Azure Data Studio (ADS) was Microsoft’s version of the VSCode codebase tailored to the needs of a SQL developer, particularly a SQL developer who pays for and uses Azure SQL.
Unfortunately in February 2026, Microsoft pulled the plug and abandoned tens of thousands of daily users.
Corporate open source is different
Reading between the lines, ADS wasn’t providing Microsoft enough opportunities to advertise their premium developer products in the same way that VSCode does.
Their solution was simple - kill ADS and move all the developers over to VSCode with some new SQL extensions. Everyone’s happy right?
Well not quite. Let’s be honest, VSCode isn’t a very good database GUI, otherwise they wouldn’t have made ADS in the first place!
Making ADS and VSCode open source succeeded as a way to get in front of developers for cheap. It worked for a while, but I don’t see it working this time - database users are not going to move to VSCode.
Sorry to the folks at Microsoft who were working on ADS, it was a great app!
Try Beekeeper Studio instead
Our app, Beekeeper Studio isn’t from the marketing department of a big company. It’s not from a big tech company at all, it’s from a team of 5 people trying to make the best open source database tool that they can.
If you’re using Azure, Beekeeper lets you to connect to cloud resources using the Azure Cli, EntraID, SSO, Kerberos, or even with a token. It’s all pretty smooth sailing.
Beekeeper Studio is open source, and we have a generously spec’d free Community Edition. We make money by charging for some power features. We’re stable, profitable and funded entirely by customer purchases. You can find our full comparison here, or a list of other free tools to try (yes we tell you about our competitors).
Many paying and non-paying users came from ADS and are very happy. We hope you try Beekeeper Studio and enjoy using it as much as we enjoy making it.
Great lightweight SQL editor / studio! Been looking into a lot of alternatives for Azure Data Studio, and with Beekeeper I have found it. Clear overview, no unnecessary features, clean UI, super fast to launch, and it just works smoothly across different databases. Doesn’t feel bloated at all – perfect for quickly writing queries and exploring data without distractions. Highly recommended!
