Catalog of SQL Notebooks

By Louise de Leyritz from CastorDoc

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As data proliferates in modern organizations, and as more people work with data in their day-to-day operations, it has become crucial to facilitate access to data assets. SQL is the programming language used by the most popular database servers worldwide, and SQL editors are the interfaces that provide access to the data. Thus, democratizing access to data is synonym with making SQL accessible to a wide range of people.

This explains the recent explosion in the past few years of SQL editors. This new trend is not going to stop, and we'd rather bring visibility and structure soon.

At CastorDoc, we believe the first step to structure the SQL editors tools market, is more transparency. For that reason, we put up a list of all the SQL IDEs we heard of. More context on this analysis and the state of the SQL clients ecosystem here.

This list is still exploratory, may contain errors, or lacking information. Please reach out to us, if you notice anything wrong: louise@castordoc.com

In-depth analysis and evolution

Read the full breakdown by generation and market analysis of SQL editors here.

What does Reddit think about SQL editors?

You can find the thread here.

Frequently Asked Questions

Have a question that’s not here? Let’s talk!

What does each column in the benchmark below mean?

Productivity

Multi-platform: Does the tool provide an interface through which multiple platforms can be queried?

Execute Multiple Queries: Run all queries in the editor at the same time and get the results in an organized format.

Autocomplete: Autocomplete is a search feature, where the editor predicts the user's query and proposes suggestions as the user types their query. The user can select the autocomplete suggestions matching his use case without having to manually type the full query.

Query corrector: Detects potential mistakes in your code and suggests better options to correct them in one click.  

Schedule recurring queries: Automate recurring queries, and get updated results just when you need them. You can also schedule refreshes of your dashboards.  

Drag-and-drop query: drag-and-drop cells to build SQL queries without coding.

Query parameters: Parameterize your SQL queries and let users set values of interest via simple UI elements - no need to manipulate code.

Query referencing: Possibility to reference other cells and queries - even across notebooks - to build up your analysis.

Collaboration

Integration with slack: Push query results to your team via slack

Version history: The solution provides access to all the past versions of a query.

Query link to share a query: Share your query, project, or notebook with a link, instead of copying and pasting queries.

Frequently used queries: The solution provides access to frequently used queries

Visualization

Visualization: The tool has a built-in visualization layer. Upon query execution, the tool automatically picks the best possible chart to visualize your results. This saves you from having to learn a plotting library.

Automatic Data Visualization. One of the most convenient things about PopSQL is that upon query execution, it automatically picks the best possible chart to visualize your results. This makes it easier to digest information and also saves you from having to visualize the data on your own.

Diff viewer: the solution allows you to compare two queries, with a highlight of their difference

Additional dimensions - Standard SQL IDE's

Database administration suite: This makes it easy for you to audit your databases, configure servers, and view logs. It even comes with a system status feature where you can easily see health indicators of your MySQL environment, such as security and memory usage.

Object explorer: you can view and manage objects and filter them for faster searches according to your criteria.

Activity monitor: It logs everything for you in real-time to help you track changes.

System availability: Which systems are the solution available on? Windows, Mac, Linux, any?

Performance Monitoring. MySQL Workbench gives users a dashboard where they can view the status of their queries, client timing, network latency, and index usage. This allows for simpler identification of possible ways to optimize SQL performance.