There is a GUI client by MongoDB; it is the Compass. It is a desktop application (not browser based). Compass lets a user to connect to a database, and browse the collections in it. The official MongoDB Java Drivers providing both synchronous and asynchronous interaction with MongoDB. Features BSON Library A standalone BSON library, with a new Codec infrastructure that you can use to build high-performance encoders and decoders without requiring an intermediate Map instance. Robo 3T 1.4 brings support for MongoDB 4.2, and a mongo shell upgrade from 4.0 to 4.2, with the ability to manually specify visible databases. Download Robo 3T Only. Windows Mac Linux. Download for Windows. Connect to MongoDB. Use MongoClients.create (as of the 3.7 release), or MongoClient for the legacy MongoClient API, to make a connection to a running MongoDB instance.

MongoDB is a NoSQL database that more than a quarter of developers use in some capacity. What makes MongoDB and other NoSQL DBs attractive is flexibility; instead of being held to a rigid schema that scales vertically, you can evolve your schema as you grow and scale horizontally. MongoDB went public in 2017 and is worth more than $17 billion today.

Document DBs work through nested key-value pairs instead of relational tables and columns. You’re going to need to parse data for your front-end eventually, and with document DBs, your data is already stored in the right format (give or take a .map or .reduce). Working with MongoDB through the command line isn’t exactly a cakewalk: This post will walk through the best MongoDB GUIs available for reading from and writing to your MongoDB clusters.

The Mongo Shell Versus a MongoDB GUI

The most basic way to access MongoDB is through the mongo shell; you can use it to query, update data, and complete admin tasks.

It’s included in the MongoDB Server installation, so you’re all set as long as you’re comfortable with shell commands. Traversing objects and writing long queries in the command line can get annoying fast, so using the shell is usually best for quick peeks or admin tasks.

It’s definitely possible to query your Mongo data exclusively from the command line, but if you’re working with even medium-sized datasets, GUIs offer a helpful alternative.

MongoDB GUIs provide a user interface for your MongoDB database that gives you the ability to visualize data and edit queries without the use of shell commands (or with them — more on that later).

The best MongoDB GUIs share similar features:

A visual query editor: Click or drag-and-drop elements to create queries.
Query autocomplete: Auto-suggestions for collections, fields, methods, and operators.
An aggregation framework: Build queries out step-by-step, test along the way, then export into usable code.
Server and query analytics: Insights into query and server performance.
Relational database to MongoDB data transfer: Automate tedious and error-prone data transfers between database types.

Below is a list of the best MongoDB GUIs that 2021 has to offer. Each one has features that set it apart from the rest. The best one for you will depend on the scope of your project, the features you need, and your budget.

MongoDB Compass

(Image courtesy of MongoDB Compass GitHub Repository)

Overview

The creators of MongoDB (Mongo) have their own GUI called Compass. It’s platform-agnostic and provides a graphical view of your database without the need to use a query language. MongoDB recently announced that the fully featured Compass GUI is completely free for everyone to use. Plus, the repo is now open-source on GitHub.

Some notable MongoDB Compass features include:

Schema visualization: Compass visually displays your collections to help you better understand your datasets.
CRUD visual editor: Perform CRUD operations within the UI, no need to type queries.
Geospatial data: Create queries on map data using an intuitive UI with generated results in both graph and JSON document form.
Validation: Write JSON Schema validation rules using an editor that suggests BSON data types and validation keywords as you write

Winning feature: Compass Plugins

One of the best features of the MongoDB Compass GUI is that it has an API for adding plugins. The Compass community has built tons of cool plugins that can generate data for testing, inspect database users, and even check the shard status of the database. If there’s a feature you want but a plugin isn’t available yet, you can build your own using their plugin template.

TablePlus

(Image courtesy of TablePlus)

Overview

TablePlus is a modern, native GUI tool for relational databases like MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and NoSQL databases like MongoDB. The TablePlus team consists of founder Henry Pham and Windows developer Raccoon Thai. The team, as well as the community, is also fairly active on GitHub.

Some notable TablePlus features include:

Customizable UI: There’s no need to turn to Mojave. With TablePlus, you can customize your configurations and their appearance
In-line edits: Edit data rows and table structure with a single click

Winning feature: database security

TablePlus promises secure connections. The connection between you and your database is end-to-end encrypted –– no data is sent to a TablePlus server. Additionally, TablePlus ensures database credentials are stored securely in your device’s keychain and comes with built-in SSH. TablePlus also supports multi-step authentication and native libssh.

Robo 3T

(Photo courtesy of Robo 3T blog)

Overview

Robo 3T is an open-source, platform-agnostic, lightweight GUI for MongoDB. Formerly known as Robomongo, the company was bought in 2017 by 3T Software Labs and rebranded (Robo 3T also made it open source).

The project continues to be developed and has 8K stars on Github. In that vein, one of the best parts of using this GUI is the large community of users. Loads of tutorials, guides, and forums are available if you get stuck – just search.

Some notable Robo 3T features include:

Code autocomplete: While Robo 3T doesn’t have the autocompleting prowess of IntelliShell (see Studio 3T below), it does have a useful runtime autocomplete feature that works through an internal virtual machine.
Fast UI: All operations are done asynchronously, which means the application will never block you from working by freezing up.

Winning feature: embedded Mongodb shell

Many of the MongoDB GUIs have emulatedmongo shells, but this GUI has an embeddedmongo shell. The embedded shell provides increased functionality over an emulated shell because emulators generally run on top of a provided API, whereas an embedded shell works directly with MongoDB.

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Studio 3T

(Photo courtesy of Studio 3T)

Overview

Studio 3T, formerly MongoChef, is the robust, professional version of Robo 3T owned by the same parent company, 3T Software Labs. Studio 3T is more than just a MongoDB GUI: it’s also an IDE and client. There is no free version of this software (unless you count Robo 3T), and the Core pricing level starts at $149/year per user. Even then, the Core level lacks features that pricier ones have, like SQL import/export, SQL queries, and the schema explorer.

Some notable Studio 3T features include:

IntelliShell: A smart, built-in mongo shell with autocomplete that supports Javascript standard library functions, collection and field names, operators, and methods.
Three ways to view data: Once you have retrieved your data from the database, you can view it in three different formats:
- Table View formats the data into rows and columns.
- Tree View formats the data into expandable hierarchies.
- JSON View formats your data as JSON documents.
Code generation: Export queries into Node.js, Python, Java, C#, PHP, Ruby, or the mongo shel

Mongo Client