MongoDB Compass

MongoDB Compass is an interesting tool for both your Windows PC and your Mac that offers you a quick and intuitive way to run queries and, better yet, to explore and analyze the structure of your database.

It aims to help your better interact with MongoDB data and optimize query performance with the help of its set of specialized visualization tools.

Once installed and upon launching the application for the first time, you are prompted to look-up a set of privacy settings and then to connect to a local MongoDB server.

You are required to enter the host address, the port number and to choose from three authentication methods, Kerberos, LDAP and the typical Username/Password combination. Please note that it also comes with support for SSL and SSL tunneling.

Once the connection is established, you can start to explore your database's structure. There are two main, self-explanatory sections, Databases, and Performance. Evidently, the app provides you with information about storage size, collections, indexes and the number of included documents. You can work with multiple databases at once and, to make things even more convenient, you can rename them to your liking.

Besides its neat visualization tools, which we will be covering immediately, the application allows you to effortlessly run queries without having to know much about the appropriate language. With just a few clicks and flicks of the mouse, you can create queries using multiple fields.

Thanks to visually-pleasing charts within the Performance section, you can accurately view real-time statistics and better understand important and relevant database operations, as well as frequency types, ranges of fields within your datasets and schema. The utility provides you with a simple way to work with geospatial data and, thanks to its visual editor, thoroughly manage documents.

To sum it all up, MongoDB Compass allows you to forget all about the command-line when dealing with your MongoDB databases. It is clearly not what you would call a full-featured MongoDB management solution but, for everyday users and light development it can be relied on.

MongoDB Compass provides you with an impressive graphical view over your databases structure, it allows you to swiftly run ad hoc queries, as well as to analyze the query performance afterwards, all within a non-intimidating environment.