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Native Beekeeper Studio Alternative for Mac.
Beekeeper Studio is a friendly cross-platform database client built on Electron. The Community Edition is free; paid tiers start at $108 per year (Indie) and add AI from the Professional tier ($168 per year). Electron bundles Chromium so even at idle the app uses 200-400 MB of RAM. TablePro is native SwiftUI for Mac. 80 MB at idle, under 1 second to start.
| Feature | TablePro | Beekeeper Studio |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free / from $108/yr Indie |
| Open Source | Included | Community Edition GPLv3 |
| Technology | Native (SwiftUI) | Electron (Chromium) |
| Databases | 29 | 17+ |
| AI Assistant | Free tier | Pro tier ($168/yr) |
| iOS App | Included | Not included |
| iCloud Sync | Included | Not included |
| SSH Tunneling | Included | Included |
| Inline Editing | Included | Included |
| ER Diagrams | Included | Not included |
| Vim Mode | Included | Not included |
| Dark Mode | Included | Included |
| Cross-Platform | Not included | Included |
Benchmarks
The numbers.
Cold start
RAM idle
Download size
Summary
Strengths of each.
TablePro
- 80 MB RAM vs ~200-400 MB for Electron
- Under 1 second start vs ~3 seconds
- Native SwiftUI, not Electron
- Apple Silicon arm64 native
- AI SQL assistant in the free tier (Beekeeper requires Pro)
- iOS app with iCloud sync
Beekeeper Studio
- Cross-platform (Linux, Windows, Mac)
- Active community, ~20k+ GitHub stars
- Free Community Edition under GPLv3
- 17+ databases including BigQuery and CockroachDB
Migration
Switch from Beekeeper Studio.
- 1
Install TablePro
brew install --cask tablepro. Beekeeper stays installed.
- 2
Re-enter your connections
Beekeeper stores connections in its own format. Recreate each in TablePro or paste the connection URL.
- 3
Compare for a week
Run both side by side. The startup speed and RAM difference are obvious by day three.
TablePro
See it in action.
Decision
Which one is right for you?
Choose TablePro if...
you work mainly on Mac and want a real native app instead of a Chromium runtime.
Choose Beekeeper Studio if...
you split time between Mac, Linux, and Windows and want feature parity across all three.
Verdict
The short answer.
Beekeeper Studio is the best Electron-based DB client. TablePro is the best Mac-native one.
FAQ
Common questions.
Why is Beekeeper Studio heavier than TablePro?
It's built on Electron, which bundles Chromium. Even an idle Electron app is hundreds of MB of RAM. TablePro is native SwiftUI; idle stays at 80 MB.
Does TablePro work on Apple Silicon?
Yes. Universal Binary, native arm64 and x86_64. Beekeeper Studio runs on M-series via the bundled Chromium.
Is TablePro really free?
Yes. AGPLv3 open source. Beekeeper has a free Community Edition too; both are honest about that.
Can I import Beekeeper connections?
Not yet. TablePro doesn't read Beekeeper's connection store. Recreate connections by hand.
Does TablePro work on Linux and Windows?
No. TablePro is Mac-native by design. If you need cross-platform, Beekeeper Studio is the pragmatic pick.
Try TablePro for free.
Free and open source. macOS 14+, Apple Silicon and Intel. No account.