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Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs MongoDB comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.7
Azure Cosmos DB offers dynamic scaling, reducing costs by up to 40%, beneficial for cloud-native applications despite complex pricing.
Sentiment score
5.1
Users report varying ROI with MongoDB; experiences range from fair to high returns, with some favoring CosmoDB.
Getting an MVP of that project would have taken six to eight months, but because we had an active choice of using Azure Cosmos DB and other related cloud-native services of Azure, we were able to get to an MVP stage in a matter of weeks, which is six weeks.
You can react quickly and trim down the specs, memory, RAM, storage size, etc. It can save about 20% of the costs.
When I have done comparisons or cost calculations, I have sometimes personally seen as much as 25% to 30% savings.
Actually, with MongoDB, it's difficult to calculate the return on investment; it's too expensive for our use.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB support receives mixed reviews; premium access and forums offer faster, more effective assistance despite inconsistencies.
Sentiment score
6.2
Users find MongoDB support variable, with community resources valuable for Community Edition, while paid services generally satisfy users.
Premier Support has deteriorated compared to what it used to be, especially for small to medium-sized customers like ours.
The response was quick.
I would rate customer service and support a nine out of ten.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Azure Cosmos DB offers robust scalability, cost management, and efficient performance, making it ideal for handling global workloads.
Sentiment score
7.6
MongoDB is praised for scalability and performance, though some users encounter issues with replication and complex configurations.
The system scales up capacity when needed and scales down when not in use, preventing unnecessary expenses.
We like that it can auto-scale to demand, ensuring we only pay for what we use.
We have had no issues with its ability to search through large amounts of data.
In CosmoDB, the scalability is much better than with the MongoDB ReplicaSet models.
MongoDB is highly scalable.
Overall, on a scale of one to ten, I would rate MongoDB an eight; it's mostly because we're still running a monolithic environment on old hardware, so there are some limitations with read-write access.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB offers high stability, low latency, and reliable performance, excelling in large data volume handling and redundancy.
Sentiment score
7.6
MongoDB is highly rated for stability and reliability, with occasional issues requiring maintenance and workarounds for high-volume queries.
We have multiple availability zones, so nothing goes down.
Azure Cosmos DB would be a good choice if you have to deploy your application in a limited time frame and you want to auto-scale the database across different applications.
I would rate it a ten out of ten in terms of availability and latency.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB needs improvements in query complexity, API compatibility, cost models, security, and performance for better user satisfaction.
MongoDB users seek enhanced security, scalability, transaction management, and improved documentation, while addressing cost and integration challenges.
We must ensure data security remains the top priority.
You have to monitor the Request Units.
The dashboard could include more detailed RU descriptions, IOPS, and compute metrics.
While solutions for other databases like SQL or PostgreSQL already exist, MongoDB requires additional integrations for developing AI solutions.
We have not contracted the security options in our contract because they're too expensive; thus, we implement just encrypted databases and not the security pack.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, while scalable and reliable, is often seen as costly, especially for large-scale operations.
MongoDB provides cost-effective options for small businesses, though enterprise and cloud solutions may lead to higher expenses.
Initially, it seemed like an expensive way to manage a NoSQL data store, but so many improvements that have been made to the platform have made it cost-effective.
Cosmos DB is expensive, and the RU-based pricing model is confusing.
Cosmos DB is great compared to other databases because we can reduce the cost while doing the same things.
We use the free version of MongoDB, so there are no licensing costs.
We have to pay approximately 2,000 euros per month for MongoDB.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB excels in performance, scalability, and integration, offering real-time analytics and multi-model database support for diverse needs.
MongoDB excels in scalability and flexibility, supporting JSON storage, offering robust features, and thriving with a supportive community.
The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is its real-time analytics capabilities, which allow for turnaround times in milliseconds.
Performance and security are valuable features, particularly when using Cosmos DB for MongoDB emulation and NoSQL.
The performance and scaling capabilities of Cosmos DB are excellent, allowing it to handle large workloads compared to other services such as Azure AI Search.
It offers flexibility in schema adaptation, allowing us to change the schema and add new data points.
In ReplicaSet, it's acceptable, but if your workload needs more performance, and you must pass to a Sharding model, it becomes complicated in MongoDB; in Cosmos DB, however, it's simple.
MongoDB has definitely helped us improve our network monitoring and reporting dashboard.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB
Ranking in NoSQL Databases
5th
Ranking in Managed NoSQL Databases
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
99
Ranking in other categories
Database as a Service (DBaaS) (6th), Vector Databases (1st)
MongoDB
Ranking in NoSQL Databases
1st
Ranking in Managed NoSQL Databases
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
81
Ranking in other categories
Open Source Databases (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the NoSQL Databases category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is 4.6%. The mindshare of MongoDB is 14.7%, down from 25.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
NoSQL Databases
 

Featured Reviews

MichaelJohn - PeerSpot reviewer
Very efficient for application-facing scenarios
There are several areas for improvement. Firstly, having a local development emulator or simulator for Azure Cosmos DB would be beneficial. It would be very handy to have a Docker container that developers can use locally. Although, I know there is a free tier and so on and so forth, having a local environment would be nice. For example, SQL Server is very portable. You can even install it on your machine. That is the number one thing that is missing in Azure Cosmos DB. The second improvement area is the IDE of choice. That means how you interact with Azure Cosmos DB. For example, with SQL Server, you have SQL Server Management Studio. I know there is a little bit of support for Azure Cosmos DB in Azure Data Studio, but it is not heavily advertised or it does not feel like first-class citizen support. Developer experience or developer tooling is missing in terms of interacting with the database. Better developer tools or an IDE for interacting with Azure Cosmos DB would enhance the developer experience. Lastly, there is some mixed messaging about what Azure Cosmos DB is, given its multiple APIs. There are so many Azure Cosmos DB APIs available. There is NoSQL. There are MongoDB, Gremlin, and others. There is still some mixed messaging for others who are new to Azure Cosmos DB about what Azure Cosmos DB is. Is this like MongoDB, but then there is also MongoDB in Azure Cosmos DB? I know it well, and I know that the default one is just NoSQL, but others I have interacted with over the last ten years or so get confused.
Uzair Faruqi - PeerSpot reviewer
Transforms data flow with adaptable schema and smooth public cloud deployment
One of our business units uses MongoDB, and we developed an ETL pipeline that extracts data from MongoDB and transfers it into our data warehouse MongoDB is a NoSQL database that is similar to a document database. It offers flexibility in schema adaptation, allowing us to change the schema and…
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Legal Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
7%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
The initial setup is simple and straightforward. You can set up a Cosmos DB in a day, even configuring things like availability zones around the world.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
We are not consuming so much yet since we are at the beginning of using this solution. I would rate the pricing of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB a six out of ten.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
We are at the beginning of production, and everything is working very well. The price can always be lower, but currently, it's not a problem.
What do you like most about MongoDB?
MongoDB's approach to handling data in documents rather than traditional tables has been particularly beneficial.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MongoDB?
We use the free version of MongoDB, so there are no licensing costs.
What needs improvement with MongoDB?
There is room for improvement in integrating MongoDB with agentive AI solutions. While solutions for other databases like SQL or PostgreSQL ( /products/postgresql-reviews ) already exist, MongoDB r...
 

Also Known As

Microsoft Azure DocumentDB, MS Azure Cosmos DB
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

TomTom, KPMG Australia, Bosch, ASOS, Mercedes Benz, NBA, Zero Friction, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Kinectify
Facebook, MetLife, City of Chicago, Expedia, eBay, Google
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs. MongoDB and other solutions. Updated: May 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.