Monghoul against DataGrip

DataGrip is not really a MongoDB client, and that is the point of it. It is one window for PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, SQL Server and MongoDB together. If your week is three databases and one of them happens to be MongoDB, buy DataGrip. Nothing on this page answers that argument, and we are not trying to.

What follows is what the generalist costs when MongoDB is the only database you open.

Which one to pick

Pick DataGrip if MongoDB is one of several databases you open in a week, or if your team already lives in a JetBrains IDE and the keymap is worth more than the depth.

Pick us if MongoDB is the only database you open, and you want what follows from a tool that speaks one language: completions from your real schema, stages gated on your server version, and an explain view built for aggregations.

What was measured

The band above the title is the full protocol. The numbers it produced:

After a first launch at 8.72 seconds, which is the cost of a cold start, DataGrip settled between 3.38 and 3.57 s and held 1,185 to 1,210 MB. Monghoul ran 0.070 to 0.089 s and 396 to 418 MB.

Reading those numbers honestly

The memory row flatters DataGrip and we are leaving it that way. 1,194 MB is the welcome window, before a project is open and before it has indexed anything. That is the cheapest DataGrip ever is, and it is the state the script can measure the same way for every client. Open a project and the figure goes up. Ours is a full application window with the sidebar loaded, so the two states are not equivalent, and the honest reading is that the gap in daily use is wider than the table shows rather than narrower.

2,766.6 MB is not a typo. The measurement counted 2,210 files in the install directory, including both a bundled Java runtime and a bundled Chromium. DataGrip ships two runtimes because it is a JetBrains IDE with an embedded browser, and it supports a dozen database engines rather than one. That is what the disk is spent on, and it buys something real.

Two startup numbers, because there are two windows. DataGrip shows a splash at 1.12 seconds and its welcome window at 3.53 seconds. The row above is the welcome window, because that is the first one you can do anything with.

Where DataGrip wins

One window for every database you use. This is the whole argument and it is a strong one. We speak MongoDB and nothing else, forever. If you also maintain a Postgres schema, we cost you a second application and DataGrip does not.

The full authentication list, across versions. JetBrains document MongoDB 3 through 8 with SCRAM, AWS IAM, x.509, Kerberos and LDAP. We require server 4.4 or newer, so a MongoDB 3.6 instance somebody has not migrated yet is a job for them, not for us.

The JetBrains editor, which people already know. If you live in IntelliJ or WebStorm, the keymap, the refactoring and the version-control integration are already in your hands.

What each one costs to keep using

DataGrip has a free non-commercial licence and no Community edition, because JetBrains say the product cannot be split into free and paid tiers. Commercial use is a subscription, with nothing to fall back to when it lapses. The trial is 30 days.

Our free tier allows commercial use, permits 8 saved connections, and has no time limit and no signup. Charts, cluster monitoring and AI access are the Pro features, and the Pro trial is 14 days per device with no card.

That difference decides this comparison for anybody who cannot expense a subscription, and it is worth reading before any feature list.

Where MongoDB is the second language

DataGrip’s own documentation notes that only the default database is introspected until you add the others in the Schemas tab. That catches people on their first connection and it is the clearest sign of what the product is: MongoDB is one dialect among many, and the depth follows.

JetBrains also document that credentials on a URL-only connection are “stored in plain text as is, and is also available in IDE log file and data source information”. Ours are encrypted under a key held by the operating system’s credential store.

We do one database. Autocomplete stays correct deep inside an aggregation pipeline, the explain plan is rendered as a tree rather than as JSON, and write protection is enforced at the driver rather than by scanning query text, which matters more now that assistants write queries. None of that is DataGrip failing at its job. It is a different job.

Capability by capability

Quoted from JetBrains’ own MongoDB documentation. Where it does not mention a capability, this table says so rather than guessing: an undocumented feature is not the same as an absent one.

The five things one database buys you

DataGrip spreads its attention across a dozen engines. Ours goes into five things, all of them MongoDB-shaped.

Autocomplete that knows your collections

Autocomplete covers the MongoDB 8.x operator surface, including operators from recent server releases, plus the active database’s real collection names, analyzed field paths, types and enum values. Typing db. suggests that database’s collections, and db.orders carries the same analyzed document type the explicit form does. Where JetBrains document that only the default database is introspected until you add the others, every database the connection can see is here. The full behaviour.

Write protection enforced at the driver

Scoped per connection to everything or to named targets, and checked as the call executes rather than by reading the query text, so no spelling of a destructive call slips through. Where that check runs decides what it catches.

MCP access for an assistant

A JetBrains IDE expects the assistant to live inside it, as a plugin. We expect it to live outside and call in: 70+ MCP tools behind a token, with the reachable connections chosen before the server starts. How that is set up.

An interface built for one database

11 themes, a command palette, rebindable shortcuts, tabs that persist, split across panels and detach into their own windows, and results as a list, a tree or a table. A JetBrains IDE is a general tool you configure into shape; this is a specific tool that arrives in one.

Speed, and the size that comes with it

0.07 seconds to a window against 3.53, and 105.6 MB installed against 2,766.6 MB. DataGrip ships both a Java runtime and a Chromium. We ship neither.

The one that decides it

Count the databases you opened last week. If the answer is more than one, DataGrip wins and nothing in the table above changes that. If the answer is MongoDB and only MongoDB, you are paying for a dozen dialects to get one, and the rows where their documentation goes quiet are the rows we were built for.

What this page does not tell you

Nothing here is about how good either one is to use. The table is disk, startup and memory, because those are the facts a stopwatch can settle. Whether DataGrip’s MongoDB support is deep enough for your work is a question you answer by opening your own cluster in it.

DataGrip has a 30 day trial and our free tier has no time limit and no signup, so the real comparison costs an afternoon.

Reproducing the numbers

git clone https://github.com/Kontsedal/monghoul-public
cd monghoul-public/benchmarks/client-footprint
.\measure.ps1 -Runs 7 -Only 'DataGrip|Monghoul'

It force-stops matching processes between runs, so close anything you care about first. The DataGrip path in the script carries its version number, so check it against your own install before running.