# NoSQL databases: 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 a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/it-data/nosql-databases/

**Standing:** MongoDB leads with 59% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 54 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MongoDB | 59% | 13% | 69 |
| 2 | Amazon DynamoDB | 11% | 14% | 51 |
| 3 | Couchbase | 7% | 8% | 38 |
| 4 | Redis | 6% | 22% | 54 |
| 5 | Azure Cosmos DB | 4% | 4% | 23 |
| 6 | PostgreSQL | 4% | 0% | 11 |
| 7 | Neo4j | 2% | 8% | 25 |
| 8 | Apache Cassandra | 0% | 30% | 43 |
| 9 | Google Cloud Firestore | 0% | 0% | 10 |
| 10 | ScyllaDB | 0% | 27% | 22 |
| 11 | Apache CouchDB | 0% | 25% | 12 |
| 12 | Apache HBase | 0% | 31% | 13 |

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

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

## Sources the answers cite

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

- aerospike.com: 26 answers, 33 citations
- mongodb.com: 19 answers, 29 citations
- sourceforge.net: 17 answers, 20 citations
- db-engines.com: 12 answers, 22 citations
- g2.com: 12 answers, 17 citations
- infoworld.com: 12 answers, 15 citations
- getapp.com: 12 answers, 12 citations
- guideflow.com: 12 answers, 12 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://aerospike.com/blog/ten-best-nosql-cloud-databases (24 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/nosql-database-software (12 answers)
- https://thectoclub.com/tools/best-nosql-database (10 answers)
- https://6sense.com/tech/nosql-databases (9 answers)
- https://getapp.com/it-management-software/nosql-databases/org/mid-size-business (9 answers)
- https://peerspot.com/categories/nosql-databases (9 answers)
- https://pingcap.com/article/top-10-nosql-databases-to-consider-2024 (9 answers)
- https://alex-klaus.com/reasons-not-to-nosql (8 answers)
- https://sourceforge.net/software/nosql-database/for-mid-size-business (8 answers)
- https://couchbase.com/blog/nosql-database-evaluation-guide (7 answers)

## Warned against

- MongoDB: 9 of 69 labels negative. "Risk Level: High
MongoDB has been the target of massive automated botnets in the past due to its default insecure settings." (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt)
- Redis: 12 of 54 labels negative. "Risk Level: Critical ... Do not expose Redis to the internet." (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt)
- Apache Cassandra: 13 of 43 labels negative. "it's *extremely* easy to misuse... If you don't have a genuine write-heavy, massive-scale, multi-datacenter requirement, Cassandra is overkill." (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)
- Amazon DynamoDB: 7 of 51 labels negative. "Avoid: Proprietary/managed-only like DynamoDB (pay-per-use adds up) unless on free tier." (Grok 4.1 Fast, budget 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.