blog: refresh top open source sql clients

Author: tianzhou

content/blog/top-open-source-sql-clients.md

@@ -1,16 +1,16 @@
 ---
 title: Top 8 Free, Open Source SQL Clients to Make Database Management Easier 2025
 author: Mila
-updated_at: 2025/03/03 10:00:00
+updated_at: 2025/08/27 10:00:00
 feature_image: /content/blog/top-open-source-sql-clients/banner.webp
 tags: Industry
 featured: true
-description: SQL clients makes it safer and easier to manage databases. In this post, we are taking a look at open source SQL clients options for you to try in 2024.
+description: SQL clients make it safer and easier to manage databases. In this post, we are taking a look at open source SQL client options for you to try in 2025.
 ---
 
 <HintBlock type="info">
 
-This post is maintained by Bytebase, an open-source database DevSecOps tools. We update the post every year.
+This post is maintained by Bytebase, an open-source database DevSecOps tool. We update the post every year.
 
 </HintBlock>
 
@@ -19,16 +19,17 @@ This post is maintained by Bytebase, an open-source database DevSecOps tools. We
 | 2023/04/28     | Initial version.                               |
 | 2024/06/30     | Add reference link.                            |
 | 2025/03/03     | Remove Sqlectron as it's no longer maintained. |
+| 2025/08/27     | Update GitHub star growth and wording.         |
 
-In the past, the only way to access or modify a database was through the command line, which was not only not intuitive, but also prone to errors that could lead to major problems. So people began to develop tools with a graphical user interface (GUI), and that became what we now know as SQL clients, which are basically front-end applications for database services. In this post, we are taking a look at some open source SQL clients options for you to try.
+In the past, the only way to access or modify a database was through the command line, which was not only not intuitive, but also prone to errors that could lead to major problems. So people began to develop tools with a graphical user interface (GUI), and that became what we now know as SQL clients, which are basically front-end applications for database services. In this post, we are taking a look at some open source SQL client options for you to try.
 
 [![star-history](/content/blog/top-open-source-sql-clients/star-history.webp)](https://star-history.com/#sqlchat/sqlchat&dbgate/dbgate&dbeaver/dbeaver&beekeeper-studio/beekeeper-studio&heidisql/heidisql&phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin&pgadmin-org/pgadmin4&bytebase/bytebase&Date)
 
 ## SQL Chat
 
-[SQL Chat](https://github.com/sqlchat/sqlchat) is a young player (released in March, 2023), prompting SQL clients from the traditional GUI-based to the Chat-based stage: it's powered by ChatGPT to write and polish SQL for you. Databases supported now include MySQL, PostgreSQL and MSSQL. You can access it directly via [sqlchat.ai](https://www.sqlchat.ai/) or deploy it via Docker.
+[SQL Chat](https://github.com/sqlchat/sqlchat) is a young player (released in March, 2023), propelling SQL clients from the traditional GUI-based to the Chat-based stage: it's powered by ChatGPT to write and polish SQL for you. Databases supported now include MySQL, PostgreSQL and MSSQL. You can access it directly via [sqlchat.ai](https://www.sqlchat.ai/) or deploy it via Docker.
 
-SQL Chat launched on [Product Hunt](https://www.producthunt.com/posts/sql-chat-2) mid April, and it gained lots of attention that there's a limit to the free service.
+SQL Chat launched on [Product Hunt](https://www.producthunt.com/posts/sql-chat-2) in April 2023, and it gained so much attention that there's now a limit to the free service.
 
 ![sqlchat](/content/blog/top-open-source-sql-clients/sqlchat.webp)
 
@@ -38,15 +39,15 @@ SQL Chat launched on [Product Hunt](https://www.producthunt.com/posts/sql-chat-2
 
 ![dbeaver](/content/blog/top-open-source-sql-clients/dbeaver.webp)
 
-It's worth noting that DBeaver just [announced](https://techcrunch.com/2023/04/11/dbeaver-takes-6m-seed-investment-to-build-on-growing-popularity/) a $6M seed round two weeks ago (the press release also mentions that DBeaver has over 8M users and 5,000+ paying subscribers), and the first since the author built it in 2013.
+It's worth noting that DBeaver [announced](https://techcrunch.com/2023/04/11/dbeaver-takes-6m-seed-investment-to-build-on-growing-popularity/) a $6M seed round in April 2023 (the press release also mentions that DBeaver has over 8M users and 5,000+ paying subscribers), their first funding since the author built it in 2013.
 
 ## Beekeeper Studio
 
 [Beekeeper Studio](https://github.com/beekeeper-studio/beekeeper-studio) is a modern (aesthetic) and lightweight SQL client that supports MySQL, Postgres, SQLite, SQL Server, etc. It is available on Linux, Mac and Windows.
 
 ![beekeeper](/content/blog/top-open-source-sql-clients/beekeeper.webp)
 
-The author of Beekeeper Studio is an independent developer who started building this tool in 2019 because he couldn't find an easy-to-use cross-platform SQL client. After almost a year of hardwork, the first version was released in early 2020.
+The author of Beekeeper Studio is an independent developer who started building this tool in 2019 because he couldn't find an easy-to-use cross-platform SQL client. After almost a year of hard work, the first version was released in early 2020.
 
 ## DbGate
 
@@ -80,12 +81,12 @@ After taking a look at [the history of pgAdmin](https://www.enterprisedb.com/blo
 
 ## Bytebase
 
-Aforementioned tools are all client-side SQL editors for individual use. What if you want a SQL clients for team use? The client-side SQL editors would not be sufficient because for team use, it would require:
+Aforementioned tools are all client-side SQL editors for individual use. What if you want a SQL client for team use? The client-side SQL editors would not be sufficient because for team use, it would require:
 
-- **Centralized access control**. Ideally you don't want to give away production database credientials to developers.
-- **Data masking**. You may want to prevent users seeing sensitive data.
-- **Request and review workflow**. You want users go through a ticketing process to request the access rights.
+- **Centralized access control**. Ideally you don't want to give away production database credentials to developers.
 - **Audit logging**. You want to capture all operations performed on the database.
+- **Request and review workflow**. You want users to go through a ticketing process to request the access rights.
+- **Data masking**. You may want to prevent users seeing sensitive data.
 - **Policy as Code (GitOps)**. Permission control and masking policies can be [codified](https://github.com/bytebase/example-database-security) and integrated with your existing DevOps pipeline.
 
 All above requirements call for a server-side solution. And that's what [Bytebase SQL Editor](/sql-editor) provides.
@@ -94,12 +95,11 @@ All above requirements call for a server-side solution. And that's what [Bytebas
 
 ## To summarize
 
-We briefly looked at the history of a handful of SQL Clients to understand some of the more famous open source solutions, rather than comparing the product or their functions (I mean, after 20 years of refinement those veteran SQL clients can't be too bad, right?) . It seems that most of the authors began building because they were unable to find a product that fit their needs perfectly, but the story afterwards is very different: some tools were then commercialized, some continued on with a strong community, and some gradually faded out due to a change of focus.
+We briefly looked at the history of a handful of SQL Clients to understand some of the more famous open source solutions, rather than comparing the product or their functions (I mean, after 20 years of refinement those veteran SQL clients can't be too bad, right?). It seems that most of the authors began building because they were unable to find a product that fit their needs perfectly, but the story afterwards is very different: some tools were then commercialized, some continued on with a strong community, and some gradually faded out due to a change of focus.
 
 And we wonder, with the popularity of ChatGPT, will there be more open source SQL clients like SQL Chat based on Chat interaction?
 
-Beyond using the general SQL Client to interact with the databases, developers and DBAs also adopt
-more specialized tools for particular tasks:
+Beyond using the general SQL Client to interact with the databases, developers and DBAs also adopt more specialized tools for particular tasks:
 
 - To perform schema migrations, go check out [Top Database Schema Migration Tools](/blog/top-database-schema-change-tool-evolution/).
 - To compare and synchronize database schemas, go check out [Top MySQL Schema Compare Tool](/blog/top-mysql-schema-compare-tools/).