MySQL Workbench vs SQLyog vs TablePlus - Quick Comparison
Having a good GUI tool saves you a lot of time and effort working with MySQL databases. Let’s take a look at three of the most popular GUI clients and compare the pros and cons to see which one is for you.
1. MySQL Workbench
MySQL WorkBench offers a full-featured administration tool for MySQL on multiple operating systems.
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Supported platforms: MySQL Workbench is cross-platform. It’s available on Mac, Windows, Linux.
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Supported Drivers: MySQL Workbench supports all versions of MySQL because it’s built by the MySQL at Oracle.
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Pricing: MySQL Workbench also has a community version which is free and open source. The other two commercial versions for enterprises are subscription based with enterprise features and support.
Pros:
- It’s cross-platform. In case you work on more than one operating system, you don’t have to use a different tool and the experiences will be consistent.
- It includes everything a data modeler needs for creating complex ER models
- It has a Visual Performance Dashboard
- A complete and easy to use tools for database migration.
- Ability to cancel long queries without hanging.
- It provides fast access to server status and other information.
- It shows multiple result sets.
- It’s easy to create and edit views, procedures & functions.
Cons:
- It only supports MySQL and MariaDB. If you work with more database other than MySQL and MariaDB, it’s a huge drawback.
- The UI is unintuitive. It is packed with a lot of features. It’s definitely not a tool for beginners.
- It complicated and overkill to perform simple tasks.
- It’s resource intensive.
- It crashes a lot too.
2. SQLyog
SQLyog is a popular solution for MySQL database management on Windows.
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Supported platforms: SQLyog works on Windows only.
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Supported Drivers: SQLyog was built specifically for MySQL and currently, it only supports MySQL and the drop-placement MariaDB.
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Pricing: SQLyog has a community version, mostly aimed at software developers and free for personal use but it has a limited set of feature. The commercial version has a 14-day trial period. After that, you will need to purchase for $299/user.
Pros:
- Feature rich
- Visual Query Builder and Schema Designer
- Migration Tools to Copy Database to different Host/Database.
- SSH Tunneling and SSL Connections
- Smart Autocomplete
- User management
- Database diagnostics to quickly check, repair, analyze and optimize your databases.
- It’s quite stable, rarely crashes.
- The commercial version includes some advanced features such as Database Synchronization Wizard, Visual Data Comparison Wizard, Scheduled Backups/Scheduled Jobs and Query Profiler
Cons:
- The UI is a little clumsy, the icon design doesn’t always communicate the purpose of the feature.
- Only supports MySQL. If you work with more database other than MySQL and MariaDB, it’s a huge drawback.
- Only works on Windows
- It’s costly.
3. TablePlus
With a native build and a lightweight size, TablePlus is a very handy tool for managing MySQL as well as many other popular databases on Mac and Windows.
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Supported platforms: TablePlus is built native for each platform. It started out with a native version for Mac, then another version for Windows, and a version for Linux was introduced recently as an alpha release. It also has an iOS version.
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Supported Drivers: TablePlus supports a handful of relational databases: MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Microsoft SQL Server, Amazon Redshift, MariaDB, CockroachDB, Vertica, Oracle; and two popular NoSQL databases: Cassandra and Redis.
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Pricing: TablePlus has a free version with full set of features which you can download and use forever, but there are some usage limitations. If you use it heavily, the license costs $59 to remove all those limitations.
Pros:
- Native build for each platform so it’s fast, lightweight, and stable.
- Clean and simple interface.
- Multiple drivers support
- Multiple conditions data filter
- Queries history and keyword binding favorite.
- Streaming results and async loading to show queries results faster and doesn’t block the UI.
- Very quick inline editing for table data and structure, you also can edit query results directly.
- Smart query editor with highlight syntax, instant autocomplete, SQL reformat.
- Multiple carets
- A plugin system to extend the app.
- Quick support. TablePlus releases new updates regularly and responds to users’ requests almost immediately.
Cons:
It currently lacks of some advanced features such as ER Diagram, database compare tool to Diff and Sync, etc.
4. Conclusion
Go with MySQL Workbench if you:
- Work with MySQL only
- Need a tool to get the job done
Go with SQLyog if you:
- Work with MySQL only and need a full-featured tool for MySQL
- Work on Windows only
- Are comfortable with the cost
Go with TablePlus if you:
- Are a fan of native experience
- Work with multiple databases
- Want a modern design with better usability
- Want quick support & development cycle.