DBeaver Community
Free database tool that connects to SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL and dozens more.
Our verdict
DBeaver is the answer for anyone who used SQL Server Management Studio on Windows and now needs to reach the same databases from Linux. It connects to SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Oracle and a long list of others, and the community edition costs nothing.
Day to day it covers what most people actually did in Management Studio. Browse tables, write and run queries, look at results, edit rows, export data, compare schemas. The query editor is good and the data grid is better than the one you left behind.
The gap is administration. Management Studio also handles SQL Server maintenance plans, agent jobs, security dialogs and the rest of Microsoft's own tooling, and DBeaver does not reproduce those. If your job is running a SQL Server rather than querying one, keep a Windows machine.
What's good
- Connects to Microsoft SQL Server from Linux, which is the main reason a switcher needs it
- One program for every database you use, instead of a different tool for each
- Community edition is free, and the same program runs on Windows if you want to try it first
What to know first
- It is a database tool, not a Microsoft one, so SQL Server administration screens are not replicated
- Java based, so it starts slowly and uses a fair amount of memory
- The paid edition holds back some connectors and features
The details
- Cost
- Free with paid extras
- Open source
- Yes (Apache-2.0)
- How you install it
- App store (Flatpak), App store (Snap), .deb installer, .rpm installer
Windows apps it can replace
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