Benefits of mobile vs. file geodatabases

[Bud]

Mobile GDB:
One of the benefits I've found when using mobile geodatabases is that they're easy to share since they're just a single file. For example, I can easily attach a mobile geodatabase to an Esri support email -- without the file being blocked (i.e. a multi-file FGDB as a zip) or needing to deal with FTP.

File GDB:
Of course, a benefit to file geodatabases is that they're fast for spatial operations.

What are some other benefits/considerations when choosing mobile vs file gdbs for new projects/tasks? For example, mobile geodatabases have full SQL support, whereas file geodatabases do not.

[jcarlson]

Under the hood, mobile geodatabases are SQLite, so there are plenty of non-Esri tools that can interact with them, no need to worry bout having FGDB drivers.

[Bud]

I think it was you that got me on to the Beekeeper SQL client a while ago, which can be used to query SQLite/mobile gdbs. Very handy. Whereas SQL clients aren't really an option for FGDBs, other than a couple of half solutions.

[Bud]

Benefits - Mobile geodatabases are stored in an SQLite database, giving them the following advantages:

• SQLite is a widely available, stable, and trusted database.
• SQLite is open source in the public domain, so no licensing is required.
• SQLite databases are supported cross-platform and are stored in a single file on disk, making them portable and an efficient data exchange format.
• SQLite is a full-featured relational database allowing for querying and reporting workflows and supports operations such as views and indexes.
• SQLite is interoperable and is ubiquitous in mobile app development.