Google Cloud Spanner vs MongoDB Atlas comparison

Google and MongoDB are both solutions in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category. Google is ranked #9 with an average rating of 9.3, while MongoDB is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.5. Google holds a 4.1% mindshare in DS, compared to MongoDB’s 14.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of MongoDB users who would recommend it.

Google Cloud Spanner

Read 5 Google Cloud Spanner reviews

887 Views
672 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

MongoDB Atlas

Read 47 MongoDB Atlas reviews

4,194 Views
2,515 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Google Cloud Spanner

MongoDB Atlas

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 12, 2024

Google Cloud Spanner and MongoDB Atlas are leading cloud database solutions. MongoDB Atlas seems to have the upper hand due to its flexible schema design and cost-effectiveness.

Features: Google Cloud Spanner is praised for strong scalability, SQL support, and stable performance. MongoDB Atlas is valued for its flexible schema design, document model, and versatile features.

Room for Improvement: Google Cloud Spanner users suggest enhancing multi-region replication, integrated analytics, and better cost management. MongoDB Atlas users point out the need for improved aggregation framework, more efficient indexing, and better backend optimization.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Users find the deployment process and customer service of Google Cloud Spanner more reliable. MongoDB Atlas offers easy deployment but has mixed feedback on customer service responsiveness.

Pricing and ROI: Google Cloud Spanner has high setup costs but provides a worthwhile ROI due to its performance. MongoDB Atlas offers flexible pricing, making it attractive for varied budget sizes and favored for cost-effectiveness.

To learn more, read our detailed Google Cloud Spanner vs. MongoDB Atlas Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Google Cloud Spanner vs. MongoDB Atlas

March 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Google Cloud Spanner

Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)

9th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

MongoDB Atlas

Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)

3rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Managed NoSQL Databases (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Google Cloud Spanner is 4.1%, up from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MongoDB Atlas is 14.8%, up from 14.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

Featured Reviews

Ethan Lo

Infrastructuer Security at Premise Data

A stable and scalable relational database that ensures a return on investment for its users

The most valuable feature of the solution is its scalability. Scalability comes with two options, among which Google Cloud Spanner can scale horizontally, compared to other relational databases that scale vertically. You can change Google Cloud Spanner's resource configuration, which is done through processing units. Suppose you set up Google Cloud Spanner initially with a hundred processing units, and then you run out of resources since your database used too much CPU. In the aforementioned scenario, you can scale up or down and face no downtime in the production phase. The solution's features are important when running a company twenty-four hours, seven days a week.

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Luca Botti

Partner at Red software systems

Supportive features enable effective data management and growth

I find MongoDB Atlas highly scalable and easy to use, with very good support. The pricing is quite scalable and applies to various scenarios, both for smaller and bigger companies. MongoDB Atlas has supported our data growth well, and my overall impression is very positive. It is easy to work with and has a reliable support structure. For structured data storage and performance, it provides a comprehensive solution, and the feedback was generally positive.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"We can scale the solution if we need to."

"Google Cloud Spanner is stable."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is its scalability. Scalability comes with two options, among which Google Cloud Spanner can scale horizontally, compared to other relational databases that scale vertically."

"The application deployment in the cloud is the best feature of the infrastructure."

"It is a very scalable solution."

"MongoDB Atlas is very easy to use and user-friendly, and you get what you're paying for."

"The initial setup is straightforward."

"I find MongoDB Atlas highly scalable and easy to use, with very good support."

"MongoDB Atlas was explicitly designed to support IoT applications. Many databases offer features tailored for IoT use cases."

"The most valuable feature of MongoDB Atlas is it's seamless when working with a lot of different systems. Additionally, it is able to adjust the data based on the data being received."

"For security reasons, I prefer MongoDB Atlas. It supports role-based access control, so you have an entity for each individual."

"As a tester, it was easy to validate data, access data, make active run queries against it, and retrieve data from it."

"What I found most valuable in MongoDB Atlas is its Elasticsearch feature. It also has high availability, so it's stable."

More MongoDB Atlas pros

Cons

"Google came up with something called Cloud Spanner Emulator, which fails to work like the real product if I want to develop some code and run a database locally on my machine."

"The tool needs to improve horizontal scaling."

"I want to improve the deployment of cameras and surveillance infrastructure."

"The tool lacks to offer AI features."

"The cost can be a bit high."

"In the past, MongoDB offered more features for free, but now it's quite limited. The free version is limited, and you need to pay extra to fully utilize it. The pricing could be improved."

"The replica side, like the venue, can be improved."

"The UI application for MongoDB crashes a lot, so we would have to use a third-party plugin to make it work."

"Searching and browsing through the collection must be made easier."

"I would like a better dashboard. It could be made a bit more user friendly."

"They could explore ways to facilitate deploying MongoDB containers within the platform."

"The product's data aggregation feature needs to work faster."

"Querying a dataset is not very intuitive, so I think that it can be improved."

More MongoDB Atlas cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Google Cloud Spanner is an expensive solution."

"Price-wise, I heard that Google Cloud Spanner is on the higher side."

"It is expensive."

"The solution is expensive."

"MongoDB Atlas is not expensive, and since it's a cloud-based solution, you pay by usage."

"The pricing is acceptable for enterprise tier."

"I am using the free version of the solution."

"For our service, it was around 300 to 600 euros per month, which was acceptable for our customers."

"For me, MongoDB is expensive, but I think it is not so expensive for customers."

"The tool is free since it's an open-source product."

"The pricing and licensing is great."

"The price of MongoDB Atlas is highly expensive to use and maintain. They are taking advantage of the users with such a high price."

More MongoDB Atlas pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

20%

Computer Software Company

14%

Retailer

Government

Computer Software Company

19%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Comms Service Provider

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your primary use case for Google Cloud Spanner?

Google Cloud Spanner has all the features of a traditional relational database, including schemas, SQL queries, ACID transactions, and provides excellent integration and monitoring tools as well as...

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What do you like most about Google Cloud Spanner?

Google Cloud Spanner is stable.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud Spanner?

Price-wise, I heard that Google Cloud Spanner is on the higher side. I am not sure if this is a rumor or if it's fake news, but I believe that having BigQuery and GCP together could be a little cos...

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What do you like most about MongoDB Atlas?

There are many valuable features, but scalability stands out. It can scale across zones. You can define multiple nodes. They have also partnered with AWS, offering great service with multiple featu...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MongoDB Atlas?

The pricing is quite acceptable and scalable. For our service, it was around 300 to 600 euros per month, which was acceptable for our customers. We could scale up for better performance and scale d...

See all answers

What needs improvement with MongoDB Atlas?

I am not an expert on what improvements could be made to MongoDB. The service is continually evolving with new features while maintaining reasonable pricing, making it attractive for developers.

See all answers

Comparisons

Amazon RDS vs Google Cloud Spanner

Compared 31% of the time

SingleStore vs Google Cloud Spanner

Compared 12% of the time

Google Cloud SQL vs Google Cloud Spanner

Compared 10% of the time

Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer vs Google Cloud Spanner

Compared 9% of the time

Oracle Database as a Service vs Google Cloud Spanner

Compared 8% of the time

More Google Cloud Spanner Competitors

Amazon RDS vs MongoDB Atlas

Compared 47% of the time

Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs MongoDB Atlas

Compared 15% of the time

Google Cloud SQL vs MongoDB Atlas

Compared 14% of the time

MongoDB vs MongoDB Atlas

Compared 6% of the time

Amazon DocumentDB vs MongoDB Atlas

Compared 4% of the time

More MongoDB Atlas Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

February 2025

Download Google Cloud Spanner product report

Buyer's Guide

MongoDB Atlas

March 2025

Download MongoDB Atlas product report

Also Known As

Google Spanner

Atlas

Overview

Cloud Spanner is the first and only relational database service that is both strongly consistent and horizontally scalable. With Cloud Spanner you enjoy all the traditional benefits of a relational database: ACID transactions, relational schemas (and schema changes without downtime), SQL queries, high performance, and high availability. But unlike any other relational database service, Cloud Spanner scales horizontally, to hundreds or thousands of servers, so it can handle the highest of transactional workloads. With automatic scaling, synchronous data replication, and node redundancy, Cloud Spanner delivers up to 99.999% (five 9s) of availability for your mission critical applications. In fact, Google’s internal Spanner service has been handling millions of queries per second from many Google services for years.

Google

MongoDB Atlas offers a cloud-based database service known for speed, scalability, ease of use, and flexibility. Its robust features and advanced security measures support various business needs, making it ideal for unstructured data management.

MongoDB Atlas maximizes data handling capabilities by providing a seamless integration and high availability environment. The platform's schemaless architecture and rich query support make it suitable for complex data processing. With cloud-based infrastructure, deployment and maintenance are simplified, serving sectors such as healthcare, finance, and more. Organizations benefit from autoscaling, clustering, and APIs for effective project management. Continuous improvements in user experience, cost-effectiveness, query performance, and security are expected to meet evolving expectations.

What are the most important features?

Speed: Optimized for fast data handling and processing.
Scalability: Adapts to growing data needs without hassle.
Ease of Use: User-friendly interface for efficient navigation.
Flexibility: Supports unstructured data with ease.
Integration: Seamlessly connects with cloud environments.
High Availability: Ensures uninterrupted data access and operations.
Advanced Security: Protects data with robust security measures.
Schemaless Architecture: Enables dynamic data structure management.
Rich Query Support: Facilitates complex queries and analytics.

What benefits and ROI should be considered?

Easy Deployment: Streamlines the setup process in cloud environments.
Efficient Project Management: APIs and tools enhance workflow.
Cost-Effectiveness: Potential for more flexible pricing models.
Data Management: Automates backups and supports clustering.
Advanced Tools: Enables comprehensive data processing capabilities.

MongoDB Atlas is widely implemented in industries such as healthcare, finance, and technology. It serves applications requiring high availability and scalability, handling tasks from patient data management to real-time analytics. With its adaptable infrastructure, Atlas supports diverse use cases from IoT integration to transactional processing in cloud environments.

MongoDB

Sample Customers

Streak, Optiva, Mixpanel

Wells Fargo, Forbes, Ulta Beauty, Bosch, Sanoma, Current (a Digital Bank), ASAP Log, SBB, Zebra Technologies, Radial, Kovai, Eni, Accuhit, Cognigy, and Payload.

Buyer's Guide

Google Cloud Spanner vs. MongoDB Atlas

March 2025

Free Report: Google Cloud Spanner vs. MongoDB Atlas

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