I’ve been working on a new as-fast-as-possible platform for a specific situation I can’t go in to right now but I wanted to use MongoDB, however, I needed to reduce costs and use AWS so I wanted to use DocumentDB and needed to compare. Sadly DocumentDB does not cover 100% of MongoDB. Here’s the comparison:
Firstly, MongoDB has a more flexible data model that allows for easier and faster data retrieval. MongoDB uses a document-based data model, which makes it easy to store and retrieve complex data structures. On the other hand, DocumentDB is based on a table-based data model, which can make it more challenging to store and retrieve complex data.
Secondly, MongoDB offers better scalability and availability features. MongoDB has a sharding feature that allows you to scale your database horizontally by adding more nodes to your cluster. This feature makes it easier to handle large amounts of data and high traffic loads. Additionally, MongoDB offers better failover capabilities, which means that in the event of a node failure, the database can automatically failover to a replica node, ensuring that your data is always available.
Thirdly, MongoDB has a larger community and ecosystem, which means that it has more support and resources available to developers and administrators. The MongoDB community is active and vibrant, with many resources available online, including documentation, tutorials, and forums. The ecosystem also includes many third-party tools and integrations that can help you extend the capabilities of your database.
Fourthly, there is, at best, a 64% compatibility layer between the two platforms. You need to be able to develop locally but you cannot do that 100% with DocumentDB.
Lastly, MongoDB offers a more cost-effective solution than DocumentDB. MongoDB is an open-source database, which means that it is free to use and comes with a flexible licensing model that allows you to use it in commercial applications without incurring additional costs. On the other hand, DocumentDB is a proprietary database that requires a paid subscription, which can add up to significant costs over time.
In conclusion, while both MongoDB and DocumentDB have their strengths and weaknesses, I believe that MongoDB is a better choice for many applications due to its flexible data model, scalability and availability features, large community and ecosystem, and cost-effectiveness.
So there you go, you can use DocumentDB from AWS with their compatibility layer but it really is not enough.