Berkeley DB XML is an application-specific native XML data manager built on Berkeley DB, the world's most widely deployed data management engine. Berkeley DB XML provides fast, reliable, scalable and cost-effective storage and retrieval for native XML data and semi-structured data. Berkeley DB XML is supplied as a library that links directly into the application's address space. This provides superior performance by eliminating bottlenecks that occur in client-server systems.

Berkeley DB XML stores XML documents in collections. A single application may operate on many collections at the same time. A single application may also combine data from different collections easily. Non-XML data may be included by creating standard Berkeley DB tables. Tables and collections may be used together, with full support for Berkeley DB transactions and recovery services, by multiple users simultaneously.