Deploy MangoDB: An Open‑Source MongoDB Alternative with Docker

MongoDB ranks first in the DB‑Engines list for distributed file‑storage databases and stays within the top five overall, behind legacy systems like Oracle and MySQL. However, due to cloud‑computing pressures, its license switched from GNU AGPLv3 to SSPL, which some consider a drawback for open‑source enthusiasts.

Enter MangoDB , a truly open‑source MongoDB alternative. MangoDB uses PostgreSQL as its storage engine and implements the MongoDB wire protocol in Go, translating MongoDB commands into SQL. It aims for near‑full compatibility with MongoDB drivers, though it is still early in development.

Quickly start using MangoDB in three steps:

1. Create a docker-compose.yml file

version: "3"

services:
  postgres:
    image: postgres:14
    container_name: postgres
    ports:
      - 5432:5432
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_USER=user
      - POSTGRES_DB=mangodb
      - POSTGRES_HOST_AUTH_METHOD=trust

  postgres_setup:
    image: postgres:14
    container_name: postgres_setup
    restart: on-failure
    entrypoint: ["sh", "-c", "psql -h postgres -U user -d mangodb -c 'CREATE SCHEMA IF NOT EXISTS test'"]

  mangodb:
    image: ghcr.io/mangodb-io/mangodb:latest
    container_name: mangodb
    restart: on-failure
    ports:
      - 27017:27017
    command: ["--listen-addr=:27017", "--postgresql-url=postgres://user@postgres:5432/mangodb"]

The postgres service runs PostgreSQL 14 to store data, postgres_setup creates a test schema, and mangodb runs the MangoDB server.

2. Start the services

docker-compose up -d

3. Connect with mongosh

If you already have mongosh installed, simply run it and connect to the MangoDB instance. Otherwise, use Docker to run mongosh inside a container:

docker run --rm -it --network=mangodb_default --entrypoint=mongosh mongo:5 mongodb://mangodb/

With these steps, you can explore MangoDB as a drop‑in replacement for MongoDB, experiment with its features, and contribute improvements.