Does MongoDB have a native REST interface?

There is no full-blown REST interface to MongoDB, mainly because the server uses native binary protocol for efficiency. You can find few REST wrappers in official documentation (edit: MongoDB inc has now deleted this information):

• RESTHeart (Java 8) is a the data REST API server part of the MongoDB ecosystem. RESTHeart uses a standard representation format based on HAL with full native mongodb data support via the strict mode representation of BSON. It provides API for CRUD and data model operations, built-in authentication and authorization and it supports CORS. It is easy to setup and a docker container is available. RESTHeart is also fast and lightweight (~7 Mb footprint and ~200 Mb RAM peek usage).

• Sleepy Mongoose (Python) is a full featured REST interface for MongoDB which is available as a separate project.

• Rest on Mongo for node.js. The older MongoDB Rest is no longer maintained.

• Simple REST Interface The mongod process includes a simple read-only REST interface for convenience. For full REST capabilities we recommend using an external tool such as Sleepy.Mongoose.

Another option (shameless plug) is DrowsyDromedary.

We developed Drowsy out of frustration with the other REST options for Mongo. Namely, we found that:

Sleepy Mongoose is not really RESTful. It's a hacky HTTP interface that does not follow REST conventions; it doesn't use the standard REST HTTP methods, it doesn't use URLs to properly identify resources... We also found the options for limiting the maximum number of results (which is limited by default) rather confusing.

mongodb-rest offers a proper REST interface, but we found it to be a pain in the ass to run. It would die regularly, and drove our sysadmin insane (who admittedly has little experience running node.js services).

The built-in REST interface would have been great, but it being read-only means it's mostly useless for our needs.

DrowsyDromedary, was developed to address many of the above issues:

1. It provides a conventional REST interface, with support for the standard HTTP verbs (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH).
2. It's fairly easy to install and deploy (clone from github, install bundler, run bundle, and then rackup, and you're running). It can also be easily deployed under Apache or nginx.

The MongoDB Atlas Data API in Preview was also released in November 2021 to use with a hosted MongoDB instance through the company's Atlas offering. It lets you send complex queries and aggregations to MongoDB over a standard HTTPS interface, though it isn't currently recommended for direct client-side access.

For instance, once a cluster is created and the Data API is enabled for it, the following request can be used to insert a document -

  curl --request POST \
  'https://data.mongodb-api.com/app/<Unique ID>/endpoint/data/beta/action/insertOne' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --header 'Access-Control-Request-Headers: *' \
  --header 'api-key: <Data API Key>' \
  --data-raw '{
      "dataSource": "Cluster0",
      "database": "todo",
      "collection": "tasks",
      "document": {
        "status": "open",
        "text": "Do the dishes"
      }
  }'

and the following to do an aggregation -

curl --location --request POST 'https://data.mongodb-api.com/app/<Unique ID>/endpoint/v1/beta/action/aggregate' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'Access-Control-Request-Headers: *' \
--header 'api-key:<Data API Key>' \
--data-raw '{
    "collection":"movies",
    "database":"sample_mflix",
    "dataSource": "Cluster0",
    "pipeline": [
  {
    "$search": {
      "index": "default",
      "text": {
        "query": "Brad Pitt",
        "path": {
          "wilcard": "*"
        }
      }
    }
  }
]
}

Both the API and Atlas offer free tiers and only take a few minutes to spin up.

Full disclosure - I work for MongoDB, Inc.