Drivers for Astra

Use one of the following DataStax drivers to connect to your DataStax Astra DB database. Choose the DataStax driver for your preferred programming language.

Before using the DataStax drivers, review the Best practices for DataStax drivers to understand the rules and recommendations for improving performance and minimizing resource utilization in applications that use DataStax drivers.

Below is a table that offers a complete view of our Astra DB drivers, their supported versions, and specifications. For more about supported versions, see Version Compatibility.

Driver Options Drivers and their supported versions Specifications

Driver Options	Drivers and their supported versions	Specifications
Cloud (gRPC)	Go* Java* Node.js* Rust* * all versions	Interacts with Astra via CQL and gRPC APIs. Without driver updates, you can query CQL from any source. This API uses a token and endpoint to connect to Astra DB.
Native	C#, 3.17 or greater C++, 2.14 or greater Java, 3.8 or greater Node.js, 4.4 or greater Python, 3.4 or greater	Actively maintained by DataStax and has built-in support. Specify the secure connect bundle ZIP to connect to Astra DB.
Legacy	Java, 3.0 or earlier PHP, 1.2 or earlier Python, 3.23.0 or earlier Ruby, 3.0 or earlier	Legacy drivers were developed for Apache Cassandra™. To connect to Astra DB, specify your Secure Connect Bundle (SCB) details (token, userID, etc). Alternatively, you can use the SSL-related files (ca.cert, cert, and key) and the port from the `cqlshrc` file. Ruby and PHP are not actively maintained and are in maintenance mode.

Cloud (gRPC)

Go*
Java*
Node.js*
Rust*
* all versions

Interacts with Astra via CQL and gRPC APIs.
Without driver updates, you can query CQL from any source. This API uses a token and endpoint to connect to Astra DB.

Native

C#, 3.17 or greater
C++, 2.14 or greater
Java, 3.8 or greater
Node.js, 4.4 or greater
Python, 3.4 or greater

Actively maintained by DataStax and has built-in support.
Specify the secure connect bundle ZIP to connect to Astra DB.

Legacy

Java, 3.0 or earlier
PHP, 1.2 or earlier
Python, 3.23.0 or earlier
Ruby, 3.0 or earlier

Legacy drivers were developed for Apache Cassandra™.
To connect to Astra DB, specify your Secure Connect Bundle (SCB) details (token, userID, etc).

Alternatively, you can use the SSL-related files (ca.cert, cert, and key) and the port from the cqlshrc file.

Ruby and PHP are not actively maintained and are in maintenance mode.

For new projects on Astra DB, use a Cloud or Native driver.

Legacy drivers should be used only if migrating an existing Cassandra application developed with a Legacy driver to Astra DB.

DataStax recommends using the unified DataStax drivers. See this blog post for more information. You can also use the DataStax Enterprise (DSE) drivers, which exposes the same API for connecting to Cassandra databases.

CQL-Proxy

DataStax CQL Proxy simplifies connecting to Astra DB without having to change your Cassandra driver, driver version, and/or framework (springdata, lagom, akka-persistence-cassandra, quarkus, etc.). This new open source tool securely forwards your application’s CQL traffic to an appropriate database service. CQL Proxy auto-discovers and auto-configures communication with Astra DB.

If you are using a driver for an unsupported language or an driver for an unsupported language, consider using CQL-proxy. The cql-proxy sidecar enables unsupported CQL drivers to work with DataStax Astra.

Already have a DataStax driver?

Migrate your existing DataStax driver to connect to an Astra DB database.