Is MongoDB reliable?

Question

Hello,

I am developing a dating website and I am thinking of using a NoSQL database to store the profiles etc. I am currenly looking into the MongoDB and so far I am very pleased. The only worry is that I read on different websites that MongoDB is unreliable and not good.

I looked into the NoSQL alternatives and found no one that fully meets my specific criterias:

1. Easy to learn and use.

2. Fully compatible with PHP out of the box.

3. Fast and well documented.

What do you think, am I doing the right thing to go with MongoDB or is it a waste of time?

Thankful for all input in the matter!

Answer 1

Consider this related question on MongoDB and CouchDB - Fit for Production?

MongoDB has a showcase of Production Deployments as well. Be sure to analyze the uses of MongoDB rather than the size of the company.

Answer 2

Any software can be reliable or unreliable. MongoDB has replica sets, which give you hardware failover capabilities. You can take backups on a regular basis, which gives you a recovery interval, and you get sharding which can give you some modicum of redundancy, especially when combined with replica sets.

The issue isn't whether or not the technology is reliable, the issue is whether or not you have a well-defined backup and recovery plan that suits your platform of choice.

If MongoDB suits your needs, you're making the right choice. Just make sure to investigate what you can do to increase your reliability.

Answer 3

10gen, the company behind MongoDB provide official PHP driver. As Jeremiah says, they implement replica sets in the last version (1.6.0) and they have already debug it (1.6.1 and next version in some weeks: 1.6.2).

Mostover, the free support by the company and communities is very fast and efficient (by 'free' I mean question on the google groups: http://groups.google.com/group/mongodb-user?pli=1)