Database GUIs in JavaScript

Jan Prochazka — Thu, 22 Sep 2022 10:27:33 +0000

If you want to access your database, eg. during the development process, you have many options, which tool to choose. Traditional tools are often written in Java, C++ or even Delphi and they use good old JDBC, ODBC or ADO.NET drivers for accessing database.

If you are JavaScript, especially NodeJS developer, maybe better option for you could be some of new tools written in JavaScript, because:

These tools use the same drivers as you in your application, so if you have any problem with DB in your app, you could test it in GUI and obtain similar results
Mostly they have similar visual style as VS Code (IDE, which is used by many JS developers)
Some of them could export JS scripts with export and import jobs
Almost all tools are open-source. You could check source code and get inspiration, how to solve eg. connection related problems

This list contains 5 database clients, all written in JavaScript.

Name	GitHub	Technology	License
Azure Data Studio	GitHub	VS Code	Microsoft
DbGate	GitHub	Svelte	MIT
Beekeeper Studio	GitHub	Vue	Commercial/GPL
Antares SQL	GitHub	Vue	MIT
Sqlectron	GitHub	React	MIT

There are some characteristics common to all tools:

use JavaScript, TypeScript and NodeJS
use ElectronJS as application builder
avalaible for Windows, Linux and Mac (but only some of them supports Apple M1 processor)

Azure Data Studio

Azure Data Studio is build directly on VS Code technology, so the imitation of VS Code look & feel is the best of all tools. It is primarily designed for Microsoft SQL Server, but you could install extensions for limited number of other databases (but MySQL is not supported). If you were satisfied with Microsoft Management Studio and you search something more modern or something running under Linux and Mac, you will probably satisfied with ADS. But if you want to quick search and understand your data (eg. use filters and ordering without manual SQL coding), try other tool. Is also supports features like explain SQL (but it seems a bit worse than in SQL Management Studio) or Jupyter notebooks. ADS is maintained by Microsoft and is free and open-source.

Supported databases:

Microsoft SQL Server
Postgre SQL (via extension)
Oracle (via extension)
CosmoDB (via extension)
MongoDB (via extension)

DbGate

DbGate is the most feature rich client from this list. It uses multi-connection and multi-database in one window paradigm, with tabs labeled with asociated database. It has interesting data-navigating features, like master/detail and form views, and excel-like data editing. Also you could use features which you may know from classical clients, like query designer or ER diagram viwer. It is the only client from this list, which offers also web version (you could play with it in demo app). But if you need only to write simple SQL query into one database, you could use simpler solutions. Otherwise, when you don't like to write repeating simple queries, this tool is right choice for you. DbGate is developed by Jan Prochazka (author of this article).

Supported databases:

MySQL+MariDB
PostgreSQL+CockroachDB+Amazon Redshift
Microsoft SQL Server
SQLite
MongoDB
Redis

Beekeeper Studio

Beekeeper Studio studio is popular and modern GUI client. It offers only basic functionality (focused on writing SQL queries), but looks very nice and has very good basic workflow. The key design concept is that one opened window contains only tables and queries from one database. If you need to work with more databases simultaneously, you need to open more app windows. If has two editions - community and commercial. Community is free and open-source, paid commercial license offers a few additional features (eg. support for Oracle database). Beekeeper Studio is developed and maintained by Matthew Rathbone. But has also quite active contributor community on GitHub.

Supported databases:

MySQL+MariDB
PostgreSQL+CockroachDB+Amazon Redshift
Microsoft SQL Server
SQLite
Oracle (only commercial edition)

Antares SQL

Antares is probably the youngest client from this list. It has distinctive visual style. It uses multiple databases, but one connection per window paradigm. You could switch between connections using left panel, which is in other tools (including VS Code) used for widget switching. It has quite good SQL dumping abilities for PostgreSQL and MySQL (ability to make SQL backup of database/selected tables), which is a bit problem for other tools. Also it utilizes (in)famous library faker.js, you could insert new rows with testing data. Antares is developed by Fabio Di Stasio.

Supported databases:

MySQL+MariDB
PostgreSQL
SQLite

Sqlectron

Sqlectron is on the other hand the oldest and also the simplest tool from this list. Source codes from Sqlectron was a base for Beekeeper Studio. As a speciality, it offers console version, which is quite unique feature. Sqlectron was developed by more contributors, but it seems not actively developed.

Supported databases:

MySQL+MariDB
PostgreSQL+Amazon Redshift
Microsoft SQL Server
SQLite
Cassandra

Feature comparison

This table contains only common features (implemented by at least 2 tools). Features specific for one tool were mentioned above.

Feature	Azure Data Studio	DbGate	Beekeeper Studio	Antares SQL	Sqlectron
Code completion	yes	yes	yes	yes	no
Query formatter	yes	yes	yes	yes	no
Query history	no	yes	yes	no	no
Light and dark mode	yes	yes	yes	yes	no
Runs on Mac M1	no	yes	yes	no	no
Table filtering and sorting	no	yes	yes	yes	no
Foreign key navigation	no	yes	yes	no	no
Table structure editor	no	yes	only new table	yes	no
Export SQL dump	no	MySQL	no	MySQL, PostgreSQL	no
Plugins	yes	yes	no	no	no
Import	no	CSV, NDJSON, Excel, XML	no	no	no
Export	CSV, Excel, JSON, XML	JSON, NDJSON, SQL, CSV, Excel, XML	JSV, JSON, NDJSON, SQL	JSON, CSV, SQL	CSV, JSON

If you know about other tool not listed in this article, you could write about it in comments below.

Forem: Jan Prochazka

Database GUIs in JavaScript

Azure Data Studio

DbGate

Beekeeper Studio

Antares SQL

Sqlectron

Feature comparison