We just launched Outerbase Studio, the open-source version of our core database offering. It works in your browser or as a desktop app and supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite.
What it does:
• Connects to MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite databases.
• Spin up local databases directly through the UI, even if you don’t have one running.
• Manage and query your data in a lightweight, intuitive interface.
• Completely open source.
Why we built it:
We wanted to share the core Outerbase experience with the developer community as a free, open-source tool. It’s simple, fast, and removes the barriers to working with databases locally.
GitHub: https://github.com/outerbase/studio
Release Blog: https://www.outerbase.com/blog/outerbase-studio-open-source-...
Try it out: studio.outerbase.com
Would love the HN communities feedback, please try it out and let me know what you think!
by j1mmie on 12/4/24, 8:02 PM
For years I've wondered why a general purpose, high quality, good UX, browser based DB browser has not existed. I've implemented 3 such (not general-purpose) browsers in my career. But I'd be really happy to
stop doing that and use this instead.
I would love to see a Firestore driver implemented (maybe I'll take a crack at it some day), as I'm stuck in GCP land for the time being.
by d0100 on 12/5/24, 12:50 AM
Would be nice to have an option of choosing a "compact" interface
When you contrast web UI with native GUI, the realspace you lose in the web accumulates fast
All that padding makes it hard to see the actual information, especially for power users
Compare this with Navicat, or even DBeaver, their native tabs, buttons and cells are almost half the height of Outerbase Studio GUI
by sirjaz on 12/4/24, 8:30 PM
Any plans to use tauri? That way you can use the native os web view, plus cut the overhead of electron
by vasvir on 12/5/24, 7:07 AM
What I found invaluable is the use of Kate (yes the editor) SQL plugin. It can connect to MySQL/MariaDB, Postgres and others.
The main benefit is that you can organize your SQLs in files or even better in markdown files.
God knows how many times I had to retype the same or a very similar SQL in the past.
by dav43 on 12/5/24, 6:36 AM
Looks nice and make be helpful. Keep in mind I can’t and most people can’t install this in a corp environment. If you get a pip install or npm install I’d be able to use it through corporate mirrors internally.
Make it as easy to run as something like datasette.
by maxloh on 12/5/24, 4:14 AM
by Dachande663 on 12/5/24, 8:36 AM
We currently use Metabase for SQL reporting, so I've been looking for something to allow actually changing values for a while. That being said, I don't think I would want to touch this. Reading through the code, it looks like a) it doesn't actually use transactions which I just find mind blowing and b) the first two files I looked at (api/database) has the schema for a database defined twice so already I worry about the data model of the app, let alone managing my own.
by bko on 12/5/24, 1:47 PM
This looks great. I've built something similar. The important thing that I'm not sure if you support is permissioning.
Consider you have some email list that you need to maintain and ideally you want to let others maintain. Throw it in a table and give them permission to add rows.
There are a ton of things that I consider 'configs' like that and can't believe there aren't strong standards about how to do these sort of maintenance things (or maybe there are but I'm unaware)
by wcast on 12/5/24, 7:59 AM
by nandosobral03 on 12/4/24, 6:18 PM
The mac desktop icon looks huge compared to the standard macOS apps
by bottled_poe on 12/5/24, 3:14 AM
Could you please add an option to enforce the use of transactions within the SQL input?
by TripleChecker on 12/5/24, 4:32 PM
Are you planning to release any 'end-user' features such as reports and dashboards? BI tools like Metabase already offer capabilities for SQL queries and database exploration, so I wonder what additional features or advantages your tool might provide to distinguish itself in the market.
Small typo in the footer - 'Compilance' (error report: https://triplechecker.com/s/345418/studio.outerbase.com)
by L-four on 12/5/24, 8:08 AM
All of the browser based database UI's I've tried have a lot of issues when it comes to binary data and very large int's in ways that will corrupt your data.
by hahn-kev on 12/5/24, 4:48 AM
I'd love to try it out, but I get an error about an invalid URL in the console when I try to open a database. Also it does not support Firefox
by vollbrecht on 12/5/24, 7:28 AM
It seams that you currently only support Windows and MacOS via your electron wrapper. Are there plans to also release a Linux version?
by pkphilip on 12/5/24, 5:50 AM
Good project. The only thing I don't like about it is the dependence on Electron.. because it slows down everything.
by Alifatisk on 12/5/24, 11:34 AM
Is there a plan to support collaboration? Like two or more users work in the same workspace so that querying and getting the result would happen in real time together.
I've had difficulties finding such application. The closest I've been to achieving something like this is vscode + liveshare + some sql management extension.
by maxloh on 12/5/24, 4:38 AM
It would be great if we could self-host it with pre-defined credentials (perhaps using an .env file). This would be useful for demo projects with Docker Compose.
For production use, we'll need some form of OAuth support, or users will have to implement their own authentication gateway in front of the Studio server.
by srameshc on 12/4/24, 7:45 PM
This is neat. I love the support for both Postgresql and Sqlite and explicit support for Cloudflare D1.
by jaimehrubiks on 12/4/24, 7:07 PM
Does it will it support management of users and permissions? I always struggle with those on the cli
by teddarific on 12/4/24, 6:27 PM
i hate working with DBs via command line, so this looks really cool. curious if your product resonates with a specific segment of developers, e.g. frontend vs backend? Hoping this can entirely replace me needing to do anything DB related in the comamnd line...
by 8mobile on 12/5/24, 5:55 AM
Congratulations on your work! I tried Outerbase Studio and really appreciate the clean and visually appealing design. However, I noticed that it occasionally slows down during use. Looking forward to seeing future updates to make it even smoother!
by burcs on 12/4/24, 6:06 PM
Happy to answer any questions around this! As far as next steps we are going to be adding in more database support as well as bringing in some of Outerbase Cloud's AI features.
by shreddit on 12/4/24, 8:45 PM
Can i put it inside a docker container alongside my pg container and serve it under a path like “/dbadmin” with password protection? That’s my current workflow with pgadmin.
by antman on 12/5/24, 7:45 AM
Very nice! Are there any plans for a visual query builder? MS Access had a very good experience on that and I am mot aware of any opensource tools that do it.
by ibrothergang on 12/5/24, 6:33 AM
Great, I'm going to try it
by johtso on 12/4/24, 6:15 PM
Outerbase Studio is great! Been happily using it to experiment with queries over my Turso database, and see how many rows are being read when optimising.
Excited to hear that some AI stuff is going to be brought over, currently do a lot of switching back and forth with ChatGPT, and having your database schema automatically be part of the prompt would be great.
I'm guessing visualisation stuff is going to stay part of the paid offering?
by kiwicopple on 12/4/24, 6:17 PM
congrats on open sourcing
i didn't try it locally yet but it looks like the cloud version can create SQLite databases inside the browser? Assuming the open source version does too, can you also "connect" to those databases somehow?
by lacoolj on 12/5/24, 4:12 PM
lets swap out pgadmin for this
replicate all its functionality, then imma stick this on all our production servers
yeeeeeeeah boooooiiiiii
by betimsl on 12/5/24, 10:52 AM
Adminer.
by ingen0s on 12/5/24, 12:43 AM
Kudos! Following this
by Lord_Zero on 12/4/24, 7:23 PM
Support MSSQL please
by Usaz112 on 12/5/24, 3:56 PM
good!
by stronglikedan on 12/4/24, 6:10 PM
I downloaded it, fired it up locally, was presented with a login screen, closed it, and uninstalled it. Sorry, but I don't log into local software.
by delduca on 12/4/24, 10:09 PM
I would use it if it weren’t based on Electron. In recent months, I’ve replaced all Electron apps with native versions, and not only are they more performant, but my RAM is now saved for more important tasks.