MongoDB is a document DB whereas ArangoDB is a multi-model DB supporting documents, graphs and key/values within a single database. When it comes to data modeling and data querying, they pursue somewhat different approaches.

In a Nutshell: In MongoDB, data modeling is “aggregate-oriented”, avoiding relations and joins. On the other side, everybody has probably used relational databases which organize the data in tables with relations and try to avoid as much redundancy as possible. Both approaches have their pros and cons. ArangoDB is somewhat in-between: You can both model and query your data in a “relational way” but also in an “aggregate-oriented way”, depending on your use case. ArangoDB offers joins, nesting of sub-documents and multi-collection graphs. (more…)