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Somewhat related, but does anybody have suggestions for a quality PostgreSQL desktop GUI tool, akin to pgAdmin3? Not pgAdmin 4, whose usability is vastly inferior.

DBeaver is adequate, but not really built with Postgres in mind.

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I've been trying out Beekeeper Studio [https://www.beekeeperstudio.io/] recently, and like that it supports both MySQL and PostgreSQL (and others I don't use). The interface takes a little bit to get used to, but it's been pretty powerful for me.

Before that, or when I'm in a rush to just get something done as I adjust to Beekeeper, I use Postbird (an Electron app) [https://github.com/Paxa/postbird]

Beekeeper Studio maintainer here. It's 100% FOSS and cross platform (Windows, MacOS, Linux).

I love Postgres and started Beekeeper because I wanted 'Sequel Pro for PSQL on Linux'. We have a lot of users so seems like we're doing something right.

Very happy for new PSQL.

If you have questions, let me know!

Thank you for your work on it! I used Sequel Pro for a long time for MySQL databases and occasionally use its successor Sequel Ace as well, but I'm moving my workflow to Beekeeper Studio as much as I can.

Glad to hear! Please file issues if anything is confusing or missing, it's a pretty friendly GitHub community.

In addition to the excellent Beekeeper, you might want to check out https://dbeaver.io/.

And azure data studio now has some pg support: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/azure-data-studio/exten...

Personally I've landed on just using pgcli.com (and pg_dump etc).

I pay for jetbrains datagrip, worth every penny.

Seconded. DataGrip is terrific and supports every database type I have ever come into contact with. And it's all JDBC-based so you can add new connectors pretty easily (from within the app, no less. No fiddling with files necessary). I had to do that to do help on a proposal a few years ago for a project that had a Firebird database and Datagrip didn't natively support it.

Going to second this, however I will warn, at least in my experience it is a little bit different from most DB IDEs. I didn't like it at all first time I used it, then a friend told me to give it another try. I've never looked back, fantastic tool.

One of my coworkers uses datagrip. Needing to install mysql specific tooling so that they can take a full database dump is kind of frustrating. Many other tools can do it out of the box, why not datagrip?

PgModeler [0], cannot recommend it enough. You have to compile yourself the free version (it's open source - you pay if you want to directly download the precompiled binaries) and it's a bit of work if you want to include the query optimizer plugin, but there's documentation and GitHub issues with solutions already in place. Once you compile it for the first time and start using it, you'll keep doing it again with each new version. I haven't found a better Postgres tool yet.

edit: it's a cross-platform tool, supporting Linux, Mac and Windows (32/64)

[0]: https://pgmodeler.io/

I really like the diff function to generate migrations. Make changes to your model and generate a sql file that syncs your database to the model.

Especially cool that you can buy a license using Bitcoin! Do you know if the backup/restore functionality is reliable?

Commercial, but worth every Penny and then some in my opinion: https://tableplus.com/

It looks good, performs very well, and supports WAY more than just pg. It’s an indispensable part of my dev tooling. Bought it what last year, year before maybe? Very happy customer here, zero problems, all gravy.

How does it compare to Postico for working with PG databases? TablePlus seems very similar to Postico, but with support for other DBs, which we don’t need.

Tableplus is fantastic software. I have it open all day every day.

I like Postico, but it is mac-only and not free.

Ah, I should have clarified that I’m using Linux and Windows.

Postico is my favorite desktop software of any kind

Navicat for PostgreSQL (https://www.navicat.com/en/products/navicat-for-postgresql)

I second Postico on Mac. I usually recommend TablePlus for other platforms.

Interesting. I’m currently using Postico on Mac, but considering TablePlus. Why do you find Postico superior?

I've been using SQL Workbench/J [https://www.sql-workbench.eu/] for quite a while now. Uses JDBC so it'll connect to anything, good SQL formatter, builtin scripting commands, support for XLS import/export, headless mode, and most importantly fast even when loading massive result sets.

Happy with dbeaver, what are its shortcomings re pg?

I guess I’m still getting used to it, but it always takes a few extra steps to open things like views and functions, autocomplete needs configuring to work properly, and a couple of other features I’m blanking on at the moment. It’s all small stuff, but it can add up.

Yes, they are in separate folders, but don't think it has to do with PG per se. My autocomplete works well, don't think I did anything special. Maybe added a schema to the "search path?" May have been pgcli (which I also recommend).

Yeah, ultimately it’s the best alternative I’ve used so far, and it also supports other languages, so I’m likely to continue using it.

When did you last use pgadmin4? It recently went through a big changes, in my opinion it's the best client for PostgreSQL.

A few months ago. I had semi-frequent troubles with starting up and freezing (on both Linux and Windows).

I would also easily make accidental GUI changes that I could only revert by reloading original settings.

A less galling example was the introduction of a highlight that marked the line in a query where an error occurred. It was a bright blue color, hard on the eyes, almost completely obscuring the text. It’s a comparatively minor issue, but illustrative of how the tool’s usability was steadily declining.

https://dbeaver.io/ is pretty good IMO.

There’s plenty of GUI tools, but what about tools for writing SQL inside VS Code?

We usually write our DB migrations in VS Code along with any other code changes, but the PG support in VS Code seems to be lacking. Just some naïve validation of PostgreSQL code inside VS Code would be awesome!

I used pgsanity at the CLI for a while when I unfortunately had coding and testing split between two machines. Can be used with any editor. https://github.com/markdrago/pgsanity

Interesting, thanks! I wonder how easy it would be to write a VS Code plug-in using that.

If you can run a linter, you can run it as well.

Ah, good point! I might try to create an eslint rule that incorporates it.

DataGrip is cool.

pgAdmin 4 has made rapid strides. If you haven't checked it out recently (~6 mos?) you may be pleasantly surprised. Many of the rough edges have been sanded off.

Interesting, it’s been roughly that amount of time since I’ve last used it. I might check it out again.

It's still not the most polished thing in the world, but few IDE-ish tools are... particularly free ones.

I've used a lot of very very expensive ones that aren't as polished as pgAdmin4.

The whole "native app with a web interface" thing is... probably not anybody's idea of "ideal," but I 100% respect it. It's free and it's multiplatform. Choices and compromises were made to achieve that and I don't know that I would have done differently when faced with the same constraints.

For Windows https://www.heidisql.com/ is great

Yeah, that is a good one. It’s lightweight and supports a lot of languages, but it lacks some of the nicer features of Postgres-specific tools. I think I had difficulty listing things by schemes.

TablePlus

The best is psql, really, learn to use it.

TablePlus is the only thing I've used cross-platform that is even close to Postico. Postico is amazing.

Interesting. I’m currently using Postico on Mac, but considering TablePlus. Why do you find Postico superior?

Sorry for the late response, missed this somehow. I'm realizing as I try to write this that it is a bunch of small things, and maybe it boils down to having used it a long time or it being my first non-garbage (SSMS, PGAdmin) UX db tool. The autocomplete seems to work exactly as I'm expecting, the filtering seems to work a little better than TablePlus. Copying and pasting is a bit more consistent (I do this a lot while dev'ing). The whole UI is lightning fast and always stays responsive.

That all being said, TablePlus is 80 - 90% of that and the fact that it also works with multiple databases is huge. I also love the vertical tabs for multiple connections, editor sidebar pane for single records and tabbed queries vs a single query pane.

Both are fantastic, but if I was postgres only I'd probably stick with postico. As-is I just paid for both.

It's paid, but I like SQL Pro for Postgres. Simple, lightweight, etc.

I use Valentina Studio (free license). Does everything I need.

another vote for TablePlus

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