Database Triggers based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.

The Bottom Line

Database Triggers wins

Based on overall popularity. Database Triggers is more widely used, but Event Sourcing excels in its own space.