In today’s digital era, for an organization, it is essential to manage and store data effectively for its efficient working. A safe and secure database could help businesses manage their data effectively to gain insights. MongoDB and Postgres are two such databases that provide numerous features giving users flexibility and helping them in keeping their data secure.
In this article, we will go through the distinctions between MongoDB and Postgres and discuss the features they provide to help you choose the best database between them according to your requirements.
What is MongoDB?
MongoDB is an open-source, document-oriented database NoSQL database that uses JSON-like documents with dynamic schemas instead of tables. It is designed for scalability, high availability, and performance, allowing data to be kept in a distributed system and making it more secure and reliable.
What is Postgres?
Postgres is an open-source, object-relational database management system (ORDBMS) well known for its robustness and flexibility. It is widely used for large-scale applications due to its features, such as ACID compliance, foreign key constraints, triggers, and stored procedures. It is a powerful and versatile tool that can be used to develop reliable, secure, and high-performing solutions.
Some key differences between MongoDB and Postgres are tabulated below:
MongoDB vs. Postgres: 11 Major Differences
- MongoDB vs. Postgres: Database Model
MongoDB is a document-oriented, NoSQL database that stores data in collections of JSON documents. At the same time, PostgreSQL is a relational database(RDBMS) that stores data in form tables.
- MongoDB vs. Postgres: Data Representation
MongoDB stores data in collections of documents where each document is a JSON object. Documents can include any type of data, be it structured, unstructured, or semi-structured, along with multiple associated fields. PostgreSQL stores data in the form of tables, where each table is made up of columns and rows.
MongoDB is easy to use and preferred when storing unstructured data, while PostgreSQL is more powerful and customizable for dealing with structured data.
- MongoDB vs. Postgres: Pricing
MongoDB and Postgres have unique pricing models for users according to their requirements.
MongoDB offers a tiered pricing model that includes the below-mentioned versions:
- MongoDB Community Server is the free and open-source version
- MongoDB Atlas is the paid and fully managed version of MongoDB
- MongoDB Serverless Atlas is a serverless version with flexible pricing.
In Postgres, there are two kinds of database cluster plans from which users can choose:
- Single node clusters are priced at $15.00 per month for a single node cluster with 1 GB of RAM.
- High Availability clusters: They are priced at $30.00 per month for a 2 GB RAM/1 vCPU primary node.
- MongoDB vs. Postgres: Community Support
MongoDB and Postgres both have an active and vibrant community with the stats mentioned below:
MongoDB has more than 20 million downloads, over 11,000 stars, and 1,000 contributors on GitHub.
Postgres has over 5 million downloads and over 5,000 stars, and 500 contributors on GitHub.
- MongoDB vs. Postgres: Indexing
MongoDB and Postgres differ in how they index and query data.
MongoDB offers indexing capabilities to help improve the performance of queries. In MongoDB, indexes can be created on any field of a document, and multiple indexes can be used on the same collection.
Postgres uses a tabular format to store data. It supports various index types, including B-tree, hash, and GiST. It supports indexing on multiple fields and can support compound and partial indexes, which can help increase performance for certain queries.
- MongoDB vs. Postgres: Scalability
MongoDB is designed to scale horizontally and vertically, allowing developers to easily add additional servers and scale up their system as needed. This makes MongoDB well-suited for high-traffic applications and distributed systems.
Postgres is designed to scale vertically and can be scaled up by increasing the memory and CPU resources of the server, though it is not as efficient as MongoDB for large-scale applications.
MongoDB and Postgres offer flexible scalability features, but MongoDB is generally better suited for applications requiring frequent scaling.
- MongoDB vs. Postgres: Query Language
MongoDB uses its query language created using JavaScript, known as MongoDB Query Language (MQL). This language is well-suited for working with documents in a MongoDB database as it allows users to quickly and easily query, create, update, and delete documents from the database. It also supports performing operations such as aggregation and sorting.
Postgres uses the SQL language. SQL is the most popular query language for relational databases and is used in most firms. It is a powerful and versatile language capable of performing complex queries like joins and subqueries.
- MongoDB vs. Postgres: Performance
MongoDB and Postgres performance vary depending on the workload type and environment in which they are being used.
When it comes to performance, MongoDB is generally faster than Postgres in terms of read and write speeds. This is due to MongoDB’s NoSQL document-oriented data model, allowing faster data retrieval and manipulation.
Postgres is better at complex queries, transactions, and joins. It is better suited for applications that require a relational data structure and ACID compliance.
- MongoDB vs. Postgres: Security
Postgres uses an authentication and access control system that helps to protect data. It supports row-level security, which allows users to set restrictions on data that users can view. It also supports the encryption of sensitive data, helping keep the data secure.
MongoDB provides Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) that allows administrators to define roles for users to help them access resources specific to them.
- MongoDB vs. Postgres: Transactions
MongoDB supports some features of acid compliance as it provides atomic operations for single documents, whereas Postgres provides full acid compliance. Postgres provides atomic operations for multiple documents. It also provides consistency and isolation, assuring that all transactions are processed in a predictable order, and that concurrent transactions do not meddle with each other.
- MongoDB vs. Postgres: Replication
Replication in MongoDB is performed by creating a replica set. The primary server in the replica set is responsible for accepting all write operations and copying them to the secondary servers. This replication technique is automated, ensuring the data stays uniform across all servers in the replica set.
Postgres supports synchronous replication. This type of replication allows a single master server to replicate data to multiple agent servers, ensuring that all servers have a consistent view of the data. Along with this, it also supports asynchronous replication.
MongoDB replication system is suitable for large-scale applications, while Postgres synchronous and asynchronous replication systems are better fitted for smaller applications.
Conclusion
MongoDB and PostgreSQL differ significantly in their systems and syntax. MongoDB is a document database and uses BSON, while PostgreSQL is a relational database management system and uses SQL to query data.
Pulling in data from either of the databases can be challenging sometimes as the processes could be time-consuming and prone to human errors. To overcome this issue, an ETL/ELT tool should be used. Sprinkle data is one of the most reliable data pipelining solutions available in the market today, which not only integrates data from MongoDB or Postgres but supports data integration with more than 100+ data connectors.
FAQs
- Is MongoDB more scalable than Postgres?
MongoDB is a document-oriented database that can be scaled horizontally and vertically by using sharding. Postgres is an object-relational database that can only be scaled vertically by adding more hardware resources.
- What is the difference between MongoDB and PostgreSQL?
MongoDB is a non-relational database that stores data in a JSON-like format, while PostgreSQL is a relational database that stores data in tables.
- Is MongoDB slower than Postgres?
Both databases are capable of performing fast reads and write operations. Postgres can sometimes be faster than MongoDB, depending on the size, structure, and type of data being stored.
- Which big companies use PostgreSQL?
Some of the biggest companies that use PostgreSQL include
- Apple
- Cisco
- Skype
- Spotify
- Netflix
- Walmart
- Is MongoDB easier than PostgreSQL?
It is hard to say which database is easier to use, as it depends on the user’s skill and experience level. MongoDB is known to have a simpler syntax and data structure than PostgreSQL, which may make it easier for some users.
