
Postico – A modern PostgreSQL client for OS X - tortilla
https://eggerapps.at/postico
======
vbezhenar
I use Intellij Idea with Database plugin and it works perfectly. SQL syntax
highlighting (for PostgreSQL dialect), autocomplete (using actual table
definitions from the database), visual table editor. I can run SQL query, edit
some cell in the result table and that edit will update the database.

There's a dedicated cheaper product called 0xDBE if you don't own Idea and
don't need Java support.

Postico looks nice and I like the fact that it's a native app. But without
highlighting and autocomplete it's not very interesting for me, I'm SQL guy.

~~~
skrause
I'm perfectly fine with pgAdmin. It's not pretty, but it does everything I
need. And it's free and cross-platform.

~~~
bmurphy1976
I've solely used the command line client for the last few years. I stopped
using pgAdmin because it did not gracefully handle flakey network connections
(i.e. vpn restarts). Has this improved recently?

~~~
Fishkins
I also abandoned pgAdmin because of flaky connection handling, as well as
several annoying bugs on the Mac version. I was happy with psql for a while
(and still sometimes use it), but IntelliJ's DB plugin is by far my favorite
now. Its autocomplete is really smart, which makes a big difference in writing
queries without having to constantly check various table definitions.

------
msluyter
Could be promising but falls short for my use cases, which mainly consists of
running ad hoc queries. I don't like Squirrel, but here are a few things
squirrel does that are nice that I wish this did:

1\. Auto limit

2\. Syntax highlighting

3\. Multiple queries can be written in the editor; spaces separate them. This
seems to run the first query in the editor afaict.

4\. Key bindings (I discovered that cmd-enter appears to run the query, but I
didn't see these documented anywhere nor are the configurable.)

Also, stylistically it's a little spare. Alternating textures per row might be
nice.

I do like the live table editing and the quick auto-querying of tables
(though, there are cases where I might not like that.) Another thing I like is
the query history -- one thing that would be nice would be to highlight those
queries that failed due to syntax errors in red or something, to help you read
the list, but even more importantly, a search feature (like Sublime's cmd-P).

~~~
jakobegger
1\. I don't really want to modify the SQL the user types in the query

2\. Syntax highlighting is hard to get right, but I'll add it eventually.

3\. Postico by default runs all the queries, you can use the popup menu at the
bottom to toggle between results. Select some text (even discontinuous
selection using ⌘) and only the selected part is executed.

4\. Key bindings are shown as tooltips (hover over buttons for a few seconds),
and you can find more keybindings by looking throught the menus.

5\. The history search totally makes sense and I just haven't gotten around to
implement it yet.

~~~
uxp
An alternative to syntax highlighting might be query structuring/beautifying
(on command, not by default).

And +1 from me for search history. Thanks for building these apps. Sequel Pro
nails it for MySQL, but up until lately there seemed to be a void on the PG
side. I've been using PG Commander for about 5 months and am excited I can use
my license on Postico. So far the app works as I expect it to, and looks
fantastic.

~~~
christianpbrink
Can you say more about using your PG Commander license? I have one too but
don't understand the connection with Postico.

 __edit: I figured it out. Sorry for the noise.

------
ratsbane
I've been wanting a better Postgres client. Pgadmin works but it's a bit
dated. Postico looks promising. Download and setup went seamlessly and the ssh
tunnel functionality worked great. This error message was shown when I
connected to the database and I wasn't able to browse catalogs, etc.:
PostgreSQL said: syntax error at or near "num_total_pages" To be fair, the
Postgres server I was connecting to is old and obsolete (8.3.7). I'll look
forward to trying this more!

~~~
jakobegger
I think I found the problem. Had a query missing "AS" for a column alias.
Could you try if this build works? [https://s3-eu-
west-1.amazonaws.com/eggerapps.at/postico/post...](https://s3-eu-
west-1.amazonaws.com/eggerapps.at/postico/postico-hn.zip)

~~~
ratsbane
Yes, that's awesome! Thank you.

------
bdcravens
For the same price, you can get Navicat Essentials, which has syntax
highlighting, import/export, and more. If you want to spend $160, you get the
version that can talk to MySQL, SQL Server, SQLite, and more.

~~~
jakobegger
I'm a single dev; I can't compete with Navicat on features. But I can try to
make an app that does a limited set of things really well.

For example, I'm really proud of the table view in Postico. It's really easy
to filter rows by keywords. You can edit multiple rows at once in the sidebar.
You can rearrange columns, filters and sort order are remembered
automatically...

If you have a workflow where you don't often use the table view, you might not
get a lot of value out of Postico. But fortunately there are a few people out
there who do like the stuff Postico does!

~~~
cmpb
I see what you're saying about the table filtering! Very slick. Dragging
columns around feels very fluid. Great work, I think I might have to go ahead
and purchase this one!

~~~
leesalminen
That was the main sell for me. Purchased!

------
Killswitch
How would you compare it to [http://www.psequel.com](http://www.psequel.com)?

~~~
jiaaro
It's pretty similar.

Psequel doesn't currently offer anything for schema editing, so you have to
write your own queries for ALTER, CREATE INDEX, etc.

PSequel also doesn't show you the execution time of a query, which seems
minor, and yes I know you can use EXPLAIN ANALYZE, but it bugs me pretty much
every time I use it.

Neither one provides any way to add, view, or remove indexes

------
numbsafari
It's hard to call something "modern" if it doesn't even do syntax
highlighting. But I applaud the fact that it handles multiple query results.

------
rotten
I was underwhelmed by Postico when I tried it. On the other hand, I've been
underwhelmed by pretty much every one of these tools over the past few years.

Some minor complaints about Postico:

1) Most of the time I am not changing ddl. Postico over emphasizes the
infrequent tasks and under emphasizes the things I do every day.

2) Everything I do should be automatically logged, and not something that I
have to explicitly save.

3) Syntax highlighting would be nice. It has been around in other SQL tools
for many years. Why would a new tool not include it?

4) It is a common task for me to compare the schema and data between two
databases. This tool didn't seem to make that any easier.

5) I also will log in with various identities and different times. After you
have a dozen or so databases and two or three users on each - this did not
strike me as a tool that would let me organize them very well.

6) It still doesn't see Foreign tables. None of the tools I've tried allow for
visual interaction with foreign tables. A new tool should definitely include
support for it.

7) In spite of its emphasis on table structure, it doesn't seem to show
indexes, comments, size, dependencies, ownership, and other details that are
on the table besides just the columns. (that I could find)

Without having the time to write my own, I'm sticking with the legacy and
really feeling old, SQLExplorer (based on Eclipse). It gives me most of the
features I need (and for multiple data sources, not just PG). I would love to
find something more modern and better, so I'll keep looking...

------
aidanlister
Is this a PG Commander fork? The UI is nearly identical:
[http://i.imgur.com/QHeo54Z.png](http://i.imgur.com/QHeo54Z.png)

~~~
jiaaro
sort of. It's not a fork, it's just the next version of PG Commander (by the
same author)

------
clintboxe
This has a pretty nice look and feel to it, but I've yet to find something
that competes with DBVisualizer
([http://www.dbvis.com/](http://www.dbvis.com/)). Connect to anything with a
JDBC driver, auto-completion, SQL history, auto-generate insert statements
using a table's data, etc. Great product.

------
ottobretz
I'm running PG Commander and it's great. Extra praise must be given to Jakob
for the excellent support he provides. I will definitely upgrade to Portico.

~~~
sleepyhead
Same here. Great product.

------
issaria
I am not trolling, but what's the problem with psql? I didn't get the point of
a GUI, it cannot help you write SQL anyway.

------
domoarevil
In 15 years of database centric roles, it's certainly the most beautiful SQL
client I have used, so bravo for that. (Currently in Sybase hell, so switching
to playing with this when I get home is a real joy.) I don't use Postgres
outside of that of a hobbyist, but I'll be certainly trying it out where I
can. Thanks!

~~~
RommeDeSerieux
What's wrong with Sybase? Quite a powerful database.

------
karmakaze
Is there a way to get rid of the blank space between rows in the structure
view? Besides being a poor use of space, it has twice as many horizontal lines
as necessary: visual clutter. The content view with single thin separating
lines is much preferred.

~~~
jakobegger
You can type column comments in the blank space.

------
cmwelsh
I'll be recommending this to my coworkers as an alternative to Navicat for
PostgreSQL. The time limit on the trial version of Navicat makes it hard to
recommend to contractors and designers who think the price is too high for
commercial use.

~~~
tortilla
I picked up Navicat Essentials for PostgreSQL in the Mac App Store for
something like $14 when it was on sale. It's more than enough for my needs
when I want to visually view my data.

BTW, Postico is a successor to PG Commander

[http://eggerapps.at/](http://eggerapps.at/)

------
gerry_shaw
Been using this app for months and love it. Really nice to have a native GUI
for Postgres.

------
nyddle
This is the missing piece in my dev environment. Thanks for a great app!

------
shakeel_mohamed
I might be a bit overkill because it has the modeling tools as well, but I
really like pgModeler: [http://pgmodeler.com.br/](http://pgmodeler.com.br/)

------
jsnk
I also recommend Induction
([https://github.com/Induction/Induction](https://github.com/Induction/Induction)).

~~~
yanokwa
Last meaningful commit on Induction was 2 years ago. It's probably a dead
project.

------
72deluxe
Looks interesting but more like those light-weight SQLite clients (SQLiteman
etc.); pgAdmin seems to work mostly alright for me.

------
trevmckendrick
I've been looking for a more straightforward PostgreSQL client since...
forever. This looks great. Keep up the good work!

------
mangecoeur
What's the change over the previous PGCommander? Why the new app rather than
new version?

------
CCs
It's fast. Seems great for quick tasks, which is most of the time for me.

------
jbverschoor
Nice! Finally a good client

------
izolate
Can I interest you in developing this for MongoDB?

~~~
sleepyhead
Can I interest you in using PostgreSQL? jsonb got you covered by your mongo
needs.

