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MongoDB vs MySQL comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

MongoDB
Ranking in Open Source Databases
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
78
Ranking in other categories
NoSQL Databases (1st), Managed NoSQL Databases (8th)
MySQL
Ranking in Open Source Databases
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
147
Ranking in other categories
Relational Databases Tools (3rd)
 

Featured Reviews

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…
Patryk Golabek - PeerSpot reviewer
Good beginner base but it should have better support for backups
As for what can be improved, right now we don't use the MySQL cluster. There is a MySQL cluster that you can run in a standalone mode, like a single database or you can do it in a cluster master-slave implementation. The cluster is not the best when it comes to MySQL. That's why we switched to MariaDB. For that simple reason that the cluster there is better. It's more manageable and it's easier to work with. We decide what to use depending on the needs. For example, if we need to mount something in a cluster mode, we use MariaDB, which again, is a Dockerized solution with a Helm chart as well, and it's very easy for us to deploy and manage, and also to scale when you just increase the number of slave versions. So MySQL doesn't have that great support when it comes to clusters. You can definitely use MySQL for that too, both support clustering, but the MariaDB is better. Additional features that I would like to see included in the next release of this solution include better support for backups. Because if you go with the MySQL Percona version, it gives you the tools to back it up securely. The vanilla version of MySQL doesn't have that. It actually does have it, but it is just really poorly executed. I would improve the backup system as well as the encryption. To make it smoother right now takes too much work. It should be a little bit smoother to backup the encrypted data the way you want it and have the ability to push it anywhere you want. That is not part of it right now. Now it is a database, so you don't know what you're going to do with it. It's difficult. You're just going to come up with solutions. But I think you can generalize here and come up with really simple solutions, which we have already in MySQL. That's probably the one thing that I would try and push right now for people to switch. But people are still not biting, because if you go with the managed version, then all the backups are taken care of for you by Amazon or Google or Microsoft. Then you really don't care. But for us, since we're doing it locally, self-hosted, we would like to have better tools for locking up the data. Right now, one aspect that is also linked to backups is running things in a crosscheck with semi-managed solutions. This requires a bit of a context. Since we're running things within the clustered communities, we're kind of pushing the Cloud into the cluster. We also want to push some of the tools for the database into a cluster, as well. So these are what we call Kubernetes operators. And there's MySQL operators that were first developed by the community. Those kind give you the ability to backup data within the cluster. So now you have a fully managed solution running from your cluster. These are called MySQL Kubernetes operators. We are looking into those right now to upgrade our solution, which would mean that we can just execute our backup natively within Kubernetes, not via special scripts. This would make it much easier to actually deal with any kind of MySQL issues within the cluster, because it would be cluster-native. That's what the operators are for. I think Oracle just created a really good one. It surprised me that they have this. It's not because of Oracle, but they got pushed by the community and actually created the MySQL Operator for Kubernetes, and that's what we're moving towards. This is going to give you an ability to have a cloud-managed solution within the cluster. And then you can ask the MySQL Operator for the database. They'll partition the database and give it to you. So it will change the nature from you deploying it to you just asking the cluster to give you a database. It's a fully managed solution right from the cluster. So that's what we're heavily looking into right now. We'll be switching to using Kubernetes MySQL Operators. It's a high-availability cluster running within the Kubernetes cluster. Right now we're pretty good with that. It's working fine. We're trying to find some time to actually release that globally everywhere. That's where I am right now. But in terms of technology, if you give up Oracle, you just go to a MySQL operator. That's the one we're using, what we're actually looking at - to create, operate and scale mySQL and sell it within the cluster. This idea of having a cognitive MySQL becomes much easier to manage within the cluster, as well. So you don't have to go with the cloud solution with AWS or Google cloud or Amazon MySQL or the Microsoft version. The Oracle SuperCluster is the Oracle MySQL operator. That's what we we are looking into a lot right now. Mainly because it does backups on demand - it's so easy to backup. You can just tell Kubernetes to backup and you don't have to run special scripts or special extra software or codes to back it up. You can make the backup as you would do anything else. Send a backup or some other data source or insert an Elasticsearch into it here. Just say "Kubernetes, back it up" and you know Oracle has this adapters within the cluster to back it up for you taking increments or different companies. So that makes it really nice and easy to use and to deploy. With that kind of solution you can ask to class or petition the database how you want. So again, it changed the nature of the kind of push-to-pull second nature system. Are you pushing your containers to a cluster? You just say cluster, "give me a database" and the class gives you the base partition database, creates a database in a secure manner, gives the connection to the database, and you're done. Then you can back it up on a schedule on to any backup switches. It's much easier. So once this goes, it is going to be widely adopted, which it should be. But I think people might not have the tech skills right now. But once it's adaptive, maybe in a few more months, it's going to be the number one solution for everybody. In terms of what I'd like to see in the next release, one thing that's always missing is dash boarding. There's no real BI tool for MySQL, like there is in Yellowfin and all the different tools that you get. They all have MySQL connectors, but there's no specific BI tool for MySQL. Open source projects have sprung up, but they're more general purpose, like Postgress, a MySQL kind of database, a relational database. I don't see any really nice tool like Cabana for elastic searches that I can tell clients to use because it would be too technical for them. They would have to have more technical engagement with writing the course, drag and drop, and creating a graph like in Power BI where you just connect with DIA. So I'd like to see the grab and drag and drop tables, nice beautiful graphics, and pie charts. You don't necessarily have that with MySQL like you have other solutions, which are really cost prohibitive for some clients. It'd be nice to have an open source solution for that. Decent solutions. I mean decent that I can take to clients. It's so technical. They want to drag and drop.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"MongoDB's best features are scalability, document management, and data security."
"The installation is very stable."
"One of the biggest benefits is the speed and flexibility of the documents, especially when it comes to modifications."
"It is very fast - faster than an SQL or MySQL Server."
"MongoDB is fast and efficient."
"Sharding is an excellent feature of MongoDB."
"The community is great if you have problem."
"One of the most valuable features of MongoDB is it is Its open source."
"The initial setup was pretty straightforward. I would have worked with our IT team in terms of the initial setup."
"The main advantage is the very large user base. This enables users to fix about any issue by answering any question."
"It is easy to use."
"The ML modules in MySQL are advantageous since they make data handling easy and quick at MNQM."
"The installation process for the most scalable solution is remarkably quick, taking only a short amount of time."
"The fact that it is free is what appeals to me the most."
"For starters, it's free, which is always nice, and it's also pretty straightforward to use. It's a nice conventional database."
"A good traditional database that supports JSON."
 

Cons

"There are some problems with bugs appearing in sharding when the data is too high."
"MongoDB should not be used for reporting, analytics, or number-crunching tasks."
"It is important to note that MongoDB has limitations since it can only be used for specific use cases. For example, for master data, I would want to pick keys using an RDBMS, but for attachments, I would choose MongoDB."
"I don't see a lot of areas that need improvement."
"Some of the solution's transaction capabilities can be improved."
"MongoDB should better support small and medium companies. There are a lot of clients out there that are interested, however, they need something lighter and less complex and something not so expensive upfront."
"MongoDB could improve by not having so many updates and different versions."
"The performance can be improved."
"I did the implementation of the solution myself and I used community support. The support from the vendor costs money."
"There should be more tools to manage the on-premises version and more automation features."
"We require more ease of use, scalability, and high availability. These are some of the critical features that we use and look for in a product. It should be easier to manage clusters. Scalability is very important for us because our projects and concurrency requirements are quite big. We also require high availability of the server, application, and other things. It should also have more performance-based features or enhancements from the performance point of view. When we divide a database, it should be able to handle the queries very fast."
"MySQL lacks a feature akin to Oracle's Real Application Clusters, which ensures continuous database availability within the same data center or nearby data centers."
"MySQL tutorials and guides could be improved. Often they are too complex for someone with no database experience to understand."
"It could be more secure."
"Its performance should be better. When we use big data, it is slow in performance. We should be able to use mirroring for improved performance."
"When I run into issues, I really have to research how to fix them."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I believe that MongoDB is free."
"At the moment, all customers are using the community version."
"There are different licenses available to be purchased, such as individual, premium, or enterprise."
"I chose MongoDB because it is cost-effective compared to Oracle, which can be expensive. In addition, MongoDB has good performance and has not caused any issues while working with it. It has been a good choice for me."
"It is rather expensive."
"I'm using the free version of MongoDB."
"We use the open-source version, which is available to use free of charge."
"MongoDB has a free version. You can also buy the enterprise edition, which is cheaper than Oracle."
"MySQL is a free and open-source solution."
"It is free. It is an open-source platform."
"The pricing falls within the moderate range."
"I am using the Community Edition, which is available free of charge."
"Can range from free to quite expensive, depending on the environments and requirements, so better to really set goals ahead of setting it up."
"I am not paying, but I am not sure about the exact licensing requirements."
"I think that MySQL is a premium product."
"We've never bought a commercial license. We just use the open-source community edition."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
7%
University
6%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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.
Why are MySQL connections encrypted and what is the biggest benefit of this?
MySQL encrypts connections to protect your data and the biggest benefit from this is that nobody can corrupt it. If you move information over a network without encryption, you are endangering it, m...
Considering that there is a free version of MySQL, would you invest in one of the paid editions?
I may be considered a MySQL veteran since I have been using it since before Oracle bought it and created paid versions. So back in my day, it was all free, it was open-source and the best among sim...
What is one thing you would improve with MySQL?
One thing I would improve related to MySQL is not within the product itself, but with the guides to it. Before, when it was free, everyone was on their own, seeking tutorials and how-to videos onli...
 

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Sample Customers

Facebook, MetLife, City of Chicago, Expedia, eBay, Google
Facebook, Tumblr, Scholastic, MTV Networks, Wikipedia, Verizon Wireless, Sage Group, Glassfish Open Message Queue, and RightNow Technologies.
Find out what your peers are saying about MongoDB vs. MySQL and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.