Figaro provides a series of features that makes it more suitable for storing XML documents than other common XML storage mechanisms. Figaro's ability to provide efficient indexed queries means that it is a far more efficient storage mechanism than simply storing XML data in the file system. And because Figaro provides the same transaction protection as does Berkeley DB, it is a much safer choice than is the file system for applications that might have multiple simultaneous readers and writers of the XML data.

More, because Figaro stores XML data in its native format, Figaro enjoys the same extensible schema that has attracted many developers to XML. It is this flexibility that makes Figaro a better choice than relational database offerings that must translate XML data into internal tables and rows, thus locking the data into a relational database schema.