Are there any good and free tools for managing a PostgreSQL database?

Question

Before, I have used phpmyadmin to manage an MySQL database, but now I would like to manage a PostgreSQL database. The PostgreSQL database is on a server, but not a webserver, so I don't use PHP.

I have tried with pgAdmin III but it was a far from intuitive application to use, compared to phpmyadmin that I have used before. What are PostgreSQL DBAs usually using? do they use graphical tools like pgAdmin III or is it mostly command line tools?

There is a long list in the PostgreSQL Wiki: http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Community_Guide_to_PostgreSQL_GUI_Tools — , Jul 20 '12 at 06:29
dbForge Studio for PostgreSQL is released! The Express edition is absolutely free. — Devart, Mar 23 '18 at 09:53

score 21 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 17 '11 at 09:41

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pgAdmin and psql, those are the tools I use. A PHP-script isn't very usefull for database management, too slow and many problems with transactions: What to do when something goes wrong? Commit or rollback? This makes tools like phpmyadmin and phpPgAdmin pretty useless, when the script is done, the database connection will be closed. There is nothing to commit or rollback, your SQL script is already gone.

Learn SQL and any tool that can keep it's databases connections open, will do the job.

answered Feb 17 '11 at 09:41

Frank Heikens

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I have used pgAdmin and psql a few months now, but I'm disappointed. The result sets from psql looks terrible on Windows, it's almost impossible to read, when having many columns. And it's hard to get a good workflow using pgAdmin, e.g. see How can I access the query history with SQL Editor in pgAdmin III? – Jonas Nov 07 '11 at 17:45

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 14 '11 at 09:21

6

There is Navicat for PostgreSQL and other database platforms.

It has a free lite and a commercial version.

answered Mar 14 '11 at 09:21

jkj

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I do not think they offer the free lite version – David Jun 25 '13 at 00:39
navicat is great, but I also wished it came with a free version... If you have any link to provide, it would be most welcome. – KookieMonster Nov 19 '13 at 06:17
I have found Navicat for PostgreSQL to be buggy and unreliable over the years – Dylan Hettinger Mar 15 '17 at 16:25

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 26 '12 at 13:37

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Coming from Microsoft SQL Server, I really like http://www.sqlmanager.net/products/postgresql/manager/ for managing PostgreSQL.

The free version has most everything you would need to get started.

edited Sep 26 '12 at 13:37

Hannah Vernon

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answered Jul 20 '12 at 06:19

MvcCmsJon

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score 5 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:43

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Check out JackDB, it's a database client entirely in your web browser.

There's no software to install locally so you can use it on Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows and it works on all major modern browsers (eg. Chrome, Firefox, IE, Safari, and Opera). It supports connecting to PostgreSQL, as well as MySQL, Oracle, and SQL Server databases.

At the moment (July 13') it's more of a full featured query editor but it also includes GUI-based management features for things like changing runtime config parameters or vacuuming tables.

Regarding your comment in another answer above about SQL history (linked to a removed question), JackDB includes a full history of all SQL commands both per connection (searchable locally) and across all connections/datasources (searchable globally).

Full disclosure: I'm the founder of JackDB.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:43

Community

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answered Jul 18 '13 at 17:59

sehrope

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And how do I use this against a local database running on my desktop or on a local server? – Jul 18 '13 at 21:27
At the moment you can't with the cloud version without opening up remote ports from your local machine. We're looking into couple of ways to simplify that (http://progrium.com/localtunnel/ looks cool though it's http only) but for now it works best with cloud databases that are already network accessible (ex: Heroku Postgres, Amazon RDS, etc). – sehrope Jul 18 '13 at 22:31

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 17 '11 at 08:45

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Well, there is phpPgAdmin, if that suits you.

answered Feb 17 '11 at 08:45

Peter Eisentraut

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That sounds good. But at the moment I don't have a webserver and I'm not running PHP. Is there any similar GUI tools? It would also be helpful if it was possible to log in to a remote database via SSH. – Jonas Feb 17 '11 at 08:48

score 3 · Answer 6 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:33

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I like dbVisualizer, it has a free version that unfortunately is missing some features, you'll have to see if it has enough for you.

also check out stackoverflow for more choices:

edited May 23 '17 at 11:33

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answered Oct 04 '11 at 12:40

newenglander

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Are there any good and free tools for managing a PostgreSQL database?

6 Answers6

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