The space of free, open-source database clients on Mac has shifted in the last two years. Some old favorites stalled. New native projects emerged. Electron tools added free tiers and AI. This post is a current map.
We are going to write about TablePro at the end. Up front: TablePro is one of the apps in this space. The point of this post is not "TablePro is best for everyone". The point is honest categorisation so you can pick the right tool for your job.
What "open source" means in this market
Three flavours of open source show up:
- Truly open. Source on GitHub, permissive or copyleft license, commits from outside contributors. DBeaver Community, Sequel Ace, HeidiSQL, Azimutt fit here.
- Open core. Open base with a closed commercial layer. Beekeeper Studio fits here (GPL community + paid commercial).
- Source-available. Source visible, but with usage restrictions. Some tools call themselves open and aren't.
For Mac users, the practical question is "can I use it free, forever, including for work?". For all the tools below, the answer is yes (subject to license terms).
The map
DBeaver Community (Apache 2.0)
The biggest. 50k GitHub stars, 100+ databases via JDBC. Deep features: SQL refactoring, ER diagrams, data export, schema diff. The catch: it runs on Java 21 via Eclipse RCP. Cold start is ~8 seconds. Idle RAM is ~800 MB.
Best at: working with rare or enterprise databases (Db2, Teradata, Vertica, SAP HANA) where TablePro and others don't have native drivers. JDBC covers the long tail.
Worst at: feeling fast on Mac. The Eclipse UI does not match macOS conventions. Fonts and shortcuts feel off.
Status: actively maintained. Weekly releases.
Beekeeper Studio (GPLv3 + commercial)
Cross-platform Electron client with a free Community Edition (GPL) and paid tiers ($108/year and up) that add AI, multi-device, and team features. Modern UI, friendly defaults, very approachable.
Best at: cross-platform parity. If you split time between Mac, Linux, and Windows, Beekeeper looks and works the same on all three. The team uses all three themselves and ships features at parity.
Worst at: the Electron tax. ~200-400 MB at idle, ~3 second cold start. AI is paid-tier only.
Status: actively maintained. Weekly to bi-weekly releases.
Sequel Ace (MIT)
The community fork of Sequel Pro. Pure macOS app, native Cocoa, MySQL and MariaDB only. Dating back to 2002 in spirit.
Best at: feeling like a Mac app. Sequel Ace looks right, feels right, uses native shortcuts.
Worst at: anything beyond MySQL. Also: development has slowed. The latest release as of mid-2026 is from April 2024. Still functional, but new MySQL 8 features (window function tweaks, GIPK, etc.) are not always covered.
Status: maintenance mode. Functional today, not actively gaining features.
HeidiSQL (GPL-2.0)
A Windows-first Delphi app. Twenty years of Windows polish. Supports MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, SQLite, Interbase, Firebird.
Best at: being free and very capable on Windows. The export and import features are strong; the SQL editor is fast.
Worst at: Mac. There is a Lazarus-based macOS preview build, but it remains a preview. Fonts look wrong, dark mode is partial, native macOS conventions don't apply.
Status: Windows version actively maintained. Mac version is a preview, contributors welcome.
Azimutt (MIT)
A web-based schema visualisation tool, not a database client. Built in Elm and TypeScript. Free tier (web), paid plans from €7/mo (Solo). Self-host via Docker.
Best at: very large schemas. If you have 1000+ tables and need to find relationships, Azimutt is the strongest tool in the market. Tag-based exploration, schema-as-code, diagram-first workflow.
Worst at: being a database client. You cannot run queries, edit data, or manage tables in Azimutt. It pairs with another tool that does.
Status: actively maintained. Used by enterprise data teams that need schema documentation.
TablePro (AGPLv3)
Native macOS app written in Swift and AppKit. 18 databases through a plugin architecture (MySQL, Postgres, MongoDB, Redis, ClickHouse, BigQuery, DynamoDB, Cloudflare D1, Turso, etc.). Free, open source, with paid features (license server, advanced AI usage).
Best at: native macOS performance with broad database coverage. ~80 MB at idle, ~1 second cold start. AI assistant in the free tier. iOS app with iCloud sync.
Worst at: enterprise databases (Db2, Teradata, etc.) without native drivers. Plugin authors can fill these in but the long tail belongs to DBeaver.
Status: actively maintained. Weekly releases.
Picking a tool
A few guidelines:
You work mostly on Mac, use 2-4 databases, want fast. Native client (TablePro) is the structural fit. Beekeeper if cross-platform parity matters more.
You work across Mac, Linux, Windows daily. Beekeeper Studio. Cross-platform parity is real, and the Electron tax is acceptable for the consistency.
You only use MySQL and value classic Mac UX. Sequel Ace. The lack of active development means you accept that new MySQL features lag.
You touch a long tail of enterprise databases. DBeaver. JDBC drivers cover almost everything. Accept the Java startup time.
You architect very large schemas. Azimutt for visualisation, plus a real client (TablePro, DBeaver) for queries.
You're on Windows. Use HeidiSQL. None of the Mac-native tools matter.
What's missing in the space
Three gaps remain in 2026:
- A truly fast Postgres-only Mac client with paid features. Postico fills this commercially but isn't open source. The free Postgres-only OSS clients (PSequel, Postbird) are dormant.
- A first-class NoSQL multi-tool. Mongo + Redis + DynamoDB + Cassandra in one app. TablePro covers them; nothing fully open-source does this end-to-end at native speed.
- A serious schema migration tool that doesn't require Ruby/Python toolchain. Liquibase exists but is Java-heavy. Atlas is interesting and improving. Native macOS migration UI is still rare.
Closing
The OSS database client space is healthier than it was three years ago. DBeaver is doing the long tail. Beekeeper is doing cross-platform. Sequel Ace is keeping classic MySQL alive. Azimutt is doing huge schemas. TablePro is doing native multi-database.
You can pick whichever fits your work. There is enough overlap that switching doesn't lose months of muscle memory. Use one for daily work, keep one or two more around for the cases the daily driver doesn't handle.
If TablePro fits, the install is brew install --cask tablepro or the DMG from tablepro.app/download. Free, open source, no signup required.