[HN Gopher] Show HN: SQLite Online - 11 years of solo developmen...
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Show HN: SQLite Online - 11 years of solo development, 11K daily
users
Author : sqliteonline
Score : 306 points
Date : 2025-10-13 12:46 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (sqliteonline.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (sqliteonline.com)
| bob1029 wrote:
| I am really struggling to figure out what this is or how it
| provides value.
|
| Edit:
|
| This discussion isn't exactly what I was hoping for. I was
| looking for ways to better highlight the features or value
| proposition of this site. Not defenestrate it altogether.
|
| E.g.: A simple modal that says "Welcome to SQLite Online! You can
| <core value proposition> with this tool." would have radically
| altered my initial perception.
| zvmaz wrote:
| For me: Try queries without the hassle of setting up a
| database. Learn SQL. Experiment. Etc.
| WesolyKubeczek wrote:
| > For me: Try queries without the hassle of setting up a
| database. sqlite3 some-file.db
|
| That's the whole "database setup" in case of SQLite.
| sqliteonline wrote:
| This method is not available on all devices and does not
| support sharing or collaboration.
|
| The website, however, works on any platform and allows
| working together in a single shared database.
| zwnow wrote:
| you can just share the file, huh
|
| collaboration sounds nice though, it definitely has a
| market considering 11k daily users.
| sqliteonline wrote:
| If the database is loaded from an external source (as
| shown in the examples), using the "Share Script" feature
| automatically attaches a link to the database. The link
| allows both the database and the script to be accessed
| and loaded.
| avinassh wrote:
| how does collaboration works for SQLite, since the db is
| embedded?
| kijin wrote:
| Uhm, by allowing multiple people to connect to the same
| database through a webapp like this?
| sqliteonline wrote:
| When you upload a database to the site, it is stored in
| your browser's memory or uses OpFS -- a local storage
| within your browser.
|
| You can share a link to grant access to your database,
| with the connection handled via P2P through WebRTC.
| WesolyKubeczek wrote:
| > This method is not available on all devices and does
| not support sharing or collaboration.
|
| The parent cites "hassle of creating the database" and
| does not mention sharing or collaborating. I showed that
| it doesn't get more hassle-free than this and doesn't
| even require connectivity (which might be a problem "on
| some devices" or "in some locations").
| rat9988 wrote:
| > doesn't even require connectivity (which might be a
| problem "on some devices" or "in some locations").
|
| You are just trying to prove a point instead of
| understanding it.
|
| > "hassle of creating the database" and does not mention
| sharing or collaborating.
|
| He might just have summarized everything as "hassle of
| creating the database".
|
| Not everything on internet is supposed to be a debate
| with highly and carefully developped wording.
| jermaustin1 wrote:
| > You are just trying to prove a point instead of
| understanding it.
|
| > He might just have summarized everything as "hassle of
| creating the database".
|
| You are also making an assumption, though. That person
| might not have known "sqlite3 mydb.db" is all you need to
| create a sqlite database.
| hombre_fatal wrote:
| It was just one item in a list and they used "etc." which
| prob refers to all the other obvious upsides, like why
| you would use pgadmin/postico to write postgres queries
| instead of psql cli.
|
| So to double down on that one detail as if it were a load
| bearing remark comes off as trying to win a point.
|
| If `sqlite3 test.db` launched a rich UI with tabs and
| such, then maybe they'd be onto something, but it does
| not.
| oblio wrote:
| I think someone forgot what made the web the most popular
| platform in the world.
| killerstorm wrote:
| sqlite3 :memory:
|
| if you don't want it to be persisted
| ajmurmann wrote:
| How do I get this sqlite3 command to work on my Chromebook?
| When I type this in on my Windows machine it's not working
| either. Are there other steps I need to take first?
| jermaustin1 wrote:
| As a developer, on your development machine, if you use
| sqlite even infrequently, then no.
|
| Anyone else, probably, but then why would you use this
| tool if you have no need for sqlite?
| encom wrote:
| >my Chromebook
|
| LOL
|
| >my Windows
|
| If you're the kind of person who even knows what SQL,
| SQLite or hell even a database is, you already know
| SQLite runs on pretty much anything.
| conductr wrote:
| Why would you assume that's the kind of person you're
| responding to? Their question alone leads me to believe
| it's exactly not that kind of person.
| somehnguy wrote:
| Their question was sarcasm basically saying this site
| provides convenience by way of not needing any up front
| steps.
| chasil wrote:
| On your Chromebook, load the Linux subsystem, which you
| can find in settings.
|
| It will give you a shell that will have SQLite.
|
| For Windows, download the interactive command line tool
| from sqlite.org.
| cortesoft wrote:
| Where do I type that in on my iPad?
|
| Some people might not have computers but still want to
| learn?
| josefx wrote:
| Pay for one of the many SQLite Apps on the App Store,
| like Jobs intended?
| Aeolun wrote:
| Implicit assumptions: You know what a CLI is, you have one
| on your system, and how to install the sqlite3 binary
| somehow.
|
| When I just started out with linux I was so frustrated with
| people just listing reams of commands, or files I needed to
| edit without stating I needed to look in /etc
| asveikau wrote:
| I had the same reaction, why not just use the command line
| interface?
|
| From there, I guess the value this adds is:
|
| 1. There is a UI, i.e. it has some autocomplete of sql
| syntax and it shows tables in a ... tabular format.
|
| 2. As others have mentioned, there are sharing features.
| Yes you could share a .db file, but with this you can also
| send a link viewable in a browser, with specific queries,
| etc.
|
| #1 reminds me of MS Access from back in the day. Those were
| sql dbs underneath, but they had some interfaces to show
| you how to build queries. It wasn't a bad way to dip your
| toes into the basics of sql.
| zvmaz wrote:
| I don't understand the people trying to convince others that
| this tool is useless by saying "just do it this way, duh!".
| It _is_ useful, even from a rapid glimpse at the website.
|
| Be kind and sensible.
| mchaver wrote:
| The just-use-rsync line of thinking doesn't go away
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| I'm at the point where I know exactly what comment that
| is because of the comment ID of 9224. Don't even need to
| mention rsync, Dropbox, or anything else.
| tiffanyh wrote:
| I would have loved this 25-years ago during university.
|
| Would have made homework (and just learning) significantly
| easier.
| gwbas1c wrote:
| It's clear that the tool is highly useful to the people who use
| it.
|
| That being said, I feel like I'm dumped into the playground
| without understanding what I am playing with. A few short
| paragraphs, examples, screenshots, explanations, ect, would go
| very far.
| sqliteonline wrote:
| Yes, we plan to add starter tips with explanations of their
| purpose.
| jairuhme wrote:
| Agree with your edit saying that there should be a landing
| message that gives a quick overview. But with in a few moments
| I was able to see that you can create a database and then start
| inserting tables/records into it. Seems like a pretty good tool
| to learn how to create and manage a database without the hassle
| of having to download sqlite and start testing commands that
| might be new to you in the CLI
| sqliteonline wrote:
| > You can <core value proposition>
|
| It may be difficult to briefly describe all the website's
| capabilities right now, but the key features include:
| * Federated queries across external and internal data sources.
| * Using query history as a source for new requests.
| * Collaborative access to databases -- both server and local,
| with structure synchronization. * Automatic chart
| generation based on queries. * And much more,
| including hidden features that are not yet easy to summarize.
| LtdJorge wrote:
| If you want your points to appear in different lines in HN,
| use two backspaces :)
| sqliteonline wrote:
| Thank you
| crazygringo wrote:
| Yup, I think it would be a big help if the home page ('/') was
| a landing page explaining who it's for and why, and why. Is
| this for students? For prototyping? For quick analysis? Sample
| data? Importing real data? Use cases are key.
|
| And then have a big hero button leading to the the actual tool
| ('/app' or '/playground' or whatever). Maybe preloaded with
| different sample data depending on the use case.
|
| Right now, being dumped into a complicated interface with zero
| explanation is very confusing. (None of this is to criticize
| the project itself, just to help identify it to the people who
| might find the most value in it!)
| qmmmur wrote:
| Can't people decide themselves what it's for?
| crazygringo wrote:
| No?
|
| I don't have the time to spend 10 minutes getting to know a
| product's features to try to figure out what it might be
| for.
|
| Just tell me what it's for.
|
| I mean, it's great if people can figure out other uses for
| it too. If they want to use it in a new way, awesome --
| don't get me wrong. But products are generally built with
| specific purposes in mind. So don't hide those.
| sqliteonline wrote:
| Thank you for your feedback. The idea was to make the
| product understandable without additional explanations,
| but it seems I didn't achieve that. I have a lot to
| improve.
| whizzter wrote:
| As an educator I would've loved to have this last time I was
| teaching SQL.
|
| 1: No install
|
| 2: Ephermal (just reload if you've messed up?)
|
| 3: Good syntax highlighting
|
| 4: Visual UI to navigate the model
|
| Why to pay for it though? That's a harder nut to crack, the UI
| is quite nice compared to many I've seen so maybe sell as an
| addon for those that provider hosted databases, collaborative
| spaces or as a desktop app. No obvious slam dunks though.
| benibela wrote:
| At first I thought that was about SQLite development itself
| foofoo12 wrote:
| I get this message:
|
| The site takes a long time to load: is your internet slow?
|
| If you have an old version of the browser update to the latest or
| use the latest version of chrome.
|
| Close all tabs with the site and reload the last one.
|
| support: z@sqliteonline.com
| foofoo12 wrote:
| Current Firefox on Linux. This is the console message:
|
| downloadable font: Glyph bbox was incorrect (glyph ids 33 55 62
| 81 82 83 84 87 88 89 90 112 119 120 123 139 159 162 164 166 178
| 184 185 217 218 272 273 274 275 279 281 284 290 291 292 309 310
| 319 321 323 326 329 330 331 332 333 334 339 341 347 349 351 352
| 353 354 357 358 361 366 367 370 371 414 431 436 444 445 458 460
| 464 465 483 505 508 511 514 516 517 518 520 521 538 539 546 568
| 574 579 580 585 586 594 596 599 602 603 616 618 622 627 629 630
| 633 634 638 643 645 651 654 665 675 685 686 688 691) (font-
| family: "FontAwesome" style:normal weight:400 stretch:100 src
| index:1) source: https://sqliteonline.com/fonts/fontawesome-
| webfont.woff2?v=4...
|
| using deprecated parameters for the initialization function;
| pass a single object instead sog3.js:2251:21
|
| Uncaught (in promise) ReferenceError: RTCPeerConnection is not
| defined <anonymous>
| https://sqliteonline.com/f/agw31.0.26.min.js:49 async*
| https://sqliteonline.com/f/agw31.0.26.min.js:87 async*
| https://sqliteonline.com/f/agw31.0.26.min.js:89
| sqliteonline wrote:
| You may be using an outdated browser version that doesn't
| support some features. Please update your browser to the
| latest version for the website to work properly.
| tecleandor wrote:
| I also get the glyph message on my Firefox 144.0b8 and it
| runs fast here, so I guess that shouldn't be the reason...
|
| RTCPeerConnection is available in Firefox and Chrome since
| 2017... son unless the browser is veeery old... Maybe
| something blocking RTC?
| sqliteonline wrote:
| Yes, the issue may be caused by WebRTC being disabled in
| your browser settings.
| foofoo12 wrote:
| The right thing to do it to handle that gracefully on the
| website and inform the user.
| sqliteonline wrote:
| You are right. I am gradually trying to describe all
| potential user issues more clearly, but unfortunately, it
| is still not done comprehensively.
| hu3 wrote:
| Cool project. Congrats for keeping it up for so long!
|
| Could you share some numbers like a ballpark of subscribers?
| sqliteonline wrote:
| Thank you, unfortunately, almost zero.
| hu3 wrote:
| Thanks for sharing. Still valuable for me in any interview if
| someone says they kept a service up for 11 years. Shows
| determination.
| bdcravens wrote:
| Or stubborness :-)
| redox99 wrote:
| It's weird you show the price in some currency I don't even
| know what it is (even if it says 10 dollars small next to
| it).
|
| Just show and charge 10 USD. You can localize that other
| currency (Rubles?) if GeoIP matches.
| necovek wrote:
| It's possible the local legislation disallows charging in
| non-local currency. Eg. can you charge in rubles in USA?
| eli wrote:
| Sure, you could charge in hotdogs if you wanted to.
| suralind wrote:
| I laughed, thank you for this.
| gregsadetsky wrote:
| hey, not to give you "armchair" advice, but I feel like a
| tool that's existed for 11 years and has 11k daily users is a
| super serious achievement.
|
| I'd vicariously love for you to be able to make some/more
| revenue with this!
|
| +1 on @redox99's comment that charging in rubles is most
| probably confusing, and that a flat $10 usd/month would be
| easier. I also would think that renewal should actually be on
| by default, not off - if people want the service and/or to
| support you, having auto renewal off is more of a hassle for
| them (the customers who want to pay you!) as they'd have to
| have to... re-enable their service? every 30-90 days?
|
| and another point I wanted to bring up is that it feels to me
| like a small text-based advertisement from ethicalads.io (the
| folks behind the ads on Read the Docs sites) or carbonads.net
| (btw I have no affiliation to either) could definitely...
| bring in some not-bad revenue pretty much immediately?
|
| again, huge congrats on your project and I truly wish you'll
| be able to find some path to monetization. cheers!
| sqliteonline wrote:
| Thank you. I have been considering various monetization
| approaches, evaluating their convenience and potential
| demand. Unfortunately, certain external factors currently
| prevent me from implementing everything as I would like.
| However, I still have several ideas that I hope will be
| engaging, in demand, and easy to pay for.
| alexchamberlain wrote:
| > charging in rubles is most probably confusing, and that a
| flat $10 usd/month would be easier
|
| As a Brit, I'd rather GBP...
|
| Isn't this comment a form of US defaultism?
| gregsadetsky wrote:
| for sure, my point was that usd would already be "better"
| (more common) than rubles - but yes, 'localized'
| currencies would be great too (although setting up
| "adaptive pricing" is a task in itself). baby steps :-)
| knowitnone3 wrote:
| As a rabbit, I'd rather carrots...
|
| Isn't this comment a form of Brit defaultism?
| alexchamberlain wrote:
| My point was more about the original comment is fine from
| the perspective of an American, but for the rest of the
| world, it doesn't really matter if it is USD or rubles -
| it's still a foreign transaction. I appreciate that for a
| large percentage of the world, consumers can probably do
| an approximation of the USD conversion in their head, and
| not a rubles one, and therefore, USD may be more
| friendly. That being said, the sales page has already got
| the approximation in USD anyway, which would be enough
| for me.
| FitchApps wrote:
| What a nice tool. Thank you for building and maintaining the
| product. I casually use it to validate SQL joins
| sqliteonline wrote:
| Thank you! I hope it will capture your interest with new
| features in the future.
| TiredOfLife wrote:
| Don't localise messages if you don't have anyone to proofread.
| Browsers have built in translation nowadays that users can
| activate if they need.
| sqliteonline wrote:
| Could you please advise where the issue might be?
| kijin wrote:
| Not the parent, but I see that several messages related to
| buying a subscription are translated into the locale of my
| browser. In my language, it just feels a little amateurish.
| In other languages, perhaps it might contain something
| totally wrong.
|
| So it will be safer to just use languages you are comfortable
| with, like English and Russian. Especially on pages that
| concern money. :)
| sqliteonline wrote:
| Thank you. I used an LLM for translation, hoping to achieve
| a high-quality result and make the service convenient for
| users. It seems I was mistaken.
| dcreater wrote:
| Or use the latest llms for translation
| recursive wrote:
| The sufficiently-late LLM seems a bit like a true Scotsman.
| After your comment, the OP explained that they did, in fact,
| use an LLM for translation. No info about whether it was "the
| latest".
| jve wrote:
| The paid subscription lists this feature:
|
| > No auto-renewal
|
| That's not subscription.
| sqliteonline wrote:
| I aim to make the product convenient and as straightforward as
| possible. It's better to extend its use when needed than to
| worry about when to stop.
| ezfe wrote:
| The person is saying that the description says "subscription"
| which by definition automatically renews
| dangus wrote:
| Not the definition of a subscription. See: magazines,
| traditionally purchased with one-time annual payments.
| encom wrote:
| Sure it is. A subscription's defining trait is continuity of
| access contingent on periodic renewal, whether manual or
| automatic. People subscribed to things way before online
| payments or even credit cards were common. A modern, if niche,
| example is Tarsnap.com. Once in a while, I get an email from
| Colin telling me to pay up if I don't want my backups deleted.
| qarthandyc wrote:
| I'd highly suggest getting a designer, or somehow thinking with
| more of a product mindset? I fail to understand what it does
| quickly, which shouldn't happen to a potential customer.
| alberth wrote:
| It's possible you're not the target audience?
| anamexis wrote:
| I guess if the target audience is people who already know
| what it is?
| alberth wrote:
| Devils advocate: when Google launched it was just a blank
| form field.
|
| Similar to ChatGPT.
|
| But those who knew what it is, their usage is huge.
| tantalor wrote:
| That's an absurd comparison.
|
| At the time there were dozens of search engines and new
| ones every day. Everybody knew what search engines were,
| and what they offered. Google did not invent the form
| field -> SRP pattern; people were already used to that.
| Google was able to rise above the field because 1. yes
| the homepage was nice, but more importantly 2. the
| results were so much better than competitors.
|
| I don't understand the comparison to SQLite online
| because what are the well-known competitors, and what is
| it even trying to do?
|
| Not even going to touch the ChatGPT comparison.
| conductr wrote:
| This is accurate. Back then nobody went to google and was
| confused when it was just an input box. They went there
| already knowing it was a search engine and that search
| engines needed input. They came back because the results
| were so good (relative to competitors).
|
| The clean interface just stood out as the other
| competitors at the time we're bogged down by ads. So a
| quick loading page in a time of slow internet
| connections, was a very nice user-centric feature.
| qarthandyc wrote:
| And what currency is it in? Seems so odd to not put it in
| dollars or euros.
|
| And FURTHERMORE, the $ sign is incorrectly to the right of the
| numbers. It should be $10. Personally, this shows such a lack
| of product thinking, and simply hacking away at a tool instead
| of delivering a service.
| ezfe wrote:
| I mean, it does clearly say it's 1,000[?] which is Russian
| rubles. Why would the price be listed in dollars if it's not
| being collected in dollars?
| maelito wrote:
| No, please. Don't inflate the team to something that would need
| investors. It's cool that an alter-Web can exist without 10
| person teams.
| sqliteonline wrote:
| It is quite possible that this will be the case.
| rs186 wrote:
| It is very straightforward to hire UX designer in a contract,
| or even just ask ChatGPT to design an interface that is
| better than a software engineer's minimum effort (and
| possibly experience) in UX.
| igregoryca wrote:
| If you're making enough money, you can hire a designer every
| now and then to tell you where your UX suffers and how to fix
| it. No investors necessary.
|
| (or: just solicit feedback in a space frequented by
| designers, and harness the power of being wrong on the
| internet ;)
| sqliteonline wrote:
| Thank you! I will strive to improve the interface and make it
| more intuitive.
| awongh wrote:
| 11k daily users is very good even without this so-called
| "product mindset"!
| SuperHeavy256 wrote:
| Imagine how many more users could be using if it had a
| product mindset.
| senordevnyc wrote:
| The dev is asking on the site for people to support the
| development with subscriptions, but they say here they have
| basically zero subscribers. So 11k daily users hasn't
| translated to something that people want to actually pay to
| support. That could change.
| gjvc wrote:
| suggest adding "execute query on ctrl-return"
| sqliteonline wrote:
| Use Shift + Enter to run the script.
| Towaway69 wrote:
| Great job and many kudos for the determination to maintain a tool
| for 11 years!
|
| I thankfully have no use for the tool since I no longer have to
| code SQL - the world is a better place for it.
|
| It raises the question how many more "bus tools"[1] are there?
| Tools maintained and developed by a single developer with whom,
| when hit by a bus, the tool would die.
|
| [1] no offence meant but "bus developers" is the term I learnt,
| it seems a little cruel to speak of folks being hit by buses - is
| there something better nowadays?
| sqliteonline wrote:
| Thank you. Our entire life is but a moment: something
| disappears, and something new emerges.
| erickf1 wrote:
| This reminds me a lot of RavenDB. I'm impressed.
| BinaryIgor wrote:
| How do you make money?
| BiraIgnacio wrote:
| thank you for doing this, congratulations
| dsamy wrote:
| Amazing that SQLite Online has survived solo for 11 years. What
| technical or business pivots have kept it alive (and relevant)
| across changing web stacks and user expectations?
| aidenn0 wrote:
| What is it?
| alberth wrote:
| Unsolicited suggestion: since some people are asking "what is
| this".
|
| Maybe buy a new domain name like below (and direct to your
| existing from this new url). EasyLearnSQL.com
| TrySQLonline.com LearnOnlineSQL.com
|
| All of these domain names are available for sale under $10.
|
| And the more descriptive name might allow you to not have to
| change the UI.
|
| (Very cool project by the way and congrats on 11 years)
| dewey wrote:
| In my opinion that's not good advice. Over the past 11 years
| this domain already built up some domain reputation and
| incoming links. Changing the domain for no good reason won't
| help with people understanding the use case of the site.
|
| The domain doesn't really matter so much as you can see with
| "replit.com", "chatgpt.com" or "stripe.com" which don't explain
| anything either.
|
| If you want to invest time I'd suggest:
|
| - Clean up design (Remove multiple disclaimers, side bar etc.)
|
| - Add h1/h2 that instantly explains what this is about
|
| - Have a list of simple examples that can be executed, not just
| "select * from demo"
|
| - If you want to increase traffic, take a look at
| "site:sqliteonline.com" on Google. There's currently only 14
| pages indexed, so lots of low hanging fruits to optimize. Could
| also be extended by having pages dedicated to examples or a
| topic that people can land on if they search for things like
| "left join sqlite" etc.
|
| - Change site title from "SQL Online AiDE - Next gen SQL Editor
| | SQL Compiler" to something explaining what this is about.
| foofoo12 wrote:
| What is the WebRTC connection used for?
| appcustodian2 wrote:
| P2P "Share/Collaborate" mode: the UI text and toasts ("Share",
| "Close connect", "connected", "No connected.") plus e.rtc.user
| strongly suggest a feature where someone "hosts" a DB and
| others connect directly to run queries/see results live.
| pdyc wrote:
| wow that's a lot of users, congratulations. It says sqliteonline
| but it seems you support other db's as well.
| tonyhart7 wrote:
| this is fire. I didn't know that it have remote+memory db for
| testing
| tobilg wrote:
| Impressive, congrats! I'm building https://sql-workbench.com
| which is similar, but focussed on DuckDB WASM instead of
| SQLite... Love that you offer different databases.
| hoherd wrote:
| I immediately tried to run .schema and a syntax error was
| returned.
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