# NoSQL databases for enterprise buyers: what AI models recommend, September 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "NoSQL database" and as "document or key-value database service", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/it-data/nosql-databases/enterprise/

**Standing:** MongoDB leads with 53% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 45 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MongoDB | 53% | 19% | 62 |
| 2 | Amazon DynamoDB | 24% | 12% | 56 |
| 3 | Azure Cosmos DB | 4% | 12% | 40 |
| 4 | Couchbase | 2% | 8% | 39 |
| 5 | ScyllaDB | 2% | 5% | 19 |
| 6 | Redis | 2% | 23% | 39 |
| 7 | Aerospike | 0% | 6% | 16 |
| 8 | Apache Cassandra | 0% | 29% | 35 |
| 9 | Neo4j | 0% | 16% | 19 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: MongoDB; alternatives Amazon DynamoDB, Apache Cassandra, Elasticsearch, Redis
- GPT-5.4 mini: Amazon DynamoDB; alternatives Apache Cassandra, MongoDB
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: MongoDB; alternatives Amazon DynamoDB, Apache Cassandra, Azure Cosmos DB, Couchbase
- Perplexity Sonar: MongoDB; alternatives Apache Cassandra, Couchbase, ScyllaDB
- Grok 4.1 Fast: MongoDB; alternatives Amazon DynamoDB, Apache Cassandra
- Mistral Small: Azure Cosmos DB, MongoDB; alternatives Couchbase, Redis
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: MongoDB; alternatives Amazon DynamoDB, Apache Cassandra, Azure Cosmos DB, Redis
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: MongoDB; alternatives Amazon DynamoDB, Azure Cosmos DB, DataStax Astra DB, Neo4j
- Kimi K2: MongoDB; alternatives Apache Cassandra, Couchbase
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: MongoDB; alternatives Amazon DynamoDB, Apache Cassandra, Azure Cosmos DB, Couchbase
- MiniMax M2.5: Azure Cosmos DB, MongoDB; alternatives Amazon DynamoDB, Couchbase, ScyllaDB

## Sources the answers cite

59 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- aerospike.com: 33 answers, 43 citations
- mongodb.com: 23 answers, 44 citations
- couchbase.com: 21 answers, 42 citations
- windowsforum.com: 21 answers, 26 citations
- scylladb.com: 17 answers, 27 citations
- sourceforge.net: 17 answers, 20 citations
- infoworld.com: 15 answers, 18 citations
- cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com: 15 answers, 15 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://aerospike.com/blog/ten-best-nosql-cloud-databases (32 answers)
- https://pingcap.com/article/top-10-nosql-databases-to-consider-2024 (14 answers)
- https://thectoclub.com/tools/best-nosql-database (13 answers)
- https://peerspot.com/categories/nosql-databases (12 answers)
- https://windowsforum.com/news/best-enterprise-nosql-databases-in-2026-latency-scale-security-consistency.406641 (12 answers)
- https://windowsforum.com/threads/best-enterprise-nosql-databases-in-2026-latency-scale-security-consistency.406641 (12 answers)
- https://cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com/tools/best-nosql-database-software-for-enterprises/129744861 (11 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/nosql-database-software (11 answers)
- https://sourceforge.net/software/nosql-database/for-enterprise (11 answers)
- https://couchbase.com/nosql-database-cloud-comparison (10 answers)

## Warned against

- Apache Cassandra: 10 of 35 labels negative. "Self-managed options like open-source Cassandra or Redis require you to handle SOC 2 controls, which scales poorly at your size." (Grok 4.1 Fast, scale prompt)
- MongoDB: 12 of 62 labels negative. "Databases to Avoid or Be Highly Cautious With: 1. MongoDB (especially self-managed or older versions)" (Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt)
- Apache CouchDB: 6 of 6 labels negative. "The same enterprise article filters CouchDB out because it does not meet the author's horizontal sharding/partitioning criterion" (Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt)
- Redis: 9 of 39 labels negative. "the main databases to avoid or scrutinize closely are Redis... explicitly filters it out because it is memory-based" (Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://it-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://it-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, it-ai-index.com.