mongoose vs mongodb (nodejs modules/extensions), which better? and why?

javascript node.js mongodb mongoose
norman784 picture norman784 · Feb 10, 2012 · Viewed 53.8k times · Source

I've just arrived to Node.js and see that there are many libs to use with the MongoDB, the most popular seem to be these two: (mongoose and mongodb). Can I get pros and cons of those extensions? Are there better alternatives to these two?

Edit: Found a new library that seems also interesting node-mongolian and is "Mongolian DeadBeef is an awesome Mongo DB node.js driver that attempts to closely approximate the mongodb shell." (readme.md)

https://github.com/marcello3d/node-mongolian

This is just to add more resources to new people that view this, so basically Mongolian its like an ODM...

Answer

cjohn picture cjohn · Feb 10, 2012

Mongoose is higher level and uses the MongoDB driver (it's a dependency, check the package.json), so you'll be using that either way given those options. The question you should be asking yourself is, "Do I want to use the raw driver, or do I need an object-document modeling tool?" If you're looking for an object modeling (ODM, a counterpart to ORMs from the SQL world) tool to skip some lower level work, you want Mongoose.

If you want a driver, because you intend to break a lot of rules that an ODM might enforce, go with MongoDB. If you want a fast driver, and can live with some missing features, give Mongolian DeadBeef a try: https://github.com/marcello3d/node-mongolian

Related questions

How do I update/upsert a document in Mongoose?

Perhaps it's the time, perhaps it's me drowning in sparse documentation and not being able to wrap my head around the concept of updating in Mongoose :) Here's the deal: I have a contact schema and model (shortened properties): var mongoose = …

Read More
Mongoose: Get full list of users

I have tried to use Mongoose to send the list of all users as follows: server.get('/usersList', function(req, res) { var users = {}; User.find({}, function (err, user) { users[user._id] = user; }); res.send(users); }); Of course, res.send(…

Read More
Mongoose, Select a specific field with find

I'm trying to select only a specific field with exports.someValue = function(req, res, next) { //query with mongoose var query = dbSchemas.SomeValue.find({}).select('name'); query.exec(function (err, someValue) { if (err) return next(err); res.send(someValue); }); }; But in …

Read More