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MongoDB Evolved – Version History

The first version of the MongoDB database shipped in August 2009. The 1.0 release and those that followed shortly after were focused on validating a new and largely unproven approach to database design — built on a JSON-like document data model and layered onto an elastic and distributed systems foundation. Those early MongoDB releases attracted adoption across startups and enterprises alike.

With early usage validating product-developer fit, the MongoDB engineering team’s focus shifted to expanding the system beyond a niche NoSQL database into the industry’s first developer data platform. From operational and transactional workloads with integrated full-text search to real-time analytics and mobile computing at the network edge, MongoDB Atlas developer data platform accelerates and simplifies how developers build with data for any class of modern application, all accessed via a unified API.

Atlas architecture diagram

Developers have downloaded MongoDB more than 265 million times.

What’s New in the Latest MongoDB Releases

2024 — MongoDB 8.0 Preview

MongoDB 8.0 supports the growing performance, scalability, and resilience demands of the next generation of modern applications and the most sophisticated AI applications being built today and into the future. It is the modern database that is developer-friendly, providing a fast and flexible development environment that teams love and the scalability and security that applications require. MongoDB meets the needs of modern applications in four key ways.

Note: This release candidate is available for testing purposes only and does not include all of the features and performance improvements that will be in the generally available version of MongoDB 8.0 expected to release later in 2024.

Optimal performance for modern applications
As datasets in modern applications grow larger and use cases become more complex, it is more important than ever to exceed end-user expectations around performance. MongoDB 8.0 delivers by helping applications query and transform data faster and more efficiently, increasing throughput and lowering latency.

Key features include:

  • By improving query performance, applications will see higher throughput and lower latency for database operations.
  • An upgraded version of the TCMalloc memory allocator reduces memory bottlenecks and improves performance.
  • A new batch write command performs more efficient inserts, updates and deletes across namespaces.
  • Additional performance and data compression enhancements for time series data (discussed in detail below).

More effective handling of high demand and unpredictable usage spikes
MongoDB 8.0 meets the needs of modern applications with high demand and unpredictable usage spikes. During these periods of heavy load, database performance can degrade as all available resources are being utilized. In these situations, the application needs a database that can scale rapidly and give developers the tools to ensure healthy behavior under heavy load. MongoDB 8.0 gives more visibility and control to the developer over how the database operates under heavy load so that end-users have a consistent and positive experience.

Key features include:

  • Improving the operation queuing behavior
  • The ability to set a default maximum time limit for queries
  • The ability to reject problematic query shapes

Easily scale your application while controlling costs
As modern applications grow they often surpass specific technologies or implementations. The approach that worked with 1,000 users may not scale to support 100M users. Implementing and supporting that next level of scale can be difficult and costly. MongoDB 8.0 makes it simple to plan for future growth by making it easy to use horizontal scaling. With horizontal scaling, an application can continue to grow beyond the limits of traditional database resources. MongoDB 8.0 is the easiest way to future-proof your application for the next stage of growth.

Key features include:

  • Sharding configuration servers can be embedded in sharded clusters, which simplifies the architecture and lowers the overall infrastructure cost without impacting scale and performance.
  • Unsharded collections in databases can be moved to different shards without the need for additional configuration such as sharding the collections and selecting a shard key. This makes it easier than ever to horizontally scale and distribute collections geographically for compliance reasons.
  • Balancing data across shards via resharding is now 4x faster based on internal tests, and this capability now extends to time series collections, which reduces the operational costs and complexity of maintaining the database architecture.

Faster and more efficient time series collections for data-intensive IoT and analytical scenarios
Modern applications often incorporate multiple data types to support complex use cases, a key example being time series data. This data type is crucial for Internet of Things (IoT) and analytical use cases. MongoDB 8.0 brings significant improvements to time series collections, aiming to boost scalability and performance. The update includes advanced processing techniques, enabling applications to manage larger datasets and execute complex aggregations more swiftly. Additionally, improved data compression methods effectively reduce resource demands and operational costs.

Key features include:

  • Block processing ensures applications can not only handle higher volumes of time series data but also perform complex aggregations with greater speed.
  • Enhanced time series data compression techniques significantly lower resource usage and reduce costs, vital for data-intensive IoT and analytical scenarios.

Forward-Looking Statements
This page includes certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including statements concerning availability, and features of, MongoDB 8.0. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, plans, objectives, expectations and intentions and other statements contained in this press release that are not historical facts and statements identified by words such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "will," "would" or the negative or plural of these words or similar expressions or variations. These forward-looking statements reflect our current views about our plans, intentions, expectations, strategies and prospects, which are based on the information currently available to us and on assumptions we have made. Although we believe that our plans, intentions, expectations, strategies and prospects as reflected in or suggested by those forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that the plans, intentions, expectations or strategies will be attained or achieved. Furthermore, actual results may differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements and are subject to a variety of assumptions, uncertainties, risks and factors that are beyond our control. Such risks and uncertainties are more fully described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including under the caption "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2024 and other filings and reports that we may file from time to time with the SEC. Except as required by law, we undertake no duty or obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release as a result of new information, future events, changes in expectations or otherwise.

2023 — MongoDB 7.0

  • MongoDB 7.0 introduces major improvements across four key areas: Migrations, security, performance and developer experience.

  • Migration operations are streamlined with updates to Cluster-to-Cluster Sync (mongosync), providing flexibility for syncing between clusters with unlike topologies, enabling specific subsets of databases and collections to be synced and oplog buffering to keep the source & destination clusters in sync.

  • Security is reinforced with the general availability of Queryable Encryption which provides customers the ability to encrypt sensitive workloads throughtout its lifecycle while additionally are able to query the encrypted data as well

  • Performance improvements include an advanced query execution strategy becoming the default for find() and prefix of aggregate() queries. Sharded clusters have faster chunk migrations with a new high throughput parameter. Balancer chunk auto-merge ensures linear growth in the number of chunks is not required when scaling a sharded cluster.

  • Updates to the Query API introduce bitwise operators, percentile operators, and user role variables in the Aggregation Framework as well as ad-hoc updates and deletes for time series collections. Developers will no longer experience unexpected errors in change streams with large documents. Sharded clusters are easier to create and develop for thanks to shard key analysis commands and the ability to store application data on sharding configuration servers.

  • MongoDB 7.0 also introduces a MongoDB driver for Kotlin, adding to the wide array of language options available.

MongoDB 7.0 release notes

2022 — MongoDB 6.0

  • MongoDB 6.0 includes more features and optimizations for time series collections; improved support for event-driven architectures; full support for sharded joins and graph traversal; improvements to operational resilience and sharding; and the ability to run expressive queries on fully randomized encrypted data.

  • General availability of Atlas Serverless instances, Atlas Data API, Atlas CLI, and Flexible Sync, which enables the cloud-to-edge synchronization of only the data that’s relevant to a given user or device.

  • Atlas Data Lake (in preview), a fully managed storage service for analytical workloads; Atlas Data Federation, which allows you to seamlessly query, transform, and aggregate data from one or more MongoDB Atlas databases, Atlas Data Lakes, or AWS S3 buckets; and new Atlas SQL Interface with support for popular SQL-based tools.

  • Cluster-to-cluster sync, which allows you to continuously synchronize data between MongoDB clusters in the same or hybrid environments, including Atlas, private cloud, on-premises, and at the edge.

MongoDB release notes

2021-2022 — MongoDB 5.0 and Rapid Releases

  • MongoDB 5.x with native time series collections optimized for IoT and financial apps; live resharding so you can change your shard key on-demand with no database downtime; distributed cross-shard JOINs and graph traversals for sophisticated analytics against live data, faster initial sync via file copy, new aggregation operators, and more.

  • The MongoDB Stable API future-proofs your applications. You can upgrade to the latest MongoDB releases without the risk of backward-breaking changes.

  • Atlas Serverless instances (preview) automatically and dynamically scale to meet your workload and you pay only for the resources consumed.

  • The MongoDB Atlas Data API (preview) provides a fully managed, REST-like API for accessing your Atlas data without the need for database drivers.

MongoDB release notes


2020 — MongoDB 4.4

  • MongoDB 4.4 offering richer aggregations with UNION; streaming replication reducing data synchronization latency across a distributed database cluster by up to 50% ; hedged and mirrored reads for consistent low latency in the face of infrastructure failures.

  • MongoDB Atlas Online Archive to automatically tier aged data from your database to fully managed, queryable object storage, optimizing scalability, performance, and cost.

  • Realm & Sync, delivering best-in-class experiences at the edge of the network with an embedded mobile database and automated sync to MongoDB Atlas in the cloud, keeping data updated across users, devices, and your backend.

  • MongoDB Atlas multi-cloud clusters providing the ability to distribute data in a single cluster across multiple public clouds simultaneously, or move workloads seamlessly between them.

MongoDB release notes


2019 — MongoDB 4.2

MongoDB release notes


2018 — MongoDB 4.0

  • MongoDB 4.0 offers multi-document ACID transactions, making it even easier to address a complete range of use cases with MongoDB and simplifying legacy database migrations.

  • MongoDB Atlas Global Clusters, creating fully managed, globally distributed database deployments for low-latency reads and writes, plus data placement controls for regulatory compliance.

  • MongoDB Atlas enterprise security controls with LDAP integration; bring-your-own KMS for encrypting data at rest; and granular event audit logging.

  • MongoDB Charts is a modern data visualization and analytics tool that allows you to easily create, share, and embed visualizations from Atlas and Atlas Data Lake.

MongoDB release notes


2017 — MongoDB 3.6

  • Fully managed MongoDB Atlas database service is now expanded from AWS to Azure and Google Cloud, providing unmatched data distribution across all of the leading cloud providers.

  • Change streams to build always-on, real time, reactive applications and retryable writes enabling developers to build more resilient apps with less client-side code.

  • Further improved data integrity with schema validation to enforce a schema against your data.

  • Implementation of a global logical clock to enforce consistent time across every operation in a distributed cluster, further improving data integrity and resilience, along with causal consistency guarantees for read-your-own-write consistency.

MongoDB release notes


2016 — MongoDB 3.4

  • Fully-managed MongoDB Atlas database service launched on AWS, providing built-in automation for resource and workload optimization and always-on security, backed by a 99.995% uptime SLA.

  • Native graph processing with $graphLookup to identify patterns in connected data; the decimal data type for high-precision processing of financial and scientific data; and read-only views to filter and mask data.

  • Zoned sharding to localize data within specific regions and 10x faster data rebalancing across elastically scaled database clusters.

  • MongoDB Connector for Apache Spark providing seamless integration into data science and AI workflows.

MongoDB release notes


2015 (Late) — MongoDB 3.2

  • The Encrypted Storage Engine provides native at-rest encryption without the performance or management overhead of separate file system encryption; the In-Memory Storage Engine delivers high performance and predictable latency; and the $lookup aggregation pipeline stage joins documents from different collections and databases.

  • The launch of MongoDB Compass provides a GUI for MongoDB development and administration; the MongoDB Connector for BI exposing MongoDB data for analysis and visualization via SQL.

  • Higher database resilience with faster failure detection and recovery via the RAFT-based replication consensus protocol.

MongoDB release notes


2015 (Early) — MongoDB 3.0

  • MongoDB 3.0 with the WiredTiger Storage Engine offers document-level concurrency control and built-in compression for an order of magnitude more scalability.

  • MongoDB Ops Manager is the self-hosted management platform that enables you to deploy, monitor, back up, and scale MongoDB on your own infrastructure with 95% lower operational overhead.

  • 50-member replica sets, providing global data distribution.

MongoDB release notes


Want to learn more?
Our MongoDB Evolved white paper details the most important new capabilities and enhancements made from 2015 to now.
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