# How does elastic compare to mongodb for vector search

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-elastic-compare-to-mongodb-for-vector-search/376467>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [March 27, 2025, 11:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-elastic-compare-to-mongodb-for-vector-search/376467 "2025-03-27T11:26:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![searchwithme](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/searchwithme/32/137075_2.png) [@searchwithme](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/searchwithme)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2025, 11:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-elastic-compare-to-mongodb-for-vector-search/376467/1 "2025-03-27T11:26:30Z")

</div>

we are evaluating elastic and mongodb for our vector search usecase. What are some advantages of elastic over mongodb?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2025, 12:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-elastic-compare-to-mongodb-for-vector-search/376467/2 "2025-03-27T12:03:13Z")

</div>

I honestly don't know what Mongo is providing in this space and anyway I'm biased 🙂

I'd just say that Elasticsearch **IS** a search engine and is known for that and to be extremely powerful. I'm seeing Mongo more as a datastore with some search features.

Some of the key features I love with Elasticsearch:

- Quantization from float to int8, int4 and bit.
- Same `_search` API as you are using for lexical search, including standard support for pagination, aggregation, filters, sort
- Because of it, it's easy to mix token based search and vector search

Just naming a few... There's plenty of goodness in this space.  
Have a look at [Elasticsearch Labs](https://www.elastic.co/search-labs) to get even more information on what's cooking...

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mark\_Harwood1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mark_harwood1/32/101255_2.png) [@Mark\_Harwood1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mark_Harwood1)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 10:06am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-elastic-compare-to-mongodb-for-vector-search/376467/3 "2025-03-28T10:06:35Z")

</div>

I found with Mongodb you’re less able to flexibly combine clauses of various types due to the way they use multiple engines under the covers.  
I don’t know how this might apply to vector support but I know this is true of plain old text search - see [search - Can MongoDB query (A AND B) OR (C AND D) with any mix of text and structured clauses? - Stack Overflow](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/72247430/can-mongodb-query-a-and-b-or-c-and-d-with-any-mix-of-text-and-structured-cla)