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Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs MongoDB comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 5, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.2
Azure Cosmos DB reduces ownership costs by 20-30% with dynamic scaling, easing data management despite its complexity and premium price.
Sentiment score
5.8
MongoDB returns vary, with some users reporting significant gains, others uncertain, but potential financial benefits are noted overall.
Getting an MVP of that project would have taken six to eight months, but because we had an active choice of using Azure Cosmos DB and other related cloud-native services of Azure, we were able to get to an MVP stage in a matter of weeks, which is six weeks.
When I have done comparisons or cost calculations, I have sometimes personally seen as much as 25% to 30% savings.
It's an excellent option for NoSQL or semi-structured data because our agreements start as a morass of raw data from PDF, OCR PDF, or paper OCR scans.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.3
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB support is generally responsive, but experiences vary with delays and inconsistent service quality for some users.
Sentiment score
6.5
Users experience varied MongoDB support; paid versions excel, while Community Edition relies on forums and documentation for assistance.
Premier Support has deteriorated compared to what it used to be, especially for small to medium-sized customers like ours.
The response was quick.
I would rate customer service and support a nine out of ten.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is highly scalable, efficient, and favored for diverse industries, despite some challenges with resource units.
Sentiment score
7.6
MongoDB is praised for its scalability and efficiency with large datasets, supporting extensive users and varied data needs.
The system scales up capacity when needed and scales down when not in use, preventing unnecessary expenses.
We like that it can auto-scale to demand, ensuring we only pay for what we use.
Its scalability deserves a ten out of ten.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is highly stable and reliable, excelling in performance, multi-region support, and user satisfaction.
Sentiment score
7.7
MongoDB is viewed as stable and reliable, though it requires proper maintenance and frequent updates to ensure performance.
We have multiple availability zones, so nothing goes down.
Azure Cosmos DB would be a good choice if you have to deploy your application in a limited time frame and you want to auto-scale the database across different applications.
I would rate it a ten out of ten in terms of availability and latency.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB needs improvements in pricing, integration, performance, documentation, and security features to better meet user needs.
MongoDB needs improvements in security, integration, performance, pricing, and user-friendliness, while enhancing transactions, analytics, and search capabilities.
We must ensure data security remains the top priority.
The first one is the ability to assign role-based access control through the Azure portal for accounts to have contributor rights.
SQL Server is very portable. You can even install it on your machine. That is the number one thing that is missing in Azure Cosmos DB.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB offers scalable pricing, but costs can vary; effective management is crucial for affordability.
MongoDB provides cost-effective community and cloud editions, with enterprise edition and features leading to potential additional expenses.
Initially, it seemed like an expensive way to manage a NoSQL data store, but so many improvements that have been made to the platform have made it cost-effective.
Cosmos DB is expensive, and the RU-based pricing model is confusing.
Cosmos DB is great compared to other databases because we can reduce the cost while doing the same things.
 

Valuable Features

Azure Cosmos DB is valued for scalability, integration, low latency, multi-model support, real-time analytics, and robust security features.
MongoDB is favored for its scalability, flexible deployment, strong security, performance, and cost-efficient cloud solutions for diverse data management.
The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is its real-time analytics capabilities, which allow for turnaround times in milliseconds.
Performance and security are valuable features, particularly when using Cosmos DB for MongoDB emulation and NoSQL.
The performance and scaling capabilities of Cosmos DB are excellent, allowing it to handle large workloads compared to other services such as Azure AI Search.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB
Ranking in NoSQL Databases
3rd
Ranking in Managed NoSQL Databases
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
81
Ranking in other categories
Database as a Service (DBaaS) (6th), Vector Databases (4th)
MongoDB
Ranking in NoSQL Databases
1st
Ranking in Managed NoSQL Databases
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
78
Ranking in other categories
Open Source Databases (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the NoSQL Databases category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is 2.0%. The mindshare of MongoDB is 20.6%, down from 26.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
NoSQL Databases
 

Featured Reviews

MichaelJohn - PeerSpot reviewer
Very efficient for application-facing scenarios
There are several areas for improvement. Firstly, having a local development emulator or simulator for Azure Cosmos DB would be beneficial. It would be very handy to have a Docker container that developers can use locally. Although, I know there is a free tier and so on and so forth, having a local environment would be nice. For example, SQL Server is very portable. You can even install it on your machine. That is the number one thing that is missing in Azure Cosmos DB. The second improvement area is the IDE of choice. That means how you interact with Azure Cosmos DB. For example, with SQL Server, you have SQL Server Management Studio. I know there is a little bit of support for Azure Cosmos DB in Azure Data Studio, but it is not heavily advertised or it does not feel like first-class citizen support. Developer experience or developer tooling is missing in terms of interacting with the database. Better developer tools or an IDE for interacting with Azure Cosmos DB would enhance the developer experience. Lastly, there is some mixed messaging about what Azure Cosmos DB is, given its multiple APIs. There are so many Azure Cosmos DB APIs available. There is NoSQL. There are MongoDB, Gremlin, and others. There is still some mixed messaging for others who are new to Azure Cosmos DB about what Azure Cosmos DB is. Is this like MongoDB, but then there is also MongoDB in Azure Cosmos DB? I know it well, and I know that the default one is just NoSQL, but others I have interacted with over the last ten years or so get confused.
Hamidul Islam - PeerSpot reviewer
Lightweight with good flexibility and very fast performance for searching data
I used the solution in the production level to search data and create education-based tutorials for a project. We had 30 managers, senior architects, tech leads, and software engineers working on the project.  Currently, I use the solution for my personal work.  The solution has good flexibility…
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Legal Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
14%
University
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
The initial setup is simple and straightforward. You can set up a Cosmos DB in a day, even configuring things like availability zones around the world.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
Azure Cosmos DB's pricing is competitive, though there is a need for more personalized pricing models to accommodate small applications without incurring high charges. A suggestion is to implement ...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
For streaming platforms, Azure Cosmos DB could improve efficiency in data storage. Indexing can also be better. Enhanced capabilities are necessary to manage increased data amounts more effectively...
What do you like most about MongoDB?
MongoDB's approach to handling data in documents rather than traditional tables has been particularly beneficial.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MongoDB?
MongoDB is free of charge. that said, there is also a paid version. We use both free and paid versions.
What needs improvement with MongoDB?
If something is wrong on the cluster, then you need to contact the support team. The stability could be better.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Microsoft Azure DocumentDB, MS Azure Cosmos DB
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

TomTom, KPMG Australia, Bosch, ASOS, Mercedes Benz, NBA, Zero Friction, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Kinectify
Facebook, MetLife, City of Chicago, Expedia, eBay, Google
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. MongoDB and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
832,765 professionals have used our research since 2012.