What are the best SQL clients for Linux?

Question

19

Options
Considered

549

User
Recs.

May 2, 2021

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

The Best 1 of 16 OptionsWhy?

Best SQL clients for Linux	Price	Platforms	Technology
95 DBeaver	Free / paid	Windows, Linux, Mac	Java
83 DataGrip	$ 199/Y	-	-
-- Squirrel SQL	FREE	Windows, Linux, Mac	Java
-- DbVisualizer	Free / paid	Windows, Linux, Mac	Java
-- MySQL Workbench	FREE	Windows, Linux, Mac	-

See Full List

15 Other Options Considered

DataGrip

Top Pro

Friendly interface

Zero learning curve interface for those who have expeirence with another IntelliJ IDE. See More

Top Con

Expensive

As of January 2018, Jet Brains charges $89 for 1st year, $71 for 2nd year, and $53 for every 3rd year and onwards for individual customers. See More

MightySuurToll's Experience

After having used free tools and expensive paid tools for years (Toad, SSMS, Redgate). This does a lot for a fair price. Some of my favorite features are setting "Copy to Json" or "Copy to SQL Insert" which lets you copy fields in a result set to the corresponding syntax. Great completion for JOINs, tab completion is fast. It's great across multiple DB flavors, operating systems Mac, Linux, Windows and has nice tooling for projects. This is something I have paid my own money for and would again if the job stopped paying for it. See More

Top Pro

Helps you avoid mistakes

It can catch SQL bugs and suggest ways to resolve them. It will inform of unresolved objects and the use of keywords as identifiers. See More

Top Con

Not user friendly

Don Alfons Nisnoni's Experience

Great for beginners See More

Top Pro

Good integration with other IntelliJ tools

Top Con

Performance can be slow/sluggish when working with high-volume databases

As with all other IDEs, DataGrip is powerful and thus requires more resources than usual. It can use up to several GB's of memory when working with high-volume databases, and this has an impact on performance if your system is not equipped to handle it. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Top Pro

Much more powerful than its counterparts

DataGrip is a full-featured IDE for working with databases and SQL. It includes commonly found features in database clients, and offers IDE-specific features beyond that — version control, autocompletion, refactoring support, etc. See More

Top Pro

Easy to add external database drivers using JDBC

For example, it is easy to get DataGrip to work with Spark SQL / Thriftserver See More

Top Pro

Powerful data editor

A powerful data editor lets you add, remove, edit, and clone data rows. Navigate through the data by foreign keys and use the text search to find anything in the data displayed in the table editor. All your changes are stored locally and can be submitted at once. Multiple fields can also be edited at once. See More

See All

MySQL Workbench

Top Pro

Community version

There is a community edition available that is free and open source; licensed under GPL. See More

Top Con

Very buggy under Ubuntu 19.04

Dialogue windows crash the application. Large fields cannot be pasted into due to render issues. And many more bugs... See More

GenuineElkunirsa's Experience

As of Ubuntu 19.04 workbench crashes with every first table update query due to unable to load the dialogue window, this also affects query saving or any use of the dialogue window. Editing fields with large content is also impossible due to render issues. Anyone facing this issue, first select a field with less content on the same row and tab into the field you wish to paste into. 6 months after a major release of OS this should be working, it feels more like this tool is being dropped. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac

Top Pro

EER diagramming

MySQL Workbench has enhanced entity–relationship modeling support. See More

Top Con

Freezes constantly

Running any kind of query with more than a thousand records or even just opening a file and other actions crashes the application. You are unable to actually stop a query. You have to kill from Windows Task Manager every single time. See More

EmpatheticMehen's Experience

Too complicated, not able to scale up size of fonts etc, installs its own java See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Works on Windows, Linux, OS X. See More

Top Con

Complicated

Sometimes it’s too hard to understand how developers implemented certain features. See More

Top Pro

Database synchronization

Forward & reverse engeneering See More

Top Con

Unintuitive UI

Workbench's user interface is regarded by a lot of users as unintuitive and hard to use. It seems cluttered and hard to get used to. The left side of the application has several sections (which you get to choose which to open) with several tools for each. A lot of features are hidden behind menus and need some getting used to find them. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

Actions can be directly carried out on tables. The software prepares the relevant query for approval before execution. See More

Top Con

Column size is limited

Can't read columns bigger than 65534 chars. See More

See All

HeidiSQL

Sqlectron

Top Con

Unmaintained

The creator stopped working on the project, it is in need of maintainers. See More

Top Pro

Built-in support for major databases

Sqlectron supports PostgreSQL, MySQL (and MariaDB), MSSQL Server, SQLite, and Cassandra. See More

DaringHera's Experience

I used to use Squirrel but switched to Sqlectron because I was tired of installing plugins for mysql and postgres on every computer I installed Squirrel on. Sqlectron has major database support built-in, so no need for plugins. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac

Top Con

Written in Electron

Top Con

Only installable through npm

Horrible package manager that is not allowed on our servers. See More

Top Con

No plugins

Top Con

Buggy

Sqlectron is installable and that's about it. You can't actually add servers to connect to in the app, making it a 200 MB paperweight. See More

See All

SQL Workbench

Add Video or Image

PopSQL

Top Con

Requires Google login

Doesn't work until logged in with Google. See More

SophisticatedRuohtta's Experience

bon See More

caitlanyu's Experience

PopSQL provides a seamless experience to write queries, visualize data, as well as sharing results with my team. See More

See All

Beekeeper Studio

Top Pro

Postgres

I use SQLite, MySQL, and Postgres, and Beekeeper supports all of them! See More

Top Con

Not for a DBA

It's great for web/app developers who interact with a database, but if you're a full time DBA you probably have better powertools available See More

EmpatheticGrannus's Experience

Connected to client's mssql server with no dramas and has a clean and simple interface. See More

Specs

Platforms:Mac, Windows, Linux

Technology:Electron

Compatibility:SQLite, MySQL, Postgres, SQL Server, Redshift, CockroachDB, and more

Dark Theme:Yes

See All Specs

Top Pro

Easy to use

Way less confusing than other DB managers, and has a simple tabbed interface that feels more like VS Code. See More

Rathboma's Experience

Modern and easy to use SQL editor, works great with all my databases. See More

Top Pro

Free and Open Source

MIT License! See More

Top Pro

Autocomplete

The autocomplete is useful but not obtrusive See More

See All

SQLyog

Top Pro

Has a community version

Top Con

Paid

As almost everything that is good has a price, with SQLyog it is no different, to use ALL the functionality you need to buy, however it is WELL WORTH the investment. See More

IncredibleCarmanor's Experience

Melhor IDE sql para Mysql. Possui funcao "autocompletar", ferramenta de Designer , backup, importacao e exportacao de dados. See More

Top Pro

Allows the use of runtime variables

Enabling the use of undeclared variables within a script is a plus, being VERY useful for executing SQL tscript with parameters. See More

Top Pro

Advanced connection options

It's possible to connect to any MySQL server with these powerful connection options - HTTP, SSH, SSL. See More

Top Pro

Fast and stable

Completely written in c/c++ using win32 api gives is edge in performance over other clients. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use and elegant UI

The UI is uncluttered and intuitive. See More

Top Pro

Power tools

There are very useful power tools to do task like database synchronization, visual data comparison, Schedule backup with email notification. One can also schedule task with scheduler and will get report of task completion or error in email. See More

Top Pro

Works on LINUX via wine

See All

mycli

Add Video or Image

Oracle SQL Developer / Raptor

CourageousPersephone's Experience

this company does not allow the download of this software See More

I Recommend...

Built By the Slant team

Find the best product instantly.

Lustre recommends the best products at their lowest prices – right on Amazon.

4.7 star rating

Try it now - it's free

score 228 · Accepted Answer

DBeaver

Top Pro

Cross-platform

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

Top Con

Can become unstable after an update

An update can corrupt the configuration files and prevent DBeaver to start. See More

RationalPodaga's Experience

Free, Dark Theme, No learning curve See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac

Technology:Java

Top Pro

Free & open source

The community edition is free and open source under Apache License 2.0. See More

Top Con

Query panel blink

Juli ardi's Experience

The community edition is free and support all database which has JDBC driver. It has a nice GUI which isn't like any other Java-based database management software. See More

Top Pro

Supports a lot of database servers

Connects to plenty of database servers via JDBC. See More

Top Con

Never-ending function errors

Like 'Communications link failure', 'Connection refused' (Community Edition 6.2.1). See More

KnowledgeableIsimud's Experience

great query generation and UI table updates See More

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 Con

Written in Java

Consumes a lot of memory. See More

ProfessionalXolotl's Experience

Regular updates, good clean UI. Everything an Open Source solution should have! See More

Top Pro

Free

It it licensed under GPL v2. See More

Top Con

Unstable and buggy

Crashes once a week. Buggy Introspection (sometimes Refresh does not refresh Introspection). See More

GloriousChibchacum's Experience

Awful and buggy. See More

Top Pro

Separation between production, QA and development environments

The UI uses a different color to indicate that you are working on a production system which is a hint that the user must be careful. See More

Top Con

Trigger edition

Until version 3.5.8 you can not edit triggers, only view (since 3.5.6). See More

MellowGaxiSonnim's Experience

DBeaver under linux is unusable, the query panel blink forever, write a query is impossible. And many graphical parts are red! See More

Top Pro

Clean, neat, and easy to use interface

Top Con

Cannot view function

FerventApedemak's Experience

This sql editor may many problem and bugs not saved materialized views after editing not worked backup restoring stored procedures created uncorrect tested on debian 9, windows 7 See More

Top Pro

Follow foreign key to their primary key

If you have a table with a foreign key you can click on it to see the table row where this key references to. See More

Top Con

Does not support regex for filtering tables

Not able to filter like so: ^patient|standard$ Which would give you the tables in the list that start with 'patient' and end with 'standard'; See More

DashingVenilia's Experience

It is buggy... I have granted all rights to the user using mysql terminal tool and still I can't open "packages", "triggers" and "events" inside a GUI. I tried downgrading the drivers to a stable version but it is the same. The error is: SELECT command denied to user. 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 Con

Apache license

FlexiblePsamathe's Experience

Nice t See More

Top Pro

Easy to use, clean neat interface

See All

Built by Slant

Find the best product
instantly.

Stop wasting time searching endlessly. Lustre recommends the best products at their lowest prices – right on Amazon.

4.7 star rating

Add to Chrome - It's Free

Add to Edge - It's Free

Add to Firefox - It's Free

Add to Opera - It's Free

Add to Brave - It's Free

Add to Safari - It's Free

Try now - it's free

The Best 1 of 16 OptionsWhy?

My Recommendation for DBeaver

My Recommendation for DBeaver

Cross-platform

Can become unstable after an update

Free & open source

Query panel blink

Supports a lot of database servers

Never-ending function errors

Works for many types of databases

Written in Java

Free

Unstable and buggy

Separation between production, QA and development environments

Trigger edition

Clean, neat, and easy to use interface

Cannot view function

Follow foreign key to their primary key

Does not support regex for filtering tables

Formatted text view

Apache license

Easy to use, clean neat interface

15 Other Options Considered

My Recommendation for DataGrip

My Recommendation for DataGrip

Friendly interface

Expensive

Helps you avoid mistakes

Not user friendly

Good integration with other IntelliJ tools

Performance can be slow/sluggish when working with high-volume databases

Cross-platform

Much more powerful than its counterparts

Easy to add external database drivers using JDBC

Powerful data editor

My Recommendation for Squirrel SQL

My Recommendation for Squirrel SQL

Cross-platform

Plugin directory is empty by default

Can be extended through plugins

My Recommendation for DbVisualizer

My Recommendation for DbVisualizer

Data Monitor Tool comfortably enables for graphical query results monitoring

Expensive

Not language specific

Query build tool is extremely easy

My Recommendation for MySQL Workbench

My Recommendation for MySQL Workbench

Community version

Very buggy under Ubuntu 19.04

EER diagramming

Freezes constantly

Cross-platform

Complicated

Database synchronization

Unintuitive UI

Easy to use

Column size is limited

My Recommendation for HeidiSQL

My Recommendation for HeidiSQL

My Recommendation for Sqlectron

My Recommendation for Sqlectron

Unmaintained

Built-in support for major databases

Written in Electron

Only installable through npm

No plugins

Buggy

My Recommendation for SQL Workbench/J

My Recommendation for SQL Workbench/J

Allows you to edit changes before they are executed.

Works with almost any SQL database

Can edit data in table mode.

My Recommendation for Aqua Data Studio

My Recommendation for Aqua Data Studio

Very expensive

Comparison tools

Comprehensive list of server and database objects in GUI

Query builder

Rich interface as alternative for DBA queries