MongoDB BI Connector is it free?

Kevin_Alves · 2024-07-03T17:04:19.356Z

Can I use the “MongoDB BI Connector” with “Mongodb Community Edition”? Or it does require Enterprise Edition?

MongoDB AI support says this:

The MongoDB Connector for BI is not a paid product. It is a free and open-source tool that allows you to query MongoDB data with SQL using business intelligence tools such as Tableau, Power BI, and Excel.

But this page says differently: https://www.mongodb.com/try/download/bi-connector

“The MongoDB Connector for BI is available as part of the MongoDB Enterprise Advanced subscription, which features the most comprehensive support for MongoDB and the best SLA.”

Azri · 2024-07-09T15:39:16.128Z

I went down the rabbit hole here so let me share what I found…

Looking at some older community posts, I found that the BI Connector releases page does point to a Customer Agreement page that restricts the use of the BI Connector to just internal and development purposes without an Enterprise license.

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Interestingly, MongoDB AI says that you can use it with Community Edition. Looking at the documentation, it does mention that you can use it with self-managed MongoDB, which typically also means Community Edition. I think that this is just technically correct and it’s possible that MongoDB AI has been trained with mostly the technical docs - hence why there is a disclaimer to verify information prior to use.

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Lastly, I did find this post with an answer from the product manager for BI Connector, @Alexi_Antonino. @Alexi_Antonino I hope you don’t mind me tagging you here. Would like to seek your help to clarify this further.

References to other similar questions:

MongoDB Connector for BI license
MongoDB ODBC driver
MongoDB community version integration with Power BI/Tableau

Alexi_Antonino · 2024-07-09T19:23:41.227Z

Hello @Kevin_Alves and Thank you @Azri for your answer. I do not mind you tagging me, it helps to make sure I see these posts:)

MongoDB BI Connector self-managed version, really just means it is the version that works with on-premise/self-managed mongodb clusters. The BI Connector and support for its use is included with our Enterprise Advanced subscription. The BI Connector is not supported with our community edition.

I will attempt to train the AI that said otherwise, that it is not a paid product. I guess in the general sense, you do not pay for the download of these BI Connector on-prem/self-managed components, but they are only supported with an Enterprise Advanced subscription.

Hope this helps.
Best,
Alexi

Azri · 2024-07-10T00:17:12.679Z

My pleasure, @Alexi_Antonino.

I think the confusion may also stem from the docs for BI Connector. It would be best to have a clear note on the subscription requirement in the introduction page based on what you just described.