CockroachDB Cloud vs MongoDB Atlas
MongoDB Atlas is cheaper across every workload modelled here.
List prices checked
Rate cards side by side
Only the axes at least one of them bills on. A dash means that provider does not charge for it.
| Billing axis | CockroachDB Cloud | MongoDB Atlas | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry plan | $25.00/mo | $9.00/mo | 2.8× MongoDB Atlas |
| Storage | $0.500/GB-mo | $0.250/GB-mo | 2× MongoDB Atlas |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes | — |
Source: Cockroach Labs pricing (May 2026) · MongoDB pricing (May 2026). Published list prices only — committed-use discounts, regional variation, and per-request charges are not included. Not yet independently re-checked against the vendor’s page.
Monthly cost for three real workloads
The rate cards applied to identical usage. This is where the winner changes.
| Workload | CockroachDB Cloud | MongoDB Atlas | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Side projectA personal site or small app with modest traffic, a few gigabytes of assets, and one small always-on process. | $35 | $14 | MongoDB Atlassaves $21/mo (60%) |
| Growing SaaSA funded product serving a few thousand daily users, with an image-heavy frontend and two application servers. | $275 | $134 | MongoDB Atlassaves $141/mo (51%) |
| Media-heavy siteA publisher or video product where delivery dominates the bill and compute is almost an afterthought. | $1,025 | $509 | MongoDB Atlassaves $516/mo (50%) |
Workload definitions are identical on every comparison page, so figures here can be read against any other pair in the same category.
What each one is for
CockroachDB Cloud
by Cockroach Labs
Distributed SQL with Postgres wire compatibility and multi-region strong consistency, billed on request units. Priced for workloads that genuinely need survivability across regions.
Free tier: $0 basic tier with monthly request-unit and storage allowances
MongoDB Atlas
by MongoDB
The managed service from MongoDB itself, with a permanently free shared tier and dedicated clusters priced per instance size across three clouds.
Free tier: M0 shared cluster with 512 MB, always free
Common questions
- Is CockroachDB Cloud or MongoDB Atlas cheaper in 2026?
- MongoDB Atlas is cheaper in all 3 modelled workloads.
- Which has the better free tier, CockroachDB Cloud or MongoDB Atlas?
- Both publish one. CockroachDB Cloud: $0 basic tier with monthly request-unit and storage allowances. MongoDB Atlas: M0 shared cluster with 512 MB, always free.
- What do these estimates not include?
- Committed-use and reserved discounts, regional price variation, per-request API charges, support plans, and minimum retention periods. All of those move real invoices, sometimes by a lot. These figures compare published list prices for the same workload, which is the comparison the rate cards alone cannot give you.