Original reporting: devclass.com. Published: September 2019.
MongoDB Open Sources Compass Under the SSPL
At its London developer event in September 2019, MongoDB co-founder and CTO Eliot Horowitz announced that the company was open sourcing its Compass graphical user interface, releasing the code to GitHub under the Server Side Public License (SSPL).
Compass is a GUI tool that lets users visually explore, query, and manipulate data stored in MongoDB. It has shipped alongside MongoDB since version 3.2, but had previously been available only as a proprietary, closed-source application. Making the source code available on GitHub represents a notable shift in how MongoDB positions the tool — particularly as the company looks to expand its identity from a database vendor into a broader data platform offering more analytics capabilities out of the box.
What Is the SSPL and Why Does It Matter?
The Server Side Public License was introduced by MongoDB in 2018 as a modification of the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL). Its primary intent is to close what MongoDB perceived as a loophole: cloud providers taking open source database software, wrapping it in a managed service, and offering it commercially — without contributing back to the project or compensating the original developer.
Under the SSPL, any organisation that offers the licensed software as a service must also open source the entire stack used to run that service — including orchestration, monitoring, and deployment tooling. This requirement is significantly broader than traditional copyleft licenses, which is precisely why the SSPL proved controversial.
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) declined to approve the SSPL as an open source license, arguing it places restrictions on the use of the software beyond the bounds of the Open Source Definition. Critics echoed this view, saying the license blurs the line between open source and source-available software.
Consequences of the SSPL Adoption
The backlash to MongoDB’s original SSPL adoption in 2018 had concrete consequences:
- MongoDB was removed from Red Hat’s Satellite platform.
- MongoDB support was dropped from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.0.
- Several major Linux distributions removed MongoDB packages from their official repositories, citing license incompatibility.
Despite this fallout, MongoDB chose to release Compass under the same license. Sahir Azam, MongoDB’s SVP for cloud products and GTM, told DevClass that customer reaction to the SSPL had been “not as much as might be expected.” He said most partners simply wanted to clarify whether the license affected them at all.
MongoDB’s Open Source Position
The decision to open source Compass — even under the SSPL — signals MongoDB’s intent to continue expanding its open source footprint, albeit on its own licensing terms. Azam stated: “We still fully believe in the principles of free and open software. We open sourced Compass — you’ll see more of that from us.”
Whether the SSPL qualifies as genuinely “open source” remains contested, but for engineers consuming the software internally or contributing to the project, the practical effect is that the Compass source code is now publicly available and accepts community contributions via GitHub.
Other Announcements: Terraform, Kubernetes, and Atlas
The Compass release was not the only news from the London event. Several other updates were announced:
- Terraform and Kubernetes integrations reached general availability, making it easier to provision and manage MongoDB Atlas clusters through infrastructure-as-code workflows and container orchestration platforms.
- Atlas Data Lake — then still in beta — was available exclusively on AWS at the time of the announcement. Azure and Google Cloud versions were described as being in development, with availability expected “probably some time next year” (i.e., 2020).
- Atlas revenue: Azam stated that MongoDB Atlas, the company’s hosted cloud database service, accounted for approximately 37 percent of total revenues at the time, split among AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform roughly in proportion to their respective overall market shares.
- Google Cloud partnership: Azam noted that MongoDB’s relationship with Google was “picking up a bit faster,” with Google reportedly moving more quickly to establish deals with open source companies.
MongoDB and AWS: Competing and Cooperating
A notable tension exists in the MongoDB–AWS relationship. The SSPL was widely interpreted as a direct response to Amazon Web Services offering Amazon DocumentDB — a MongoDB-compatible managed database service — without contributing to the upstream project. Yet, despite this friction, MongoDB and AWS continued to collaborate on other initiatives, including Atlas being available on AWS infrastructure and Atlas Data Lake launching first on AWS.
This dynamic reflects a pattern seen across the cloud-native software industry: upstream open source vendors and hyperscale cloud providers simultaneously competing and cooperating, often project by project.
Key Takeaways for DevOps Engineers
- The MongoDB Compass source code is available on GitHub — you can build it, contribute to it, or adapt it, subject to SSPL terms.
- If your organisation intends to offer Compass or MongoDB as a managed service, review the SSPL carefully with legal counsel — the obligations are broader than AGPL.
- Internal use of MongoDB and Compass within an organisation is generally unaffected by the SSPL.
- The Terraform provider and Kubernetes Operator for MongoDB Atlas reaching GA in 2019 made Atlas a more viable option for teams with GitOps-style infrastructure workflows.