Review and compare the features, pros, cons, etc of the top MongoDB GUI Tools to select the best MongoDB GUI Client per your requirements:
MongoDB is a commonly used document-based database that comes under the category of NoSQL Databases. It’s supported across multiple platforms and uses JSON-based documents with flexible schemas.
By default, MongoDB comes with command-line tools for accessing tables, databases, and running queries. This is good for hard-core developers but is painful for less technical users as well as Database Administrators.
In order to solve this, there are multiple MongoDB GUI tools or MongoDB clients available which are having different features and pros/cons.
In this tutorial, we would discuss multiple such tools and their various features and advantages/disadvantages.
Table of Contents:
MongoDB GUI Client Review
Expert Advice: For selecting a MongoDB GUI client or a tool, consider the availability of the basic features, such as
- Visual query editor: To create queries with options like drag and drop.
- Autocompletion: The tool should usually support auto-completion of queries as well as syntax highlighting.
- Aggregation capabilities: To build queries in steps and test smaller parts and combine to form the final query.
- Data Import and Export: The capability to import and export data from and to the MongoDB tables and query results in formats like JSON, CSV, etc.
Based on the above features, your team expertise as well as your budget, choose a tool that could best meet your needs.
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This share is fast increasing, with NoSQL-based applications increasing day by day. With support for JSON document structure and dynamic schemas, NoSQL is finding applications in almost all the fields like Social Gaming, Ad Targeting, eCommerce, as well as widely spreading applications based on the Internet of Things.
Some of the other advantages of MongoDB include:
- Horizontal scalability
- Powerful analytics.
- Highly flexible and dynamic document schemas.
- Code native data access allows you to use multiple data structures depending on the ORM language.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q #1) What is the MongoDB standard GUI client?
Answer: Standard GUI client is MongoDB compass which is developed by the owner of MongoDB only. It’s free to use for on-premise deployments. Additionally, there are lots of other free and paid MongoDB UI clients like Studio3T, Robo3T, NoSQL booster, etc.
Q #2) Does MongoDB have a GUI?
Answer: MongoDB installation by default comes as a shell that offers to perform different operations in the form of queries on the shell or terminal. This is always not a feasible solution, especially for businesses and other non-technical people.
There are various MongoDB GUI tools available in the market. To name a few of them – TablePlus, Studio3T, NoSQL Booster, etc.
Q #3) Is MongoDB compass free?
Answer: MongoDB compass is free to use Mongo GUI client only for local on-premise deployments. If you are using Mongo Atlas or cloud-based MongoDB, you would be charged as per different plans of Atlas. For serverless applications, it charges around – $0.3 per million reads for cloud-based Mongo deployment.
Q #4) How to use MongoDB in Windows?
Answer: MongoDB is available across different platforms. MongoDB community edition is available for Windows only for 64-bit versions of Windows architecture.
For more installation steps, refer to official MongoDB documentation.
Q #5) What is MongoDB Atlas?
Answer: MongoDB is a service provided by the parent company of MongoDB which offers a fully managed MongoDB instance hosted and managed on the cloud and the service provider handles all the complexity. It offers hosting on various cloud platforms, like – Google Cloud, Azure, and Amazon AWS.
Q #6) How does MongoDB connect to GUI?
Answer: MongoDB running as a local instance exposes a local port where it’s running. Similarly, a cloud-based MongoDB instance would have a URL and port. Any GUI like Robo3T or NoSQL Booster can connect to the MongoDB instance by providing the URL and port of the instance.
List of the Best MongoDB GUI Clients
Here is the list of MongoDB GUI tools:
- TablePlus
- Studio 3T
- Robo 3T
- NoSQLBooster
- MongoDB Compass
- NoSQL Manager
- HumongouS.io
- Mongo Management Studio
- DronaHQ
- phpMoAdmin
- Retool
MongoDB GUI Tools Comparison Chart
Tool | Features | Pricing | Our Rating (out of 5) |
---|---|---|---|
Studio3T | 1. Enterprise level MongoDB GUI client. 2. Cross platform support with features like autocomplete and syntax highlighting. 3. Support for generating code for the queries for different scripting languages like - Java, NodeJS, Python. | 1. Offers free 30 day trial. 2. Paid version starts at $199 per license per year. | |
Robo3T | 1. Lightweight and open source MongoDB GUI Client. 2. Embeds mongoDB shell hence support is upto date for the latest version of MongoDB 3. Good for building aggregation queries. | Open sourced and free to use. | |
MongoDB Compass | 1. Visual Query editor and visual explain plans. 2. Integrated with an intelligent JSON validator. 3. Upto date with latest MongoDB versions. | Open sourced and free to use | |
TablePlus | 1. GUI client for both SQL and NO SQL databases. 2. Supports table editing inline. 3. End to end encrypted and secure connections. | 1. Free trial. 2. Paid versions start at - $69 per license. | |
HumongousIO | 1. Web based MongoDB GUI used to create highly customisable Admin dashboards. 2. Supports advanced search and SSL connections. | 1. Offers 14 day trial. 2. Basic plan starts at $19 per user per month for limited no of projects and charts. | |
NoSQL booster | 1. Offers exceptional debugging support with ability to setup breakpoints within the query editor. 2. Supports auto code completion with intellisense. 3. SQL Like queries supporting JOINS and Aggregate expressions. | 1. Offers free version with limited features. 2. Paid version starts at $129 per license. |
Detailed review:
#1) Studio 3T
Best for enterprise-level MongoDB GUI tool available for cross platforms.
Studio 3T is a MongoDB GUI or user interface and supports different platforms like Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Along with querying data, it offers a host of MongoDB tools like Visual Query builder to build data queries using a User Interface as well as export/import for working with MongoDB collections.
Features:
- Can double up as a MongoDB client as well as MongoDB UI or IDE.
- For faster querying features like auto-completion, Visual Query builder as well as SQL-like syntax for creating queries.
- Generate code for different programming languages like Java, NodeJS, Python instantly.
- Explore Schema using schema analysis and identify issues like duplicate collections, mis-spellings, etc.
Pros:
- Offers support for SQL to MongoDB migration.
- Connection Manager to connect with multiple MongoDB instances with different authentication mechanisms supported.
- Must have tools for MongoDB database developers.
Cons:
- Reconnection is a lot of times buggy which causes the application to crash.
- Expensive license.
Pricing:
- Offers free 30 Day trial with full features.
- Paid version comes in different variants:
- Basic – $199 /user/year
- Pro and Ultimate versions at – $399 and $699 respectively /user/year.
Website: Studio 3T
#2) Robo3T
Best for lightweight and open-sourced. MongoDB GUI client or MongoDB IDE for working with queries and collections.
Robo 3T has an embedded Mongo shell. It was formerly called RoboMongo, and the name was changed to Robo 3T after it was acquired by 3T Software Labs.
Features:
- Embeds real MongoDB shell with the original Mongo engine and environment.
- Supports autocompletion out of the box as well as asynchronous non-blocking operations.
- It is essentially a limited feature version or a subset of Studio 3T MongoDB IDE
Pros:
- Robo3T is open-sourced and free to use.
- Available for multiple platforms like Windows, macOS, and Linux.
- Active community supporting development and updates.
- Simple and Intuitive Interface, which provides ease of use.
- Good for building aggregation queries before using them in
Cons:
- Since it’s free, only community support is available.
Pricing:
- Open sourced and free to use.
Website: Robo3T
#3) MongoDB Compass
Best for teams looking for a free tool with querying and aggregating capabilities as well as analyzing MongoDB table data.
Compass is the MongoDB UI client to interactively query and analyze data within MongoDB tables.
MongoDB Compass is owned by MongoDB itself, hence it’s always updated with the newest changes happening on the Mongo side.
Features:
- Visual editing tools help with easy insertion and updates for the data.
- Visual explain plans for queries for monitoring/tuning MongoDB performance.
- JSON schema validation through the intelligent inbuilt editor.
- Available across multiple platforms.
Pros:
- Plugin support to help enhance functionality.
- Real-time server and database metrics help to run the database smoothly.
- Powerful aggregation pipelines can be created easily.
- Since it’s owned by Mongo, it gets all the updates and works with all new MongoDB versions.
Cons:
- Free to use but have limited features.
Pricing:
- MongoDB Compass is free to use – mostly for your local deployment.
- For a fully managed cloud solution deployed on AWS or Google Cloud MongoDB Atlas is available in different plans:
- For serverless applications – $0.30/million reads
- Dedicated MongoDB instance on the cloud – $57/month for 10 GB storage with 2GB RAM.
Website: MongoDB Compass
#4) TablePlus
Best for teams looking for a GUI client with support for both relational and nonrelational databases and features like querying capability, data exploration, etc.
TablePlus is one of the most widely used on-premise database management clients supporting multiple types of databases ranging from SQL databases, like MariaDB, MySQL, and NoSQL databases, such as MongoDB and Cassandra. It can connect to Redis servers as well.
Features:
- Supports highly customizable UI – including configurations and appearance.
- Table data can be edited with a single click.
- Secure connections with end-to-end encryption.
Pros:
- Nice and friendly UI.
- Ease of use with support for multiple types of databases, both relational and nonrelational.
- Connection manager supports grouping connections based on relevance.
Cons:
- UI is more suited for relational databases.
- The free version has limitations and licensing is expensive.
- UI freezes at times and the only alternative is to restart the application.
Pricing:
- Supports free trial – 2 open windows and tabs are allowed.
- Paid versions start at $69 and $99 per license for single and 2 computers. For custom licensing, the sales team needs to be contacted.
Website: TablePlus
#5) HumongouS.io
Best for highly secure, modern, and high usability MongoDB GUI client.
It’s a web-based MongoDB UI with highly customizable admin interfaces and is extremely easy to use and configure.
Features:
- Supports dashboard and aggregation widgets.
- Advanced search
- SSL connections.
Pros:
- Completely web-based and can be accessed on mobile phones as well as tablets.
- Blazing fast search engine.
- Support for import/export of data as well as CRUD operations.
Pricing:
- Offers 14 days fully functional free trial.
- Paid version comes in 3 flavors
- Basic – $19 per user per month with support for 3 projects and 10 charts.
- The startup plan comes at $49 per user per month with more custom access levels and access to more projects and charts.
- Professional version at $99 per user per month with unlimited projects and charts.
Website: HumongouS.io
#6) NoSQL Booster
Best for teams looking for a cross-platform MongoDB client with a friendly user interface.
It’s one of the smartest IDEs available for MongoDB development. Being cross-platform, it offers exceptional debugging support for the queries, as well as features like server monitoring and code generation.
Features:
- MongoDB Script debugger helps set up breakpoints within the query editor and step through the code.
- Auto code completion with true IntelliSense.
- Use SQL-like queries with support for joins and expressions and aggregations like GROUP BY.
- Support for server monitoring and performance tuning.
Pros:
- Helps to generate code for the created query in different languages like Python, Java, NodeJS, etc.
- Built-in support for using NodeJS modules like Loadash, MomentJS, etc. within your script.
- Supports MongoDB enterprise authentication.
- Good support and assistance are available whenever required.
Cons:
- The free version has limited features, and licenses are expensive.
Pricing:
- Offers free version with limited features like Syntax highlighting, code formatting, and Object explorer.
- Paid versions are available with Personal and Commercial licenses with an optional Software Assurance or support (which is charged extra)
- Personal License starts from $129 per copy.
- The commercial license starts at $239 per user.
Website: NoSQL Booster
#7) No SQL Manager
Best for teams looking for an enterprise-level MongoDB GUI client with a friendly UI and friendly integration with MongoDB shell.
NoSQL Manager is a MongoDB GUI client for database management, administration, and development.
Features:
- Combines the power of the user interface with the advantages of shell scripting.
- Full support for MongoDB, MongoDB enterprise as well as Amazon DocumentDB.
- Supports replica sets as well as standalone hosts.
- Support for performance monitoring tools.
Pros:
- Intuitive interface which is easy to use and learn.
- Easy import from JSON, CSV data files.
- Easily export the DB contents to CSV, XML, JSON formats.
- Supports performance tuning with multiple monitoring tools.
Cons:
- Licensing is expensive, and the trial version has limited features.
Pricing:
- NoSQL Manager for MongoDB offers a 14 day fully functional free trial.
- Paid version comes at $98 +VAT per license with 1-year support and upgrades.
Website: No SQL Manager
#8) Mongo Management Studio
Best for teams looking for a cross-platform MongoDB GUI client with a user-friendly interface.
Mongo Management Studio is a cross-platform easy to use, MongoDB client or Mongo management tool, which can help execute all Mongo commands on a UI without using MongoDB shell.
Features:
- Supports SSL and SSH connections.
- Compatible with various versions of MongoDB like 3.0, 3.2 and 3.4
- MongoDB user management.
Pros:
- Data can be imported and exported.
- Inline edit of data within the Mongo tables.
- Detailed documentation for all features is available.
- Customizable UI.
Cons:
- Doesn’t have a MongoDB shell integrated – So the only way to execute queries is through UI.
Pricing:
- Offers free community version without any professional support.
- Professional license with 1-year support starts at $29 per license.
- Enterprise license comes at $75 for 5 licenses.
Website: Mongo Management Studio
#9) Drona HQ
Best for teams looking for a full-fledged SaaS solution for a low code app development or admin panels and connecting with different types of databases. It’s not specific to MongoDB.
DronaHQ MongoDB GUI is the fastest way to build GUI for MongoDB. It can help you create MongoDB Admin consoles, as well as basic CRUD apps and Charts.
Features:
- Supports Access controls and permission management.
- Data aggregation and publishing with support for data modeling.
- Dynamic NoSQL query builder.
- Build front ends for MongoDB GUI
Pros:
- Highly customizable.
- Since it’s web-based, it supports multiple platforms like Desktop as well as Mobiles/Tablets.
Cons:
- Teams just using MongoDB GUI features will still need to pay other No Code development options.
Pricing:
- Offers free trial.
- With the paid version
- Starter plan – at $50 per month with different usage limits.
- Business plan – $500 per month.
Website: Drona HQ
#10) Php Mo Admin
Best for teams looking for an administration framework having MongoDB based applications running on PHP
phpMoAdmin is a MongoDB admin tool for PHP. It is specifically used for MongoDB databases with Mongo PHP drivers installed.
Features:
- Single smart search box which supports plain text as well as regex expressions and JSON strings.
- Works on any version of PHP5.
- A very basic configuration is needed.
Pros:
- Import and Export of data.
- Add/Edit the rows within the UI editor.
- Can be used as a connection debugging tool.
Cons:
- Since its open-source, there is only community support available.
- Very basic GUI and it feels more like using a command-line application.
Pricing:
- Open source and free to use.
Website: Php Mo Admin
#11) Retool
Best for teams looking for a quick way to make simple apps (or low code apps) based on a MongoDB backend database.
Retool is a low code app builder tool that can help you build GUI for MongoDB-based applications. It enables users to build a fully-featured MongoDB-based application capable of CRUD operations within a short span of time.
Features:
- Build Internal tools, admin dashboards through drag and drop operations.
- Easily build CRUD applications using MongoDB-based backend.
Pros:
- Supports multiple data sources, including MongoDB, Excel, and SQL.
- Combine data across data sources – like read from MongoDB and join it with results from PostGres DB.
- Applications can be deployed and shared.
Cons:
- The tool is slow at times and gets stuck, which requires a restart.
- More suited for internal tools and not for production apps.
Pricing:
- Offers free plan with up to 10 queries per app.
- Startup plan – comes at $10 per user per month, with features like versioned releases and revision history.
- Pro plan comes at $50 per user per month with additional features like permission management and audit logs.
Website: Retool
Other Noteworthy MongoDB GUI Clients
#12) Mingo
Mingo is an intuitive, fast, and reliable GUI For MongoDB Admin consoles and dashboards. Some of its features include – Schema Analyser for viewing the data and table structure, Easy Aggregations, Dashboarding using Bird’s-eye view.
Pricing:
- The pro Version comes at around $7 per month, with discounted plans available for annual and lifetime validity.
Website: Mingo
#13) Navicat
Navicat for MongoDB is an easy-to-use and understand interface for MongoDB. It makes working with and managing MongoDB very efficient. Some of the features include cross-platform support, Data Manipulation within the editor as well as creating dashboards with charts and graphs.
Pricing:
- The paid version comes at $349 per license.
Website: Navicat
#14) Aquafold
Aquafold is a Generic Data Studio or GUI that supports a variety of databases – both SQL-based like MySQL, MariaDB, and NoSQL ones.
Some of the features include query execution, import, and export of data, as well as Reverse engineering schemas into Entity-relationship diagrams.
Pricing:
- The paid version comes at $499 per license for the Standard edition.
Website: Aquafold
#15) MongoTron
Mongotron is a MongoDB GUI that is built using Electron and AngularJS. It provides basic functionality and features like Query Editor and Schema analyzer and is available for different platforms.
Pricing:
- MongoTron is free and open-sourced to use.
Website: MongoTron
Conclusion
In this tutorial, we learned about different MongoDB clients or MongoDB GUI Tools. MongoDB by itself comes as a shell installation and all the commands and queries are usually run on the shell. But that is not very intuitive and user-friendly.
Hence, the GUI tools are there for rescue, which is highly user-friendly and enables both technical and non-technical users to interface with MongoDB schemas and data.
In order to find the right tool or MongoDB client, there are different features that you should look for in the tool depending on the requirements.
Most of the tools available in the market provide common functionality like:
- Query visualizer – to create, edit and visualize the queries.
- Connecting to on-premise and cloud-based MongoDB instances.
- Data import and export to formats like JSON, CSV, etc.
- Schema Analyzer.
- Building dashboards using MongoDB data, collections, etc.
It’s also important to choose the right tool that supports the platform which the developer team is using. There are tools available that support multiple platforms, whereas some of them might just support a particular platform/operating system.
Using Mongo database tools helps the users to view and use their data more efficiently.