As a side note, we _are_ considering adding support for other database backends through Postgres foreign data wrappers: https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Foreign_data_wrappers. If this is something you'd be interested in, please feel free to open an issue on our repo.
If you like Mathesar’s approach but need to work with MySQL, FDWs would let you connect a MySQL database to Mathesar for data entry and querying. This could be useful if you also have Postgres data and want to work with both in a single interface, or if you wanted things like cross-database queries between both DBs.
That said, if you’re only using MySQL, FDWs add an extra layer, and something like VisualDB, since it’s built for multi-database support, would likely be a more natural fit. The main advantage of Mathesar in this scenario would be if you want something open source and self-hosted (VisualDB looks like proprietary SaaS) or if you just like our UI and user experience.
NocoDB is a universal database GUI that supports multiple backends, while Mathesar is Postgres-only but deeply integrated with its native features, like using Postgres roles and privileges for access control. NocoDB also adds its own UI-level abstractions on top of database objects, whereas Mathesar directly reflects the database structure. That said, NocoDB has features Mathesar doesn’t yet support, like kanban and calendar views, forms, and more Airtable-like data types.
Baserow is more of an open-source Airtable alternative and doesn’t connect to existing databases at all—unlike Mathesar and NocoDB. It has many of the same UI-driven features as NocoDB, such as different types of views and forms, but it doesn’t function as a database interface the way Mathesar does.
Mathesar, however, has a visual query builder that allows joins and query creation directly from the UI, as well as some data modeling tools, like moving columns between tables and merging duplicate data—neither NocoDB nor Baserow offer these. Mathesar is also 100% open source, while both NocoDB and Baserow follow an open-core model with paid features.
We do want Mathesar to be competitive as an Airtable alternative over time. You can already create a database from scratch (we’re not just a GUI for existing databases), but we’d likely need more data types, views, and integrations before it can match Airtable across a broad set of use cases.
And Postgres is definitely amazingly versatile! That's one of the reasons we were comfortable focusing on it as the only supported DB backend for now.
Thank you! And yeah, I understand your gripe. The tagline is meant to convey the general idea of "editing data in a table UI without a lot of clicks or keystrokes" in the fewest number in words; it does sacrifice precision (although that's why it's "spreadsheet-like" and not just "spreadsheet"). Do you have any ideas for language we could use instead?
Mathesar doesn’t cache any database state, it always reflects the live structure of the database. If you run migrations through SQLAlchemy or Django, Mathesar will just show the database as it is before and after the migration, no extra steps needed.
You can also modify the data model directly in Mathesar, but if you’re using an ORM-managed database, you’ll need to update the ORM layer yourself to reflect any schema changes. If your ORM expects strict control over the schema, it’s a good idea to configure our permissions to prevent users from making data model changes in Mathesar's UI. Otherwise, it should coexist just fine.
Yep, Mathesar is GPLv3, not AGPL, so there’s no issue running it alongside proprietary services. Companies can absolutely use Mathesar as a standalone service in their stack without open-sourcing their other components. Another example of this is WordPress, which is also GPL, and has a thriving hosting ecosystem.
GPLv3 only applies if you modify and distribute Mathesar itself, it doesn’t extend to services that simply interact with it. If a company makes changes to Mathesar and distributes that modified version, then those modifications would need to be open-sourced under GPLv3. But using Mathesar as a microservice in an enterprise stack? No problem.
We’d love to see companies upstream fixes and improvements, of course!
Does AGPL have trouble running alongside proprietary services? I always thought AGPL means that if you host the software, you have to make any changes you did available to the users. So if you host it without changes, there is no problem?
Yep, AGPL can run alongside proprietary services without issues, and if you host it without modifications, you don’t have to share anything. But if you modify it and make it available over a network, you have to provide the source to users.
Mathesar, however, is GPL, so you only need to share modifications if you actually distribute the software itself.
When I was at a big tech, the interpretation by their lawyers was that by running AGPL, we will have to open source everything in the network to users. The problem is in the definition of "Modification" - Per [AGPL](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.en.html#:~:text=To%20%...):
> "The "Corresponding Source" for a work in object code form means all the source code needed to generate, install, and (for an executable work) run the object code and to modify the work, including scripts to control those activities."
This can be interpreted as even modifying any configuration to allow the software to run on your own infrastructure. Obviously this is a very aggressive interpretation but the lawyers didn't want us to test this phrase in court so all AGPL software had a blanket ban.
Thanks! We do not have a SQL editor in the UI yet, but it's one of the things we're actively considering working on soon, it's mentioned in the "What's next?" section of our beta release announcement: https://mathesar.org/blog/2025/01/29/release-0-2-0
I'm not sure if this would fit your use case, but you can also use a separate SQL editor alongside Mathesar, we always reflect the latest state of your DB.
