5 ms·

A bit off topic but I wish postgres came with a good desktop app. pgadmin 4 is just abysmal compared to e.g. MySQL Workbench.

Trufa 8y ago
Wow, considering I have the worst memories of MySQL Workbench, pgadmin sounds awful indeed.
titusjohnson 8y ago
I use Postico on Mac.
- commandertso 8y ago
  +1 for Postico. One-time fee, and I've only ever had one or two moments of frustration with it - as opposed to much larger numbers with PGAdmin 3 and 4.
- joshcrews 8y ago
  + 5,000 for Postico. Such excellent software.
okcwarrior 8y ago
I know it's somewhat pricey but datagrip by jetbrains is amazing.
- kyriakos 8y ago
  And if you are not only working with DBs you can get it bundled with their IDEs. Eg phpstorm has most of datagrip functionality built in.
- h1d 8y ago
  Their offerings aren't pricey for what they provide. DataGrip alone is about $9/mo for a personal license (down to $4.5/mo on 3rd year if you pay annually) but you'd want to use the bundled one in other IDE if you code.
nixpulvis 8y ago
I like `psql` quite a lot. If you have your PAGER set to `less`. Also `\x` can really help view many columns vertically.
- grzm 8y ago
  I like psql a lot as well. That said, there's often a place for GUIs, and your parent asked specifically about desktop apps.
  - nixpulvis 8y ago
    Sure did, just thought they might also find this information helpful. Makes the `psql` client a bit more GUI like.
throwaway83628 8y ago
Try DBeaver its OSS, multi-database, and just about as good as MySql Workbench or SSMS. Since I switched I don't use anything else
- bradleyjg 8y ago
  Just out of curiosity, why did this require a throwaway?
  - throwaway83628 8y ago
    I hardly ever post comments and never articles, so I just create an account when it seems worthwhile. The mods don't seem bothered by this as long as such comments aren't flamey
    - grzm 8y ago
      From the guidelines: > "Throwaway accounts are ok for sensitive information, but please don't create them routinely. On HN, users should have an identity that others can relate to." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html As recently as a week ago, 'dang had this to say about throwaways: > "HN can't be a community without members. Disembodied comments are not community members. No one is required to use their real name here, but users need to have some consistent identity for others to relate to. Otherwise we might as well have no usernames and no community at all." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17996295 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17996295 And later goes on to make clear this includes "users who create throwaway accounts for everything, including uncontroversial stuff". https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17996858 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17996858 They also don't see or act on everything they see, so in that sense, I think you could say they "don't seem bothered." That said, I think it's fair to say it's preferred that you maintain some sort of identity.
      - throwaway83628 8y ago
        I definitely dont create them routinely. Maybe 4 times a year. Consistency isn't worth much if nobody knows who you are because you never post. The desire to create a community chafes against the zero verfication HN does for new accounts. If you want to create a community it should be harder to create a new account than login, but it's actually the opposite. To create a new account I don't need to remember my password, I just need a username and keyspam. This probably isn't what Dang wants but it's how the site currently works. If it's easier to create an account a couple times a year than remember my login, especially when nobody is gonna remember someone who posts 4 times a year, what is the point of maintaining an account. Just being logical here.
steamer25 8y ago
dbeaver-community does the day to day stuff really well. One great feature is built-in SSH tunneling. There are also frequent updates. The only thing I haven't been able to find a great solution for yet is comparing schemas between DB instances and generating DDL to make up the difference.
- oneweekwonder 8y ago
  > solution for yet is comparing schemas between DB instances and generating DDL to make up the difference. Have you looked at liquibase diff[0] before? I created yet another python wrapper[1] for the jar to integrate it into my workflow for easy DDL generation as I need to compare databases. [0]: https://www.liquibase.org/documentation/diff.html https://www.liquibase.org/documentation/diff.html [1]: https://github.com/Morabaraba/python-liquibase https://github.com/Morabaraba/python-liquibase
  - steamer25 8y ago
    I don't remember why I dismissed liquibase when I was looking at the options. Maybe it was seeing that 'Role-Based Authentication' is only supported in the paid version? I ended up getting most of what I needed out of pgquarrel although I think I ended up manually maintaining the auth parts anyway. If/when it comes up again, maybe I'll take another look at liquibase. Ultimately, yeah, I just got better at keeping track of the changes myself as in the article you link in your GitHub README: http://www.liquibase.org/2007/06/the-problem-with-database-diffs.html http://www.liquibase.org/2007/06/the-problem-with-database-d...
war1025 8y ago
pgadmin3 was pretty decent. pgadmin4 is junk.
- chinhodado 8y ago
  Not sure why you're being downvoted, I have the same sentiment. pgadmin 3 was by no means a great app but it does the job well. pgadmin 4 is just a mess. It's slow, bloated and buggy well beyond the acceptable range.
  - steve_adams_86 8y ago
    I was totally floored by 4. What a bizarre regression. 3 was relatively good so I had my hopes pretty high... I literally never used either of them again. If that's the future of the app, let me out.
Waterluvian 8y ago
Pgadmin4 just stopped launching one day, forcing me back to 3. I don't really mind it.
- chinhodado 8y ago
  I would use pgadmin 3 too if it doesn't pop up a dozen error messages when connecting to a postgres 10 database. There's a pgadmin 3 LTS version but it only comes bundled with a postgres installer, there's no separate package for it.
kchoudhu 8y ago
Get someone (anyone) to pay for a copy of Aqua Data Studio.
ziftface 8y ago
TablePlus is fantastic. I think it's coming for Windows soon.
jenaimarre 8y ago
Not free and not open source, but Navicat has been working very well for me over the years.
sv12l 8y ago
https://dbeaver.io/ https://dbeaver.io/ is something you may want to try, really good based on my experience.
manigandham 8y ago
DBeaver (free community version) or Jetbrains Rider. Both are cross-platform desktop apps with multiple database support and are very capable and reliable. If you want something that's a webapp-style, perhaps to host as a separate service, then check out OmniDB from 2ndQuadrant. It's still maturing but has some unique management features that are helpful for Postgres.
sysashi 8y ago
Maybe not as feature rich as others, but check out pgweb
mmsimanga 8y ago
I see quite a few mentioning DBeaver. I want to mention two other SQL frontends worth looking at. SQL Workbench[1] and SQuirrel SQL[2]. SQL Workbench is particularly well documented with a tonne of features with some features integrated to the command line. [1]https://www.sql-workbench.eu/ https://www.sql-workbench.eu/ [2]http://www.squirrelsql.org/ http://www.squirrelsql.org/
krakatau1 8y ago
I can't believe nobody mentioned DbVisualizer. It's by far the best db tool and it works with bunch of them. Advanced Query Tool is also good but it's geared more for BA than DBA. Aqua Data Studio is also very good but too expensive ($499 single user licence). For reference, I've also used pgadmin, DBeaver, DataGrip, SQuirrel in my two year long quest to find the best tool. I was assigned to pick best tool for 500 developers and business analysts.

Trufa 8y ago

Wow, considering I have the worst memories of MySQL Workbench, pgadmin sounds awful indeed.

titusjohnson 8y ago

I use Postico on Mac.

commandertso 8y ago
+1 for Postico. One-time fee, and I've only ever had one or two moments of frustration with it - as opposed to much larger numbers with PGAdmin 3 and 4.
joshcrews 8y ago
+ 5,000 for Postico. Such excellent software.

okcwarrior 8y ago

I know it's somewhat pricey but datagrip by jetbrains is amazing.

kyriakos 8y ago
And if you are not only working with DBs you can get it bundled with their IDEs. Eg phpstorm has most of datagrip functionality built in.
h1d 8y ago
Their offerings aren't pricey for what they provide. DataGrip alone is about $9/mo for a personal license (down to $4.5/mo on 3rd year if you pay annually) but you'd want to use the bundled one in other IDE if you code.

nixpulvis 8y ago

I like `psql` quite a lot. If you have your PAGER set to `less`. Also `\x` can really help view many columns vertically.

grzm 8y ago
I like psql a lot as well. That said, there's often a place for GUIs, and your parent asked specifically about desktop apps.
- nixpulvis 8y ago
  Sure did, just thought they might also find this information helpful. Makes the `psql` client a bit more GUI like.

throwaway83628 8y ago

Try DBeaver its OSS, multi-database, and just about as good as MySql Workbench or SSMS. Since I switched I don't use anything else

bradleyjg 8y ago
Just out of curiosity, why did this require a throwaway?
- throwaway83628 8y ago
  I hardly ever post comments and never articles, so I just create an account when it seems worthwhile. The mods don't seem bothered by this as long as such comments aren't flamey
  - grzm 8y ago
    From the guidelines: > "Throwaway accounts are ok for sensitive information, but please don't create them routinely. On HN, users should have an identity that others can relate to." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html As recently as a week ago, 'dang had this to say about throwaways: > "HN can't be a community without members. Disembodied comments are not community members. No one is required to use their real name here, but users need to have some consistent identity for others to relate to. Otherwise we might as well have no usernames and no community at all." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17996295 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17996295 And later goes on to make clear this includes "users who create throwaway accounts for everything, including uncontroversial stuff". https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17996858 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17996858 They also don't see or act on everything they see, so in that sense, I think you could say they "don't seem bothered." That said, I think it's fair to say it's preferred that you maintain some sort of identity.
    - throwaway83628 8y ago
      I definitely dont create them routinely. Maybe 4 times a year. Consistency isn't worth much if nobody knows who you are because you never post. The desire to create a community chafes against the zero verfication HN does for new accounts. If you want to create a community it should be harder to create a new account than login, but it's actually the opposite. To create a new account I don't need to remember my password, I just need a username and keyspam. This probably isn't what Dang wants but it's how the site currently works. If it's easier to create an account a couple times a year than remember my login, especially when nobody is gonna remember someone who posts 4 times a year, what is the point of maintaining an account. Just being logical here.

steamer25 8y ago

dbeaver-community does the day to day stuff really well. One great feature is built-in SSH tunneling. There are also frequent updates. The only thing I haven't been able to find a great solution for yet is comparing schemas between DB instances and generating DDL to make up the difference.

oneweekwonder 8y ago
> solution for yet is comparing schemas between DB instances and generating DDL to make up the difference. Have you looked at liquibase diff[0] before? I created yet another python wrapper[1] for the jar to integrate it into my workflow for easy DDL generation as I need to compare databases. [0]: https://www.liquibase.org/documentation/diff.html https://www.liquibase.org/documentation/diff.html [1]: https://github.com/Morabaraba/python-liquibase https://github.com/Morabaraba/python-liquibase
- steamer25 8y ago
  I don't remember why I dismissed liquibase when I was looking at the options. Maybe it was seeing that 'Role-Based Authentication' is only supported in the paid version? I ended up getting most of what I needed out of pgquarrel although I think I ended up manually maintaining the auth parts anyway. If/when it comes up again, maybe I'll take another look at liquibase. Ultimately, yeah, I just got better at keeping track of the changes myself as in the article you link in your GitHub README: http://www.liquibase.org/2007/06/the-problem-with-database-diffs.html http://www.liquibase.org/2007/06/the-problem-with-database-d...

war1025 8y ago

pgadmin3 was pretty decent. pgadmin4 is junk.

chinhodado 8y ago
Not sure why you're being downvoted, I have the same sentiment. pgadmin 3 was by no means a great app but it does the job well. pgadmin 4 is just a mess. It's slow, bloated and buggy well beyond the acceptable range.
- steve_adams_86 8y ago
  I was totally floored by 4. What a bizarre regression. 3 was relatively good so I had my hopes pretty high... I literally never used either of them again. If that's the future of the app, let me out.

Waterluvian 8y ago

Pgadmin4 just stopped launching one day, forcing me back to 3. I don't really mind it.

chinhodado 8y ago
I would use pgadmin 3 too if it doesn't pop up a dozen error messages when connecting to a postgres 10 database. There's a pgadmin 3 LTS version but it only comes bundled with a postgres installer, there's no separate package for it.

kchoudhu 8y ago

Get someone (anyone) to pay for a copy of Aqua Data Studio.

ziftface 8y ago

TablePlus is fantastic. I think it's coming for Windows soon.

jenaimarre 8y ago

Not free and not open source, but Navicat has been working very well for me over the years.

sv12l 8y ago

https://dbeaver.io/ https://dbeaver.io/ is something you may want to try, really good based on my experience.

manigandham 8y ago

DBeaver (free community version) or Jetbrains Rider. Both are cross-platform desktop apps with multiple database support and are very capable and reliable. If you want something that's a webapp-style, perhaps to host as a separate service, then check out OmniDB from 2ndQuadrant. It's still maturing but has some unique management features that are helpful for Postgres.

sysashi 8y ago

Maybe not as feature rich as others, but check out pgweb

mmsimanga 8y ago

I see quite a few mentioning DBeaver. I want to mention two other SQL frontends worth looking at. SQL Workbench[1] and SQuirrel SQL[2]. SQL Workbench is particularly well documented with a tonne of features with some features integrated to the command line. [1]https://www.sql-workbench.eu/ https://www.sql-workbench.eu/ [2]http://www.squirrelsql.org/ http://www.squirrelsql.org/

krakatau1 8y ago

I can't believe nobody mentioned DbVisualizer. It's by far the best db tool and it works with bunch of them. Advanced Query Tool is also good but it's geared more for BA than DBA. Aqua Data Studio is also very good but too expensive ($499 single user licence). For reference, I've also used pgadmin, DBeaver, DataGrip, SQuirrel in my two year long quest to find the best tool. I was assigned to pick best tool for 500 developers and business analysts.