If you want to provide a database application for a small device such as a handheld organizer, you may want to use UltraLite. In UltraLite, the functions performed by the server are typically placed in a runtime library. The runtime library is combined with the application to become part of the same process. So, there is a one-to-one relationship between the database and the application.

For deployments that require multiple applications to connect concurrently to one database on the same device, the library must exist as a separate process. In these cases, the UltraLite database engine is used.