head to head · open source
DBeaver vs bun
DBeaver has 51,797 GitHub stars, 4,372 forks, 3,334 open issues and last shipped yesterday. bun has 4,976 stars, 307 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped 29 days ago. DBeaver leads on adoption by 941% (51,797 vs 4,976 stars). DBeaver is written in Java under Apache-2.0; bun is written in Go under BSD-2-Clause. DBeaver has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, bun 6%. DBeaver was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (database, mysql, oracle), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| DBeaver | bun | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 5.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-08-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.4K | ⑂ 307 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick DBeaver if
- You weight community size — 52K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick bun if
- You want the bun feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and bun fits your workflow better
About DBeaver
DBeaver is a free, multi platform database management tool built in Java, designed for developers, SQL programmers, database administrators, and analysts. It operates across Windows, macOS, and Linux and integrates with the Eclipse based plugin ecosystem via OSGi and Eclipse RCP frameworks.
read the full DBeaver overview →
About bun
Bun is a lightweight, SQL first object relational mapper for Go that gives backend engineers type safe access to PostgreSQL, MySQL/MariaDB, MSSQL, SQLite, and Oracle from one database agnostic codebase.
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Frequently asked questions
Is DBeaver or bun more popular?
DBeaver has 51,797 GitHub stars and bun has 4,976. DBeaver has the larger community by that measure.
Are DBeaver and bun free?
Both are open source. DBeaver is licensed under Apache-2.0 and bun under BSD-2-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between DBeaver and bun?
DBeaver is written in Java and bun in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, DBeaver or bun?
Choose DBeaver if you want the larger community (51,797 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose bun if its feature set, stack or BSD-2-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.