What are the best database clients?

Question

12

Options
Considered

88

User
Recs.

Jul 11, 2021

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

6 Options Considered

Best database clients	Price	License	Platforms
-- Intellij IDEA	-	Apache 2.0	-
-- DBeaver	Free / paid	-	Windows,
-- Jailer Relational Data Browsing Tool	FREE	-	-
-- DbSchema	$127	-	Windows, Linux, Mac
-- Navicat	-	-	-

See Full List

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score 9 · Answer 1

Intellij IDEA

Top Pro

Maintain multiple database connections

All added database configurations will show up as a list, so you can connect to the desired one with just a double-click. You can also mark some as global (so that they would be visible across multiple projects). See More

Top Con

Somewhat expensive

IntelliJ IDEA is fairly expensive, with a pricetag of $149/year. However there is a free community edition available. See More

Janaka Bandara's Experience

Well, it's true that this is a fully-fledged IDE; but the Ultimate Edition (paid) has a fantastic Database tool window that allows you to do almost anything with any database of your choice - as long as it is JDBC-compliant and you have the appropriate driver. See More

Specs

License:Apache 2.0

Top Pro

Transactional edits

You can perform several edits on the queried data (or as new inserts) and commit them to the database as one transaction (or discard them, effectively a rollback). See More

Top Con

Standard hotkeys behave differently

Seems like hotkeys assignment in Idea has no logical consistency. Like «F3» is usually next match, «Ctrl+W» - close tab, etc — they map to some different action by default. There is a good effort in making the IDE friendly for immigrants from other products: there are options to use hotkeys from Eclipse, and even emacs. But these mappings are very incomplete. And help pages do not take this remapping into account, rather mentioning the standard hotkeys. So, people coming from other IDEs/editors are doomed to using mouse and context menus (which are rather big and complex). See More

UpbeatBelenus's Experience

It's IDE, not the SQL Client. And if you want to pay just only SQL Client, stop right away, it's not that worth to pay. See More

Top Pro

In-place editable, tabular data view

Results of queries are displayed in a convenient tabular view (paginated for large sets), where you can directly modify the cells to effect updates of corresponding entries, clear (set NULL) entries, delete sets of rows, and so on. See More

Top Con

Lack of plugins

IntelliJ supports a very small amount of plugins. Althrough thesse are 'quality approved', many features are missing and can't be implemented because of that. See More

Top Pro

Intelligent query interface

Once IntelliJ knows the database schema, it provides rich assistance when composing queries - suggesting SQL constructs, auto-completing field names, syntax validation and the like. See More

Top Con

Bugs are not solved as often as they should

They are more interested in adding new features or issuing new versions than solving bugs. See More

Top Pro

Many convenient features

These simplify the daily work, e.g. copy/cut a whole line without the need to select it. See More

Top Con

Built with closed source components

The version with full features is not opensource. Parts of the code are under apache licence though. See More

Top Pro

Very powerful debugger

With ability to step into a certain part of a large method invocation (Shift+F7), drop frame, executing code snippets, showing method return values, etc. See More

Top Pro

Clear and detailed documentation

The documentation is exhaustive, easy to navigate, and clearly worded. See More

Top Pro

Android support, JavaEE support, etc

A very complete development environment support. See More

Top Pro

Lots of plugins

Many plugins are available for almost any task a developer may need to cover. Plugins are developed by Jetbrains themselves or by 3rd parties through the SDK available for writing them. See More

Top Pro

Smart refactorings

IDEA places an emphasis in safe refactoring, offering a variety of features to make this possible for a variety of languages. These features include safe delete, type migration and replacing method code duplicates. See More

Top Pro

Support for many languages

IntelliJ supports many languages besides Java, some of these are: golang, Scala, Clojure, Groovy, Bash, etc... See More

Top Pro

Free version available

There is a free community edition (open source) and an ultimate edition, which you can compare here. The ultimate edition is available for free for one year for students but must be registered through an .edu e-mail account. See More

Top Pro

Stable and robust

IntelliJ IDEA hardly ever crashes or has any issues that plague other Java IDEs like file corruption or slowness. See More

Top Pro

Intuitive and slick UI

IDEA has a clean, intuitive interface with some customization available (such as the Darcula theme). See More

Top Pro

Fast and smart contextual assistance

Uses a fast indexing technique to provide contextual hints (auto-completion, available object members, import suggestions). On-the-fly code analysis to detect errors and propose refactorization. See More

See All

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score 5 · Answer 2

DBeaver

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Supported on Windows (2000/XP/2003/Vista/7/8/10), Linux, Mac OS and Solaris (x86). See More

JollyDerzelas's Experience

Seriously capable and nice DB client. It took quite a while for me to notice it among the others, but it's the tool of choice for me now. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows,

Top Pro

Works for many types of databases

MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access, Sybase, Java DB (Derby), Firebird (Interbase), Derby (JavaDB), SQLite, Mimer, HSQLDB, H2, IBM Informix, Teradata, SAP MAX DB, Cache, Ingres, Linter, Vertica, MongoDB, Cassandra, ODBC, Any JDBC compliant data source See More

Top Pro

Advanced copy/export

Copy/export as CSV, HTML, JSON, Markdown, SQL, XML etc. See More

Top Pro

Autocomplete

Autocomplete for databases, tables, columns and keywords. See More

Top Pro

Formatted text view

It has the classic grid view and a well-organized text view that you can quick-select with CTRL-A. See More

Top Pro

Free

It is licensed under GPL v2. See More

See All

score 11 · Answer 3

Jailer Relational Data Browsing Tool

Top Pro

Allows to display not only the data but also the relationships between them

Top Pro

SQL Console with code completion, syntax highlighting and database metadata visualization

Top Pro

Navigates bidirectionally through the database by following foreign-key-based or user-defined relationships

See All

score 3 · Answer 4

DbSchema

Top Pro

Graphical Diagram Editor

Includes the possibility to edit tables and data directly in the diagram without writing SQL statements. See More

Mike's Experience

Multiplatform database tool with a pleasing graphical representation of existing databases structures. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac

Technology:Java

Top Pro

Multi-platform

Runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. See More

Top Pro

Virtual Foreign Keys

If the Database schema is missing real foreign keys, it is possible to create virtual ones to be used within the tool. See More

Top Pro

Generator for Random Data

Includes the possibility to generate random numerical data or fetch random entries from a text file to populate the database. See More

Top Pro

Generate schema from existing database

Includes the possibility to generate an ER diagram from an existing database. See More

Top Pro

SQL editor with syntax highlighting

Includes an SQL editor with syntax highlighting and code completion feature. See More

Top Pro

Graphical Query Editor

Includes a visual query editor capable of using different join types, filters as well as the 'group by' clause. See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 5

Navicat

Add Video or Image

score 1 · Answer 6

Database .NET

Top Pro

Supports a lot of databases

See supported functions here: https://fishcodelib.com/Database_Support.htm Supported databases: SQL Server SQL Azure LocalDB MySQL Oracle IBM DB2 Informix PostgreSQL HP Vertica NuoDB Teradata Sybase ASE Firebird SQLite SQLCe Access Excel VistaDB dBase FoxPro OleDB ODBC OData Text NoSQL See More

RickZeeland's Experience

Supports multiple databases, needs .NET framework. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows

Top Pro

Free

Has a free version, the paid versions offer additional features: https://fishcodelib.com/Compare.htm See More

Top Pro

Portable

Top Pro

Diagrams

Can generate diagrams, although they look a bit ugly. See More

See All

score 31 · Answer 7

dbForge Studio for MySQL

score 15 · Answer 8

dbForge Studio for SQL Server

score 1 · Answer 9

Valentina Studio

Answer 10

DbForge Studio for MySQL

score 4 · Answer 11

6 Options Considered

My Recommendation for Intellij IDEA

My Recommendation for Intellij IDEA

Maintain multiple database connections

Somewhat expensive

Transactional edits

Standard hotkeys behave differently

In-place editable, tabular data view

Lack of plugins

Intelligent query interface

Bugs are not solved as often as they should

Many convenient features

Built with closed source components

Very powerful debugger

Clear and detailed documentation

Android support, JavaEE support, etc

Lots of plugins

Smart refactorings

Support for many languages

Free version available

Stable and robust

Intuitive and slick UI

Fast and smart contextual assistance

My Recommendation for DBeaver

My Recommendation for DBeaver

Cross-platform

Works for many types of databases

Advanced copy/export

Autocomplete

Formatted text view

Free

My Recommendation for Jailer Relational Data Browsing Tool

My Recommendation for Jailer Relational Data Browsing Tool

Allows to display not only the data but also the relationships between them

SQL Console with code completion, syntax highlighting and database metadata visualization

Navigates bidirectionally through the database by following foreign-key-based or user-defined relationships

My Recommendation for DbSchema

My Recommendation for DbSchema

Graphical Diagram Editor

Multi-platform

Virtual Foreign Keys

Generator for Random Data

Generate schema from existing database

SQL editor with syntax highlighting

Graphical Query Editor

My Recommendation for Navicat

My Recommendation for Navicat

My Recommendation for Database .NET

My Recommendation for Database .NET

Supports a lot of databases

Free

Portable

Diagrams

Don't see your favorite option? Add it.

My Recommendation for DataGrip

My Recommendation for DataGrip

My Recommendation for dbForge Studio for MySQL

My Recommendation for dbForge Studio for MySQL

My Recommendation for dbForge Studio for SQL Server

My Recommendation for dbForge Studio for SQL Server

My Recommendation for Valentina Studio

My Recommendation for Valentina Studio

My Recommendation for DbForge Studio for MySQL

My Recommendation for DbForge Studio for MySQL

My Recommendation for dbForge Studio for Oracle

My Recommendation for dbForge Studio for Oracle

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