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Amazon DocumentDB vs MongoDB

Amazon DocumentDB: AWS's managed MongoDB-API database on a proprietary, Aurora-style storage layer. MongoDB: The default document database: flexible BSON documents, rich queries and built-in sharding.

key differences

  • Licensing: Amazon DocumentDB is proprietary (Proprietary AWS service); MongoDB is source-available (Server Side Public License v1 (Community); commercial (Enterprise)).
  • Only MongoDB has materialized views, in-memory.
  • Amazon DocumentDB has a serverless option; MongoDB does not.

choose amazon-documentdb 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

best at · OLTP, Content, Metadata

choose mongodb for

  • +Product catalogs with highly variable attributes
  • +Content management and user-generated content
  • +Mobile and web backends that evolve their schema weekly
  • +IoT and event data with time-series collections

best at · OLTP, Content, Metadata

Amazon DocumentDBAWS's managed MongoDB-API database on a proprietary, Aurora-style storage layer.
MongoDBThe default document database: flexible BSON documents, rich queries and built-in sharding.
overview
Primary model
Document
Document
Also supports
Vector, Spatial
Search Engine, Vector, Time-Series, Spatial
Type
Managed service
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
Amazon Web Services
MongoDB, Inc.
First release
2019
2009
Latest version
8.0 (Nov 11, 2025)
9.0.4 (Oct 14, 2026)
License
ProprietaryProprietary AWS service
Source-availableServer Side Public License v1 (Community); commercial (Enterprise)
Free tier
—
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
15.7
80.5
Rank
#204
#4
GitHub stars
–
28.7K
Stack Overflow questions
462
175.2K
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
Native
Multi-region
Read replicas
Read replicas
ACID
Full
Full
Consistency
Strong, Eventual
Tunable, Causal
Schema
Flexible
Flexible
Architecture
Shared storage, Primary replica, Serverless
Primary replica, Distributed, Client server
deployment
Self-hosted
—
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
✓
Serverless
✓
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
AWS
AWS, Google Cloud, Azure
capabilities
Transactions
✓
✓
Joins
✓
✓
Secondary indexes
✓
✓
Full-text search
✓
✓
Vector search
✓
✓
Geospatial
✓
✓
JSON
✓
✓
Change data capture
✓
✓
Triggers
—
—
Stored procedures
—
—
Materialized views
—
✓
TTL / expiry
✓
✓
Pub/Sub
—
—
Columnar storage
—
—
In-memory
—
✓
Durable persistence
✓
✓
Compression
✓
✓
Encryption at rest
✓
✓
Role-based access
✓
✓
Time travel
—
—
Branching
—
—
Online schema changes
✓
✓
Streaming ingest
—
—
Offline sync
—
—
Runs in WebAssembly
—
—
interfaces
Query languages
MongoDB Query API (MQL), Aggregation pipeline
MongoDB Query API (MQL), Aggregation pipeline
Client languages
Java, Python, JavaScript, Go, C#, PHP, Ruby
C, C++, C#, Go, Java, Kotlin, JavaScript, PHP
Best for
OLTP, Content, Metadata, Vector search
OLTP, Content, Metadata, IoT
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

Amazon DocumentDB vs MongoDB: FAQ

What is the difference between Amazon DocumentDB and MongoDB?

Amazon DocumentDB: AWS's managed MongoDB-API database on a proprietary, Aurora-style storage layer. MongoDB: The default document database: flexible BSON documents, rich queries and built-in sharding. Licensing: Amazon DocumentDB is proprietary (Proprietary AWS service); MongoDB is source-available (Server Side Public License v1 (Community); commercial (Enterprise)). Only MongoDB has materialized views, in-memory. Amazon DocumentDB has a serverless option; MongoDB does not.

When should I choose Amazon DocumentDB over MongoDB?

Choose Amazon DocumentDB 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. Choose MongoDB for product catalogs with highly variable attributes; content management and user-generated content; and mobile and web backends that evolve their schema weekly.

Is Amazon DocumentDB or MongoDB more popular?

MongoDB ranks #4 on the WhichDB Score (80.5/100) and Amazon DocumentDB ranks #204 (15.7/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Amazon DocumentDB and MongoDB open source?

No. Amazon DocumentDB is proprietary, closed-source software. Not in the OSI sense. MongoDB is source-available: you can read the code, but the license restricts some uses, typically offering it as a competing managed service. License: Server Side Public License v1 (Community); commercial (Enterprise).