This weekend I discovered a new tool for viewing MySQL databases: TablePlus. It’s worth a try if you like visual representations of your data - and it looks beautiful. I’ve used Sequel Pro for a number of years, but TablePlus has several advantages.

  • It has automatic formatting and syntax highlighting while writing queries.
  • Its search feature allows you to easily search more than one field - Sequel Pro has a nice search feature, but it takes longer to add additional search parameters.
  • You can change the display theme and not have to look at all white rows.
  • Command-P will open any table for you, similar to Sublime Text or PHPStorm.
  • Best of all, when you make any change, it “stages” the change first. You can then view the SQL query, discard the changes, or commit them.

All in all, it looks much more keyboard-friendly than Sequel Pro. I’m going to try it out for the next couple of weeks and see if I still like it.

PS: If you’re looking for a visual tool to use in the terminal, Brian Steffens’ Prequel looks pretty fun, also!