Introduction to PostgreSQL GUI
PostgreSQL provides different GUI tools to users. The GUI means graphical user interface tool. It is open source and allowed to utilize with the help of graphical user interface tools we can easily manage all the operation of PostgreSQL. GUI provides a shortcut key to make it easy for new users and it also provides good visualization to users. We can access different database servers remotely by using GUI. PostgreSQL provides a window based interface to make it easier to use. Graphical user interface plays an important role in database administration.
The command line interface is a traditional way to implement PostgreSQL. The command line interface uses console display and some users do not like console display. It provides small amounts of information as compared to GUI tools. The browsing database, table, and user are difficult in the command line interface. So there are a few drawbacks of command line interface.
Top 5 PostgreSQL GUI Tools
Given below are the top 5 GUI Tools:
1. pgAdmin
The pgAdmin tool is open source and free to use. It supports all operations and features of PostgreSQL. It is very easy to handle and it is used by beginner as well as experienced database developers.
Advantages:
- By using pgAdmin we can create, view as well as we can edit all common PostgreSQL objects.
- It provides a graphical query tool to users so it makes it easy to write and execute queries.
- The pgAdmin dashboard allows users to monitor server activities like database locks, connected sessions of server and current transactions of server.
- Basically, pgAdmin tool is a web application. Hence, it can be deployed on another server to access it remotely.
- pgAdmin tool provides procedural language debugger which helps users for debugging purposes.
- pgAdmin UI has detachable panels. This detachable panel can be arranged according to likings by the user.
- If a user wants to move the data between machines then there is a portable version of pgAdmin.
Disadvantages:
- As compared to paid GUI tools, pgAdmin GUI is slow and also it is non-intuitive.
- The resources used by pgAdmin are too many.
2. DBeaver
The DBeaver is a cross platform GUI tool for PostgreSQL. Database administrator and developer both use this GUI tool and it supports all types of databases like Sybase, MySql, SQLite, Oracle , DB2 and MS Access etc. We can run on Windows, Linux and macOS operating systems.
Advantages:
- It provides a visual query builder to make it easy to construct complex SQL queries without knowledge of SQL.
- The DBeaver supports different types of data view that means it is a good option for editors.
- The DBeaver provides a facility to generate fake data to check your system.
- It also provides import and export facilities to users with different file formats.
- It provides advanced security to the database administrative system as compared to other GUI tools.
- It automatically generates ER diagrams for database or table.
Disadvantage:
- It is slow when we use a large data set as compared to other GUI tools.
3. Navicat
Navicat is a one type of GUI tool and it supports different database systems like PostgreSQL, MySql and MongoDB. It is easy to use for a beginner and experienced developer. The most important feature of Navicat is work in collaboration with cloud databases.
Advantages:
- It provides a visual SQL builder to users to make it very easy to create SQL statements in this GUI and it is very fast as compared to other GUI tools.
- It has an auto completion facility to save time and avoid mistakes.
- Navicat provides a data modeling tool to make it easy to visualize databases and schema with the help of diagrams.
- Navicat provides job scheduling facilities and notify them by using mail.
- It also works with cloud collaboration.
Disadvantages:
- Users need to buy different licenses for different database systems. It locks licenses for a single.
- Due to high prices it is not suitable for small companies and freelancers.
4. DataGrip
DataGrip supports multiple database systems and it is a cross platform integrated development environment. It is developed by JetBrains. It is one of the tools that are used by PostgreSQL. It supports all database systems like MySql, DB2, Oracle, SQLite and H2 etc. It supports different operating systems such as Windows, Linux and macOS.
Advantages:
- The DataGrip provides an auto complete facility to users to make them easy and time saving.
- The GUI of DataGrip is customizable and very user friendly with an intelligence query console to keep track of coding.
- We can easily navigate between tables, views and procedure.
- It helps developers to detect bugs in coding and provide suggestions on how we can fix it.
Disadvantages:
- The DataGrip is not native to PostgreSQL so it lacks some PostgreSQL features.
- It consumes many resources of your system.
5. OmniDB
OmniDB is one of the GUI tools it supports different database systems like MySql, oracle and MariaDB etc. It provides facility to create database, table and to create new users that means all necessary facility is available. It supports three platforms Windows, Linux and macOS.
Advantages:
- We can easily add or remove connections from the server that means we can easily configure.
- It provides an auto complete and syntax highlighting facility to save time and avoid mistakes of users.
- It also provides a dashboard to users to show information about the current database.
- Developers easily add and share new features through plugins.
Disadvantages:
- It does not provide all features of PostgreSQL as compared to other GUI tools like pgAdmin, Navicat and DataGrip.
- It is difficult to raise the error.
Conclusion
From the above article we saw different types of GUI tools such as pgAdmin, DBeaver, Navicat, DataGrip and OmniDB. We also saw different features of each type of platform it supports. Usually pgAdmin supports all types of features of PostgreSQL as compared to other GUI tools. From this article we saw how we can handle different GUI tools.
Recommended Articles
This is a guide to PostgreSQL GUI. Here we discuss the introduction to PostgreSQL GUI along with the top 5 GUI tools with respective advantages and disadvantages. You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more –
