Yes, there are free options to use MongoDB in terms of self-hosted solutions and managed cloud services. Here are some of the main options:
- MongoDB Community Edition: MongoDB offers a free community version to download, install, and run on your hardware or cloud instance. While this option requires managing the MongoDB instance, it doesn’t come with any associated costs (aside from your hardware or cloud infrastructure costs).
- MongoDB Atlas Free Tier: MongoDB, Inc. also offers a cloud-hosted, fully managed database service called MongoDB Atlas. The free tier, or the M0 tier, provides 512 MB of storage and is a great way to get started without any initial cost. It’s ideal for small projects or for learning purposes. However, some things could be improved regarding scalability, backup, and features compared to the paid tiers.
- mLab (now part of MongoDB Atlas): Before being acquired by MongoDB, Inc., mLab was a popular cloud-hosted MongoDB service that offered a free sandbox plan. However, mLab’s features and offerings were integrated into MongoDB Atlas after the acquisition. If you were using mLab or heard of its free tier, you would now look at MongoDB Atlas’s free tier as its successor.
- Docker: If you want to run MongoDB for local development or testing quickly, you can use Docker. The official MongoDB Docker image can be set up easily, and there’s no cost associated with it (other than any infrastructure you might be running it on).
- Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) Offerings: Some PaaS providers may offer free tiers or credits that can be used to run MongoDB instances. An example might be Heroku, which had a mLab MongoDB add-on available for free (with limitations). However, with the mLab acquisition by MongoDB, Inc., you’d need to check the current offerings on platforms like Heroku.
Always remember while “free” tiers are great for testing, development, or small-scale projects, they often come with limitations. If your application requires high performance, availability, or scalability, you’ll likely need to consider paid options or more substantial infrastructure setups.