Redis vs MongoDB: 10 Critical Differences

Databases are gaining popularity day by day and are used by almost all organizations for a wide variety of use cases. Many companies are using innovative techniques to handle their Data Storage and often shift between Databases to optimize their storage and Data Mapping according to their business requirements.

The use of Databases with dynamic functionalities is of supreme importance for organizations and brands with growing data requirements. Which Database is perfect for you can be very subjective, especially with constantly changing requirements. When it comes to the field of Database Management, the Redis vs MongoDB choice can be a relatively tough one.

This article provides you with a comprehensive analysis of both Databases and highlights the major differences between them to help you make the Redis vs MongoDB decision with ease. It also provides you a brief overview of both Databases along with their features. Finally, it highlights a few challenges you might face when you use these Databases. Read along to find out how you can choose the right Database for your organization.

Introduction to Redis

Traditional Databases have some drawbacks such as the lack of support for different data types and insufficient memory to store large amounts of data. Such drawbacks occurring in RDBMS are easily countered with the use of  NoSQL Databases. Several redundancy issues are also omnipresent with some Database systems. The solution is using Redis. 

Remote Dictionary server, abbreviated as Redis, is an open-source data platform that supports the storage of various data types and huge volumes of data, with a functional velocity.

Dictionary is a key-value data type. Redis stores data in a key-value format. It is an in-memory and single-threaded datastore. Redis is written in C and was launched in 2009 by Salvatore Sanfilippo. It is optimized and supports unstructured as well structured data. It uses single-threaded multiplexed IO to serve high performance and implementation. 

Redis is primarily popular owing to its rapid data storage, cache, and message brokerage. It is an in-memory data structure server, which means that it holds a variety of values like binary, bitmaps, lists, sets, hashed values, hyper logs, and sorted sets. Irrespective of any key, Redis is always ready to relay the accurate value. It also supports a range of operations and features.

Key Features of Redis

Redis houses a wide range of features that make it a popular choice over other Databases. Some of those features:

• Speed: Redis is extremely fast in comparison to other datastores. Redis claims to be faster as it stores huge volumes of data in the primary memory within a fraction of seconds. It loads up to 110000 SETs/second. It also retrieves 81000 GETs/second in an entry-level Linux box. The Redis interface speeds up communication with client libraries, as it supports pipeline commands to make jobs faster.

• Lua Scripting: Lua Scripting operates as one of the fastest executing scripts. The aim behind Redis is to serve users with speedy data services. Thus, Redis built its script in the Lua language. It facilitates custom scripts that are written and executed in Lua language. Lua is beneficial as its initialization is faster, which executes scripts faster without disturbing or slowing down the database for a response.

• Tenacity: Redis provides flexibility for storing various data types in the main memory. Data changes every moment, as per updates and changes made. These asynchronous changes are saved on the disk, based on the elapsed time or the updated time. Redis provides high availability and an append-only file persistence mode.

If you want to learn more about Redis, click this link.

Introduction to MongoDB

Developers often struggle with tasks such as data replication, partition, and time-consuming writing processes. A lightweight, flexible and precise database solution can help with such requirements. MongoDB is the perfect database solution to overcome these problems.

MongoDB is an open-source NoSQL database that doesn’t accept input values in a table format. Instead, it accepts the values in BSON format. It is a document-oriented database which means that data is stored in the form of collections and documents. MongoDB also overcomes some drawbacks that were previously faced with the use of traditional RDBMS. 

Supporting the storage and manipulation of huge volumes of data, in MongoDB, the documents consist of a key-value pair format and collections consist of documents and functions. MongoDB was discovered by Eliot Horowitz and Dwight Merriman in 2007 after they faced some scalability issues while working with relational databases on a web application project. Many companies started using MongoDB because of its convenient features.

Applications today, have increased data requirements due to millions of people being connected to networks socially.  To process the data to the user without any server issues, MongoDB helps maintain scalability and develop productive solutions. 

Key Features of MongoDB

MongoDB encompasses many unique and innovative features that make it a popular choice among other Databases. Some of these features are:

• High Performance: With MongoDB, you can experience high performance with all its operations. It avoids carrying redundant input/output operations as is done in other relational databases. Select queries deliver faster results because the indexing process in MongoDB is much faster.

• Scalability: MongoDB supports the horizontal scaling of data with the help of ‘Sharding’. Sharding means partitioning data over various servers. Huge volumes of data are distributed evenly across several data chunks that are managed by the master node. It is even possible to insert new machines over existing running Databases. 

• Data Replication & Higher Availability: Whenever a hardware failure is experienced, the main concern is that of data loss or restarting the entire setup to store data again. MongoDB is packed with data replication features where copies of data are stored on various data servers. The data can be retrieved anytime depending upon the requirement of the user. This feature even prevents hardware failure within your setup.

To learn more about MongoDB, click this link.

Factors that Drive the Redis vs MongoDB Decision

Now that you have a basic idea of both technologies, let us attempt to answer the Redis vs MongoDB question. There is no one-size-fits-all answer here and the decision has to be taken based on the business requirements, budget, and parameters listed below. The following are the key factors that drive the Redis MongoDB comparison:

• Redis vs MongoDB: Features
• Redis vs MongoDB: Scalability
• Redis vs MongoDB: Performance
• Redis vs MongoDB: Programming Language Support
• Redis vs MongoDB: Platform Support
• Redis vs MongoDB: Replication Support
• Redis vs MongoDB: Database Architecture
• Redis vs MongoDB: Security
• Redis vs MongoDB: Documentation Support
• Redis vs MongoDB: Pricing

1) Redis vs MongoDB: Features

• MongoDB is packed with features like data aggregation and map-reduce whereas Redis’ features include persistence, caching, and hassle-free crash solutions.
• With MongoDB, you can avail of role-based accounting control which is not possible in Redis.

2) Redis vs MongoDB: Scalability

• The scalability factor is better supported in MongoDB as compared to Redis. The reason for this is that the RAM functionality on physical systems is optimized with MongoDB whereas Redis limits RAM use.
• While peripheral features in Redis are extensive, scaling is more comfortable with MongoDB.

3) Redis vs MongoDB: Performance

• Redis handles large volumes of workload more comfortably as compared to MongoDB. Redis is single-threaded which means it runs on a single core.
• So, in terms of performance, Redis is slightly better than MongoDB. MongoDB is also known to respond slowly once it is bound by the CPU.

4) Redis vs MongoDB: Programming Language Support

• Redis supports programming languages like C, C#, Clojure, Crystal, Dart, Elixir, Fancy, Haxe, Java, JavaScript (Node.js), Lisp, Lua, MatLab, Objective-C, OCaml, Pascal, Pure Data, Python, Rebol, Ruby, Scheme, Swift, Tcl, Visual Basic, etc
• MongoDB supports multiple programming languages like C, Clojure, C++, Dart, Erlang, Groovy, Haskell, JavaScript, Java, Lua, Perl, PHP, Powershell, Prolog, Python, R, Rust, Scala, Swift, Smalltalk, etc.

5) Redis vs MongoDB: Platform Support

• Redis is an in-memory data structure platform that allows caching and supports message brokers. It offers spring cache support with the help of Java clients.
• MongoDB is a cross-platform NoSQL database that offers spring data support, an interactive command-line interface for querying and supporting BI connectors for analytics.

6) Redis vs MongoDB: Replication Support

• Redis supports Master-Master replication as well as Master-Slave replication.
• MongoDB supports Master-Slave replication.

7) Redis vs MongoDB: Database Architecture

• Redis’ database architecture includes Redis client and Redis Server. Redis Server stores data in memory.  
• MongoDB is a document-oriented database. Its database architecture includes The document data model, a distributed systems design, binary import and export tools, data import and export tools, diagnostic tools, security tools, GridFS, and MongoDB compass.

8) Redis vs MongoDB: Security

• Redis has strict authentication protocols that are followed before the execution of commands. However, it provides access to users with a simple password-based authentication that might put security at risk. 
• MongoDB is very particular about security. It has authentication protocols, and encrypted data to validate the user. Moreover, MongoDB allows access and authority specification; in which users can assign role-based account control, hence ensuring improved security.

9) Redis vs MongoDB: Documentation Support

• For Redis, you can refer to technical documentation, tutorials, and programming assistance here.
• For MongoDB, you can refer to technical documentation and MongoDB’s extended manual here.

10) Redis vs MongoDB: Pricing

• The cost of Redis’ Enterprise Cloud varied as per the data storage requirements. Its license follows a subscription-based model. Redis’ Basic pricing plan is free. For advanced versions, pricing begins at $7 per month.
• MongoDB’s Basic plan is also free. An additional commercial license pricing starts at $57 per month. 

Challenges of Redis

There are several common challenges that you may come across while working with Redies. Some of these as listed as follows:

• You may face latency troubleshooting issues at times. This happens due to extreme delay on the client’s end while communicating. Additionally, Redis’ processing capacity is lower leading to probable delays.

• Sometimes while debugging an event, you may experience crashes. This can be resolved by providing your debugging details to the developer community. This might occur due to the release of new versions of the Redis product.

• You might also experience frequent system crashes during updates. This might load your server’s RAM due to which your system may be left hanging for a while. You can resolve it by testing your RAM over Redis-server -test-memory.

Challenges of MongoDB

While working with MongoDB, some common difficulties and errors may occur. You may also face an occasional server failure. Some of these challenges are as follows:

• MongoDB follows complex procedures like manual configurations and moving parts for scaling to a fully shared environment from a single replica. This is a challenge that you may face owing to MongoDB’s Master-Slave architecture. 

• The system performance decreases as soon as the number of users increases. This happens due to single node availability. A setup expansion can rectify the situation. 

• MongoDB may lead to data loss and inconsistency. Although it has layered data replication features, it can occasionally lack the handling of a complex replication process.

Conclusion

This article gave a comprehensive analysis of the 2 popular Databases in the market today: Redis and MongoDB. It talks about both Databases and, their features and limitations. It also gave the parameters to judge each of the Databases. Overall, the Redis vs MongoDB choice solely depends on the goal of the company and the resources it has.

Redis might be a good choice if troubleshooting is not a big requirement for your company. MongoDB is a good option if performance is a key criterion for your company. If these factors are not very important for you, then either Database will work for handling your data.

In case you want to integrate data from data sources like Generic MongoDB into your desired Database/destination and seamlessly visualize it in a BI tool of your choice, then Hevo Data is the right choice for you! It will help simplify the ETL and management process of both the data sources and destinations.

Visit our Website to Explore Hevo

Want to take Hevo for a spin? Sign Up for a 14-day free trial and experience the feature-rich Hevo suite first hand.

Share your experience of learning about Redis vs MongoDB in the comments section below.