CockroachDB vs MongoDB Atlas Pricing (2026)

Which one is cheaper?

One or both use custom pricing, so it depends on your specific needs.

Can I use either one for free?

Both offer free plans, so you can try each without paying. Start with whichever fits your workflow better and upgrade when you hit the limits.

How do they charge?

Both use a usage-based model, so the comparison is straightforward — it comes down to features and limits at each price point.

Which one is a better deal?

Depends on what you need. CockroachDB: They're playing a hybrid game — free tier to hook developers like Supabase or PlanetScale, but the custom pricing on upper tiers signals they're chasing enterprise budgets, not competing on transparent low-cost simplicity. This isn't the cheap option once you're past hobby scale; it's positioned as the distributed-SQL choice for teams that need global consistency and are willing to pay for it. MongoDB Atlas: MongoDB sits mid-to-premium in the database-as-a-service space — pricier than raw self-hosted Postgres or DynamoDB's pay-per-request model, but justified by the managed ops layer and document-model flexibility. They're clearly hunting teams who've outgrown free-tier NoSQL options and need something that won't fall over at scale.

Still deciding? See the best CockroachDB alternatives or the best MongoDB Atlas alternatives, ranked with verified pricing.