MongoDB – Comparison with RDBMS

by Anuj Verma · Published 02/12/2023 · Updated 10/12/2024

Here is the clear comparison between RDBMS (Relational Database Management System) and MongoDB:

RDBMS	MongoDB
Database	Database
Table	Collection
Tuple/Row	Document
Column	Field
Table Join	Embedded Documents
Primary Key	Primary Key (Default key _id provided by MongoDB itself)

Database: Both RDBMS and MongoDB have the concept of a database, which is a container for storing data.
Table: In RDBMS, a table stores data in rows and columns, whereas in MongoDB, a collection stores documents.
Tuple/Row: In RDBMS, rows or tuples represent individual records, while in MongoDB, documents are used to represent individual records.
Column: Columns in RDBMS are equivalent to fields in MongoDB documents, which hold data values.
Table Join: RDBMS uses joins to combine data from multiple tables, while MongoDB uses embedded documents to represent related data in a single document, avoiding the need for joins.
Primary Key: In RDBMS, a primary key uniquely identifies each row in a table. In MongoDB, each document has a unique identifier, and by default, MongoDB assigns an _id field as the primary key.