11 ms·

Postico: A Modern PostgreSQL Client for the Mac

287 points by modinfo 5y ago

MaxMoney 5y ago
seymon 5y ago
What are your opinions on DBeaver? https://dbeaver.io/ https://dbeaver.io/
- zmmmmm 5y ago
  I use it, other than being a bit heavy weight, I love it. Same types of features but to me looks better in a few ways - supports any database, beautiful auto-generated ER diagrams, personally I like the interface better, and to the extent that you don't hate Eclipse it's an advantage that you can install it into a regular Eclipse instance and use any other language / plugin that Eclipse supports (for example editing SQL with vim keybindings). It's actually really cool, for example, working with Django, debugging your code and in the same window having auto-refresh running to show the rows getting added in the DBeaver interface.
- skrebbel 5y ago
  I once somehow managed to get dbeaver keep a table locked on our prod db, just by having the program open. I thought I was long done doing the things i needed to do, i just hadn't closed the program. Then we shipped a release which included a migration. The lock prevented the migration from happening and it took us 30 minutes (of downtime!) to figure out that it was my DBeaver client holding a table hostage. I closed the app and a few seconds later the migration was done and we were up. Now, obviously this was noobness on my part, somehow, but iirc there was no clear indication in the UI that there was an uncommitted transaction going on or anything like that. I'm sure the problem was between keyboard and chair, but I never dared touch DBeaver after that.
  - waingake 5y ago
    Lol also had a similar thing happen. I think they auto close idle transactions now. But I'm very careful about disconnecting when done now!
- qsort 5y ago
  It's big, complex and heavyweight (it's basically an eclipse skin), but if you do a lot of data work with different sources it's definitely your best bet. It has nice viewer interfaces even for uncommon data types (like geospatial data), and it's well-suited for both infra work and querying. It's not pretty but it's one of the most useful pieces of software I interact with.
- ggregoire 5y ago
  I tried several clients for Mac a few years ago (including Postico) and DBeaver was the only one not lacking basic features (views & materialized views, triggers, functions, partitions, extensions…). So I've been using it since then. In addition, I like that the main sidebar shows everything properly categorized and as a tree with collapsing nodes, i.e. servers > databases > schemas > tables, views, materialized views, functions, etc… > columns, constraints, foreign keys, indexes, triggers, partitions, dependencies, references, etc. Finally, the support is great. I reported some bugs on GitHub and they all have been fixed on the next release, like 1 or 2 weeks after the report. It was slow on my old Mac, but since I switched to a M1 I have no complaints.
- bottled_poe 5y ago
  Haven’t tried Postico, but dbeaver has such a wide range of db connectors it’s hard to go with anything else at the moment..
- rcshubhadeep 5y ago
  Use it and love it. I believe that table plus (or similar ones) are nice and cool, but for me, DBeaver is very powerful and useful piece of software. It may not look cool sometimes, but it gets the job done. And it has a lot of connectors. Plus it is free! I can't expect more.
- glup 5y ago
  It's not pretty, but, everything else seems like a toy for children by comparison.
edgyquant 5y ago
I have always just used the psql command as I have a cli based mindset from using Linux so long. I find it works great for reading data and querying but would like a small application for building an image graph of the whole database. Does anyone know a good one for MacOS?
epberry 5y ago
At most 5 connections and table filters disabled in the free version is a bit rough but yeah Postico is not bad. Also I'm heavily biased :)
carlgreene 5y ago
I bought a license several years ago and never looked back. An amazing product that saves me lots of time
atonse 5y ago
Been using it for many years. Great app.
dewski 5y ago
As a big Postico fan, wanted to share Postico 2 is in development and coming out soon. I've been using it for a few weeks now. Highly recommend.
- brailsafe 5y ago
  Got any screenshots you can link? I always find mac software websites always missing them
  - guessmyname 5y ago
    > Got any screenshots you can link? I always find mac software websites always missing them See for yourself → https://eggerapps.at/postico2/ https://eggerapps.at/postico2/
- lucsky 5y ago
  Postico 2 has been "coming soon" for about two years no. Just sayin'.
  - dewey 5y ago
    I'm using it for probably 1.5 years and never had any problems with it. I can highly recommend it. It's really stable and I reported 2 (small, cosmetic) bugs which both got fixed within a few days.
    - dsego 5y ago
      There are annoying show-stopper bugs that the developer refuses to fix, like this one for not being able to set options for null/empty values when importing data from csv ( https://github.com/jakob/Postico/issues/406 https://github.com/jakob/Postico/issues/406). Or issues importing CSVs exported by Postico itself, that seems like a pretty basic requirement. On the other hand, even though DBeaver has an annoying and ugly UX (as any other 90s Java software) and is full of warts (eg not showing a unique key constraint in a postgres table, which was visible in Postico), it somehow feels more substantial.
na85 5y ago
How does it compare with pgadmin4?
bckr 5y ago
I love Postico. I wish I had a terminal that worked more like Postico
drstewart 5y ago
How does this compare to TablePlus?
- axhl 5y ago
  also interested in this. Anyone have experience with both?
  - out_of_protocol 5y ago
    Using both, both are very good. Sticking to postico most of the time due to better UX (totally IMO of course). Also, try v2 https://eggerapps.at/postico2/ https://eggerapps.at/postico2/
- sleepyhead 5y ago
  Really hard to differentiate for PostgreSQL usage, both are great options. The main difference is that TablePlus supports a lot of other databases. I slightly prefer how Postico does things, also it has better PostgreSQL support (TablePlus is good but not great with arrays, hstore etc). I think the only thing that puts TablePlus ahead for my usage is being able to filter columns when viewing a row. I have some tables with maybe 40-50 columns and many similar column names so browsing with Postico can be a bit tedious.
boundlessdreamz 5y ago
I used to use Postico (paid version) but switched to TablePlus free and then paid for it. I switched so long back that I don't remember exactly why I switched but TablePlus has been amazing.
- Existenceblinks 5y ago
  I take a look at TablePlus landing page, and I wonder what's different to Postico? I'm probably not using many features, it seems like the same!
  - pacific01 5y ago
    The main difference is the support for multiple databases. Its regular updates and plugins (soon) also the best advantage IMO
  - jkbegr 5y ago
    Some parts of the UI in Table Plus have been inspired by Postico, which is probably why it looks similar at a first glance. But the apps are different, and they have a very different focus. As far as I can tell Table Plus tries be the best client for everybody (every platform + every databases), while Postico tries to be the best client just for PostgreSQL on the Mac. As the developer of Postico I'm probably biased, and I'm not really up to date where Table Plus is right now, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt. You probably have to try both to see which of the two clicks with you.
    - ivyirwin 5y ago
      Thanks for your work on Postico. Was looking for a Mac based GUI when I made the switch from MySQL to Postgresql almost 10 years ago. Sequel Pro was my go to interface for understanding my database tables in MySQL and I wanted something similar for Postgresql. I bought a license years ago and it is part of my daily workflow. Didn't know about v2, will have to check that out!
    - sleepyhead 5y ago
      Postico is fantastic, thanks for all your work. Also Table Tool is very useful.
cosmotic 5y ago
What does it mean to be modern in this context? Are you trying to differentiate from some other client in a meaningful way? The description says modern design language but it looks pretty plain, which is a good thing, but I wouldn't use 'modern' to describe it.
- jmchuster 5y ago
  It's probably more that every other popular database gui out there looks decidedly _not_ modern.
- jkbegr 5y ago
  When I started working on Postico, the other PostgreSQL client apps all had a really dated Windows 95 / Java UI style, with hundreds of toolbar icons, assistants for everything, and lots of modal dialogs. They were such a kludge that many people just used psql on the command line instead. I wanted to make a modern database app for PostgreSQL, like Sequel Pro or Base. I also took a lot of inspiration from other modern Mac apps, like Transmit from Panic, or all the Omni Group apps. One of the features that best showcases what I consider "modern" is the table structure editor, where I spent a lot time on the interaction design. I'm pretty proud of how it turned out (even though there are issues with it and I never finished all the features I would like to have in there). In the last 10 years, a few other "modern" database apps for PostgreSQL have been developed, like PSequel, SQLPro Studio, and as other people have commented here, Table Plus, so Postico is probably no longer unique in trying to be modern. At some level, Postico is even starting to look a bit dated, since I haven't been keen on the direction Apple has been going in the last few years. So maybe it's not entirely accurate to call Postico modern any more, but I do keep looking at what other Mac apps are doing, and what Apple is doing with their apps, and use that as a guiding post to keep Postico a "modern" app that feels at home on the Mac.
  - jmchuster 5y ago
    Thanks so much for your work on Postico. I had been using Sequel Pro working with MySQL and was looking for something as good, when i switched to a company that uses Postgres. Postico has fit that bill entirely and then some, and has been one of the few tools i've been wiling to pay money for, along with Sublime Text.
ideamotor 5y ago
Does it handle mapping for PostGIS? That's why I can't get away from pgAdmin 4.
- GrayShade 5y ago
  JetBrains DataGrip does, although in a limited fashion.
- brailsafe 5y ago
  Not sure, but QGIS is built for this
- adamhp 5y ago
  pgAdmin4 is so good. And so simple to setup with new projects. I have a template with Docker with the server credentials that gets loaded in so all my new projects have a pgAdmin4 container baked in. Nice that it translates to any sort of cloud or remote environment when you do it that way.
sleepy_keita 5y ago
Postico is one of the reasons I keep a macOS machine around. Really excellent app.
aarpmcgee 5y ago
I use it all the time. So useful, so much more approachable than any other tool I've tried.
nehalem 5y ago
It’s a terrific app, but I always find myself ending up in the PyCharm SQL client rather than opening Postico.
- jchw 5y ago
  In case you missed it, you may enjoy Jetbrains DataGrip. (I quite like it.)
  - vladvasiliu 5y ago
    I think the point is that the integrated SQL client is good enough for GP's needs, so no need to switch apps. Even if it's from the same editor, DataGrip still is a different application that requires switching back and forth.
  - dagenix 5y ago
    Is there something that DataGrip does that PyCharm doesn't? As best as I've been able to tell, every feature that DataGrip has, PyCharm also has.
ralusek 5y ago
Love Postico. Please make ⌘ + F filter.
- derefr 5y ago
  The hotkey you want is ⌘⌥F. (But I just checked, and ⌘F now also works in Postico 2.)
neximo64 5y ago
Really like Postico, but the version 2 seems like a downgrade.
- kccqzy 5y ago
  How so? Version 2 adds new features like functions, which I've occasionally used.
  - neximo64 5y ago
    The UI is a big step back. You can also use functions on Postico 1, its just not in the sidebar.
    - dewey 5y ago
      What's so different about the UI except that the different query windows are now visible in the top left corner? I'd hardly call that a "big step back".
      - neximo64 5y ago
        I guess one factor is it feels alot like a Java app vs a Mac app with Postico 2
      - neximo64 5y ago
        Maybe ask more people. For me, after Postico 1, if its deprecated it's TablePlus over Postico 2. It sounds like there is a lot of the sentiment on this thread too, although it doesn't go into specifics.
latchkey 5y ago
I used to use separate apps for things like this and now I just use the one built into IDEA and it totally does the job. Bonus, I don't have to leave my IDE.
- bambambazooka 5y ago
  My biggest issue with using IDEA for DB work is that DB connections are saved to the project or workspace (not sure about the IDEA lingo). We have many projects and so I have to add the DB connections again and again. Is there a nice solution for that?
  - pablomalo 5y ago
    In Jetbrains IDEs, when you define a data source, there is a button to make the source global. If you do that, it will be accessible across all projects.
    - vanpythonista 5y ago
      If like you missed doing it when defining the source, you can also go into your data sources list and the sidebar has a "make global" option.
    - bambambazooka 5y ago
      Thanks a lot!
  - latchkey 5y ago
    When I run into questions like this with IDEA, there is usually an answer. If not, file an issue in their issue tracker. Seriously. They fix stuff nonstop. Sometimes it even takes years, but they eventually do it if it is a good one. They are very responsive in their tracker.
brailsafe 5y ago
Is there any way to visualize the relationships between entities? I'm currently using DBeaver and previously used DataGrip for this. In a databae with complex models, being able to see a diagram is a massive time saver.
- dewey 5y ago
  I looked into that too a few weeks ago and the nicest looking one I could find is the one in DataGrip. I don't think that it's that great though. I found navigating in the generated view to be cumbersome.
  - brailsafe 5y ago
    DBeaver is... ok. It think it's just kind of a cumbersome layout to render
- guiriduro 5y ago
  Take a look at pgmodeler, for Postgres visual modelling (including entity relationships) its also quite good.
reinhardt1053 5y ago
Tableplus has been a better option for me. https://tableplus.com/ https://tableplus.com/
- iansinnott 5y ago
  Seconded. Tableplus is great. Started using it after DataGrip subscription expired (which is also great).
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
joisig 5y ago
Postico is a really solid piece of software. Very user friendly and approachable, it's a tool I use every day for working with databases. Solidly recommended.
awill 5y ago
It looks great, but as much as I like mac-native apps, I use Mac for work, and Linux at home. TablePlus is cross platform, and much better for my needs.
threatofrain 5y ago
How would people compare to DataGrip?
jamil7 5y ago
I use this almost everyday - no frills, rock-solid piece of software.
tehnub 5y ago
I use this at work, and while it gets the job done, I wish it had a SQL formatter.
- robkop 5y ago
  Postico 2 includes this, been using it for a few months.
guessmyname 5y ago
TablePlus (https://tableplus.com/ https://tableplus.com/) is better. Or Sequel Ace (https://github.com/Sequel-Ace/Sequel-Ace https://github.com/Sequel-Ace/Sequel-Ace) if you need to interact with MySQL databases, or similar, like MariaDB. Also, the poster should have linked to Postico 2 — https://eggerapps.at/postico2/ https://eggerapps.at/postico2/
- digitalsankhara 5y ago
  On first glance there are features in Postico 2 that I'd find useful - having SQL queries organised in the UI rather than on the filesystem for one. I'm a daily TablePlus user and very happy with it so I'd need to find real added value. Oddly, I'd never heard of Postico before although I have used Postgresql.app briefly in the past. I will try Postico 2 out on a test server at some point and track it's progress post beta.
  - robbiep 5y ago
    I keep all my queries in Dash (but I’m also a SQL hacker in the sense of piecing it together slowly as I learn the language rather than a native) - I love tableplus, the only advantage I can see from what the splash shows is the ability to create/edit fields (and tables?) in UI, but I’m past that stage of my journey now
- mikl 5y ago
  If you only need PostgreSQL, I find Postico much superior to TablePlus. The GUI is nicer, the support for PostgreSQL features more complete, etc.
  - andrew_ 5y ago
    I prefer the UX of TablePlus as well. As an example, I find the constraints UX in Postico to be dummed down and inefficient. That's an area where I want a very terse, straightforward, and easy to visually organize / parse display of information, and TablePlus using a grid there is far superior imho. There are other examples, but I dislike the injection of eye candy into a tool that I need to be methodical and analytical within.
jer0me 5y ago
Not a desktop app, but I personally love Adminer: https://www.adminer.org/ https://www.adminer.org/
dheerendra73 5y ago
Sorry if that's answered before, what's wrong is with pgadmin4? It works really good and have all the features of postgres.
- dewey 5y ago
  There's nothing wrong with pgadmin, it's just a bit of a different use case I feel. Postico is a nice, native mac app for using the database. pgadmin is mostly focused on administrating the database as the name suggests. Sure it has some query possibilities but that's not the main use case so it's less refined.
- dimgl 5y ago
  pgAdmin UI/UX is awful. Maybe it’s improved since I last used it.
rikkipitt 5y ago
If you use Heroku with Postgres, I made a plug-in that works with Postico: https://github.com/jemcode/heroku-postico https://github.com/jemcode/heroku-postico heroku postico:open --app <app_name> Or production postico:open (if you use the parity gem) Not sure it works with v2 though…
mjhagen 5y ago
For most things I use Navicat, for more complex stuff I use DBeaver. But what I've really wanted is what Microsoft had over 20 years ago: - a visual database diagram - a visual query builder - their Index Tuning Wizard They had these things in the nineties and I've not seen something that comes close since (they've even made it worse for their own stuff). All the alternatives are janky java approximations that have terrible auto formatting options or keep to the very basics SQL.
- john_minsk 5y ago
  - a visual database diagram We are looking at sqldbm to visualize and document our DWH schema. It looks nice, but is cloud first and expensive if you want to collaborate. How are you solving this issue?
  - lf-non 5y ago
    A very lofi solution I have been using is tbls [1]. It is a native cli utility that generates documentation from db schema (and includes comments in the db as well). It can output in markdown with embedded svg diagrams (which is great for previewing in github) as well as yaml (which I use for generating models). It is not quite polished but works pretty well. Also all the db diagrams and docs are committed alongside code in the repo which is a big plus for me. [1] https://github.com/k1LoW/tbls https://github.com/k1LoW/tbls
    - mjhagen 5y ago
      Tools like this only emphasize my point I think. I've resorted to writing my own diagram (also in svg) and docs generator for our apps and those things are fun to write, but I can't help but feel like this was all better taken care of back in the early 2000s with SQL Server Enterprise Manager.
  - etoulas 5y ago
    To document your Schema, try https://schemaspy.org/ https://schemaspy.org/
- 5y ago
perlpimp 5y ago
this replacement for excel for PG is nice but as a developer I live in Tmux across many servers and in many scripts so I am not sure how good it is in this sort of way.
patlola 5y ago
pgAdmin 4 is way better than postico in terms of UX and UI
- dewey 5y ago
  pgAdmin is a cross platform app that doesn't look like a native Mac app at all while Postico is and behaves like a native Mac app. How is that better UI?
hankchinaski 5y ago
I have been using postico for the past few years until I recently discovered table plus which I very much prefer. Also jet rains data grip is good too (albeit expensive).
iruoy 5y ago
At work I use SQLyog, but only for the copy database feature. It is able to copy a database from a server to my laptop much faster than dumping and importing can. Is there any other application that can do this?
dperalta 5y ago
I recently found Beekeeper Studio: https://www.beekeeperstudio.io/ https://www.beekeeperstudio.io/ and works like a charm on OS X.
- Kaellyss 5y ago
  And on windows and linux AND is open source and free :)
sneak 5y ago
I appreciate that the developers make the software available as a direct download for people who don't want to use the App Store.
SideLinesOfCode 5y ago
I personally prefer DBeaver. But I'll definitely check this one out once I get my hands on a Mac.
les 5y ago
I'm hardly a power user, only touch sql via hasura lately. But has anyone tried https://arctype.com https://arctype.com ? does it compare to the tools mentioned above?
karmelapple 5y ago
I'm a big fan of SQLPro for Postgres (https://macpostgresclient.com https://macpostgresclient.com) Great support from the developer, nice UI, and I've yet to run into any kind of major limitation of the software.
guhidalg 5y ago
Postico is a great piece of software and I highly recommend it for people that want an easy to use GUI for PostgreSQL.
lefred 5y ago
there is also a new open source MySQL Shell extention for VS Code, available on Windows, Mac and Linux - https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Oracle.mysql-shell-for-vs-code https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Oracle.m...
justindeguzman 5y ago
Postico is amazing! I'm glad to see a new version come out. The one major thing that's missing is that it doesn't support collaboration features (to share queries, manage access across your team, etc). If you need that functionality and want a more Superhuman/Linear-style modern UI with lots of keyboard shortcuts, I suggest you try Arctype (https://arctype.com https://arctype.com). Disclosure: I'm a founder. It supports not just Postgres but also MySQL, SQLite, PlanetScale, Yugabyte, etc.

287 points by modinfo 5y ago

MaxMoney 5y ago

seymon 5y ago

What are your opinions on DBeaver? https://dbeaver.io/ https://dbeaver.io/

zmmmmm 5y ago
I use it, other than being a bit heavy weight, I love it. Same types of features but to me looks better in a few ways - supports any database, beautiful auto-generated ER diagrams, personally I like the interface better, and to the extent that you don't hate Eclipse it's an advantage that you can install it into a regular Eclipse instance and use any other language / plugin that Eclipse supports (for example editing SQL with vim keybindings). It's actually really cool, for example, working with Django, debugging your code and in the same window having auto-refresh running to show the rows getting added in the DBeaver interface.
skrebbel 5y ago
I once somehow managed to get dbeaver keep a table locked on our prod db, just by having the program open. I thought I was long done doing the things i needed to do, i just hadn't closed the program. Then we shipped a release which included a migration. The lock prevented the migration from happening and it took us 30 minutes (of downtime!) to figure out that it was my DBeaver client holding a table hostage. I closed the app and a few seconds later the migration was done and we were up. Now, obviously this was noobness on my part, somehow, but iirc there was no clear indication in the UI that there was an uncommitted transaction going on or anything like that. I'm sure the problem was between keyboard and chair, but I never dared touch DBeaver after that.
- waingake 5y ago
  Lol also had a similar thing happen. I think they auto close idle transactions now. But I'm very careful about disconnecting when done now!
qsort 5y ago
It's big, complex and heavyweight (it's basically an eclipse skin), but if you do a lot of data work with different sources it's definitely your best bet. It has nice viewer interfaces even for uncommon data types (like geospatial data), and it's well-suited for both infra work and querying. It's not pretty but it's one of the most useful pieces of software I interact with.
ggregoire 5y ago
I tried several clients for Mac a few years ago (including Postico) and DBeaver was the only one not lacking basic features (views & materialized views, triggers, functions, partitions, extensions…). So I've been using it since then. In addition, I like that the main sidebar shows everything properly categorized and as a tree with collapsing nodes, i.e. servers > databases > schemas > tables, views, materialized views, functions, etc… > columns, constraints, foreign keys, indexes, triggers, partitions, dependencies, references, etc. Finally, the support is great. I reported some bugs on GitHub and they all have been fixed on the next release, like 1 or 2 weeks after the report. It was slow on my old Mac, but since I switched to a M1 I have no complaints.
bottled_poe 5y ago
Haven’t tried Postico, but dbeaver has such a wide range of db connectors it’s hard to go with anything else at the moment..
rcshubhadeep 5y ago
Use it and love it. I believe that table plus (or similar ones) are nice and cool, but for me, DBeaver is very powerful and useful piece of software. It may not look cool sometimes, but it gets the job done. And it has a lot of connectors. Plus it is free! I can't expect more.
glup 5y ago
It's not pretty, but, everything else seems like a toy for children by comparison.

edgyquant 5y ago

I have always just used the psql command as I have a cli based mindset from using Linux so long. I find it works great for reading data and querying but would like a small application for building an image graph of the whole database. Does anyone know a good one for MacOS?

epberry 5y ago

At most 5 connections and table filters disabled in the free version is a bit rough but yeah Postico is not bad. Also I'm heavily biased :)

carlgreene 5y ago

I bought a license several years ago and never looked back. An amazing product that saves me lots of time

atonse 5y ago

Been using it for many years. Great app.

dewski 5y ago

As a big Postico fan, wanted to share Postico 2 is in development and coming out soon. I've been using it for a few weeks now. Highly recommend.

brailsafe 5y ago
Got any screenshots you can link? I always find mac software websites always missing them
- guessmyname 5y ago
  > Got any screenshots you can link? I always find mac software websites always missing them See for yourself → https://eggerapps.at/postico2/ https://eggerapps.at/postico2/
lucsky 5y ago
Postico 2 has been "coming soon" for about two years no. Just sayin'.
- dewey 5y ago
  I'm using it for probably 1.5 years and never had any problems with it. I can highly recommend it. It's really stable and I reported 2 (small, cosmetic) bugs which both got fixed within a few days.
  - dsego 5y ago
    There are annoying show-stopper bugs that the developer refuses to fix, like this one for not being able to set options for null/empty values when importing data from csv ( https://github.com/jakob/Postico/issues/406 https://github.com/jakob/Postico/issues/406). Or issues importing CSVs exported by Postico itself, that seems like a pretty basic requirement. On the other hand, even though DBeaver has an annoying and ugly UX (as any other 90s Java software) and is full of warts (eg not showing a unique key constraint in a postgres table, which was visible in Postico), it somehow feels more substantial.

na85 5y ago

How does it compare with pgadmin4?

bckr 5y ago

I love Postico. I wish I had a terminal that worked more like Postico

drstewart 5y ago

How does this compare to TablePlus?

axhl 5y ago
also interested in this. Anyone have experience with both?
- out_of_protocol 5y ago
  Using both, both are very good. Sticking to postico most of the time due to better UX (totally IMO of course). Also, try v2 https://eggerapps.at/postico2/ https://eggerapps.at/postico2/
sleepyhead 5y ago
Really hard to differentiate for PostgreSQL usage, both are great options. The main difference is that TablePlus supports a lot of other databases. I slightly prefer how Postico does things, also it has better PostgreSQL support (TablePlus is good but not great with arrays, hstore etc). I think the only thing that puts TablePlus ahead for my usage is being able to filter columns when viewing a row. I have some tables with maybe 40-50 columns and many similar column names so browsing with Postico can be a bit tedious.

boundlessdreamz 5y ago

I used to use Postico (paid version) but switched to TablePlus free and then paid for it. I switched so long back that I don't remember exactly why I switched but TablePlus has been amazing.

Existenceblinks 5y ago
I take a look at TablePlus landing page, and I wonder what's different to Postico? I'm probably not using many features, it seems like the same!
- pacific01 5y ago
  The main difference is the support for multiple databases. Its regular updates and plugins (soon) also the best advantage IMO
- jkbegr 5y ago
  Some parts of the UI in Table Plus have been inspired by Postico, which is probably why it looks similar at a first glance. But the apps are different, and they have a very different focus. As far as I can tell Table Plus tries be the best client for everybody (every platform + every databases), while Postico tries to be the best client just for PostgreSQL on the Mac. As the developer of Postico I'm probably biased, and I'm not really up to date where Table Plus is right now, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt. You probably have to try both to see which of the two clicks with you.
  - ivyirwin 5y ago
    Thanks for your work on Postico. Was looking for a Mac based GUI when I made the switch from MySQL to Postgresql almost 10 years ago. Sequel Pro was my go to interface for understanding my database tables in MySQL and I wanted something similar for Postgresql. I bought a license years ago and it is part of my daily workflow. Didn't know about v2, will have to check that out!
  - sleepyhead 5y ago
    Postico is fantastic, thanks for all your work. Also Table Tool is very useful.

cosmotic 5y ago

What does it mean to be modern in this context? Are you trying to differentiate from some other client in a meaningful way? The description says modern design language but it looks pretty plain, which is a good thing, but I wouldn't use 'modern' to describe it.

jmchuster 5y ago
It's probably more that every other popular database gui out there looks decidedly _not_ modern.
jkbegr 5y ago
When I started working on Postico, the other PostgreSQL client apps all had a really dated Windows 95 / Java UI style, with hundreds of toolbar icons, assistants for everything, and lots of modal dialogs. They were such a kludge that many people just used psql on the command line instead. I wanted to make a modern database app for PostgreSQL, like Sequel Pro or Base. I also took a lot of inspiration from other modern Mac apps, like Transmit from Panic, or all the Omni Group apps. One of the features that best showcases what I consider "modern" is the table structure editor, where I spent a lot time on the interaction design. I'm pretty proud of how it turned out (even though there are issues with it and I never finished all the features I would like to have in there). In the last 10 years, a few other "modern" database apps for PostgreSQL have been developed, like PSequel, SQLPro Studio, and as other people have commented here, Table Plus, so Postico is probably no longer unique in trying to be modern. At some level, Postico is even starting to look a bit dated, since I haven't been keen on the direction Apple has been going in the last few years. So maybe it's not entirely accurate to call Postico modern any more, but I do keep looking at what other Mac apps are doing, and what Apple is doing with their apps, and use that as a guiding post to keep Postico a "modern" app that feels at home on the Mac.
- jmchuster 5y ago
  Thanks so much for your work on Postico. I had been using Sequel Pro working with MySQL and was looking for something as good, when i switched to a company that uses Postgres. Postico has fit that bill entirely and then some, and has been one of the few tools i've been wiling to pay money for, along with Sublime Text.

ideamotor 5y ago

Does it handle mapping for PostGIS? That's why I can't get away from pgAdmin 4.

GrayShade 5y ago
JetBrains DataGrip does, although in a limited fashion.
brailsafe 5y ago
Not sure, but QGIS is built for this
adamhp 5y ago
pgAdmin4 is so good. And so simple to setup with new projects. I have a template with Docker with the server credentials that gets loaded in so all my new projects have a pgAdmin4 container baked in. Nice that it translates to any sort of cloud or remote environment when you do it that way.

sleepy_keita 5y ago

Postico is one of the reasons I keep a macOS machine around. Really excellent app.

aarpmcgee 5y ago

I use it all the time. So useful, so much more approachable than any other tool I've tried.

nehalem 5y ago

It’s a terrific app, but I always find myself ending up in the PyCharm SQL client rather than opening Postico.

jchw 5y ago
In case you missed it, you may enjoy Jetbrains DataGrip. (I quite like it.)
- vladvasiliu 5y ago
  I think the point is that the integrated SQL client is good enough for GP's needs, so no need to switch apps. Even if it's from the same editor, DataGrip still is a different application that requires switching back and forth.
- dagenix 5y ago
  Is there something that DataGrip does that PyCharm doesn't? As best as I've been able to tell, every feature that DataGrip has, PyCharm also has.

ralusek 5y ago

Love Postico. Please make ⌘ + F filter.

derefr 5y ago
The hotkey you want is ⌘⌥F. (But I just checked, and ⌘F now also works in Postico 2.)

neximo64 5y ago

Really like Postico, but the version 2 seems like a downgrade.

kccqzy 5y ago
How so? Version 2 adds new features like functions, which I've occasionally used.
- neximo64 5y ago
  The UI is a big step back. You can also use functions on Postico 1, its just not in the sidebar.
  - dewey 5y ago
    What's so different about the UI except that the different query windows are now visible in the top left corner? I'd hardly call that a "big step back".
    - neximo64 5y ago
      I guess one factor is it feels alot like a Java app vs a Mac app with Postico 2
    - neximo64 5y ago
      Maybe ask more people. For me, after Postico 1, if its deprecated it's TablePlus over Postico 2. It sounds like there is a lot of the sentiment on this thread too, although it doesn't go into specifics.

latchkey 5y ago

I used to use separate apps for things like this and now I just use the one built into IDEA and it totally does the job. Bonus, I don't have to leave my IDE.

bambambazooka 5y ago
My biggest issue with using IDEA for DB work is that DB connections are saved to the project or workspace (not sure about the IDEA lingo). We have many projects and so I have to add the DB connections again and again. Is there a nice solution for that?
- pablomalo 5y ago
  In Jetbrains IDEs, when you define a data source, there is a button to make the source global. If you do that, it will be accessible across all projects.
  - vanpythonista 5y ago
    If like you missed doing it when defining the source, you can also go into your data sources list and the sidebar has a "make global" option.
  - bambambazooka 5y ago
    Thanks a lot!
- latchkey 5y ago
  When I run into questions like this with IDEA, there is usually an answer. If not, file an issue in their issue tracker. Seriously. They fix stuff nonstop. Sometimes it even takes years, but they eventually do it if it is a good one. They are very responsive in their tracker.

brailsafe 5y ago

Is there any way to visualize the relationships between entities? I'm currently using DBeaver and previously used DataGrip for this. In a databae with complex models, being able to see a diagram is a massive time saver.

dewey 5y ago
I looked into that too a few weeks ago and the nicest looking one I could find is the one in DataGrip. I don't think that it's that great though. I found navigating in the generated view to be cumbersome.
- brailsafe 5y ago
  DBeaver is... ok. It think it's just kind of a cumbersome layout to render
guiriduro 5y ago
Take a look at pgmodeler, for Postgres visual modelling (including entity relationships) its also quite good.

reinhardt1053 5y ago

Tableplus has been a better option for me. https://tableplus.com/ https://tableplus.com/

iansinnott 5y ago
Seconded. Tableplus is great. Started using it after DataGrip subscription expired (which is also great).
deleted 5y ago
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joisig 5y ago

Postico is a really solid piece of software. Very user friendly and approachable, it's a tool I use every day for working with databases. Solidly recommended.

awill 5y ago

It looks great, but as much as I like mac-native apps, I use Mac for work, and Linux at home. TablePlus is cross platform, and much better for my needs.

threatofrain 5y ago

How would people compare to DataGrip?

jamil7 5y ago

I use this almost everyday - no frills, rock-solid piece of software.

tehnub 5y ago

I use this at work, and while it gets the job done, I wish it had a SQL formatter.

robkop 5y ago
Postico 2 includes this, been using it for a few months.

guessmyname 5y ago

TablePlus (https://tableplus.com/ https://tableplus.com/) is better. Or Sequel Ace (https://github.com/Sequel-Ace/Sequel-Ace https://github.com/Sequel-Ace/Sequel-Ace) if you need to interact with MySQL databases, or similar, like MariaDB. Also, the poster should have linked to Postico 2 — https://eggerapps.at/postico2/ https://eggerapps.at/postico2/

digitalsankhara 5y ago
On first glance there are features in Postico 2 that I'd find useful - having SQL queries organised in the UI rather than on the filesystem for one. I'm a daily TablePlus user and very happy with it so I'd need to find real added value. Oddly, I'd never heard of Postico before although I have used Postgresql.app briefly in the past. I will try Postico 2 out on a test server at some point and track it's progress post beta.
- robbiep 5y ago
  I keep all my queries in Dash (but I’m also a SQL hacker in the sense of piecing it together slowly as I learn the language rather than a native) - I love tableplus, the only advantage I can see from what the splash shows is the ability to create/edit fields (and tables?) in UI, but I’m past that stage of my journey now
mikl 5y ago
If you only need PostgreSQL, I find Postico much superior to TablePlus. The GUI is nicer, the support for PostgreSQL features more complete, etc.
- andrew_ 5y ago
  I prefer the UX of TablePlus as well. As an example, I find the constraints UX in Postico to be dummed down and inefficient. That's an area where I want a very terse, straightforward, and easy to visually organize / parse display of information, and TablePlus using a grid there is far superior imho. There are other examples, but I dislike the injection of eye candy into a tool that I need to be methodical and analytical within.

jer0me 5y ago

Not a desktop app, but I personally love Adminer: https://www.adminer.org/ https://www.adminer.org/

dheerendra73 5y ago

Sorry if that's answered before, what's wrong is with pgadmin4? It works really good and have all the features of postgres.

dewey 5y ago
There's nothing wrong with pgadmin, it's just a bit of a different use case I feel. Postico is a nice, native mac app for using the database. pgadmin is mostly focused on administrating the database as the name suggests. Sure it has some query possibilities but that's not the main use case so it's less refined.
dimgl 5y ago
pgAdmin UI/UX is awful. Maybe it’s improved since I last used it.

rikkipitt 5y ago

If you use Heroku with Postgres, I made a plug-in that works with Postico: https://github.com/jemcode/heroku-postico https://github.com/jemcode/heroku-postico heroku postico:open --app <app_name> Or production postico:open (if you use the parity gem) Not sure it works with v2 though…

mjhagen 5y ago

For most things I use Navicat, for more complex stuff I use DBeaver. But what I've really wanted is what Microsoft had over 20 years ago: - a visual database diagram - a visual query builder - their Index Tuning Wizard They had these things in the nineties and I've not seen something that comes close since (they've even made it worse for their own stuff). All the alternatives are janky java approximations that have terrible auto formatting options or keep to the very basics SQL.

john_minsk 5y ago
- a visual database diagram We are looking at sqldbm to visualize and document our DWH schema. It looks nice, but is cloud first and expensive if you want to collaborate. How are you solving this issue?
- lf-non 5y ago
  A very lofi solution I have been using is tbls [1]. It is a native cli utility that generates documentation from db schema (and includes comments in the db as well). It can output in markdown with embedded svg diagrams (which is great for previewing in github) as well as yaml (which I use for generating models). It is not quite polished but works pretty well. Also all the db diagrams and docs are committed alongside code in the repo which is a big plus for me. [1] https://github.com/k1LoW/tbls https://github.com/k1LoW/tbls
  - mjhagen 5y ago
    Tools like this only emphasize my point I think. I've resorted to writing my own diagram (also in svg) and docs generator for our apps and those things are fun to write, but I can't help but feel like this was all better taken care of back in the early 2000s with SQL Server Enterprise Manager.
- etoulas 5y ago
  To document your Schema, try https://schemaspy.org/ https://schemaspy.org/
5y ago

perlpimp 5y ago

this replacement for excel for PG is nice but as a developer I live in Tmux across many servers and in many scripts so I am not sure how good it is in this sort of way.

patlola 5y ago

pgAdmin 4 is way better than postico in terms of UX and UI

dewey 5y ago
pgAdmin is a cross platform app that doesn't look like a native Mac app at all while Postico is and behaves like a native Mac app. How is that better UI?

hankchinaski 5y ago

I have been using postico for the past few years until I recently discovered table plus which I very much prefer. Also jet rains data grip is good too (albeit expensive).

iruoy 5y ago

At work I use SQLyog, but only for the copy database feature. It is able to copy a database from a server to my laptop much faster than dumping and importing can. Is there any other application that can do this?

dperalta 5y ago

I recently found Beekeeper Studio: https://www.beekeeperstudio.io/ https://www.beekeeperstudio.io/ and works like a charm on OS X.

Kaellyss 5y ago
And on windows and linux AND is open source and free :)

sneak 5y ago

I appreciate that the developers make the software available as a direct download for people who don't want to use the App Store.

SideLinesOfCode 5y ago

I personally prefer DBeaver. But I'll definitely check this one out once I get my hands on a Mac.

les 5y ago

I'm hardly a power user, only touch sql via hasura lately. But has anyone tried https://arctype.com https://arctype.com ? does it compare to the tools mentioned above?

karmelapple 5y ago

I'm a big fan of SQLPro for Postgres (https://macpostgresclient.com https://macpostgresclient.com) Great support from the developer, nice UI, and I've yet to run into any kind of major limitation of the software.

guhidalg 5y ago

Postico is a great piece of software and I highly recommend it for people that want an easy to use GUI for PostgreSQL.

lefred 5y ago

there is also a new open source MySQL Shell extention for VS Code, available on Windows, Mac and Linux - https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Oracle.mysql-shell-for-vs-code https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Oracle.m...

justindeguzman 5y ago

Postico is amazing! I'm glad to see a new version come out. The one major thing that's missing is that it doesn't support collaboration features (to share queries, manage access across your team, etc). If you need that functionality and want a more Superhuman/Linear-style modern UI with lots of keyboard shortcuts, I suggest you try Arctype (https://arctype.com https://arctype.com). Disclosure: I'm a founder. It supports not just Postgres but also MySQL, SQLite, PlanetScale, Yugabyte, etc.