Google Cloud Spanner vs MongoDB Atlas comparison

Google and MongoDB are both solutions in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category. Google is ranked #8 with an average rating of 9.0, while MongoDB is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.3. Google holds a 5.1% mindshare in DS, compared to MongoDB’s 13.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of MongoDB users who would recommend it.

Google Cloud Spanner

Read 5 Google Cloud Spanner reviews

872 Views
811 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

MongoDB Atlas

Read 49 MongoDB Atlas reviews

4,426 Views
3,674 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Google Cloud Spanner

MongoDB Atlas

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 2, 2025

Google Cloud Spanner and MongoDB Atlas are key players in the cloud database market. The comparison shows Spanner has an edge in transactional consistency and scalability, while MongoDB Atlas offers a flexible schema model appealing to dynamic development requirements.

Features: Google Cloud Spanner provides global consistency, horizontal scaling, and consistent latency across regions. MongoDB Atlas offers a flexible document model, robust querying abilities, and ease of managing complex integrations.

Room for Improvement: Google Cloud Spanner could enhance its flexibility for variable workloads and improve pricing scalability. It might also work on more intuitive user interfaces. MongoDB Atlas can improve its global consistency features, expand its regional scalability options, and enhance ease of deployment for cloud-agnostic strategies.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Google Cloud Spanner integrates seamlessly with Google Cloud, backed by strong support and documentation. MongoDB Atlas offers flexibility across cloud providers but may need additional setup for smooth deployments. While Spanner provides comprehensive service frameworks, Atlas excels in deployment adaptability.

Pricing and ROI: Google Cloud Spanner tends to have higher costs due to enterprise features and scalability, impacting short-term ROI but beneficial for businesses with strict consistency demands. MongoDB Atlas offers more cost-effective pricing for flexible workloads, often achieving faster ROI for projects utilizing its document-based model.

To learn more, read our detailed Google Cloud Spanner vs. MongoDB Atlas Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Google Cloud Spanner vs. MongoDB Atlas

September 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Google Cloud Spanner

Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)

8th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

MongoDB Atlas

Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)

3rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Managed NoSQL Databases (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Google Cloud Spanner is 5.1%, up from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MongoDB Atlas is 13.9%, down from 16.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Database as a Service (DBaaS) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
MongoDB Atlas	13.9%
Google Cloud Spanner	5.1%
Other	81.0%

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

Featured Reviews

Ethan Lo

Infrastructuer Security at Premise Data

A stable and scalable relational database that ensures a return on investment for its users

The most valuable feature of the solution is its scalability. Scalability comes with two options, among which Google Cloud Spanner can scale horizontally, compared to other relational databases that scale vertically. You can change Google Cloud Spanner's resource configuration, which is done through processing units. Suppose you set up Google Cloud Spanner initially with a hundred processing units, and then you run out of resources since your database used too much CPU. In the aforementioned scenario, you can scale up or down and face no downtime in the production phase. The solution's features are important when running a company twenty-four hours, seven days a week.

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Laksiri Bala

DB Architect / Consultant at Virtusa Global

Room for improvement in data handling leads to enhanced cost-effective data management performance

It would be beneficial if MongoDB Atlas could better support OLTP aspects and data frames, as well as enhance its capabilities for data pipelines and visualization dashboards. Furthermore, supporting the medallion architecture could be a valuable addition, and incorporating improved spatial and vector handling for geographical data could make it more competitive. Enhancing vector processing for AI capabilities would also be critical.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Google Cloud Spanner is stable."

"It is a very scalable solution."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is its scalability. Scalability comes with two options, among which Google Cloud Spanner can scale horizontally, compared to other relational databases that scale vertically."

"The application deployment in the cloud is the best feature of the infrastructure."

"We can scale the solution if we need to."

"The most valuable feature is that it's all web-based. So one can browse collections just from the web. MongoDB Atlas is very accessible, quick to understand, and quick to learn. People who have never used CLI can hop into the web interface and browse the database."

"The key feature of MongoDB Atlas that has been helpful for us is the ease of deploying new databases."

"The product is simple to use and enterprise-ready. It is also open-source."

"The most useful feature is the management of the backup."

"I am impressed with the tool's integrations."

"It is nice because our developers create tables whenever they need to sync data."

"The product allows us to easily set up and store large amounts of unstructured data."

"The auto-scaling feature is the most valuable aspect."

More MongoDB Atlas pros

Cons

"I want to improve the deployment of cameras and surveillance infrastructure."

"The tool lacks to offer AI features."

"The tool needs to improve horizontal scaling."

"Google came up with something called Cloud Spanner Emulator, which fails to work like the real product if I want to develop some code and run a database locally on my machine."

"The cost can be a bit high."

"From an improvement standpoint, MongoDB can improve security."

"We had some bad trainers when we first came onboard and would rate them fairly low. They did not seem staffed properly to fulfill the training services that they offered."

"The web console isn't very intuitive, especially for large data."

"The price of the solution should be reduced."

"If it could be cheaper, that would make us happy."

"I would like a more comprehensive dashboard."

"We need improved query performance."

"I am not an expert on what improvements could be made to MongoDB."

More MongoDB Atlas cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Google Cloud Spanner is an expensive solution."

"The solution is expensive."

"It is expensive."

"Price-wise, I heard that Google Cloud Spanner is on the higher side."

"The pricing is good. We originally chose it over DynamoDB because of the pricing."

"For me, MongoDB is expensive, but I think it is not so expensive for customers."

"The price of MongoDB Atlas is highly expensive to use and maintain. They are taking advantage of the users with such a high price."

"Pricing could always be better."

"It is an open-source platform."

"The solution is expensive overall. It does not require a license but if you want the support then you will need to purchase the license. They use a pay-as-you-go model and you are able to receive some discounts by making longer usage commitments."

"The tool is free since it's an open-source product."

"The purchasing process through the AWS Marketplace was very good."

More MongoDB Atlas pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

24%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	22
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	20

Questions from the Community

What is your primary use case for Google Cloud Spanner?

Google Cloud Spanner has all the features of a traditional relational database, including schemas, SQL queries, ACID transactions, and provides excellent integration and monitoring tools as well as...

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What do you like most about Google Cloud Spanner?

Google Cloud Spanner is stable.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud Spanner?

Price-wise, I heard that Google Cloud Spanner is on the higher side. I am not sure if this is a rumor or if it's fake news, but I believe that having BigQuery and GCP together could be a little cos...

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What do you like most about MongoDB Atlas?

There are many valuable features, but scalability stands out. It can scale across zones. You can define multiple nodes. They have also partnered with AWS, offering great service with multiple featu...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MongoDB Atlas?

The price of MongoDB Atlas is reasonable, which is why many organizations, including mine, are opting for it.

See all answers

What needs improvement with MongoDB Atlas?

There is nothing about MongoDB Atlas I would like to improve or any weak points at this time. I have not thought through what other features I would like to see included in future updates. MongoDB ...

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Comparisons

Amazon RDS vs Google Cloud Spanner

Compared 22% of the time

SingleStore vs Google Cloud Spanner

Compared 11% of the time

Oracle Database as a Service vs Google Cloud Spanner

Compared 9% of the time

Redis vs Google Cloud Spanner

Compared 9% of the time

Google Cloud SQL vs Google Cloud Spanner

Compared 8% of the time

More Google Cloud Spanner Competitors

Amazon RDS vs MongoDB Atlas

Compared 23% of the time

Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs MongoDB Atlas

Compared 12% of the time

MongoDB Enterprise Advanced vs MongoDB Atlas

Compared 9% of the time

Google Cloud SQL vs MongoDB Atlas

Compared 8% of the time

Upstash vs MongoDB Atlas

Compared 6% of the time

More MongoDB Atlas Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

August 2025

Download Google Cloud Spanner product report

Buyer's Guide

MongoDB Atlas

August 2025

Download MongoDB Atlas product report

Also Known As

Google Spanner

Atlas, MongoDB Atlas (pay-as-you-go)

Overview

Cloud Spanner is the first and only relational database service that is both strongly consistent and horizontally scalable. With Cloud Spanner you enjoy all the traditional benefits of a relational database: ACID transactions, relational schemas (and schema changes without downtime), SQL queries, high performance, and high availability. But unlike any other relational database service, Cloud Spanner scales horizontally, to hundreds or thousands of servers, so it can handle the highest of transactional workloads. With automatic scaling, synchronous data replication, and node redundancy, Cloud Spanner delivers up to 99.999% (five 9s) of availability for your mission critical applications. In fact, Google’s internal Spanner service has been handling millions of queries per second from many Google services for years.

Google

MongoDB Atlas stands out with its schemaless architecture, scalability, and user-friendly design. It simplifies data management with automatic scaling and seamless integration, providing dynamic solutions for diverse industries.

MongoDB Atlas offers a cloud-based platform valued for its seamless integration capabilities and high-performance data visualization. It features advanced security options such as encryption and role-based access control alongside flexible data storage and efficient indexing. Users benefit from its robust API support and the ability to manage the platform without an extensive setup process. Feedback suggests improvements are needed in usability, query performance, security options, and third-party tool compatibility. While pricing and support services could be more economical, there is a demand for enhanced real-time monitoring and comprehensive dashboards, as well as advanced containerization and scalability options supporting complex database structures.

What are the key features of MongoDB Atlas?

Schemaless Architecture: Flexible data storage without predefined structure.
Automatic Scaling: Dynamically adjusts resources to meet demand.
Advanced Security: Encryption and role-based access control.
User-Friendly Interface: Simplified management and operation.
Robust API Support: Facilitates integration with applications.

What benefits should you consider in a solution like MongoDB Atlas?

Cost-Effective Management: Minimizes setup and operational costs.
Dynamic Data Management: Adapts to varying business demands.
Seamless Integration: Connects easily with other tools and frameworks.
High Performance: Optimized for real-time data processing and visualization.
Reliable Support: Accessible assistance and comprehensive documentation.

In healthcare and finance, MongoDB Atlas manages payment transactions and facilitates real-time analytics, powering SaaS solutions and storing large volumes of user data. It enhances scalability, performance, and security for cloud hosting, IoT integrations, and Node.js environments, widely favored for its flexibility and capability to support microservices.

MongoDB

Sample Customers

Streak, Optiva, Mixpanel

Wells Fargo, Forbes, Ulta Beauty, Bosch, Sanoma, Current (a Digital Bank), ASAP Log, SBB, Zebra Technologies, Radial, Kovai, Eni, Accuhit, Cognigy, and Payload.

Buyer's Guide

Google Cloud Spanner vs. MongoDB Atlas

September 2025

Free Report: Google Cloud Spanner vs. MongoDB Atlas

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