Database Admin GUI Tools 2026 — TablePlus / Beekeeper / DBeaver / DataGrip / pgAdmin / MongoDB Compass / RedisInsight / MySQL Workbench / Azure Data Studio / Querious / Postico / Outerbase / Supabase Studio Deep Dive

Prologue — Why Another DB GUI Roundup

In 2026, a developer day still starts somewhere with opening a SQL console. Maybe it is a pager at 3am pulling you into RDS to check a long-held lock. Maybe it is re-running a query a data analyst sent. Maybe it is peeking at a prod replica before a migration. Either way you end up "GUI'd into a database." Some folks live in psql and mysql forever, but most teams pick one or two GUIs as the team standard and stick with them.

This piece is a map of that landscape as of May 2026. The reason for revisiting it now is that the market has shifted noticeably in the past two years.

• TablePlus has become almost the default on Mac. Light, fast, and an iOS app exists. Paid but priced fairly.
• Beekeeper Studio has matured as a real open source alternative. The Community Edition is genuinely usable, and Pro is priced reasonably.
• DataGrip is being reappraised thanks to JetBrains AI Assistant. A few years ago many said "DBeaver is better"; the AI gap has flipped the verdict.
• A new "modern collaborative DB UI" category has solidified — Outerbase, Supabase Studio, Hasura Console. Browser-first, multi-user.
• The official tools (pgAdmin 4, Compass, RedisInsight, Workbench) still exist but mindshare keeps draining toward the four camps above.

This article walks through 14 chapters of that map. Use it the next time your team is picking a standard, or you are setting up a fresh laptop and pausing over what to install.

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1. The 2026 DB Admin GUI Map — Four Camps

There are too many tools. Start by sorting them into four camps.

The taxonomy is fuzzy. TablePlus sits in both camp 1 and camp 3. DBeaver feels half official because of the depth of DB support. But keeping the four camps in mind makes differences pop.

General-purpose desktop is about "one app for Postgres, MySQL, SQL Server, Redis, Mongo, all of it." For teams that touch multiple DBs daily, this is usually where the team standard lives. Differences come down to price, OS support, and AI integration.

Official tools wager that "the vendor knows the DB best." pgAdmin knows every Postgres EXPLAIN option; Compass owns the Mongo aggregation builder. The downside is often heavier, more dated UX.

Mac-only / niche chases "macOS native." Querious for MySQL, Postico for Postgres. Single-DB focus buys them the best-in-class UX for that one DB.

Modern collaborative is the newest space. The bet is that the DB client should live in the browser, and a team should see and share queries together. Outerbase, Supabase Studio, and Hasura Console attack from different angles.

The 2026 trend is that all four camps keep crossing into each other. TablePlus is adding team sync; DBeaver Pro now has a cloud workspace; Outerbase ships a desktop app. The "desktop vs browser" line keeps blurring.

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2. TablePlus — The Mac/Win/iOS Leader, Peak Lightness

TablePlus was started in 2017 by Henry Pham, a Vietnamese developer. As of 2026 it is effectively the default DB client on macOS. The reason is simple — fast, light, beautiful.

Why TablePlus won Mac. Three decisions were pivotal.

1. Native macOS app. Not Electron. A real Cocoa app written in Swift/Objective-C. Sub-second startup, around 100MB resident. Compared to DBeaver's 1.5GB it feels like a different category.
2. Balanced multi-DB support. PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQL Server, SQLite, Redis, MongoDB, Cassandra, Snowflake, BigQuery, ClickHouse, CockroachDB, DuckDB — covers almost every mainstream DB without bloating the app.
3. Editing model is intuitive. Double-click a cell to edit; Cmd+S to commit. Transactions are explicit through a Commit/Discard button. Similar to DataGrip's model but lighter on the eyes.

New in 2026. Two notable additions in the 4.x line.

• TablePlus AI (4.2+). Plug in an OpenAI or Anthropic key and type "daily signups for the last 7 days from this table" in natural language. You see the SQL before you run it. Claude 4.7 Sonnet was added as a default option in April 2026.
• iOS / iPadOS app. Same license. With a Magic Keyboard the iPad version is surprisingly usable for poking at a prod replica from a cafe.

Pricing. Personal $89 (lifetime), Standard$149, Custom $249. One purchase unlocks every minor in the major (e.g., all of 4.x). A future 5.x would require a re-buy, but no subscription model is the point. Free trial is unlimited time but caps simultaneous connections, which is how most people end up paying.

Weaknesses. No Linux build. The Windows version exists but is not as polished as macOS. Team collaboration is weak (connection sync via iCloud only). Heavy EXPLAIN analysis is better in DataGrip or pgAdmin.

Who should pick it. Mac-first individuals and small teams. Multi-DB without the weight of a full IDE. Anyone who hates subscriptions.

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3. Beekeeper Studio — Open Source Plus Pro, Honest Pricing

Beekeeper Studio is an OSS DB client started by Matthew Rathbone in 2019. In 2026 it is the most-mentioned "OSS alternative to TablePlus." 16k GitHub stars, GPL-3.0 Community Edition, plus Pro and Ultimate paid tiers for extra features.

Why Beekeeper rose. There was an obvious gap: "TablePlus is good but it's paid, closed-source, and no Linux." Beekeeper landed exactly in that slot.

• The OSS Community Edition is genuinely free. No ads, almost no feature gates. Supports PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQL Server, SQLite, CockroachDB, Redis, Oracle.
• Electron, but tuned to be light. Startup 2–3 seconds, around 400MB. Much lighter than DBeaver.
• Clean UI. Dark mode default; keyboard shortcuts are well thought out.

Pro and Ultimate. Paid tiers were carved out in 2024. Pro is $99/year individual or$9/user/month team; Ultimate is more.

• Pro: Snowflake, BigQuery, Cassandra, DynamoDB, Firebird support; better SQL formatter; backup/restore GUI.
• Ultimate: Workspace sync, Git-style branch and merge, audit log.

2026 changes. 4.0 shipped full Mongo support (previously partial). A Beekeeper AI Assistant beta launched as BYOK rather than a hosted model.

Weaknesses. Large result sets (hundreds of thousands of rows) can slow down. EXPLAIN visualization is thin. Explicit transaction control is not as clean as TablePlus.

Who should pick it. OSS-preferring teams and Linux users. Anyone where TablePlus pricing is uncomfortable. Data teams that need Pro for BigQuery/Snowflake.

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4. DBeaver Community / Pro — Every DB, Every Feature

DBeaver is a Java-based multi-DB client running since 2010. As of 2026 it supports the widest range of DBs of any GUI tool — Community Edition alone covers 80+ databases. Relational, NoSQL, time-series, graph, and search engines all included.

DBeaver's strengths. Two big ones.

1. The DB support breadth is unmatched. PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, Sybase, Firebird, Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, Athena, ClickHouse, Cassandra, Mongo, Redis, Neo4j, InfluxDB, Elastic — they all work. When the company says "we're trying Greenplum this quarter" the driver is already there.
2. ER diagrams and data import/export are powerful. CSV, JSON, XML, SQL, Excel all flow back and forth. A standard tool for migration work.

Community vs Pro. The boundary is clear.

2026 features. DBeaver 25 integrated the AI Assistant officially. OpenAI, Anthropic, and local Ollama all supported. A beta of "DBeaver Cloud" SaaS workspace launched as well (Pro subscribers only for now).

Weaknesses. Heavy. Java means 5+ second startup and 1.5GB+ memory baseline. The Eclipse-style UI is intimidating to newcomers. Font rendering on macOS Retina was a long-standing complaint (mostly fixed in 25.1).

Who should pick it. Engineers who touch many DBs. Serious Linux GUI users. Teams that need ER diagrams and data import. Anyone who can ignore Java's footprint.

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5. DataGrip (JetBrains) — IDE Integration and Refactoring

DataGrip is JetBrains' SQL/DB-dedicated IDE released in 2015. It is the same engine that lives as the Database Tools plugin in IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, and WebStorm, pulled out as a standalone app. In 2026 it is the strongest tool if you want to treat SQL like code.

What sets DataGrip apart. Three differences matter most.

1. SQL code analysis at IDE level. Rename a column and every referencing query refactors. Misspell a column and a red underline appears immediately. For teams treating SQL as code, this alone justifies the price.
2. Schema-aware completion. Not just keyword completion — it suggests "tables you can join to from here" by following foreign keys.
3. Cleanest transaction and result-set editing UX. Auto-commit vs manual is clearly separated; edited cells are highlighted yellow. Mistakes are rare.

2026: JetBrains AI Assistant. Integrated into DataGrip from 2024 and substantially upgraded in 2026. Natural language to SQL is table stakes; the new layer analyzes EXPLAIN output and suggests "create this index for better performance." Local ML inference options have expanded.

Pricing. Individual $9.90/month (drops to$5.94 after year 3), business $24.90/month. Included in the JetBrains All Products Pack. AI Assistant is a separate$10/month subscription for individuals.

Weaknesses. Slow start, heavy memory. IntelliJ Platform means 7–10 second startup and 2GB+ memory. NoSQL (Mongo, Redis) support exists but is shallower than for RDBMSes. UI complexity intimidates beginners.

Who should pick it. Backend and data engineers who treat SQL as code. Teams already on JetBrains. Anyone who wants AI Assistant inline. People who value precision and refactoring over lightness.

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6. pgAdmin 4 — Official PostgreSQL, Heavy but Complete

pgAdmin is the official admin GUI of the PostgreSQL project. The 1.0 was 2003; in 2016 a full rewrite as Python Flask + React shipped as pgAdmin 4. The 9.x line is the current stable as of 2026.

Strengths. Accuracy that comes from being the official tool.

• Exposes every Postgres feature accurately. Tablespaces, foreign servers, publications and subscriptions (logical replication), Row-Level Security, extension management — things other tools either skip or only partially support.
• Backup and restore actually call pg_dump and pg_restore. Standard .dump files, not a proprietary format.
• EXPLAIN visualization is good. Plans rendered as a tree; expensive nodes highlighted by color.

Weaknesses. Honestly, heavy UX. As a web app the responsiveness lags behind a desktop client, and menu depth is deep. A "quickly run a query" task that takes 3 seconds in TablePlus can take 30 in pgAdmin. Senior DBAs in Korea and Japan still use it, but most application developers find it heavy.

2026 changes. 9.x improved the desktop mode. No more separate server process — it now runs inside an Electron shell. No AI features (none on the public roadmap either).

Who should pick it. Postgres-only teams where a senior DBA needs every feature handled correctly. Operational environments where accuracy matters more than weight. Cases where company policy bars non-OSS tools.

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7. MongoDB Compass — Official Mongo, Aggregation Builder Is the Hook

MongoDB Compass is the official GUI built by MongoDB Inc. As of 2026 the 1.42 series is stable, and it integrates tightly with MongoDB Atlas.

Strengths. Depth from being a Mongo-specific tool.

• Aggregation Pipeline Builder. Build Mongo's core aggregation feature visually, stage by stage. Drag and drop each stage (match, group, project, lookup) and see results live.
• Schema analysis. Samples a collection to show "which fields appear at what frequency." Solves a real pain point of schemaless DBs.
• Index usage visualization. Renders explain() results visually and warns "this query is not using an index."

Weaknesses. Mongo-only. Heavy Electron UI. Slows down on very large result sets.

Competitors. Studio 3T (commercial) is the most powerful but expensive ($199/year individual,$399/year Pro). NoSQLBooster is another option. But "free" makes Compass the de facto standard.

Who should pick it. Mongo-only teams. Backends debugging aggregation frequently. Atlas users for the integrated UX.

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8. RedisInsight — Official Redis, Including Stack and Vector

RedisInsight is the official Redis admin GUI from Redis Inc. As of 2026 the 2.x line is stable; it has fully replaced the older RDM (Redis Desktop Manager).

Strengths.

• Accurately handles every Redis data type. String, List, Hash, Set, SortedSet, Stream, HyperLogLog, Geo — and the Redis Stack modules Search, JSON, TimeSeries, Bloom via GUI.
• Vector Search index visualization. Create and query vector search indexes (officially added in Redis 8) directly from the GUI. Surprisingly common in the AI era.
• Slow log, memory, and profiling panels. Essential for operational debugging.

Weaknesses. Redis-only. Free, but some features (e.g., cluster analytics) are aimed at Redis Cloud customers.

Competitors. Another Redis Desktop Manager (OSS, 30k GitHub stars) is the free alternative. TablePlus and Beekeeper handle Redis partially. But depth-wise RedisInsight is well ahead.

Who should pick it. Teams using Redis for more than caching (streams, vectors, JSON). SREs whose job leans on operational monitoring.

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9. MySQL Workbench — The Old Official, Still Around

MySQL Workbench is the official MySQL GUI maintained by Oracle. It traces back to MySQL 5.x in the early 2010s. As of 2026 the stable line is 8.0.40.

Strengths.

• ER modeling is strong. Design schemas visually and forward-engineer to DDL. Still a standard in many university DB courses and SI projects.
• Visual Performance Dashboard. Performance Schema turned into a one-screen CPU/memory/IO view.
• MySQL-only means high accuracy. Stored procedure editing, trigger management, user/privilege admin — all clean.

Weaknesses. Dated UX. The UI is stuck in the early 2010s. Slow startup; occasional macOS crashes. Some features misbehave on Aurora MySQL variants.

Competitors. TablePlus, DBeaver, and DataGrip all handle MySQL more smoothly. Few people pick Workbench fresh in 2026, but lots of teams keep it because it has been there forever.

Who should pick it. Students or beginners learning MySQL (official, matches the docs). Dedicated MySQL ops DBAs. SI projects that need ER modeling.

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10. Azure Data Studio — Microsoft's Modern Attempt

Azure Data Studio is Microsoft's cross-platform SQL client launched in 2018. Primary target is SQL Server and Azure SQL, with PostgreSQL and MySQL extensions. Electron-based like VS Code, sharing the Monaco editor.

Strengths.

• VS Code-like UX. Extensions, notebooks, Git integration all feel native.
• SQL Notebook. Jupyter-style notebooks mixing SQL cells and markdown. Handy for data analysis reports.
• Azure integration. Azure SQL, Synapse, and Cosmos available from a single sidebar.

Weaknesses. Extension activity outside SQL Server / Azure is modest. Not all SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio) features made it across (Agent and Replication management especially).

Where it sits in 2026. Microsoft has been re-scoping ADS since 2024. Some functions are moving to the VS Code MSSQL Extension; ADS is repositioning toward notebooks and analytics. A full SSMS replacement lives on as SSMS 21 (2025) instead.

Who should pick it. Data engineers on SQL Server or Azure SQL. People who love notebook workflows. macOS/Linux users wanting an SSMS-like experience.

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11. Querious / Postico — Mac-Only Single-DB Charm

These two represent the "macOS native, single-DB" category at its best.

Querious (MySQL-only). A Mac-only MySQL client around since the early 2010s. Cocoa-native and clean. $25 for a 1.x license, perpetual use. The 4.x line is current as of 2026.

• Fast startup, light memory.
• Surprisingly nice ER diagram.
• Follows every macOS keyboard convention.
• Cons: MySQL/MariaDB only. No Windows/Linux. Slow development cadence.

Postico (PostgreSQL-only). A Mac-only Postgres client released in 2014. Postico 2 shipped in 2023 and 2.x is still current as of 2026. $40 for a 1.x license.

• "Postgres on Mac equals Postico" is how loyal users describe it.
• Editing query results feels natural.
• The minimalism is a feature — transactions, queries, table view, almost nothing else.
• Cons: PostgreSQL only. Replication and complex permission management are weak.

Why they still survive. For "Mac-only, single-DB" workflows, nothing beats them. TablePlus is broader, but Postico's "minimalism focused on one thing" has its own appeal. Querious retains a loyal base of 5–10 year Mac veterans.

Who should pick them. Mac-only solo developers. Single-DB users who value simplicity. People picky about UX details.

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12. Outerbase / Hasura / Supabase Studio — Modern Collaborative DB UIs

This camp is built on the hypothesis that "DB clients no longer need to be desktop apps." Browser-first, team-shared, AI-augmented.

Outerbase. A startup founded in 2022; raised a Series A in 2024 from investors including Vercel. The pitch is "Linear/Notion for DBs." Manage PostgreSQL, MySQL, Snowflake, BigQuery, and SQLite (D1) from the browser.

• Outerbase AI is the headline selling point. Natural language to SQL is baseline; collaborative actions like "chart this result" or "leave a note on this row" sit on top.
• Teams view the same queries. Queries collect comments and a change history.
• As of May 2026, Free plus $25/user Pro; Enterprise by contract.
• Cons: Browser-first means responsiveness is not desktop-instant. Some advanced features (e.g., live transaction control) are still thin.

Hasura Console. The management console for Hasura, which layers GraphQL on top of PostgreSQL, SQL Server, BigQuery, and more. Less a DB GUI and more a "GraphQL API builder," but table editing and permission management are GUI-driven. v3 is current as of 2026.

• Strongest for permissions and relationship setup, less for raw data manipulation.
• Only meaningful for Hasura users.

Supabase Studio. Built by Supabase as the admin UI for their PaaS. Open source, and works against any self-hosted Postgres.

• Table Editor, SQL Editor, Auth, Storage, Edge Functions, and Realtime in one screen.
• "Supabase AI" was upgraded in 2026; SQL completion and RLS policy suggestions got noticeably deeper.
• Cons: Optimized for the Supabase workflow. Pointing it at an external Postgres needs extra setup.

Tablebooth. A 2024 newcomer pitching "DBaaS UI as a well-designed single desktop app." Beta as of 2026. Reviews are mixed.

NocoDB GUI. An Airtable-style no-code UI whose backend is a real Postgres/MySQL, so it doubles as a DB browser. Popular for safely exposing a subset of a DB to non-technical users.

Who should pick them. Teams that want to share query views. Teams already on a DBaaS like Supabase, Neon, or PlanetScale tend to gravitate to that PaaS console naturally. When you need non-developers to see part of the DB.

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13. AI Integration — What Actually Changes

AI is the fastest-moving piece of the DB GUI space in 2026. Comparing the four main offerings:

What actually pulls weight. After about a year of daily use, my experience splits three ways.

1. Natural language to SQL. It works. Simple lookups hit 95%+. The hard part is "is this SQL actually what I asked?" — verification stays on the human. Hence the importance of UX that lets you preview before executing (TablePlus, DataGrip).
2. EXPLAIN analysis. Useful, especially DataGrip's "add this index and it improves." But do not accept suggestions blindly — adding an index can degrade write performance.
3. Schema explanation and documentation. Surprisingly the highest-value use. Getting up to speed on a large unfamiliar schema is much faster.

Watch out for. The AI is not responsible for "is it safe to run this on prod?" DELETE/UPDATE still demands a human gate. And with BYOK, you are sending queries and schemas to an external LLM — many companies forbid that by policy, so always check.

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14. Korea / Japan — How Toss, Kakao, and Mercari Operate

Tools are ultimately about who uses them. Three notable East Asia tech firms:

Toss (Viva Republica). Mainly Aurora MySQL and PostgreSQL. Synthesizing what has been shared on the Toss engineering blog and at developer conferences:

• Dev environment → TablePlus on personal machines (Mac is the standard). Many DataGrip users too.
• Prod environment → direct access minimized. Bastion + one-time tokens + audit logs. Same GUI, different access path.
• Data team → DBeaver and DataGrip mixed. For BigQuery, some collaborative tools like Outerbase and Hex see use.

Kakao. Known as a heavy MySQL/Mongo/Redis shop.

• Developers: DataGrip as standard; MySQL Workbench and Compass alongside.
• Ops: GUI access via bastion; migration management via in-house tooling plus Flyway.
• Some org units like Kakao Enterprise also use ADS in SQL Server environments.

Mercari (Japan). A Google Cloud shop, so BigQuery and Cloud SQL dominate.

• Analysis → BigQuery Console plus Looker Studio.
• Dev → TablePlus is popular among Japanese developers; many DataGrip users.
• The microservices model means each service owner uses their own GUI. There is no company-wide standard.

Japanese quirks. Many Japanese firms still use older tools like phpMyAdmin or A5:SQL Mk-2. Conservative SI environments are slow to adopt new tools. Megaventures (Mercari, LINE, DeNA) adopt the global standards (TablePlus, DataGrip) quickly.

Korean quirks. Public sector and finance still rely heavily on commercial tools like OrangeSQL or Toad for Oracle per SI standards. Startups and tech are split between TablePlus and DataGrip.

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15. Who Should Pick What — Scenario Recommendations

Final chapter. Compressing everything above into scenarios.

Scenario 1: Mac solo developer, multiple DBs → TablePlus. Top pick. Buy once, use forever. The smoothest Mac UX.

Scenario 2: Free/OSS only, includes Linux → Beekeeper Studio Community or DBeaver Community. Beekeeper is lighter; DBeaver has more features.

Scenario 3: JetBrains user, wants AI integrated → DataGrip + AI Assistant. SQL refactoring and AI integration are best in class.

Scenario 4: Postgres-only, want it done right → On Mac, Postico 2. For every feature, pgAdmin 4.

Scenario 5: MySQL/MariaDB-only SI → MySQL Workbench (matches training material); on Mac, Querious.

Scenario 6: Mongo-heavy → MongoDB Compass (free) or Studio 3T (paid, powerful).

Scenario 7: Redis monitoring and ops → RedisInsight. Effectively the only answer.

Scenario 8: SQL Server / Azure SQL → Windows: SSMS. Cross-platform: Azure Data Studio.

Scenario 9: Team viewing queries together, collaboration-first → Outerbase (general) or the PaaS-matched studio like Supabase Studio.

Scenario 10: Exposing part of the DB to non-developers → NocoDB GUI. Airtable-style with safe exposure.

One last line. Do not change tools too often. It takes six months for the shortcuts and transaction model to wire into your hands. If you will not invest those six months, just use whatever your company already standardized on. Tools are tools; DB skill comes from SQL, query plans, and operational instinct.

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References

• TablePlus — https://tableplus.com/
• TablePlus AI docs — https://docs.tableplus.com/gui-tools/ai-assistant
• Beekeeper Studio — https://www.beekeeperstudio.io/
• Beekeeper Studio GitHub — https://github.com/beekeeper-studio/beekeeper-studio
• DBeaver Community — https://dbeaver.io/
• DBeaver Pro — https://dbeaver.com/
• DataGrip — https://www.jetbrains.com/datagrip/
• JetBrains AI Assistant — https://www.jetbrains.com/ai/
• pgAdmin 4 — https://www.pgadmin.org/
• MongoDB Compass — https://www.mongodb.com/products/compass
• RedisInsight — https://redis.io/insight/
• MySQL Workbench — https://www.mysql.com/products/workbench/
• Azure Data Studio — https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure-data-studio/
• Querious — https://www.araelium.com/querious
• Postico — https://eggerapps.at/postico2/
• Outerbase — https://www.outerbase.com/
• Hasura Console — https://hasura.io/docs/latest/getting-started/
• Supabase Studio — https://supabase.com/docs/guides/getting-started/features#studio
• NocoDB — https://www.nocodb.com/
• FerretDB — https://www.ferretdb.com/
• Adminer — https://www.adminer.org/
• Studio 3T — https://studio3t.com/
• Another Redis Desktop Manager — https://github.com/qishibo/AnotherRedisDesktopManager
• Toss Tech Blog — https://toss.tech/
• Mercari Engineering — https://engineering.mercari.com/en/