MongoDB vs YugabyteDB: What are the differences?

Introduction

MongoDB and YugabyteDB are both popular databases used for storing and managing data. While they share some similarities, there are key differences between the two.

1. Scalability: One of the major differences between MongoDB and YugabyteDB is their scalability. MongoDB uses a sharding technique to horizontally scale data across multiple nodes, allowing for increased storage capacity and processing power. On the other hand, YugabyteDB is designed with built-in distributed SQL to provide linear scalability and automatic sharding of data across multiple nodes. This allows for seamless scaling to handle larger workloads.

2. Data Consistency: Another significant difference lies in their data consistency models. MongoDB uses a flexible approach called eventual consistency, where updates to the database are not immediately propagated to all nodes, which may result in stale or outdated data. In contrast, YugabyteDB offers strong consistency by default using the RAFT consensus algorithm. This ensures that all replicas of a piece of data are in sync, providing a consistent view of the data across all nodes.

3. JSON Document Store vs. Distributed SQL: MongoDB is primarily a JSON document store, where data is stored in flexible, schema-less documents. It allows for dynamic queries on the data and supports nested structures. YugabyteDB, on the other hand, is a distributed SQL database that supports SQL querying and schema enforcement. It provides the benefits of relational databases, such as data integrity and querying power, while still being scalable and fault-tolerant.

4. Multi-Cloud Support: MongoDB has multi-cloud support, which means it can be deployed in various cloud environments like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. However, YugabyteDB has a more advanced multi-cloud capability with the ability to transparently distribute data across multiple clouds or regions. This allows for improved fault tolerance, geo-distribution, and disaster recovery.

5. Transaction Support: MongoDB supports multi-document transactions within a single replica set, providing atomicity and isolation. However, it lacks distributed ACID transactions across multiple replica sets or shards. On the other hand, YugabyteDB offers distributed transactions with full ACID compliance across multiple nodes and geographic regions. This allows for complex operations spanning across shards and ensures data consistency across the distributed system.

6. Built-in Caching: MongoDB does not have built-in caching capabilities and relies on external caching solutions like Redis for caching frequently accessed data. In contrast, YugabyteDB integrates a distributed, read-intensive cache called DocDB. This cache is used to service read requests and significantly reduces the read latency, resulting in improved performance.

In Summary, MongoDB and YugabyteDB differ in terms of scalability, data consistency, data models, multi-cloud support, transaction capabilities, and built-in caching.