Editor Sebastiaan Smits ·
Published November 4, 2026 · Updated November 4, 2026
Teams look past MongoDB when they want a relational engine under a permissive licence, a bill that does not depend on an Atlas cluster tier, or a backend that ships with authentication. Most go first to PostgreSQL or Supabase, then to Firebase, DynamoDB or Neon, depending on whether they want SQL or another document store.
Short answer: The closest replacements for MongoDB in our database software ranking are PostgreSQL, Supabase and Firebase. Choose PostgreSQL if you want a relational engine under a permissive licence that any host can run. We took the other 10 from the Best Database Software in 2026 ranking too, and each is compared with MongoDB alone, noting where staying put is the better call.
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MongoDB's server code is published under the Server Side Public License, version 1, dated October 16, 2018, with the copyright line naming MongoDB, Inc. Buyers who need an engine under a licence their legal team already approves, such as PostgreSQL's, often treat that as a reason to compare.
Atlas lists a free 512 MB cluster, Flex clusters that cost between $8 and $30 a month, and Dedicated clusters from $0.08 an hour. Add-ons such as Atlas SQL Interface and Online Archive are priced separately, so the monthly figure depends on tier plus extras.
MongoDB stores JSON-like documents, and its own export tool writes JSON or CSV. Teams whose data turns out to be tables with joins, or who want SQL across everything, sometimes move to a relational engine rather than keep modeling references by hand.
Best replacement at the top. Each row ends with where we place that product among the 12 we rank.
| # | Alternative | Headquarters | Switch if | Our rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  PostgreSQL | Canada | you want a relational engine under a permissive licence that any host can run | #2 |
| 2 |  Supabase | Singapore | you want hosted Postgres with user sign-in bundled and a flat plan price | #1 |
| 3 |  Firebase | United States | you want to stay with documents but hand the hosting to Google and pay per operation | #5 |
| 4 |  Amazon DynamoDB | United States | your workload already runs on AWS and you accept key-based access patterns | #12 |
| 5 |  Neon | United States | you want Postgres that bills by compute-hour and storage rather than by fixed cluster tier | #3 |
| 6 |  CockroachDB | United States | you need multi-region availability with an SLA and accept vCPU-hour billing | #9 |
| 7 |  PlanetScale | United States | you want a managed relational database priced by node and willing to pay from day one | #8 |
| 8 |  MariaDB | United States | you want an open source SQL engine you run yourself, with a vendor you can buy support from | #6 |
| 9 |  Redis | United States | your use is caching, sessions or fast key lookups rather than a primary document store | #10 |
| 10 |  SQLite | United States | your data is small, local to one application, and needs no separate server | #7 |
| 11 |  ClickHouse | United States | your MongoDB use is mostly reporting and aggregation over large event volumes | #11 |
The engine is released under the PostgreSQL License, which its own site calls a liberal open source license similar to BSD or MIT. The project itself sells no hosting.
Switch from MongoDB if you want a relational engine under a permissive licence that any host can run.
A hosted Postgres with extras attached. The Free plan allows 500 MB of database, 50,000 monthly active users and pauses after a week of inactivity. Pro starts at $25 a month with 8 GB of disk and daily backups kept for 7 days.
Switch from MongoDB if you want hosted Postgres with user sign-in bundled and a flat plan price.
Cloud Firestore keeps the document idea, billed through Google Cloud after the no-cost Spark plan. Spark covers 1 GiB stored, 50,000 reads and 20,000 writes a day, and needs no payment method. Pay-as-you-go Blaze starts when you exceed those daily quotas.
Switch from MongoDB if you want to stay with documents but hand the hosting to Google and pay per operation.
Bills by on-demand request or by provisioned capacity, plus storage, with a free tier of 25 GB, 25 read and 25 write capacity units a month. It runs only on AWS.
Switch from MongoDB if your workload already runs on AWS and you accept key-based access patterns.
Serverless Postgres, now described on its site as Lakebase Postgres built by Databricks. The Free plan lists 100 projects with 1 GB each; Launch charges $0.106 per CU-hour and $0.35 per GB-month, and Scale charges $0.222 per CU-hour with SLAs and HIPAA.
Switch from MongoDB if you want Postgres that bills by compute-hour and storage rather than by fixed cluster tier.
Standard bills $0.092 per vCPU-hour, which its page puts near $203 a month for 2 vCPU and 100 GB, with a 99.99 percent availability SLA. Mission Critical is $0.162 per vCPU-hour with 99.999 percent. New Cloud organizations get 30 days and $400 in credit.
Switch from MongoDB if you need multi-region availability with an SLA and accept vCPU-hour billing.
Sells managed Postgres, priced by resources. A single-node Postgres starts at $5 a month, Metal with local NVMe at $50 a month, and high availability means one primary plus two replicas across three zones.
Switch from MongoDB if you want a managed relational database priced by node and willing to pay from day one.
MariaDB Server is released under GPLv2, and its site says the company develops more than 90 percent of the code while a foundation stewards the project. Community Server is a free download. MariaDB Cloud and the enterprise platform are sold through sales.
Switch from MongoDB if you want an open source SQL engine you run yourself, with a vendor you can buy support from.
Redis Cloud is an in-memory data store, not a document database. Free is 30 MB, Essentials runs from $0.007 an hour (about $5 a month) with 250 MB to 100 GB, and Pro starts at $0.014 an hour with a $200 monthly minimum. It suits caches and fast lookups.
Switch from MongoDB if your use is caching, sessions or fast key lookups rather than a primary document store.
A library, not a server: its authors dedicated all code and documentation to the public domain. It costs nothing and needs no hosting, and Hwaci sells optional paid support.
Switch from MongoDB if your data is small, local to one application, and needs no separate server.
A column store for analytics rather than an application database. Cloud Basic lists storage at $25.30 per TB a month and compute from $0.2181 per unit-hour, with up to 1 TB of storage. The open source distribution is a free download, and a 30-day trial carries $300 in credit.
Switch from MongoDB if your MongoDB use is mostly reporting and aggregation over large event volumes.
Stay with MongoDB if your data is naturally nested documents, your team already knows its query language, and Atlas pricing is predictable for your workload. The free 512 MB cluster and Flex tier suit prototypes, and Community Edition is free to download if you prefer to run the server yourself.
mongoexport writes a JSON or CSV file, and MongoDB says it is not a backup tool. mongodump creates a binary export of a database that mongorestore reads back, and it works on replica sets, sharded clusters and Flex clusters. Run both while the cluster is still active.
Moving to a relational engine means choosing a table design for each collection, then rewriting queries and application code. Moving to another document store changes the query API instead. Plan for a test import and a period of running both systems side by side.
Use mongoexport for JSON or CSV, or mongodump for a binary export that mongorestore can load back. MongoDB's documentation says mongoexport is not a backup tool, so use mongodump if you need a full copy.
Yes, the mongodump page lists standalone deployments, replica sets, sharded clusters and Flex clusters as sources. It does not describe other Atlas tiers on that page, so check the Atlas documentation for your cluster type.
Atlas Free is $0 for 512 MB, Flex runs up to $30 a month, and Dedicated starts at $0.08 an hour for the M10 tier. Billing is hourly with monthly invoices, and add-ons are priced separately on the pricing page.
The server is under the Server Side Public License, version 1, dated October 16, 2018. MongoDB publishes it with a FAQ and a comparison with the AGPL. Whether that suits you is for your legal team to decide.
Yes, PostgreSQL, MariaDB Community Server and SQLite are free downloads, and the hosts Supabase, Neon and Firebase list free plans with limits. Free hosted plans pause or cap usage, so read each limit.
Yes, MongoDB offers Community Edition at no cost and a self-managed Enterprise Advanced product. The pricing page does not state Enterprise Advanced prices, so ask sales if you need a figure.
We opened the vendors' own pages on November 4, 2026 to confirm each price and limit quoted for MongoDB and its rivals. Those pages move without warning, so the numbers describe that day only.
Sebastiaan Smits, Founder, wrote, edited and fact-checked this page.
Founder of The Interregnum and of 2 Steps Ahead, an AI search visibility agency. Editorially responsible for every page here; research and drafting are AI-assisted. Last reviewed November 4, 2026.
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