TablePlus

TablePlus is a native macOS database management client that lets you connect to, browse, edit, and query relational and non-relational databases through a single, keyboard-friendly interface.

What is TablePlus?

TablePlus is a freemium database GUI for macOS (and Windows and Linux, though the Mac version is where it truly shines) built from the ground up with native frameworks — not a wrapped web app, not Electron, not a port. You connect to your database, and it simply works, the way a well-made Mac app should.

It supports an impressive breadth of engines under one roof: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite, Redis, MongoDB, CockroachDB, Cassandra, and more. For teams that run a mixed stack — say, Postgres for the app, Redis for caching, and a legacy MySQL database still humming along — TablePlus is the single tool that covers the lot.

What does TablePlus do best?

TablePlus excels at making database work feel native and fast, not like a chore you're enduring inside a decade-old Java UI or a slow browser tab.

The table editor is where most of my day lives: inline cell editing, multi-row selection, and a single-click commit/discard workflow that makes it impossible to accidentally push a stray edit. The review-before-commit model — where all pending changes queue up and show you a diff before touching the database — has saved me more than once. There's a built-in SQL editor with syntax highlighting, autocomplete, and the ability to run queries against multiple connections in tabs. Opening a Redis key-space, then flipping to a Postgres table in the tab next to it, feels totally unremarkable, which is exactly the point.

Safe mode, which protects against destructive queries running without a WHERE clause, is on by default. Connection filters and favorites let you organise dozens of connections without resorting to a spreadsheet. The UI uses the system font, system color scheme, and responds to Dark Mode instantly. None of this should be noteworthy in 2024 — and yet most competing tools still fail to deliver it.

How much does TablePlus cost?

TablePlus is free to download with no time limit, though the free tier restricts you to two open tabs and two open windows at once — workable for light use, genuinely constraining for production debugging sessions. A one-time paid license unlocks unlimited tabs and windows, plus a year of free updates; after that year, your current version keeps working forever and you pay again only to upgrade. There are no monthly subscriptions.

For solo developers exploring a new side project or students, the free tier is genuinely useful. For anyone using it as a daily driver across multiple databases and staging environments, the paid license is a straightforward value calculation.

Who should use TablePlus?

Backend engineers, full-stack developers, and data professionals who spend real time in databases and refuse to tolerate a slow or ugly tool. If you've been suffering through pgAdmin's web UI, Sequel Pro's decade-old codebase, or a DBeaver window that feels like it was designed by a committee in 2009, TablePlus is the obvious upgrade.

It's also a strong pick for developer teams that mix macOS and Windows machines — the Windows and Linux clients exist, and while they're not quite as polished as the Mac version, cross-platform connection profiles keep everyone on the same workflow.

What are the best TablePlus alternatives?

The closest native competitor on Mac is Sequel Pro — free, focused on MySQL/MariaDB, and long-beloved, but development has slowed considerably and it doesn't support PostgreSQL or modern engine breadth. Postico is a beautiful Postgres-only option with a similar native-Mac sensibility; if you're strictly a Postgres shop, it deserves a look. DBeaver covers almost every database engine imaginable and is fully open-source, but it's a Java application and the UI shows it. DataGrip from JetBrains is the power-user choice — deeply intelligent SQL assistance, refactoring, and code insight — but it costs considerably more and brings the full JetBrains IDE weight with it. For developers who want something lightweight and native, TablePlus sits in a category of one.

How does TablePlus compare to DataGrip?

DataGrip wins on SQL intelligence: its query analyzer, schema-aware autocomplete, and refactoring tools are genuinely ahead of what TablePlus offers. If you write complex stored procedures or need deep IDE integration, DataGrip earns its subscription. TablePlus wins on everything else: startup time, UI responsiveness, visual design, and the low cognitive load of a tool that doesn't get in your way. I reach for TablePlus for ninety percent of my database work and DataGrip only when I need to reason about a particularly gnarly migration.