Snippet from "More information", Database() documentaion: Database() intends to be an efficient database wrapper with a large set of features, with a main target of improving development time on little and big projects, in part avoiding partial code rewrites on big-growing websites or SQL chunks in little websites. No new features are planned, only security and compatibility updates will take place (infrequent updates). Database() is built as a common, full-featured database wrapper (to build things in its top), not as an evolving tool. Code is released under the GNU Lesser General Public License (A.K.A. LGPL), version 3. Please, read the documentation for more information.