IDatabase for Mac Easily create databases, inventories, collections and item lists. IDatabase is the Mac app that simplifies the creation of databases, inventories, collections and lists of items. IDatabase is the best there is for those who want to manage, store and quickly find any information for their passions and for everyday work.
There are many technology solutions—such as business intelligence, big data, data analysis, and data extraction software—that can give the required leverage.
But an effective lever needs the right fulcrum, or support base: you’d need a rich database. To achieve this, begin with database management software. This type of tool will allow you to store, manipulate, and retrieve organizational data for further use in other software.
In this article, we’ll look at the six top-rated free and open source database software that you can start using right away!
What does “top-rated” mean? Each of the six tools highlighted in this piece have above-average overall user ratings compared to other products in the category. You can find our full methodology here.
Airtable is cloud-based database software that comes with features such as data tables for capturing and displaying information, user permissions for managing the database, and file storage and sharing capabilities with document history tracking.
The tool can also be used to manage and track tasks using its kanban dashboards, built-in calendars, and spreadsheets.
Airtable’s free plan allows for unlimited bases (data tables), 1,200 records per base, 2GB file attachments per base, and up to 2 weeks of revision and snapshot history.
Viewing records in Airtable (Source)
Pros: Users mention that the tool is easy to get started with due to its pre-built database templates for different business purposes, such as lead management, bug tracking, and applicant tracking.
Cons: Users mention that the tool offers limited relational database functionality, making it difficult to link records residing in multiple tables.
Cost to upgrade: Airtable comes in three paid plans: Plus, Pro, and Enterprise (custom pricing). Discounts are available on annual subscriptions.
Mobile apps: iOS, Android
Most suitable for: Small teams that have members with limited programming skills and would like software that makes it easy to add, delete, and modify data.
Highly rated by: In the past year, 81% of Airtable’s user reviews on Capterra came from individuals at small businesses across a variety of industries. The top five were marketing & advertising, computer software, higher education, design, and non-profit.
GraphDB is a graphical database that comes with both cloud and on-premise deployment options. It offers features such as data repositories, textual analytics, and knowledge graphs.
The tool can be used to tag and analyze textual data semantically based on keywords and topics or concepts. The tagged data can then be visualized as knowledge graphs to search and find relationships between disparate data.
GraphDB’s free plan includes features such as full SPARQL (query language) support, JAVA scripting, and a plugin API. You’ll have to upgrade for fully managed services and commercial SLAs.
Viewing a knowledge graph in GraphDB (Source)
Pros: Users mention that the tool is easy to setup and has a user-friendly interface that is simple for novice users to get started with.
Cons: Users mention that the tools slow down when importing large files.
Cost to upgrade: Graph DB comes in two paid plans with custom pricing. The first plan, GraphDB Standard, includes all the features of the free plan as well as support for high-performance load, query, and inference and commercial SLA. The second paid plan, GraphDB Enterprise, adds fully-managed services and advanced full-text search.
Mobile apps: The software doesn’t have mobile apps but it supports web browser access with its cloud-based version.
Most suitable for: Businesses that need to analyze large volumes of data in visual formats, such as knowledge graphs.
Highly rated by: To date, 40% of GraphDB’s reviews on Capterra came from individuals at small businesses, 20% from midsize, and 40% from large. Most reviews came from users in the biotechnology industry, followed by education management, then financial services, then hospital and healthcare.
MariaDB is an open source relational database for data storage, data insertion into tables, data modifications, and data retrieval. As an open source solution, the tool is free to use and you can get started by downloading the software on your desktop or laptop.
Using command line to backup and restore data in MariaDB (Source)
Pros: Users mention that MariaDB’s open source community consist of active members who roll out patches and updates regularly.
Cons: Users mention that the tool lacks a graphical user interface and users can operate the tool only by using the command line.
Cost to upgrade: While MariaDB is an open source tool, there is a commercial, licensed version available. Businesses can also buy a custom-priced, fully-managed version whose installation, back up, and maintenance is taken care of by the vendor.
Mobile apps: The tool is currently not supported on mobile devices.
Most suitable for: Freelancers and teams with programming skills and knowledge of querying languages.
Highly rated by: In the past year, 53% of MariaDB’s reviews on Capterra came from individuals at small businesses, 27% from midsize, and 20% from large. Most reviews came from users in the computer software industry, followed by IT services, higher education, then investment banking.
PostgreSQL is an open source database that comes with features such as data indexing, user configuration settings, data import/export, and version control.
While PostgreSQL is a relational database, it also allows creating NoSQL databases with programming languages such as Python and JSON.
Creating database backup in PostgreSQL
Pros: Users mention that the tool has a large open source community that has built several plugins for the tool, improving its functionality.
Cons: Users mention that it takes a long time to install and configure the solution.
Cost to upgrade: As an open source tool, PostgreSQL is available for free. However, users will have to take care of data backup and ensure that they manually update the tool with new patches that are released by community members.
Mobile apps: Currently, the solution doesn’t offer any mobile apps.
Most suitable for: Businesses that are looking for a relational database that can also accommodate NoSQL data storage to avoid data scaling issues.
Highly rated by: In the past year, 56% of PostgreSQL’s reviews on Capterra came from individuals at small businesses, 15% from midsize, and 29% from large. Most reviews came from users in the computer software industry, followed by IT services, financial services, and telecommunications.
QuintaDB is a cloud-based relational database that comes with features such as a form builder, user permission settings, data import/export, team calendars, and email/SMS notifications.
QuintaDB’s free version allows for creating forms (up to 5) and records in the database (up to 1,000), and sharing/storing files (up to 500MB).
Configuring a relational database in QuintaDB (Source)
Pros: Users mention that the tool offers flexibility in setting up user permissions, allowing them to collaboratively use the database with multiple members with different levels of access rights.
Cons: Users mention that the tool offers limited pre-built database templates and web forms—it takes them time to custom design tables using their own CSS.
Cost to upgrade: QuintaDB comes in six paid plans: Standard, Professional, Enterprise, Standard Express, Professional Express, and Enterprise Express. Discounts are available on half-yearly and annual subscriptions.
Mobile apps: Currently, there are no mobile apps available. However, you can access the tool via a mobile web browser.
Most suitable for: Teams that need a database with easy-to-configure user permission, making it possible for many users to review and change the data.
Highly rated by: In the past year, 33% of QuintaDB’s reviews on Capterra came from individuals at small businesses, 42% from midsize, and 25% from large. Most reviews came from users in the computer software industry, followed by marketing and advertising, sports, then education management.
Sonadier is cloud-based solution for creating databases and web forms. The tool comes with features such as form generation through a drag-and-drop interface, file management, user data sharing permissions, data import/export, and data versioning.
Best screenshot for mac. Sonadier’s free plan allows file storage and form creation, limited to 10,000 submissions. You’ll have to upgrade to add more than 5 users and unlock advanced features such as submissions, custom domains, version history, custom groups, and single sign-on.
Configuring user permissions in Sonadier (Source)
Pros: Users like the clean interface of the solution, which makes creating databases and forms quick and simple.
Cons: Users mention that the customer support takes a long time to respond to requests for bug fixes.
Cost to upgrade: Sonadier comes with two paid plans: a Team plan and custom-priced Enterprise plan. There are “add-on” features, such as analytics and development scripts, for an additional fee per month.
Mobile apps: Currently, there are no mobile apps available. However, you can access the tool via a mobile web browser.
Most suitable for: Small teams that need an easy-to-use tool for creating databases and web forms.
Highly rated by: In the past year, 9% of Sonadier’s reviews on Capterra came from individuals at small businesses, 18% from midsize, and 73% from large. Most reviews came from users in the banking industry, followed by computer software, construction, and then food and beverages.
Quickly find the right tool with this snapshot of the most popular database management software
In this article, we’ve classified a product as free if it:
Software that met the market definition also needed a minimum of 10 user-submitted reviews published during May 1, 2018-May 1, 2019, and have an above-average overall user rating.
Note: The content in this piece provides opinions and points of view expressed by users; it doesn’t represent the views of Capterra.
5/27/2019: This piece has been updated to include new free database software options and provide up-to-date information on the original options.
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