Astra DB vs. MongoDB
MongoDB is a document-oriented NoSQL database designed for flexibility. Astra DB delivers superior TCO, fault tolerance, performance, and global scalability.
You don’t need to upskill your teams, and data consolidation is streamlined since Astra DB’s Data API is fully compatible with Mongoose: just like MongoDB and can serve as a drop-in replacement.
| Feature | Astra DB | MongoDB |
|---|---|---|
| Core Engine |
Apache Cassandra® (Distributed, peer-to-peer) |
MongoDB (Document, leader-follower architecture) |
|
Architecture |
Cloud-native, serverless, globally distributed |
Replica sets with leader elections and sharding |
| Best For |
High-scale, low-latency, real-time apps |
CRUD-heavy, transactional document workloads |
|
Scalability |
Linearly scalable across multiple regions and clouds |
Requires manual sharding at scale |
|
Performance |
Predictable at scale; sub-ms latency; high write volume |
Strong for small to mid-scale read-heavy workloads |
|
Uptime / Resilience |
100% uptime SLAs (Astra DB), no single point of failure |
Can suffer downtime and failovers with high volume |
|
Use Cases
|
AI, Agents, vector and hybrid search, personalization, IoT, Fintech, gaming, Health and Life Sciences |
CMS, analytics dashboards, product catalogs |
|
Data APIs
|
REST, GraphQL, gRPC, JSON, and Mongo-like Mongoose offer options for JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Java, C++ etc developers |
Mongo shell, Mongo driver APIs |
|
Cost Model |
Serverless, pay-per-request or capacity |
Instance-based pricing, higher costs at scale |
|
Operational Complexity |
Fully managed (zero ops) with autoscaling |
Requires ops planning for sharding, tuning, scaling |
|
Multi-cloud |
True multi-cloud (GCP, AWS, Azure) |
Single cloud per deployment |
| Feature | Astra DB | MongoDB |
|
Licensing |
Based on open-source Apache Cassandra |
SSPL (not OSI-approved) |
|
Cloud Pricing |
Serverless (pay per operation) or provisioned |
Based on instance size + IOPS + storage |
|
Operating Cost at Scale |
Up to 60% cost savings vs Mongo DB (per customer in production case studies) |
More expensive at larger data set and higher throughput |
|
Migration Overhead |
Mongoose-based API makes migration easier with no upskilling for developers | N/A |
| Feature | Astra DB | MongoDB |
|
Mongo-like API |
Mongoose-compatible Data API for JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Java, C++, etc |
Native |
|
GraphQL Support |
Built-in (Stargate) | 3rd Party Integrations |
|
gRPC & REST |
Native |
Not natively supported |
|
Document Flexibility |
JSON document model with schema-less API |
Native document model |
|
Langflow Integration |
Visual low-code builder for GenAI apps |
No official equivalent |
| Feature | Astra DB | MongoDB |
|
Vector Search |
Hybrid (BM25 + vector) (Forrester Leader) |
Basic vector search only |
|
Reranking Support |
Native ColBERT, NVIDIA NeMo Retriever |
Not supported natively |
|
Search Accuracy |
Up to 45% improvement in retrieval relevance (with NeMo) |
Lacks intelligent reranking |
Read StoryPriceline leverages real-time data infrastructure and generative AI to build highly personalized experiences for customers, combining AI with real-time vector search.
