I've been using INT sequential identifiers for my project for about 5-6 years, but I've noticed a trend toward using UUIDs. I understand that UUIDs might be more secure, but INTs are certainly faster. Since I'm uncertain about how many users my project will have, I'm contemplating the best choice for my user table while knowing I'll use UUIDs for other tables like chat messages and orders. Any advice on which to choose?
5 Answers
Don't underestimate the potential exhaustion of INT IDs! Especially if you ever expect to grow your user base. Once you hit limits with INTs, you could be in trouble. UUIDs offer a long-term solution without the risk of running out.
Using UUIDs can feel like overkill, but they are hard to guess and can be beneficial for larger applications. Just remember that if you have a small app now, you might want to consider how it might scale in the future. I usually lean towards UUIDs after seeing some benefits in my own projects.
It's true that UUIDs require no coordination, which makes them great for high-throughput systems. However, if your use case isn't going to have multiple instances generating IDs simultaneously, then using INTs might be perfectly fine. Just also keep in mind that exposing your ID pattern can be risky if users can guess or manipulate IDs.
I’d recommend sticking with UUIDs for public-facing IDs. They’re better at preventing enumeration vulnerabilities, which is really important for user privacy. Just look at past data breaches due to sequential IDs being easily guessable.
UUIDs are indeed harder to guess than INTs, which can be advantageous from a security standpoint. Sure, an INT can tell a user a lot about your system, like how many users you have by simply incrementing, but UUIDs generate unique identifiers without any clear pattern or count. Keep in mind that it's important not to rely solely on ID obscurity for security, though!
Exactly! Plus, if performance is your main concern, INTs are great internally. But if you expect high traffic, UUIDs can help avoid bottlenecks since they don't require locking like INTs do.