Soft.xyz is an independent, data-driven platform that compares 232+ developer tools across 69 categories by real metrics — GitHub activity, npm downloads, actual pricing, DX scores, and community sentiment. Unlike pay-to-play review sites, every ranking on Soft.xyz is based on publicly verifiable data pulled from GitHub, npm, and official pricing pages.

How does Soft.xyz collect data?

Soft.xyz pulls data from public APIs including GitHub (stars, forks, commits, open issues, last commit date), npm (weekly download counts), and official pricing pages. Community sentiment data comes from Reddit and Hacker News mention tracking. All metrics are refreshed weekly and timestamped so you can see exactly when data was last updated.

Is Soft.xyz free to use?

Yes, Soft.xyz is completely free to use. All tool pages, comparisons, benchmarks, DX scores, pricing analysis, and category rankings are available at no cost. For teams that need a deeper analysis, we offer a paid Stack Audit report ($199) that evaluates your entire tech stack with personalized recommendations. An API is also available for programmatic access to our dataset.

How many tools does Soft.xyz track?

Soft.xyz tracks 232 developer tools across 69 categories including databases, hosting, authentication, payments, analytics, CI/CD, monitoring, search, CMS, and more. Each tool page includes real-time GitHub metrics, npm download counts, pricing breakdowns, and side-by-side comparisons with alternatives in the same category.

🪦

mLab

Acquired & Killed — February 2020

Reviewed byRoman K· 2020-02-01

What was it?

Managed MongoDB hosting. The easiest way to get a free MongoDB in the cloud.

What happened?

Acquired by MongoDB Inc. Migrated all customers to MongoDB Atlas.

Migration Guide

MongoDB Atlas (direct successor) or switch to PostgreSQL.

Timeline & context

mLab acquired & killed in February 2020, 6 years ago. It sat in the databases category, where Soft.xyz tracks 7 discontinued products in total. If you are still running it in production, the migration path above is the shortest route off it.

FAQ

Why did mLab shut down?

Acquired by MongoDB Inc. Migrated all customers to MongoDB Atlas.

What should I migrate mLab to?

No drop-in replacement is tracked yet — check the databases category for current options.

Is there a free alternative to mLab?

Not among the tracked alternatives.

Also dead in databases

Render Free PostgreSQL — 2025 Fauna (Classic) — 2025 Prisma Accelerate Free Tier — 2025 Fauna (FaunaDB) — 2025 Heroku Connect (Limited Plans) — 2024 MongoDB Realm / Atlas Device Sync — 2024