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Show HN: Insomnia-like client for SQLite

rosefinchapp.com

70 pointsvdemedes15 comments

Hi vdemedes—nice work! I'm curious whether you've considered putting this in the mac app store or not, or what your reasoning was around that.

Also curious if you did beta testing if you could tell us anything about what that process was like (e.g. finding people, collecting feedback on bugs or usability issues)

(Just curious since I'm working on a desktop app with similar pricing etc., not in the database space though)

Hey, thank you!

> I'm curious whether you've considered putting this in the mac app store or not, or what your reasoning was around that.

I haven't put it on Mac App Store for two reasons primarily:

1. I already figured out licensing, integration with Paddle, building and distribution for my previous app, so I was able to reuse 99% of it 2. I wanted to have full control over rolling out updates quickly in case a critical bug appears

> Also curious if you did beta testing if you could tell us anything about what that process was like

I tested it myself, because I was building this app for my needs, so I kind of knew exactly what I wanted it to do. I also received regular extensive feedback from a friend, who's also helped me shape the app a lot.

It looks beautiful. How much work would it be to add support for more than just SQLite? Postgres would personally make me happy.

Thank you! I started with SQLite, because that's what I use the most, but I'm planning to add support for MySQL and PostgreSQL in the coming weeks.

I love this -- I would use this if there was Linux support!

Until then, I'll have to get by with SQLime or DBeaver :(

Thank you! If it takes off, I'll consider adding Linux support. Until then I want to ship high quality experience for Mac, rather than subpar experience for everyone. ;)

If you have wine installed, try https://www.heidisql.com/ it works surprisingly well under wine.

Nice work! I really like the clean interface. I've been using TablePlus for the past year and it works nice but I feel the UI could be a little better, like yours for example.

Any plans to support MySQL or Postgres?

Thank you! Yes, working on it right now.

As for SQLite GUIs, there is also the free open-source cross-platform SQLiteStudio.

https://sqlitestudio.pl

There are great apps out there, but all of them are too complicated and too powerful. What I wanted is to have a nice minimalistic app where I could collect all my queries that I often use for debugging various stuff. That's why I won't add things like data editing or schema changes to Rosefinch. If you need extensive features like that, you'll definitely be better of with SQLiteStudio or alternatives ;)

SQLite is a big part of our tool chain, and has been very good to us. We’ve been using DB Browser for SQLite[1] for several years. It runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Rosefinch looks nice, but I’m not seeing a real use case. If I had a bunch of queries I was always running, I’d probably just make them views, available to me in any client, including the command line. (Sometimes the command line is best.)

If I didn’t want to go that far, DB Browser for SQLite lets you save a work session. Whatever tabs of SQL you have open are preserved, and can be run again at will, the same as Rosefinch. You can also rename them from their default names, which are just SQL 1, SQL2, etc.

It does a lot, but stays out of your way.

[1] https://sqlitebrowser.org

I love DB Browser for SQLite. Wish there was something similar for Postgres.

That's cool, if that app works for you, keep using it.

I'm not trying to convince anyone to switch or use Rosefinch anyway. I built it because I needed it exactly like this and shared it here in case there's someone else who wants something like this too.

I’ve been using SQLiteFlow which seems well balanced in features and aesthetics:

https://www.sqliteflow.com/

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