Ask HN: Okay, so finally I have decided to go with CouchDB. Any advi[C|s]e?

I was looking for a database for my side project. I wanted the following from the DB: 0. Support for malleable schema and data i.e being able to change frequently (as I am not entirely sure on the complete requirements from the get go, I wanted the DB to be easily adaptable to requirement changes) 1. Support for scalable near real-time change notifications/feeds. 2. Support for scalability and high-availability, when required, without having to manage multiple moving parts. 3. Does not have to depend on "third-party language driver" to use the DB from a chosen language. 4. Open source and free. CouchDB ticked all the boxes. Is there any other DB that I could evaluate that is a better option than CouchDB?