Guide to MongoDB for startups

I find it somewhat depressing that the first comments on any post about MongoDB generally seem to be short, disparaging and dismissive without offering much if any substance.

We use MongoDB in production, processing millions of new records every month and it works great. Our data has differing and evolving schemas and can be used as JavaScript objects or python dictionaries with little effort. It works and performs well for us and our use case.

I'd be delighted to find out what these nay-sayers are doing that MongoDB must fail so incredibly at for them to have such strong negative opinions.

I'm not speaking only to the existing comments on this post but the general theme of past MongoDB submissions.

Re: Guide to MongoDB for startups

#8

Post by ukd1 » Sat, Mar 22, 2014, 1:50 PM UTC

hydrogen18 wrote: post #5

nasalgoat wrote: post #4

Here's my one-word guide: Don't.

I came to here say this as well.

If you do, be aware of gotchas: https://blog.rainforestqa.com/2012-11-05-mongodb-gotchas-and...

Re: Guide to MongoDB for startups

#9

Post by crusso » Sat, Mar 22, 2014, 1:55 PM UTC

mkohlmyr wrote: post #7

I find it somewhat depressing that the first comments on any post about MongoDB generally seem to be short, disparaging and dismissive without offering much if any substance. We use MongoDB in production, processing millions of new records every month and it works great. Our data has differing and evolving schemas and can be used as JavaScript objects or python dictionaries with little effort. It works and performs w…

I've only casually used MongoDB, but the articles about companies switching from it to other solutions (I've seen at least two about companies switching from Mongo to Riak) have kept me wary of it.

Personally, my 10k foot impression has been that MongoDB is really easy to get started with, has some cool features, and is fun to use... but then in production it has serious issues that are fundamentally unworkable. Until I see a series of: "Here is what was wrong with MongoDB and how we fixed it" articles floating around along with a number of endorsements - I'm probably going to keep that 10k foot view.

I could easily be criticized for not digging in to Mongo's problems myself to learn exactly what they are and whether or not they are still an issue, but life is too short and there are too many other things to do.

Re: Guide to MongoDB for startups

#10

Post by RyanZAG » Sat, Mar 22, 2014, 1:56 PM UTC

mkohlmyr wrote: post #7

I find it somewhat depressing that the first comments on any post about MongoDB generally seem to be short, disparaging and dismissive without offering much if any substance. We use MongoDB in production, processing millions of new records every month and it works great. Our data has differing and evolving schemas and can be used as JavaScript objects or python dictionaries with little effort. It works and performs w…

It's because mongodb just isn't as good at queries as a relational db, while also not offering the scalability benefits that other nosql databases do. Also the attitude that mongodb takes towards data - namely, convenience and performance first, data safety second - is very incompatible with most uses for a database.