“MongoDB gives you the ability to concentrate on your business and create the applications. Everything else is taken care of.” – Steven Bond, Forbes.com

While working on a MongoDB application, a developer can find MongoDB GUI tools as the most useful and relevant thing that he/she could have. MongoDB is the database that is most popularly known as the best NoSQL database right now in the market. There are many factors that make it unique, but one of the major reasons that it is easy to use is, availability of GUI (Graphical User Interface) tools.

Importance of MongoDB GUI tools

User Interface (UI) is the most essential part of any application development process. Working on terminal or mongo shell is good at the administrative level but for the development purpose, anyone would love it to have a simple, unique and straightforward GUI tool. This helps in giving a good user experience. So, observing this, MongoDB has got many GUI tools that are used these days.

Important considerations while choosing the best MongoDB GUI tool

Although tools are many, it is a bit confusing task to choose the right one. So, in this blog, I am going to let you know the top 7 MongoDB GUI tools. But before proceeding any further, I would like to tell you the factors that I have considered while choosing these top GUI tools. These factors were:

Visualization Presentation Editing Features

So now, let’s just dive into the world of MongoDB GUI tools.

At this point, you may consider reading: A Complete MongoDB Introduction

7 most usable and feature-rich MongoDB GUI tools

NoSQLBooster

NoSQLBooster which was earlier known as MongoBooster is a powerful cross-platform MongoDB GUI tool. It is shell-centric and provides the fluent query builder with many relevant features.

Features of NoSQLBooster

It provides a true IntelliSense feature which means there are many built-in language services that it recognizes very well. They may be methods, properties, keywords, variables, and MongoDB collection name. It recognizes them all and immediately shows a popup with the relevant information as soon as you start typing. It has a two-way query builder. This helps the user to construct and display the complex MongoDB statements without actually knowing the commands and syntax. Runs the SQL SELECT query against the MongoDB. It includes functions, expressions, and aggregations for the collections with nested arrays and objects. Has a feature to translate the MongoDB queries to many other languages such as JavaScript, Java, C#, Python and MongoDB shell. Supports the SSL connections. Has a Schema Analyzer which is a handy built-in tool. This helps in getting a document to describe the schema (since MongoDB has no schema document) of a particular collection from sampled or all records.

Studio 3T

Studio 3T is an essential MongoDB GUI tool which is used by the developers for MongoDB queries and operations. This tool makes the users work with shards and replica set. It is completely cross-platform which can be used with windows, mac or Linux.

Features of Studio 3T

Studio 3T is supported by rich query autocompletion. Queries can be built by simply drag and drop (Visual Query Builder). This can help any developer to save a lot of time. SQL queries can be written to query the MongoDB. Driver code can be generated into 5 different languages. Comparison of collections is possible and results can be seen side by side. In-place data editing is possible. It simply refers to double-clicking the value and overwriting it. Intellishell property is supported which simply means that there will be the auto-completion of collection names, shell methods, key names, operators etc. once you start typing in the typing space. Provides the table, tree and JSON view of any collection. The user can switch between any of these very easily. A real-time visual overview is possible for various server operations. For this Server Status Charts are present GridFS support is provided to store the file of size greater than 16MB. The read-only lock is provided to avoid getting your query results to be overwritten.

NOTE: There is another GUI tool with the name of Robo 3T (formerly RoboMongo) which is maintained by 3T Software Labs, the same company which maintains the Studio 3T. The image of the main screen is given below.

MongoDB Compass

MongoDB Compass is the de facto MongoDB GUI tool which is used to operate with the MongoDB queries and operations. This GUI tool provides a graphical view of the MongoDB schema without any query language.

Features of MongoDB Compass

Allows exploring the data visually. Real-time server statistics are available that helps in viewing the key server metrics and database operations. Allows viewing the query performance. It follows a better approach in CRUD which makes it easier to interact with the data. Allows managing the indexes very easily. Aggregation is easy by using the intuitive UI. Allows to visualize, understand, and work with the geospatial data. It is extensible by installing the plugins. This can be useful when you want to add your own functionality.

Mongo Management Studio (MMS)

Mongo Management Studio is a very nice and effective GUI tool for MongoDB. Because of the clean and light user interface, queries can be executed in a fast and effective manner without using the mongo shell.

Features of Mongo Management Studio

Cross-platform support is available. It runs on all major system and environments. Supports the remote connection to the MongoDB database using SSH tunnel. Read and write to GridFS collections is possible. Inline edit feature makes it a great success for data manipulation. Queries are possible in many different formats. Edit operations are possible in place, i.e., double-clicking and editing the data on the go. Screen adjustment of query execution is very simple. Just on a button click, you can adjust it on any side of the screen.

NoSQL Manager

NoSQL Manager is a very strong MongoDB GUI tool. It has a great combination of mongo shell power and the UI. It has a simple and beautiful intuitive interface with a high performance of the desktop application.

Features of NoSQL Manager

Intelligent GUI shell is available that supports easy manipulations and autocompletion of the MongoDB methods and shell commands. Easy-to-use document viewer is available for navigating, viewing, filtering and other major tasks. Tree, table and JSON formats of the data can be seen easily.

SSH tunneling of MongoDB connections is possible. File manager tool is available to work with the GridFS. Easy import option is available for importing tables from MySQL and SQL server database. Multiple export options are available to export documents to CSV, XML, JSON and XLSX formats. Allows setting all parameters of the map-reduce aggregation operation using the GUI. Specific UI is available for mongodump, mongorestore, and mongotop

Nosqlclient (formerly MongoClient)

Nosqlclient is the effective MongoDB GUI tool for management of various operations. This tool provides very easy ways to manage the MongoDB database. It focuses on the end user requests.

Features of Nosqlclient

It has a schema analyzer to analyze your structure. Live charts for RAM, active read/write operations and many more are available. Auto field name completion is available so as to reduce the burden of the user. Management of indexes is possible with easy approach without struggling with the queries. User management is much easier with intuitive UI. SSH tunnels can be utilized to connect with the databases. It uses the extended JSON in place of the BSON. It is the free and open source tool. Supports the LDAP, GSSAPI, and Xs09

Navicat for MongoDB

Navicat for MongoDB provides a highly effective MongoDB GUI database management, development, and administration. It offers remarkable features that are needed for managing, monitoring, querying, and visualizing the data. This MongoDB GUI tool is capable to increase the productivity of the routine MongoDB operations.

Features of Nosqlclient

Seamless Data Migration is available with this tool. Easy query editing is possible using Visual Query Builder. Cross-platform licensing is possible in this GUI tool which gives freedom to users to use it on any platform. Intuitive GUI for MongoDB Dump utility supports the users to understand the backup process easily. It has features to minimize the potential errors faced by the database. Professional object designers are available inside the tool to create, modify and manage the database objects. Provides features to make the collaboration process easy. Rich with the diversified manipulation tools for transferring data into a database from various formats. It also provides a very smart schema analyzer.

As you saw, so many tools for easy application development and manipulation, it simply proves how important is MongoDB these days. It is also growing fast in comparison to other NoSQL or RDBMS databases, an example to which is a Transactional model of MongoDB that is recently implemented in MongoDB 4.0.

You may consider reading: Why Choose MongoDB Over Other Databases?

Those were some of the important MongoDB GUI tools that you may consider. But one can always rely on the simplest tool of MongoDB, i.e., the MongoDB shell. It is a command line tool which can fulfill all your basic needs related to queries and operations inside MongoDB. You can always trust it, given that you have some knowledge of syntaxes and commands of MongoDB.

NOTE: These are not any standardized recommendations by MongoDB itself. These are just the observations that I have observed. You are free to use any other tools apart from the mentioned ones here. But for the best user experience, these MongoDB GUI tools will make your way easy in development tasks.

Bottom Line:

In this blog, I have tried to give you a very brief information about the MongoDB GUI tools and their essential features.

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I hope this blog brings a close insight into the MongoDB tools that you wanted to know. In case of any queries feel free to ask in the comments section and do share your thoughts about the blog.