- Simplicity: The relational database model is relatively straightforward, simple, powerful and can handle large datasets.
- Security: Within the same database, different users might have different access permissions to different tables.
- Speed: Although database models with better performance exist, still the implementations of relational databases are well established and well optimized.
- Accuracy: A proper design allows to avoid content duplication.
- Multi User Collaboration: Many users can query and modify the database simultanously.
- Old technology: Some people consider the model outdated.
- Incompatibility with OOP: Building object-oriented interfaces to a relational database is tricky.
- Cost: Software for and relational database design and maintenance is costly. Changes of the database structure are costly.
- Scalability drop in Performance: With increasing number of tables the performance drops.
- Scalability drop in Complexity: Structural changes of already large database increase in difficulty.
- Lack of flexibility: The relational model is suboptimal for unstructured data.