diff --git a/pkgs/servers/http/couchdb/default.nix b/pkgs/servers/http/couchdb/default.nix
deleted file mode 100644
index 45023e800af..00000000000
--- a/pkgs/servers/http/couchdb/default.nix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,39 +0,0 @@
-{ lib, stdenv, fetchurl, erlang, icu, openssl, spidermonkey_1_8_5, curl, help2man
-, sphinx, which, file, pkg-config, getopt }:
-
-stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
-  pname = "couchdb";
-  version = "1.7.1";
-
-  src = fetchurl {
-    url = "mirror://apache/couchdb/source/${version}/apache-${pname}-${version}.tar.gz";
-    sha256 = "1b9cbdrmh1i71mrwvhm17v4cf7lckpil1vvq7lpmxyn6zfk0l84i";
-  };
-
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ help2man which file pkg-config sphinx ];
-  buildInputs = [ erlang icu openssl spidermonkey_1_8_5 curl ];
-
-  postInstall = ''
-    substituteInPlace $out/bin/couchdb --replace getopt "${getopt}/bin/getopt"
-  '';
-
-  /*
-  Versions of SpiderMonkey after the js185-1.0.0 release remove the optional
-  enforcement of preventing anonymous functions in a statement context. This
-  will most likely break your existing JavaScript code as well as render all
-  example code invalid.
-
-  If you wish to ignore this error pass --enable-js-trunk to ./configure.
-  */
-  configureFlags = [
-    "--enable-js-trunk"
-  ];
-
-  meta = with lib; {
-    description = "A database that uses JSON for documents, JavaScript for MapReduce queries, and regular HTTP for an API";
-    homepage = "http://couchdb.apache.org";
-    license = licenses.asl20;
-    platforms = platforms.all;
-    maintainers = with maintainers; [ ];
-  };
-}
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/aliases.nix b/pkgs/top-level/aliases.nix
index ae9ead3eb66..9673e9a0410 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/aliases.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/aliases.nix
@@ -120,6 +120,7 @@ mapAliases ({
   conntrack_tools = conntrack-tools; # added 2018-05
   cool-old-term = cool-retro-term; # added 2015-01-31
   coprthr = throw "coprthr has been removed."; # added 2019-12-08
+  couchdb = throw "couchdb was removed from nixpkgs, use couchdb2 or couchdb3 instead"; # added 2021-03-03
   corebird = throw "corebird was deprecated 2019-10-02: See https://www.patreon.com/posts/corebirds-future-18921328. Please use Cawbird as replacement.";
   coredumper = throw "coredumper has been removed: abandoned by upstream."; # added 2019-11-16
   cpp_ethereum = throw "cpp_ethereum has been removed; abandoned upstream."; # added 2020-11-30
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 367989baea3..b5947d7f7d5 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -18542,11 +18542,6 @@ in
 
   clickhouse-cli = with python3Packages; toPythonApplication clickhouse-cli;
 
-  couchdb = callPackage ../servers/http/couchdb {
-    sphinx = python27Packages.sphinx;
-    erlang = erlangR19;
-  };
-
   couchdb2 = callPackage ../servers/http/couchdb/2.0.0.nix {
     erlang = erlangR21;
   };