Application design for me almost always begins with data and data structures. Whether my database has an explicit schema or not, I always have one in mind, documented or otherwise reified in the table-data structures I have in my code. I just don't get why people would want a schema-free database that is in almost every way inferior to the rock-solid power beast that is Postgres. Just use a library with proper migration support so you can propagate changes to your schema rapidly during development. You'll thank us later when you learn a little bit of SQL and start analyzing your data, running circles around the no-sql guys.
Cassandra et. al. are completely different, in that you don't use them because they are more fun to use. You use them despite their awkward, low-level interfaces because you're going to dump billions of data cells into your database from day one with no end in sight and want all the easy scaling/availability features provided.
Cassandra et. al. are completely different, in that you don't use them because they are more fun to use. You use them despite their awkward, low-level interfaces because you're going to dump billions of data cells into your database from day one with no end in sight and want all the easy scaling/availability features provided.