Mathesar project lead here, it's a nice surprise to see this on the front page! I'm happy to answer questions if anyone has any.
We do have a "Record Page" for each individual record that shows a tabular view of related records from other tables, here's a screenshot from our website: https://mathesar.org/_app/immutable/assets/step-2.CKT9S1j0.a... - you can create new linked records directly there.
As for working with multiple linked tables, while editing data, you can search through nested links easily, here's an screenshot illustrating the record selector: https://mathesar.org/_app/immutable/assets/step-3.SKu3rwM2.a...
We also have a visual query builder that can join data across tables: https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/7ff100fe-cd26-422... and https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0df680d3-621d-466...
I hope that helps!
* do unit conversions by a multiplier - showing converted values in ui and converting on read and store
* hiding some (empty and irrelevant for specific situation) fields conditionally on values of other fields
would make this a much better fit.
If you had some time, it would be great if you could make a GitHub issue with more details about your use case! https://github.com/mathesar-foundation/mathesar/issues
Along the way other nice projects for slightly different but also overlapping use cases include teable.io, budibase and supabase among others.
We're working on multiple options for sustainability, both the traditional nonprofit route (major donors, individual sponsors, etc.) and also looking into revenue from hosting or services. We're committed to always being 100% open source and self-hostable no matter what.
I love it personally and it looks pretty good so far. Also, amazing that the team started it as an open source project under a 501c3 nonprofit as well.
Having a more "spreadsheet" (or I would say, MS Access-like) UI is quite cool for certain use cases (e.g. low/no-code but backed by the full power of regular old Postgres). Can allow pretty agile development, although - it can get out of control if not managed with care... but nice to see the access controls/permissions there to help a bit.
All interesting choices, looks cool!
Metabase adds an abstraction layer with concepts like questions, segments, and metrics, while Mathesar works directly with Postgres tables, schemas, and permissions. Mathesar is deeply integrated with Postgres, so it supports Postgres-native features like role and privilege based access control, which aren’t possible in products designed for multiple database backends.
I hope that helps!
All the language is DB: it's tables not spreadsheets, records not rows, etc... It also doesn't hide things like 'schema' button or metadata like table description.
Maybe this project could do things like integrations with web services, easy actions on groups (like paste a list of ids and do something to all those records), and publicly available web pages (surveys, donations, pretty event pages.)
Every app has some terminology you need to learn to use it effectively, we just think that terminology should actually map to how databases work, rather than being an arbitrary abstraction. Instead of inventing our own terms, we stick to tables, records, schemas, and relationships so that users who learn Mathesar are also learning concepts that translate directly to Postgres (or relational databases in general).
Making software approachable isn’t about hiding complexity, it’s about presenting it well. The UI patterns you use determine whether a system feels intuitive, not whether the underlying mental model is simple. A well-designed interface can make even complex concepts feel natural, while a bad one can make simple tasks frustrating. Mathesar doesn’t make databases approachable by pretending tables aren’t tables, it makes them approachable by using familiar interactions, and progressively exposing functionality as you need it.
We do want to work on surveys ("forms") soon, and we're definitely thinking about bulk actions and integrations as well. Please feel free to open a feature request on https://github.com/mathesar-foundation/mathesar/issues for anything that would particularly help your use case.
This could not have been better said.
The functions are what lets us reflect the latest DB state in the UI in real-time without worrying about schema migrations or adding a bunch of reflection queries to each API call (which would make the UI much less responsive). We just need them installed _somewhere_ in the database.
Our custom data types (e.g. email, URL) are just available for convenience. If you don't have any columns that use those types, then you'll never need to deal with them.
There should be any notable performance decline, since the Python backend is just an API proxy towards PostgresSQL database servers.
That poped up on HN too a few weeks ago.
1. Mathesar includes a lot of cool UI elements for CRUD operations on tables, schemas, and columns. Outerbase doesn't have any UI for this, but only a SQL editor.
2. Mathesar has a lot of support for "relationships" (more accurately described as references in Postgres, but I digress) that Outerbase does not. For example, if you're inserting a foreign key column into Outerbase you have to manually type the value of the column you're referencing. In Mathesar, you'll see a dropdown of all the "related" rows and be able to search through their columns to find the record you need.
3. Mathesar is postgres-exclusive, while Outerbase works with many other DB providers.
And more in terms of governance and usage:
1. Outerbase is paid, with a very restrictive free tier. The option to self host is only available to enterprise customers.
2. Mathesar is entirely free and self-hosted.
Big fan of Mathesar by the way!
1. We have a incredibly powerful CRUD editor on our table, in fact you can drag and drop and select multiple columns & rows, I haven't seen many other DB editors support this.
2. We allow you to pick foreign key constraints from a dropdown as well.
3. This is true.
4. Outerbase is open-source with more and more features heading into our core offering there. https://github.com/outerbase/studio