If you’ve been using Sequel Pro for a while, you already know the drill: it’s macOS-only, MySQL-only, and hasn’t had a meaningful release since 2020. Sequel Ace picked up the torch as a community fork and keeps things working on modern macOS, but it’s still macOS-only and still MySQL-only.
That’s fine if your world is Mac + MySQL forever. But the moment you add a second OS, switch to PostgreSQL, or want to share a setup with teammates on Windows or Linux, you start shopping.
Here are five genuinely free alternatives worth looking at.
Beekeeper Studio
Available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux - download here
We’ll get the obvious one out of the way first: Beekeeper Studio is our tool, so make of that what you will. But it was actually built to fill the gap that Sequel Pro left - open source, focused on usability, no cruft. Unlike Sequel Pro, it supports every major desktop OS and a lot more than just MySQL.
I was literally keeping MacBooks around to run Sequel Pro but finally found Beekeeper. Literally it allowed me to be free of Macs. - Craig
The MySQL client works well, but so does PostgreSQL, SQLite, SQL Server, Oracle, and more - all in the same app. You get autocomplete, tabbed queries, table data editing, and connection color-coding. Zero telemetry, source on GitHub under GPLv3.
Free Community Edition covers everything most engineers need day-to-day. Paid plans add import/export, backup & restore, and team workspaces.
Obviously we’re biased. Try it anyway.
Beekeeper Studio Links
- Compare Beekeeper Studio vs Sequel Pro
- Download Beekeeper Studio (free, no signup)
- MySQL GUI Client
- Pricing
- Source code on GitHub
DBeaver Community
Available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux
DBeaver Community is the open-source workhorse of SQL GUIs. It connects to essentially every database engine you’ve heard of - MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Oracle, SQL Server, MongoDB, and dozens more via JDBC.
It’s genuinely free and open source (Apache 2.0), actively maintained, and ships regular releases. If you need to work with a database that nothing else supports, DBeaver probably has a plugin for it.
The tradeoff is the interface. DBeaver is built on the Eclipse platform, which means it has an Eclipse-style feel: feature-rich, configurable, occasionally overwhelming. If you’re switching from Sequel Pro, the UI jump is real. But if you need serious breadth across databases and platforms, it’s hard to beat for free.
DBeaver Links
HeidiSQL
Windows only
HeidiSQL has been a solid Windows MySQL GUI since 2002. Free, open source, and actively maintained - it supports MySQL, MariaDB, SQL Server, and PostgreSQL.
It won’t help if you’re on a Mac or Linux box, but if you’re on Windows and want something lightweight and fast with a no-nonsense interface, HeidiSQL is a proven choice. It’s been around long enough that it handles edge cases well and has a large community behind it.
HeidiSQL Links
MySQL Workbench
Available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux
MySQL Workbench is Oracle’s official GUI for MySQL. It’s free, cross-platform, and covers database design, query development, server administration, and data migration all in one tool.
It does a lot. Maybe too much. The interface is dense, performance on large result sets can drag, and it’s MySQL-specific - you won’t be using it for PostgreSQL or SQLite. But if you need a free, official, well-supported tool specifically for MySQL on any OS, it gets the job done.
Note: MySQL Workbench development has been intermittent at times, and older versions can have stability issues on newer macOS versions. Check the release notes before upgrading.
MySQL Workbench Links
TablePlus
Available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux
TablePlus is a polished, native-feeling database GUI. It’s fast, the UI is clean, and it supports a wide range of databases including MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, SQL Server, Redis, and more.
The free tier is real but limited - there are caps on open tabs and connections, which works fine for occasional use but gets cramped as a daily driver. Full access requires a paid license (one-time purchase; check their site for current pricing).
It’s not open source, and the Linux version has some rough edges compared to macOS, but for Mac-first teams who want a modern, lightweight multi-database GUI, it’s a popular choice.
TablePlus Links
A note on Sequel Ace itself
If you’re on macOS and MySQL is all you need, Sequel Ace is still a perfectly reasonable choice. The project is actively maintained, it handles modern MySQL 8 connections correctly (fixing the caching_sha2_password authentication issues that plagued Sequel Pro), and it’s free and open source. The moment you need to support a second OS, a different database, or a mixed team, the tools above are worth considering.
Wrap-up
Sequel Pro started a lot of engineers down the path of “a database GUI should be simple and not annoying.” All of the tools on this list carry that torch in different ways.
Beekeeper Studio leans hardest into that ethos - cross-platform, multi-database, open source, built for engineers who just want to get work done. But every tool here is worth a look depending on your specific constraints.
If you want to try Beekeeper, grab the free Community Edition and see if it sticks:
Related reading
- Free MySQL GUI Clients
- Beekeeper Studio vs Sequel Pro
- Free & Open Source DBeaver Alternatives
- Pricing & editions
Beekeeper Studio Ist Eine Kostenlose & Open-Source-Datenbank-GUI
Das beste SQL-Abfrage- und Editor-Tool, das ich je benutzt habe. Es bietet alles, was ich zur Verwaltung meiner Datenbank brauche. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Mit
Beekeeper Studio ist schnell, intuitiv und einfach zu bedienen. Beekeeper unterstützt viele Datenbanken und funktioniert hervorragend unter Windows, Mac und Linux.
Was Benutzer Über Beekeeper Studio Sagen
"Beekeeper Studio hat meinen alten SQL-Workflow komplett ersetzt. Es ist schnell, intuitiv und macht die Datenbankarbeit wieder angenehm."
"Ich habe viele Datenbank-GUIs ausprobiert, aber Beekeeper findet die perfekte Balance zwischen Funktionen und Einfachheit. Es funktioniert einfach."