Skip to content

Compare various solutions to deploy MongoDB in Kubernetes

There are multiple ways to deploy and manage MongoDB in Kubernetes. Here we will focus on comparing the following open source solutions:

Generic

Here is the review of generic features, such as supported MongoDB versions, open source models and more.

Feature/Product Percona Operator for MongoDB Bitnami Helm Chart KubeDB for MongoDB MongoDB Community Edition Operator
Open source model Apache 2.0 Apache 2.0 Open core Open core
MongoDB versions MongoDB 5.0, 6.0, 7.0 MongoDB 5.0 MongoDB 3.4, 3.6. 4.0, 4.1, 4.2 MongoDB 4.2, 4.4, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0
Kubernetes conformance Various versions are tested No guarantee No guarantee No guarantee
Cluster-wide mode Yes Not an operator Enterprise only Yes
Network exposure Yes Yes No, only through manual config Enterprise only

Maintenance

Upgrade and scaling are the two most common maintenance tasks that are executed by database administrators and developers.

Feature/Product Percona Operator for MongoDB Bitnami Helm Chart KubeDB for MongoDB MongoDB Community Operator
Operator upgrade Yes Helm upgrade Image change Yes
Database upgrade Automated minor, manual major No Manual minor Manual mintor and major
Compute scaling Horizontal and vertical Horizontal and vertical Enterprise only Horizontal only
Storage scaling Yes Manual Enterprise only Enterprise only

MongoDB topologies

The next comparison is focused on replica sets, arbiters, sharding and other node types.

Feature/Product Percona Operator for MongoDB Bitnami Helm Chart KubeDB for MongoDB MongoDB Community Operator
Multi-cluster deployment Yes No No No
Sharding Yes Yes, another chart Yes No
Arbiter Yes Yes Yes Yes
Non-voting nodes Yes No No No
Hidden nodes No Yes Yes Yes
Network exposure Yes Yes Manual Enterprise only

Backups

Here are the backup and restore capabilities of each solution.

Feature/Product Percona Operator for MongoDB Bitnami Helm Chart KubeDB for MongoDB MongoDB Community Operator
Scheduled backups Yes No Enterprise only Enterprise only
Incremental backups No No Enterprise only No
Point-in-time recovery Yes No No Enterprise only
Logical backups Yes No No Enterprise only
Physical backups Yes No No Enterprise only

Monitoring

Monitoring is crucial for any operations team.

Feature/Product Percona Operator for MongoDB Bitnami Helm Chart KubeDB for MongoDB MongoDB Community Operator
Custom exporters Yes, through sidecars mongodb-exporter as a sidecar mongodb-exporter as a sidecar Integrate with prometheus operator
Percona Monitoring and Management (PMM) Yes No No No

Miscellaneous

Finally, let’s compare various features that are not a good fit for other categories.

Feature/Product Percona Operator for MongoDB Bitnami Helm Chart KubeDB for MongoDB MongoDB Community Operator
Customize MongoDB configuration Yes Yes Yes No, only some params
Helm Yes Yes Yes, for operator only Yes, for operator only
SSL/TLS Yes Yes Enterprise only Yes
Create users/roles No, only some params Yes No Yes

Last update: 2024-09-15