pgAdmin
Shares rank 9 of 12 database clients by recommenders
Free, mature PostgreSQL admin tool running in the browser, easy to set up with Docker. Critics find it dated and aimed at administration, not everyday work.
Free, mature PostgreSQL admin tool running in the browser, easy to set up with Docker. Critics find it dated and aimed at administration, not everyday work.
17 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 11
- approval share
- 35%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Dated, slow-looking interface
“it's currently a bit slow and looks prehistoric”
Comment from 11 Mar 2026 in “PgAdmin 4 9.13 with AI Assistant Panel” “very outdated and over-complicated for simple use cases”
Comment from 8 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: Is it worth building a database GUI?” AI panel on by default, hard to disable
“there appears to be no way to disable it. I do not want AI anywhere near my database”
Comment from 10 Mar 2026 in “PgAdmin 4 9.13 with AI Assistant Panel” “I did not enable this and yet I got the panel in the UI.”
Comment from 10 Mar 2026 in “PgAdmin 4 9.13 with AI Assistant Panel” “the AI tab is selected by default which is annoying”
Comment from 12 Mar 2026 in “PgAdmin 4 9.13 with AI Assistant Panel” Generic, not built for real workflows
“very mature, but also completely indifferent to what you’re actually trying to do”
Comment from 5 Jul 2026 in “Surus Agentic Postgres Companion” “"just barely good enough" rather than an immersive power tool”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “What Game Engines Know About Data That Databases Forgot” “a tool like pgadmin and dbeaver is clunky because they focus on database administration”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)” Web client feels bloated or cheap
“after pgAdmin 4 shifted to their web based client crap”
Comment from 11 Mar 2026 in “PgAdmin 4 9.13 with AI Assistant Panel” “it is still a Electron junk app”
Comment from 1 Jul 2026 in “Looking Ahead to Postgres 19”
Other database clients people recommend
The four most recommended other database clients, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 12 database clients, rankedWhat people said
18 of the 19 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“very mature, but also completely indifferent to what you’re actually trying to do”
“it is still a Electron junk app”
“I would not use MySQL Workbench or PGAAdmin now.”
“"just barely good enough" rather than an immersive power tool”
“the AI tab is selected by default which is annoying”
“The fact that you need Docker to make it easy is already a mayor failure.”
“I run pgAdmin with docker and there's almost nothing to it.”
“it's currently a bit slow and looks prehistoric”
“after pgAdmin 4 shifted to their web based client crap”
“This will save me minutes per year.”
“I did not enable this and yet I got the panel in the UI.”
“One of the worst ads for python that exists.”
“pgadmin was annoying about to which postgres versions it could connect”
“It also expose surface area of potential data leakage.”
“there appears to be no way to disable it. I do not want AI anywhere near my database”
“VS Code and pgAdmin have desktop like performance running in the browser”
“a tool like pgadmin and dbeaver is clunky because they focus on database administration”
“very outdated and over-complicated for simple use cases”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.