SQL Databases vs MongoDB: A Brief Analysis
By: Everly Precia
Tags: NoSQL, Sql Vs Nosql, Sql, Web Development, Mongodb

In the uncertain land of today’s technology, there are always new technology tools developing and replacing the old ones. SQL databases and MongoDB are no exception to the statement made above, ever since the popularity and usage of MongoDB has been increasing slowly but steadily, it has lead us to some questions over here. Will MongoDB, a relatively newer database completely replace the forever developer’s favorite SQL database? Is it better? Is there potential? Let’s break this down in this article.

Before we go in depth about them and analyze each of these databases, let’s actually understand what these databases are and how they shape today’s development processes.

A QUICK INTRO TO SOME TERMINOLOGIES

DATABASE:

A database is an organized collection of data that are of high importance to an organization, which is stored in a computer system.

DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM:

The database management system (DBMS), a collection of programs that allows its users to manipulate, report and represent data.

DATABASE SYSTEM:

A database, DBMS and related applications can be collectively called as a database system.

QUERY LANGUAGES:

Query languages are computer-interpretable protocols or instructions that requests and retrieves data from database by sending queries.

Structured query language syntax

For this article, this brief explanation of these terminologies shall be enough. Want to learn more? Here are some helpful resources:

Now, Let’s dive into this.

WHAT ARE SQL DATABASES?

SQL stands for Structured query language, a standard language for accessing and manipulating databases. SQL can execute queries in order to retrieve/manipulate relevant data. Databases that operate or use SQL are known as SQL databases.

SQL can select, insert, update and delete records in a database using simple syntax, creating a straight /direct approach and really falling into the category that we can name as “simple and effective”. Other than the previously mentioned operations SQL can perform, it also gives it’s users the ability to create new databases, new tables, stored procedures, views and even set permissions on these tables, procedures and views. SQL databases utilizes these operations and in turn offers high performance and availability for managing database.

A look into SQL database

But however, to use data from a database in a website, you would need a RDBMS (Relational Database Management System) database program and a server-side scripting language like PHP, alongside with SQL and other front-end styling elements.

WHAT IS MONGODB?

MongoDB is one of the upraising NoSQL databases which stores data in BSON structure or to keep it simple, a document-type model. MongoDB also provides high performance, scalability and availability for managing the databases.

This document data model is an efficient way to store and retrieve data. With a great user experience for developers and also representing data with natural clusters variably over time, MongoDB has surely gained it’s popularity for the right reasons.

MongoDB is an open source that supports rapid iterative development and also enables users to store, manage data with text and time series dimensions.

Mongod.exe running in the terminal which acts like a backend server| Image credits: https://medium.com/@nr6994

mongo.exe running in the terminal which is basically used for executing all the queries that are required! | Image credits:https://medium.com/@nr6994

Displaying data | Image credits: https://medium.com/@nr6994

I just sneakily dropped a new term before, didn’t I?

Well, on that note, what is NoSQL?

Let me brief you on it.

SQL vs NoSQL

Wherein SQL databases, the data managed is structured in forms of tables, procedures and views, In NoSQL the data in unstructured and massive. There are no uses of tables or any form of structure. Either way, the underlying purposes of these databases are the same, which is managing data.