Ask HN: What’s the best GUI you’ve ever used for managing/querying databases? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What’s the best GUI you’ve ever used for managing/querying databases?

#11

Post by yellow_lead » Fri, Jul 07, 2023, 2:40 AM UTC

SQLiteStudio is the best I've ever seen. Also have used DBeaver and MySQL workbench.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the best GUI you’ve ever used for managing/querying databases?

#12

Post by MichaelEstes » Fri, Jul 07, 2023, 2:46 AM UTC

If you’re on OSX I haven’t found any program better than Sequel Pro (sometimes referred to as Sequel pancakes). It’s one of a few programs that makes keeping a Mac around worth it.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the best GUI you’ve ever used for managing/querying databases?

#13

Post by seeknotfind » Fri, Jul 07, 2023, 2:49 AM UTC

garciasn wrote: post #9

seeknotfind wrote: post #4

Nothing beats the freedom and universality of the command line or using APIs (with a small utility library) in a repl of the language of your choice.

I mean, you're not wrong: there is absolutely a big place for API/CLI support with DB tools, but in this specific instance, the OP specifically asked for a GUI, not CLI or APIs to roll their own. If you're a MacOS user and your DB of choice is supported, this is my choice: https://www.beekeeperstudio.io/ If you're a Postgres user, pgAdmin had previously been my go to: https://www.pgadmin.org/

If OP asked which cliff he should jump off, will you point to one? GUIs are written on top of DB APIs - in many cases, the same ones you can use. You can do anything with these tools. Given a DB viewing program, you are always experiencing someone else using these APIs for you. There will always be some feature you need. For many types of applications, there are no other choices except the GUI, but DBs are programmer tools, and they work brilliantly without gold-plated rigmarole.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the best GUI you’ve ever used for managing/querying databases?

#14

Post by vlod » Fri, Jul 07, 2023, 2:49 AM UTC

On linux (and windows/mac) there's BeeKeeper Studio [0]. They have a free 'Community Edition'.

NB: It's an electron app, but is performant IMHO

[0]: https://www.beekeeperstudio.io

Re: Ask HN: What’s the best GUI you’ve ever used for managing/querying databases?

#15

Post by kadomony » Fri, Jul 07, 2023, 2:52 AM UTC

seeknotfind wrote: post #13

garciasn wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, you're not wrong: there is absolutely a big place for API/CLI support with DB tools, but in this specific instance, the OP specifically asked for a GUI, not CLI or APIs to roll their own. If you're a MacOS user and your DB of choice is supported, this is my choice: https://www.beekeeperstudio.io/ If you're a Postgres user, pgAdmin had previously been my go to: https://www.pgadmin.org/

If OP asked which cliff he should jump off, will you point to one? GUIs are written on top of DB APIs - in many cases, the same ones you can use. You can do anything with these tools. Given a DB viewing program, you are always experiencing someone else using these APIs for you. There will always be some feature you need. For many types of applications, there are no other choices except the GUI, but DBs are programmer…

Yeah, but I did ask for GUIs for a reason. Other commenter understood the assignment.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the best GUI you’ve ever used for managing/querying databases?

#16

Post by kgodey » Fri, Jul 07, 2023, 2:56 AM UTC

I’m not sure if it’s okay to plug my project, but I work on Mathesar (https://github.com/centerofci/mathesar) which can be used as a Postgres GUI. We’re putting a lot of product/design effort into making it nice to use for non technical users.

Otherwise, I just use the command line.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the best GUI you’ve ever used for managing/querying databases?

#17

Post by vikmals » Fri, Jul 07, 2023, 2:59 AM UTC

MongoDB compass

Re: Ask HN: What’s the best GUI you’ve ever used for managing/querying databases?

#18

Post by seeknotfind » Fri, Jul 07, 2023, 3:05 AM UTC

kadomony wrote: post #15

seeknotfind wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If OP asked which cliff he should jump off, will you point to one? GUIs are written on top of DB APIs - in many cases, the same ones you can use. You can do anything with these tools. Given a DB viewing program, you are always experiencing someone else using these APIs for you. There will always be some feature you need. For many types of applications, there are no other choices except the GUI, but DBs are programmer…

Yeah, but I did ask for GUIs for a reason. Other commenter understood the assignment.

What reason?

Re: Ask HN: What’s the best GUI you’ve ever used for managing/querying databases?

#19

Post by kermatt » Fri, Jul 07, 2023, 3:14 AM UTC

https://www.dbvis.com/ - been using it for I don't know how many years now. Just enough GUI, and most of what I would use an SQL cli for.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the best GUI you’ve ever used for managing/querying databases?

#20

Post by mikewarot » Fri, Jul 07, 2023, 3:27 AM UTC

I'm sure this is going to be a very unpopular opinion here...but Microsoft Access 2000 was amazing for managing small databases shared on a LAN. You could build relational tables, and it managed all the keys, etc. You could build a CRUD app in less than an hour for almost any data an organization might have.

You could then scale up to ODBC or SQL databases as time went on. It was part of that golden era of tools that did lots of useful things, and could be used by those with domain knowledge, right before .NET infected Microsoft.

If you needed to interface with specialized hardware (as I did a few times), you could use VBA or Delphi to do that work, and tie it into the back-end, while providing a good UI for the person operating the hardware.