Top 10 MongoDB Hosting You Can Try for Free (or Cheap)

2018 was an outstanding year for MongoDB. MongoDB University passed 1,000,000 registrations, MongoDB stock has risen steadily since it IPO-ed in October 2017, and MongoDB now supports ACID-compliant transactions, a requirement that long eluded the document database, which now permits it to rub shoulders with heavyweight relational databases in corporate server rooms.

If the most popular NoSQL database is on your list of tech trends to check out in 2019, you’re in luck. MongoDB has matured as a database, and the growing list of third-party hosting providers and tools (like our MongoDB GUI, Studio 3T) testifies to its growing mainstream adoption.

Here’s a roundup of our favorite MongoDB hosting providers – most of which offer a free tier or trial – with all the relevant details you might need as you play around with the database.

In a rush? Skip to the Summary or the Server/Location Comparison charts, or check out the MongoDB hosting providers by category:

• Free tiers
• Free trials
• Other (cheap) options

Or if you’re looking for a faster way to build MongoDB queries or are working with both SQL and MongoDB, then we recommend you to check out Studio 3T.

Server providers and locations available with free tier/trial

Free tiers

Atlas

Atlas is MongoDB’s fully-managed cloud database that comes with a 512 MB free cluster.

Choose to deploy from Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), or Microsoft Azure in the following regions:

AWS

• N. Virginia
• Frankfurt
• Singapore
• Mumbai

GCP

• Iowa
• Belgium
• Singapore

Azure

• Virginia
• Netherlands
• Hong Kong

Website: https://www.mongodb.com/cloud/atlas

mLab

Now part of the MongoDB family, mLab also offers a free sandbox environment of up to 500 MB in storage.

Like Atlas, you can choose to host your database with AWS, GCP, or Azure, but with a more limited regional coverage:

AWS

• Virginia
• Ireland

GCP

• Iowa

Azure

• California
• Virginia
• Dublin

Website: https://mlab.com/

Clever Cloud

Based in Nantes, France, Clever Cloud sets you up with a free 500 MB plan in just a few clicks, with no credit card required.

Once you’ve created your personal space, simply create an add-on and choose MongoDB.

For now, MongoDB add-ons can only be hosted in Paris, France.

Website: https://www.clever-cloud.com/

Free trials

Compose

IBM-owned Compose offers a 30-day free trial with no data size limits, so you can really test the boundaries (after entering your credit card details).

Choose between AWS, GCP or IBM Cloud/Softlayer in these regions:

AWS

• Singapore
• Northern Virginia
• Oregon
• Frankfurt
• Ireland

GCP

• South Carolina
• Belgium

IBM Cloud/Software

• Sydney
• Washington, DC
• Texas
• London
• Frankfurt

Website: https://www.compose.com/

ObjectRocket

ObjectRocket also offers a free 30-day trial, although a credit card is required. You can get up to 5 GB of storage, depending on whether you choose a replica set, sharded, or single database.

ObjectRocket is owned by Rackspace and hosts its free trial on Rackspace Cloud, available in these regions:

• Hong Kong
• Sydney
• Northern Virginia
• Dallas
• Chicago
• N. California
• London

Website: https://www.objectrocket.com/

ScaleGrid

Unlike Compose and ObjectRocket, ScaleGrid offers a free 30-day trial with no credit card required.

You can choose to host your database on AWS, Azure, or Digital Ocean. Of the MongoDB hosting providers featured in the roundup, ScaleGrid has the widest selection of regions available for free trial.

AWS

• Beijing
• Mumbai
• Seoul
• Singapore
• Sydney
• Tokyo
• Northern Virginia
• Ohio
• Northern California
• Oregon
• Canada (Central)
• Sao Paulo
• Frankfurt
• London
• Ireland

Azure

• Singapore
• Hong Kong
• New South Wales
• Victoria
• Shanghai
• Beijing
• Virginia
• Virginia
• Iowa
• Illinois
• Texas
• West Central US
• Ireland
• Netherlands
• Cardiff
• London
• Frankfurt
• Magdeburg

Digital Ocean

• Singapore
• New York City
• San Francisco
• Toronto

Website: https://scalegrid.io/

Digital Ocean

Digital Ocean offers a $100 credit which expires in 60 days after providing a credit card.

Once you receive an email notifying you that the credit has been added, go to your project and click on Droplets to create a droplet.

Then, choose One-click apps and choose MongoDB 4.0.2 on 18.04:

Then, choose the size that fits you.

You can choose CPU-optimized droplets, or add backups and block storage for an additional cost.

Digital Ocean offers the following datacenter regions:

• New York
• San Francisco
• Amsterdam
• Singapore
• London
• Frankfurt
• Toronto
• Bangalore

Website: https://www.digitalocean.com/

Mongo Clusters

Mongo Clusters is a fully-managed MongoDB-as-a-Service hosting service based in Dallas, TX. It’s one of the most generous free trials we’ve seen, at six months and with no credit card required, but also the most limited in regional coverage (only Dallas, TX for now).

Website: https://www.mongoclusters.com/

Other (cheap) options

NodeChef

Calling themselves the “best platform for hosting modern web and mobile apps”, Nodechef plans start at $9/month for 1 GB of storage. Pricing operates on a container size basis, which you can change at any time, and pay only for what you use, prorated to the hour.

Nodechef is available in these regions:

• US-East
• EU-West
• Singapore
• Sydney

Website: https://www.nodechef.com/

A2 Hosting

While A2 Hosting might not offer a free tier or trial, they offer three reasonably-priced plans – Entry, Mid, and Elite – which range from €4.36/month for 20 GB to €13.10/month for 50 GB.

A2 Hosting offers VPS hosting, in contrast to shared and dedicated hosting, in these regions:

• Singapore
• Michigan
• Arizona
• Amsterdam

Website: https://www.a2hosting.com/mongodb-hosting

Next step: Download Studio 3T

Once you’ve chosen your MongoDB hosting provider, don’t forget to download Studio 3T, the professional IDE and GUI for MongoDB trusted by companies like Atlassian, Google, Nike, and many others.

Studio 3T is the only MongoDB GUI that offers:

• Visual Query Builder, a drag-and-drop query builder
• IntelliShell, a built-in mongo shell with robust autocompletion
• Aggregation Editor, a MongoDB aggregation query builder that lets you do it stage by stage
• A handy Import/Export Wizard that supports JSON, CSV, BSON/mongodump and SQL

…and so much more. Check out the full list of features here.

Release the full power of MongoDB. Try Studio 3T, free for 30 days.