diff --git a/requirements-database.txt b/requirements-database.txt
index 51fdf635..eace77cb 100644
--- a/requirements-database.txt
+++ b/requirements-database.txt
@@ -2,6 +2,6 @@
 
 cryptography 
 pymysql 
-SQLAlchemy>=1.3.6
+SQLAlchemy>=1.3.6,<2.0
 psycopg2-binary
 # PyMySQL==0.9.3
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 5050a6fb..642d9f1b 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
     extras_require={
         'avro': ['fastavro>=0.24.0'],
         'bcolz': ['bcolz>=1.2.1'],
-        'db': ['SQLAlchemy>=1.3.6'],
+        'db': ['SQLAlchemy>=1.3.6,<2.0'],
         'hdf5': ['cython>=0.29.13', 'numpy>=1.16.4', 'numexpr>=2.6.9', 
                  'tables>=3.5.2'],
         'http': ['aiohttp>=3.6.2', 'requests'],