Alternatives
Products that do what I made a tool to visualize MySQL EXPLAIN query plans does
I was always confused when trying to optimize a slow MySQL query as the output of the EXPLAIN command is so cryptic and totally useless. And there wasn't any tool that could help visualize what a query does - compared to PostgreSQL which has multiple... So, I started developing such a tool for MySQL. But boy, I didn't expect how complicated this is in reality. There were so many things hiding in tiny information pieces that I had to understand. But it also confirmed me in that a tool should try to understand the EXPLAIN output and not a human as it is too easy to oversee something. After…
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My co-worker and I were debugging a SQL issue; having not seen SQL in two years, I embarrassed myself by confusing union vs. join. After this episode, I tried refreshing my SQL memory, but there are few websites that animate SQL for you. Most of them just have a series of images to help you visualize. There are a few tools that are quite good and robust (especially for large/complex use cases) but require installation and are too complex for my simple purpose. So, just created a small tool to help visualise SQL. Most of the animations are just my understanding of how SQL works. Would…
2022 · animatesql.com
- 2PQ
This is like 4 years old, but I’m braver now and ready to share stuff with this community. I’ve been a lurker for a while. I made this tool - it’s kind of like “explain” but it tells you about what locks would be required by the query. I was making it as part of a larger tool that would try to prevent deadlocks during migrations at my last company, I never finished it.
2023 · github.com
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2020 · chartio.com
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Jan 2026 · explain.datadoghq.com
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Hey HN! We are Jonathan & Guy, and we are happy to share a project we’ve been working on. ChartDB is a tool to help developers and data analysts quickly visualize database schemas by generating ER diagrams with just one query. A unique feature of our product is AI-Powered export for easy migration. You can give it a try at https://chartdb.io and find the source code on GitHub. Next steps ---> More AI. We’d love feedback :)
2024 · github.com
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2023 · lost-at-sql.therobinlord.com
- 8PF
2019 · github.com
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I have spent large parts of the last 10+ years building an SQL Editor. The tool is targeted at data analysts, a lot of effort has gone into charting, visualizing and excel export. If this sounds useful to you, it's Free, please give it a try and let me know any feedback.
2024 · timestored.com
- 10SE
I have been working on SQL Explorer, an open source, Django-based reporting and query tool for (gulp!) almost ten years. It's a tool that fits just right for me and many others, and I love and use almost every day. Write SQL, share results, do some analysis, get insight. No surprises. A live demo instance is here (no login or anything required): https://demo.sqlexplorer.io/ And here's a fairly unprofessional, but very enthusiastic, video tour: https://sql-explorer.s3.amazonaws.com/Sql+Explorer+5.mp4 The UI is constrained enough that there's very little to learn,…
2024 · github.com
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We've been hard at work for a few weeks and thought it's time for another update. In case you missed our first post, PostgresML is an end-to-end machine learning solution, running alongside your favorite database. This time we have more of a suite offering: project management, visibility into the datasets and the deployment pipeline decision making. Let us know what you think! Demo link is on the page, and also here: https://demo.postgresml.org
2022 · postgresml.org
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Paste in my prompt to Claude Code with an embedded API key for accessing my public readonly SQL+vector database, and you have a state-of-the-art research tool over Hacker News, arXiv, LessWrong, and dozens of other high-quality public commons sites. Claude whips up the monster SQL queries that safely run on my machine, to answer your most nuanced questions. There's also an Alerts functionality, where you can just ask Claude to submit a SQL query as an alert, and you'll be emailed when the ultra nuanced criteria is met (and the output changes). Like I want to know when somebody posts about…
Dec 2025 · exopriors.com
- 13PI
Hi HN! I’m Alex from Parabola (https://parabola.io). Parabola is a visual programming tool for creating functional data flows that everyone can use. It’s entirely drag-and-drop, handles data sizes much larger than a traditional spreadsheet, calculates everything live, and can run your flows on a schedule of your choosing. I used to work in strategy consulting, doing data analytics for SMBs and Fortune 500 companies. The amount of time wasted on menial tasks was astounding. Things like cleaning data, generating custom reports, creating human workflows to solve shortcomings in third…
2018 · parabola.io
- 14PT
PgQueuer is a minimalist, high-performance job queue library for Python, leveraging the robustness of PostgreSQL. Designed for simplicity and efficiency, PgQueuer uses PostgreSQL's LISTEN/NOTIFY to manage job queues effortlessly.
2024 · github.com
- 15JF
After two years of improvement, I think it's time to share it with you all. Here’s a quick overview: - Common features include validation, formatting, minification, and more. - Visualize JSON in a graph or table view. - Structured comparison with fallback to text comparison. - Navigate though JSON using JSON pointer. - Supports jq. Would love to hear the community's questions, thoughts and comments!
2024 · github.com
- 16DO
One year ago I open-sourced my very first 'real' project and shared it here. I was a college student in my senior year and desperately looking for a job. At the time of sharing it i couldn't even afford a domain and naively let someone buy the one i had my eyes on lol. It's been a hell of a year with this blowing up, me moving to another country, and switching 2 jobs. In a year we somehow managed to hit 26k stars, grow a 1000+ person discord community, and support 37 languages. I couldn't be more grateful for the community that helped this grow, but now i don't know what direction to take…
2025 · drawdb.app
- 17AW
I built this web-based developer utility few years ago when I couldn't find any opensource GUI-based query builder for mysql (similar to what MS Access had). This app can be run locally. The online demo uses static hardcoded values. Screencast's link is included in the README file.
2023 · codeberg.org
- 18PA
2024 · github.com
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Hey! I'm Andrei. I got frustrated by how people tend to build overcomplicated backend systems, being "motivated" by big tech case studies and popular books. So, I started exploring lean architecture, and building my digital garden of ideas, approaches and data that align with this direction. Here I want to present one of the tools – Sizing tool for PostgreSQL. I've benchmarked PostgreSQL on different EC2 instances and disks, with different initial data sets to see performance that these instances can give you. And I've built a tool to visualize this data, which I welcome you to explore. So,…
Jul 2026 · postgres.saneengineer.com
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Last year we launched ChartDB OSS (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44972238) - an open-source tool that generates ER diagrams from your database (via query/sql/dbml) without needing direct DB access. Now we’re launching the ChartDB Agent. It helps you design databases from scratch or make schema changes with natural language. You can: - Generate schemas by simply describing them in plain English - Brainstorm new tables, columns, and relationships with AI - Iterate visually in a diagram (ERD) - Deterministically export SQL script Try it out here -…
Oct 2025 · app.chartdb.io
- 24JQJSON Query▲154
I'm working on a tool that will probably involve querying JSON documents and I'm asking myself how to expose that functionality to my users. I like the power of `jq` and the fact that LLMs are proficient at it, but I find it right out impossible to come up with the right `jq` incantations myself. Has anyone here been in a similar situation? Which tool / language did you end up exposing to your users?
Oct 2025 · jsonquerylang.org
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