Can we use MongoDB for commercial use freely?

Question

I have been selected for an internship in one of the companies. They want me to develop a system for internal use that needs a database. They have given me the freedom to work on any of the databases available. As data is not in bulk so I was thinking of using MongoDB for the backend server. 

Could you please tell me can we use it for free?

Answer 1

MongoDB has adopted a new license for the product community server because there were so many cloud providers offering MongoDB as a paid service to their users without following the rules and guidelines set by the open-source community. 

You can read about the difference between the GPL and SSPL from here. 

When publicly available MongoDB is offered as a service by the companies, it is compulsory that they should release the software it uses to offer services under the terms of SSPL, user interface, monitoring software, backup software, storage and hosting software, etc.

This means that a company that offers MongoDB Community Version as a service to their users, must open the source code of the software developed to make that service work, like monitoring tools, user interfaces, etc.