Software engineer, architect, consultant, amateur UI/UX designer, computer enthusiast, gamer. Often coming up with ideas and thoughts that I then write into a post within the next 60 minutes.
I really like this new trend and seeing new database tools emerge. It's simply painful as someone who appreciates a good UI and focus in user experience, to use old bugged out tools like PHPMyAdmin or worse, MySQL Workbench on Windows.
I recently tried Beekeeper Studio and it looked promising, but of course it quickly moved toward a direction where the free tier is greatly limited and the tool is not perfect by any means. My absolute favorite tool, however, is still Jetbrains Datagrip, as it is integrated in my PHPStorm IDE. I only have to pay 60$ a year for it, and it supports all the languages I need to build stuff for the web, while also providing me with a great database tool.
Outerbase looks promising, but I have great doubts that it'll remain fully open source once you get more feature complete. Right now it's lacking many features, based on the release comments (you just finished supporting variables in queries?). I prefer to have a more complete tool that supports a wide variety of drivers and settings.
I also do not like the idea of providing an online, browser-based platform, my database credentials and access to my data! Those credentials are to be kept under lock and key and the database behind a firewall, only accessible by specific servers. You should not allow public access to a database from a browser-based app. That is just a massive security concern here. I know you don't do this in your browser application, and instead redirect specific database types to download the app, but the hints are there as those connections are on the dropdown list and it might scare off some users.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. DataGrip is definitely a inspiring tool — I can see why you like it, especially with the tight IDE integration. (Just to clarify, though for everyone else reading and might not be familiar, DataGrip is not open source — it’s a commercial product from JetBrains.)
Also — I understand your concerns about security. Outerbase has an open-source core, so you can review and even self-host if you don’t want to connect anything externally. We’re actually pushing more features into our open-source product, not less. Of course, we do offer a paid managed service for those who prefer a cloud experience, but we fully respect that some folks want to keep everything behind their own firewall.
Regarding features, variables in queries are just one of many we’ve added recently, but we’re far from done. We already provide visual query explains (to help optimize queries), schema visualization, and connections to multiple databases (with more on the way), plus a litany of other features I can't cover in a short comment. That said, we absolutely want to hear which additional drivers or features you’re looking for. Community feedback helps us prioritize what to build next!
Lastly, I get the hesitation about browser-based tools and database credentials. We have been mindful of that and actually built out tunneling services for private VPNs and on-prem databases—so you’re not exposing your credentials publicly. If you’d rather keep it entirely self-managed, that’s where our open-source version can really shine.
I just want to say I really appreciate your input here, and the thoughtful response. This is why I love the data community and always want to give back where I can :)
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I really like this new trend and seeing new database tools emerge. It's simply painful as someone who appreciates a good UI and focus in user experience, to use old bugged out tools like PHPMyAdmin or worse, MySQL Workbench on Windows.
I recently tried Beekeeper Studio and it looked promising, but of course it quickly moved toward a direction where the free tier is greatly limited and the tool is not perfect by any means. My absolute favorite tool, however, is still Jetbrains Datagrip, as it is integrated in my PHPStorm IDE. I only have to pay 60$ a year for it, and it supports all the languages I need to build stuff for the web, while also providing me with a great database tool.
Outerbase looks promising, but I have great doubts that it'll remain fully open source once you get more feature complete. Right now it's lacking many features, based on the release comments (you just finished supporting variables in queries?). I prefer to have a more complete tool that supports a wide variety of drivers and settings.
I also do not like the idea of providing an online, browser-based platform, my database credentials and access to my data! Those credentials are to be kept under lock and key and the database behind a firewall, only accessible by specific servers. You should not allow public access to a database from a browser-based app. That is just a massive security concern here. I know you don't do this in your browser application, and instead redirect specific database types to download the app, but the hints are there as those connections are on the dropdown list and it might scare off some users.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. DataGrip is definitely a inspiring tool — I can see why you like it, especially with the tight IDE integration. (Just to clarify, though for everyone else reading and might not be familiar, DataGrip is not open source — it’s a commercial product from JetBrains.)
Also — I understand your concerns about security. Outerbase has an open-source core, so you can review and even self-host if you don’t want to connect anything externally. We’re actually pushing more features into our open-source product, not less. Of course, we do offer a paid managed service for those who prefer a cloud experience, but we fully respect that some folks want to keep everything behind their own firewall.
Regarding features, variables in queries are just one of many we’ve added recently, but we’re far from done. We already provide visual query explains (to help optimize queries), schema visualization, and connections to multiple databases (with more on the way), plus a litany of other features I can't cover in a short comment. That said, we absolutely want to hear which additional drivers or features you’re looking for. Community feedback helps us prioritize what to build next!
Lastly, I get the hesitation about browser-based tools and database credentials. We have been mindful of that and actually built out tunneling services for private VPNs and on-prem databases—so you’re not exposing your credentials publicly. If you’d rather keep it entirely self-managed, that’s where our open-source version can really shine.
I just want to say I really appreciate your input here, and the thoughtful response. This is why I love the data community and always want to give back where I can :)