UUIDs identify things uniquely and say nothing about when they were made, which is fine until you want “newest first” without a created_at column. The ULID keeps the uniqueness and adds a time prefix, so it sorts itself.
Generate Crockford Base32 ULIDs with the timestamp built into the leading characters. Drop them into a key column or a queued job and items order themselves by age, which is why they show up in modern queues and caches.
Try it now: open the free tool, runs 100{ddff9936f8333f09603555df7bd6492034f3a4a35de784276d3cf3d66166a113} in your browser.
Bottom line: use ULIDs when you need IDs sorted by creation time.
Your turn: use the tool free here, no signup, nothing leaves your device.
How do you use ULID Generator?
Open the ULID Generator in your browser (Sortable unique IDs). Type or paste your input, adjust the options, and copy the result. Everything runs locally on your device with no account and nothing stored, so the three steps below take seconds even for confidential work.
- Choose the kind of output you need.
- Adjust any options to shape the result.
- Generate, then copy the result with one click.
Try ULID Generator free. It opens right in your browser.