Overview
Amazon DocumentDB is a managed AWS service that implements the MongoDB API on top of AWS's own distributed storage, which replicates six ways across three Availability Zones and separates compute from storage much like Aurora. It does not run MongoDB code; compatibility is reimplemented, and version 8.0 (November 2025) added MongoDB 8.0 driver support, a new query planner, $vectorSearch, collations and views. Instance-based and serverless clusters suit most workloads, while Elastic Clusters add sharding. It fits AWS-centric teams that want MongoDB drivers without SSPL or a third-party vendor, as long as they test for compatibility gaps.
Strengths & trade-offs
Strengths
- +Storage auto-grows and is replicated six ways across three AZs
- +Read replicas share storage, so adding one takes minutes and no data copy
- +Deep AWS integration: IAM auth, KMS encryption, VPC, CloudWatch, DMS
- +Serverless option for spiky or dev/test workloads
- +Version 8.0 brought large query-latency and compression improvements
Trade-offs
- −Reimplemented API: some operators, stages and index types behave differently or are missing
- −AWS-only, so it is not a portable MongoDB exit strategy
- −Instance-based clusters scale writes only vertically unless you use Elastic Clusters
- −I/O charges on the standard storage tier can be hard to predict
Great for
- +Lift-and-shift of MongoDB apps already running on AWS
- +Catalogs, profiles and content stores for AWS-native services
- +Vector search alongside JSON documents in AWS
Think twice for
- −Apps that depend on the newest MongoDB features or exact behaviour
- −Multi-cloud or on-premises deployments
- −Analytics-heavy workloads
Capabilities
Native or official first-party support · 14 of 25 tracked
Scale & consistency
- Comfortable data size
- Large · ≤ 1 PB
- Horizontal scaling
- Native
- Multi-region
- Read replicas
- Transactions
- Full ACID
- Consistency
- Strong, Eventual
- Schema
- Flexible
- Architecture
- Shared storage, Primary replica, Serverless
- Query languages
- MongoDB Query API (MQL), Aggregation pipeline
Instance clusters scale reads with up to 15 replicas over shared storage; Elastic Clusters shard writes. Global Clusters replicate to secondary regions.
Deployment
available on · AWS
Ecosystem
Alternatives to Amazon DocumentDB
MongoDB's own multi-cloud DBaaS, bundling search, vector search and stream processing.
amazon-documentdb vs mongodb-atlas →Microsoft's managed MongoDB-compatible service, built on the open-source DocumentDB engine.
amazon-documentdb vs azure-documentdb →MIT-licensed, MongoDB-compatible document engine built as PostgreSQL extensions, run by the Linux Foundation.
amazon-documentdb vs documentdb-postgres →AWS's serverless key-value and document store with single-digit-millisecond reads at any scale.
amazon-documentdb vs amazon-dynamodb →The default document database: flexible BSON documents, rich queries and built-in sharding.
amazon-documentdb vs mongodb →Microsoft's globally distributed, multi-API NoSQL and vector database with SLA-backed latency.
amazon-documentdb vs azure-cosmos-db →Amazon DocumentDB FAQ
What is Amazon DocumentDB?
Amazon DocumentDB is a document database by Amazon Web Services, first released in 2019. Amazon DocumentDB is a managed AWS service that implements the MongoDB API on top of AWS's own distributed storage, which replicates six ways across three Availability Zones and separates compute from storage much like Aurora. It does not run MongoDB code; compatibility is reimplemented, and version 8.0 (November 2025) added MongoDB 8.0 driver support, a new query planner, $vectorSearch, collations and views. Instance-based and serverless clusters suit most workloads, while Elastic Clusters add sharding. It fits AWS-centric teams that want MongoDB drivers without SSPL or a third-party vendor, as long as they test for compatibility gaps.
Is Amazon DocumentDB open source?
No. Amazon DocumentDB is proprietary, closed-source software.
Does Amazon DocumentDB support ACID transactions?
Yes. Amazon DocumentDB supports full ACID transactions, with strong, eventual consistency.
Does Amazon DocumentDB scale horizontally?
Amazon DocumentDB scales horizontally out of the box, with built-in sharding or partitioning. It is comfortable at large scale (≤ 1 PB). It supports cross-region read replicas.
How can I run Amazon DocumentDB?
You can use the vendor's managed cloud and run it serverless. It is available on AWS.
What is Amazon DocumentDB best for?
Amazon DocumentDB is a strong fit for lift-and-shift of MongoDB apps already running on AWS; catalogs, profiles and content stores for AWS-native services; and vector search alongside JSON documents in AWS. Think twice for apps that depend on the newest MongoDB features or exact behaviour.
What are the best alternatives to Amazon DocumentDB?
Common alternatives to Amazon DocumentDB include MongoDB Atlas; Azure DocumentDB; DocumentDB (open-source, PostgreSQL-based); Amazon DynamoDB; and MongoDB. The right choice depends on your workload, scale and hosting; WhichDB's smart match ranks them against your requirements.
How popular is Amazon DocumentDB?
Amazon DocumentDB ranks #204 of 844 databases on the WhichDB Score (15.7/100), and #22 among document databases. The score combines public adoption signals such as package downloads, GitHub activity, job posts and developer discussion.