# Collections: Best practices

**URL:** <https://forum.adalo.com/t/collections-best-practices/42865>\
**Category:** Database\
**Created:** [October 26, 2023, 2:21pm UTC](https://forum.adalo.com/t/collections-best-practices/42865 "2023-10-26T14:21:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lynk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/57b2e6/32.png) [@Lynk](https://forum.adalo.com/u/Lynk)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2023, 2:21pm UTC](https://forum.adalo.com/t/collections-best-practices/42865/1 "2023-10-26T14:21:51Z")

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Okay, so is it better to have one large collection or too split it into different collections? Basically, I have a collection that could go either way. I could store everything in a single User’s collection or split it into two different collections: Users & Profiles  
Which way is better? I feel like storing in one collection is probably better (that way you are not calling to the DB over and over for related information.)

Any advice?

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**Author:** ![Rozza](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.adalo.com/rozza/32/22780_2.png) [@Rozza](https://forum.adalo.com/u/Rozza)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2023, 8:56am UTC](https://forum.adalo.com/t/collections-best-practices/42865/2 "2023-10-27T08:56:56Z")

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I would do user and profile in one table, unless a user can have multiple profiles.

One database call will be quicker. Plus…  
Adalo doesn’t do 1:1 relationships.

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**Author:** ![Lynk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/57b2e6/32.png) [@Lynk](https://forum.adalo.com/u/Lynk)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2023, 10:59am UTC](https://forum.adalo.com/t/collections-best-practices/42865/3 "2023-10-27T10:59:58Z")

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Yeah, after watching videos and reading some things yesterday that is what decided. Plus, one table was always faster than a DB join with php and mysql (years ago.) Sorry I didn’t reach out yesterday, I was extremely busy until about 5PM and you are ahead of me in time, correct. I dont know what today will hold but I will try again today (afternoon.)  
Thanks  
Jason

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**Author:** ![mrentrekin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.adalo.com/mrentrekin/32/13083_2.png) [@mrentrekin](https://forum.adalo.com/u/mrentrekin)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2023, 11:02am UTC](https://forum.adalo.com/t/collections-best-practices/42865/4 "2023-10-27T11:02:00Z")

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I almost always stick with one collection and then use filters from there. For example, I made a social media app that has “spaces” for posting like Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Rather than breaking them all up into different collections, I named it “posts” and then did true/false for what “category” I wanted it to be. This made it so I could simply display “posts” wherever I was, but then filter by “instagram is true,” etc.