Resources / Comparisons

Solanica vs MongoDB Atlas

MongoDB Atlas runs MongoDB for you in MongoDB's cloud. Solanica, built on the open source OpenEverest project, lets you run MongoDB yourself on Kubernetes clusters you operate, in a public cloud or in your own data center.

Both give you a web console for creating clusters, backups with point-in-time recovery, users, and metrics. The main difference is who operates the database and where it runs. This page covers what that means in practice, including the places where Atlas is ahead.

MongoDB Atlas

A managed service on AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure, operated by MongoDB, Inc. A good fit if you don't want to run databases at all, or if you rely on Atlas Search, Vector Search, or other Atlas services.

Solanica + OpenEverest

Self-hosted on any Kubernetes cluster, including on-prem and air-gapped ones. Your team runs it, OpenEverest automates the routine work, and Solanica provides support. A good fit when the database has to stay on infrastructure you control.

The MongoDB Explorer in OpenEverest, connected to a sharded cluster.

Side by side

	Solanica + OpenEverest	MongoDB Atlas
Where it runs	Any Kubernetes cluster: EKS, GKE, AKS, RKE2, K3s, or bare metal	AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure regions
On-prem and air-gapped	Supported	Not available. MongoDB sells Enterprise Advanced for self-managed deployments
Who operates it	Your team, with OpenEverest automation and Solanica support	MongoDB, Inc.
Where data and backups are stored	Your persistent volumes and your own S3-compatible bucket	MongoDB-managed infrastructure and backup storage. Snapshots can be downloaded or exported
Replica sets, sharding, point-in-time recovery	Yes	Yes
Encryption at rest with your own keys	Yes, with HashiCorp Vault or a KMIP server	Yes, with AWS KMS, Azure Key Vault, or Google Cloud KMS
Browsing data	Browse collections and run find queries	Data Explorer with editing, aggregations, and index management
Performance tools	Metrics and PMM Query Analytics	Real-Time Performance Panel, Query Profiler, Performance Advisor
Full-text and vector search	Not included	Atlas Search and Atlas Vector Search
Other data services	Not included	Charts, Online Archive, Data Federation, Stream Processing, Triggers
New MongoDB versions	Arrive with Percona Server for MongoDB releases, after upstream	Usually available on Atlas first
Managed through	Web UI, REST API, or Kubernetes resources in Git	Web UI, Admin API, Terraform, or the Atlas Kubernetes Operator
Other databases	PostgreSQL, MySQL, Valkey, and more in the same console	MongoDB only

A highlighted cell marks the stronger option for that row. Atlas details come from MongoDB's public documentation as of October 2026.

What running it yourself looks like

Teams coming from Atlas usually ask whether they will be stuck writing YAML. They won't. These are the OpenEverest screens for a MongoDB cluster.

OpenEverest create database form with replica set and sharded topology options — Creating a cluster. Choose a replica set or a sharded cluster, then the version, resources, storage class, and backup schedule.

OpenEverest restore dialog with a point-in-time recovery window — Restoring from a backup, or to any moment in the recovery window.

OpenEverest database users table with roles — Database users and their roles, next to the system users the operator manages for backups and monitoring.

OpenEverest charts of MongoDB operations per second and latency — Operations per second and latency for each member, pulled from PMM.

OpenEverest inspector listing config server, shard, and mongos pods — The Inspector lists every config server, shard member, and mongos router with its node, age, and restart count. On Atlas you never need this view. When you run the cluster, you do.

Where the data lives

Each Atlas cluster runs in a cloud account that MongoDB manages. You reach it from your own network through VPC peering or a private endpoint. MongoDB's staff and automation look after the hosts, and monitoring data is collected by Atlas.

With OpenEverest, MongoDB is a set of pods in your own Kubernetes cluster. Data sits on your persistent volumes, metrics go to your own PMM or Prometheus, and backups go to a bucket you own. Nothing outside your network has to be reachable for it to work, so it also runs in air-gapped environments.

This tends to matter when:

a regulation or customer contract requires data to stay in a specific country or facility
the network has no outbound internet access
MongoDB has to run on-prem or at the edge, close to the application
you want database access and audit logs to go through the same controls as the rest of your infrastructure

Backups

OpenEverest uses Percona Backup for MongoDB (PBM), which is open source under Apache 2.0. It takes physical or logical backups and continuously copies the oplog, so you can restore to any second inside the recovery window. Backups are written to S3-compatible storage of your choice, for example AWS S3, MinIO, or SeaweedFS.

PBM is a standalone tool, so the backups don't depend on OpenEverest. You can restore them into a different cluster, or with PBM alone.

Atlas Cloud Backup offers the same point-in-time restores and you don't have to manage any of it. Snapshots are kept in Atlas storage, and you can download them or export them to your own bucket.

Where Atlas is ahead

Better to know this before a migration than halfway through one.

On Atlas you never patch a host, resize a disk, or replace a failed node. The OpenEverest operator automates most of that, but someone on your team still runs the Kubernetes cluster underneath.
Atlas Search and Atlas Vector Search are built in. OpenEverest doesn't manage MongoDB search today.
Charts, Online Archive, Data Federation, Stream Processing, and Triggers have no equivalent in OpenEverest.
The Atlas Data Explorer, Query Profiler, and Performance Advisor do more than the explorer and metrics views in OpenEverest.
New MongoDB releases reach Atlas first. Percona Server for MongoDB follows upstream with a delay.

Licensing and the SSPL

MongoDB Community Server is licensed under the Server Side Public License (SSPL). OpenEverest deploys Percona Server for MongoDB, a drop-in replacement for Community Server that adds LDAP authentication, audit logging, and encryption at rest. It is distributed under the same license, and OpenEverest runs Percona's published images without modifying them.

The rest of the stack is Apache 2.0: OpenEverest itself, the Percona Operator for MongoDB, and Percona Backup for MongoDB.

Section 13 of the SSPL applies when you offer MongoDB's functionality to third parties as a service. MongoDB's SSPL FAQ says it does not apply to running MongoDB for your own applications, including SaaS products that use it as their database, or to running it as an internal service for your own teams and subsidiaries. Those are the cases Solanica is meant for. We sell software and support, and we don't host MongoDB for anyone.

If you want to offer MongoDB itself as a service to outside customers, Section 13 does apply, and Atlas or a commercial license from MongoDB, Inc. is the simpler path. This section is a summary, not legal advice.

Moving from Atlas

Applications keep the same drivers and connection string format, so most of the work is moving data. For smaller databases, mongodump and mongorestore are enough. For large or busy ones, use a sync tool based on change streams to keep the new cluster current until you switch over.

Before you start, check whether your applications use Atlas Search indexes, Triggers, or other Atlas-only features. Each of those needs a replacement on the self-hosted side.

Which one to pick

Atlas

If you don't want to operate databases, depend on Atlas Search or the other Atlas services, or plan to offer MongoDB as a service to your own customers.

Solanica

If MongoDB has to run on infrastructure you control, or you already run Kubernetes and want databases handled the same way as your applications.

Try it

To install OpenEverest with the MongoDB provider:

helm repo add openeverest https://openeverest.github.io/helm-charts/
helm install everest-core openeverest/openeverest \
  --devel --namespace everest-system --create-namespace
helm install provider-percona-server-mongodb \
  oci://ghcr.io/openeverest/charts/provider-percona-server-mongodb \
  -n everest-system

The quick install guide has the details. If you're planning a production deployment or a move off Atlas, our engineers are happy to go through it with you.

Book a call OpenEverest for MongoDB

MongoDB, MongoDB Atlas, Atlas Search, and Atlas Vector Search are trademarks of MongoDB, Inc. Percona, Percona Server for MongoDB, Percona Backup for MongoDB, and Percona Monitoring and Management are trademarks of Percona LLC. Solanica and OpenEverest are not affiliated with or endorsed by MongoDB, Inc. or Percona LLC, and these names are used here only to identify the products being compared. All screenshots are of OpenEverest.