PostgreSQL has a command line tool, psql, and it’s pretty powerful, but some people much prefer a graphical editor. Even if you typically use command line, you may want to go visual sometimes. At Microsoft we've spent many years building experiences to enhance developers' day-to-day productivity.
PostgreSQL graphical user interface (GUI) tools help these open source database users to manage, manipulate, and visualize their data. In this post, we discuss the top 5 GUI tools for administering your PostgreSQL deployments. PostgreSQL is the fourth most popular database management system in the world, and heavily used in all sizes of applications from small to large. The traditional method to work with databases is using the command-line interface (CLI) tool, however, this interface presents a number of issues:
Many still prefer CLIs over GUIs, but this set is ever so shrinking. I believe anyone who comes to programming after 2010 will tell you GUI tools increase their productivity over a CLI solution.
Now that we understand the issues users face with the CLI, let’s take a look at the advantages of using a PostgreSQL GUI:
So, bottom line, GUI tools make PostgreSQL developers lives easier.
Today I will tell you about the 5 best PostgreSQL GUI tools. Let's start with the first and most popular one.
pgAdmin is the de facto GUI tool for PostgreSQL, and the first tool anyone would use for PostgreSQL. It supports all PostgreSQL operations and features while being free and open-source. pgAdmin is used by both novice and seasoned DBAs and developers for database administration.
Here are some of the top reasons why PostgreSQL users love pgAdmin:
There are several cons of pgAdmin that users have generally complained about:
pgAdmin can be used on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. We listed it first as it's the most used GUI tool for PostgreSQL and it's the only native PostgreSQL GUI tool in our list. As it's dedicated exclusively to PostgreSQL, you can expect it to update with the latest features of each version. pgAdmin can be downloaded from their official website.
DBeaver is a major cross-platform GUI tool for PostgreSQL that both developers and database administrators love. DBeaver is not a native GUI tool for PostgreSQL, as it supports all the popular databases like MySQL, MariaDB, Sybase, SQLite, Oracle, SQL Server, DB2, MS Access, Firebird, Teradata, and Derby.
Here are some of the top DBeaver GUI features:
One of the cons of DBeaver is it may be slow when dealing with large data sets compared to some expensive GUI tools like Navicat and DataGrip.
You can run DBeaver on Windows, Linux, and macOS. It has a free and open-source as well an enterprise edition. You can buy the standard license for enterprise edition at $149. The free version is good enough for most companies. Especially most of the DBeaver users tell its free edition is better than pgAdmin.
Navicat is an easy-to-use graphical tool that targets both beginner and experienced developers. It supports several database systems such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MongoDB. One of the special features of Navicat is its collaboration with cloud databases like Amazon Redshift, Amazon RDS, Amazon Aurora, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Tencent Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, and Huawei Cloud.
Important features of Navicat:
Despite all the good features, there are a few cons that you need to consider before buying Navicat:
You can use Navicat in Windows, Linux, and Mac OS environments. The quality of Navicat is endorsed by its world-popular clients, including Apple, Oracle, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Disney, and Adobe. Navicat comes in three editions called enterprise edition, standard edition, and non-commercial edition. Enterprise edition costs you $239, and the standard edition costs you $159 while even non-commercial edition cost you $89. You can get full price details here, and download the Navicat trial version for 14 days from here.
DataGrip is a cross-platform integrated development environment (IDE) that supports multiple database environments. The most important thing about is DataGrip is developed by JetBrains, who is one of the leading brands for developing IDEs. If you have ever used PhpStorm, IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm, you never need an introduction on how good JetBrains IDEs are.
There are many exciting features of why you would like DataGrip:
There are a few cons in DataGrip:
DataGrip supports a tremendous list of database management systems, including SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, SQLite, Azure Database, DB2, H2, MariaDB, Cassandra, HyperSQL, Apache Derby, and many more.
DataGrip supports all three major operating systems, Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. One of the downsides is that JetBrains products are comparatively costly. DataGrip has two different prices for organizations and individuals. DataGrip for Organizations will cost you $199 for the first year, $159 for the second year, and $119 for the third year onwards. The individual package will cost you $89 for the first year. You can test it out during the free 30 days trial period.
The last item of our list is OmniDB. OmniDB lets you add, edit, and manage data and all other necessary features in a unified workspace. Although OmniDB supports other database systems like MySQL, Oracle, and MariaDB, their primary target is PostgreSQL. This open-source tool is mainly sponsored by 2ndQuadrant. OmniDB supports all three major platforms, namely Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
There are many reasons why you should use OmniDB for your Postgres developments:
There are a couple of cons with OmniDB:
Anyway, its users have favorable opinions about it. You can download OmniDB from here.
Let’s summarize our top PostgreSQL GUI comparison. Almost everyone starts PostgreSQL with pgAdmin. It has great community support, and there are a lot of resources to help you if you face an issue. Usually, pgAdmin satisfies the needs of many developers to a great extent and thus, most developers do not look for other GUI tools. That’s why pgAdmin remains to be the most popular GUI tool.
If you are looking for an open source solution that has a better UI and visual editor, then DBeaver and OmniDB are great solutions for you. If you are looking for more features than what’s provided by an open source tool, and you’re ready to pay a good price for it, then Navicat and DataGrip are the best GUI products on the market.
While I believe one of these tools should surely support your requirements, there are other popular GUI tools for PostgreSQL that you might like, including Valentina Studio, Adminer, DB visualizer, and SQL workbench. I hope this article will help you decide which GUI tool suits your needs.
pgAdmin is a free software project released under the PostgreSQL/Artistic licence. The software is available in source and binary format from the PostgreSQL mirror network. Because compiling from source requires technical knowledge, we recommend installing binary packages whenever possible.
The pages in this section give additional details about each binary package available as well as more direct download links. In addition, you can download source tarballs and pgAgent for your servers to enable additional functionality.
pgAdmin 4 is a complete rewrite of pgAdmin, built using Python and Javascript/jQuery. A desktop runtime written in C++ with Qt allows it to run standalone for individual users, or the web application code may be deployed directly on a webserver for use by one or more users through their web browser. The software has the look and feel of a desktop application whatever the runtime environment is, and vastly improves on pgAdmin III with updated user interface elements, multi-user/web deployment options, dashboards and a more modern design.
pgAgent is a job scheduler for PostgreSQL which may be managed using pgAdmin. Prior to pgAdmin v1.9, pgAgent shipped as part of pgAdmin. From pgAdmin v1.9 onwards, pgAgent is shipped as a separate application.
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