When selecting a NoSQL database, consider what your use cases will be and if a general purpose database like MongoDB would be a better option. For example, graph databases are excellent for analyzing relationships in your data but may not provide what you need for everyday retrieval of the data such as range queries. Storage is currently so cheap that most consider this a minor drawback, and some NoSQL databases also support compression to reduce the storage footprint.ĭepending on the NoSQL database type you select, you may not be able to achieve all of your use cases in a single database. Since data models in NoSQL databases are typically optimized for queries and not for reducing data duplication, NoSQL databases can be larger than SQL databases. To address these use cases, MongoDB added support for multi-document ACID transactions in the 4.0 release, and extended them in 4.2 to span sharded clusters. However, there are still many applications that require ACID across multiple records. With appropriate schema design, single-record atomicity is acceptable for lots of applications. One of the most frequently cited drawbacks of NoSQL databases is that they don’t support ACID (atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) transactions across multiple documents. What are the drawbacks of NoSQL databases? While it may seem like a trivial advantage, this mapping can allow developers to write less code, leading to faster development time and fewer bugs. This mapping allows developers to store their data in the same way that they use it in their application code. Some NoSQL databases like MongoDB map their data structures to those of popular programming languages.

Queries typically do not require joins, so the queries are very fast. The rule of thumb when you use MongoDB is data that is accessed together should be stored together. However, data in NoSQL databases is typically stored in a way that is optimized for queries. As your tables grow in size, the joins can become expensive. Why? Data in SQL databases is typically normalized, so queries for a single object or entity require you to join data from multiple tables. Queries in NoSQL databases can be faster than SQL databases. Conversely, most NoSQL databases allow you to scale-out horizontally, meaning you can add cheaper commodity servers whenever you need to. Most SQL databases require you to scale-up vertically (migrate to a larger, more expensive server) when you exceed the capacity requirements of your current server. You can iterate quickly and continuously integrate new application features to provide value to your users faster. A flexible schema allows you to easily make changes to your database as requirements change. NoSQL databases typically have very flexible schemas. NoSQL databases have flexible data models, scale horizontally, have incredibly fast queries, and are easy for developers to work with. NoSQL databases offer many benefits over relational databases. What are the benefits of NoSQL databases? MongoDB documents map directly to data structures in most popular programming languages.

Most do not support multi-record ACID transactions. Horizontal (scale-out across commodity servers)

Oracle, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and PostgreSQLĭocument: MongoDB and CouchDB, Key-value: Redis and DynamoDB, Wide-column: Cassandra and HBase, Graph: Neo4j and Amazon Neptuneĭocument: general purpose, Key-value: large amounts of data with simple lookup queries, Wide-column: large amounts of data with predictable query patterns, Graph: analyzing and traversing relationships between connected data The table below summarizes the main differences between SQL and NoSQL databases.ĭocument: JSON documents, Key-value: key-value pairs, Wide-column: tables with rows and dynamic columns, Graph: nodes and edgesĭeveloped in the 1970s with a focus on reducing data duplicationĭeveloped in the late 2000s with a focus on scaling and allowing for rapid application change driven by agile and DevOps practices.

Sql vs mysql