The latest articles on DEV Community by Eric Blanchette (@kilt_dev). https://dev.to/kilt_dev https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F3963476%2Face765aa-1dfd-41ac-8e55-d13958b92032.png https://dev.to/kilt_dev en Eric Blanchette Mon, 01 Jun 2026 22:57:00 +0000 https://dev.to/kilt_dev/i-hated-working-with-sql-so-i-built-my-own-mysql-gui-3hm6 https://dev.to/kilt_dev/i-hated-working-with-sql-so-i-built-my-own-mysql-gui-3hm6 <p>SQL was always a pain for me. Not the concepts, the actual day to day work. Switching between tools, writing the same boilerplate, trying to visualize schemas in my head. It slowed me down constantly.<br> So I spent 2 months building something better.</p> <p>What It Does<br> Free My Query is a desktop MySQL GUI for Windows.</p> <p>ER diagrams: connect to a schema and see your tables and relationships laid out visually. Clickable, live, no setup.<br> No-code SQL: insert, update, delete, query through the GUI. No writing SQL by hand.<br> Java code generation: point it at your user table, get Java login and authentication functions back. Done.<br> SSH tunneling (coming in newer version): connect to remote MySQL instances. It just works.</p> <p>Why I Built It<br> Workbench is bloated. DBeaver is fine but it's not built around how I work. I wanted one tool that handled everything without getting in the way.<br> Two months later, here it is. It's free.<br> </p> <div class="crayons-card c-embed text-styles text-styles--secondary"> <div class="c-embed__content"> <div class="c-embed__body flex items-center justify-between"> <a href="https://freemyquery.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="c-link fw-bold flex items-center"> <span class="mr-2">freemyquery.com</span> </a> </div> </div> </div> backend mysql