Ask HN: Why do so many people dislike MongoDB?

2 points by kadomony 3y ago ↗ HN

Just curious, what is it about MongoDB that many people seem to dislike? Is the developer experience lacking in any way? Do people just prefer schemas? Or is it more that people dislike NoSQL in general and MongoDB is the big name in the space?

4 comments

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hitpointdrew 3y ago ↗

I feel like the use case for it has really shrunk over the past 10 years.

When it comes databases I most commonly hear customers split two needs/wants. 1) data integrity (ACID). 2) Speed.

When it comes to data integrity the obvious choice is to go with a SQL database like Postgres. When it comes to speed the obvious choice is go with a memory db like Redis. Mongo sits awkwardly in the middle where it isn't ACID compliant, and it isn't a memory db so can't outperform Redis.

Another factor is that a lot of things have migrated to cloud managed db's, so if you need a document store, and are going to use a cloud managed db, then something like DynomoDB makes a lot of sense.

EDIT: Apparently Mongo added support of multi-document ACID transactions back in 2018 https://www.mongodb.com/blog/post/mongodb-multi-document-aci... . Who knew? Not sure why but when I think of a database that needs to be ACID, mongo isn't even on the list for me. Seems like just a misconception/myth on my part though.

saurik 3y ago ↗

I mean, most people I know are rightfully holding a permanent grudge over MongoDB shipping with all forms of data safety disabled in order to look fast (and I am not even sure if it had working safety features anyway), when disabling the same features in normal relational databases that supported such disabling made MongoDB look pointless. The memes back in the day were all about "database engineers running with scissors" (and there was a great photo of a bunch of bearded people in pocket shirts running with scissors that I can't find right now). The product essentially lied and cheated its way to prominence, and forever lost the trust of anyone who was paying attention (or who cares enough about their craft and tools to study history).