Best database program?

For anything that really needs a database, I use SQLite with any of the following:

  • Datasette and Datasette Desktop – best if you just want to explore an SQLite database (or a bunch of CSVs). Read-only off the shelf, but there are plugins for add and update queries. Incredibly useful if you’re going to share the data, eg over an intranet; you can do pretty remarkable things with the template system. I think the developer, Simon Williston, runs a CMS off and a couple websites off it.

  • Lately, for more tradition DBMS work, I’ve been using Native SQLite Manager, from the App Store. The developer is very responsive, and so far it’s the most Mac-assed of the SQLite managers I’ve tried lately (others including DB Browser for SQLite, which is clunky, and Beekeeper Studio, which is read only.

  • I was using DBeaver, which is very powerful and incredibly full-featured, but also confusing for someone (like me) who isn’t steeped in decades of DBMS practices; it’s also some kind of universal app – points for cross-platform consistency, none for Mac-assedness.

But for other purposes I’ll keep my data in CSV and use python – either pandas, or sometimes agate, which I find a LOT more intuitive, but which isn’t as widely used.

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