head to head · open source
DBeaver vs toydb
DBeaver has 52,273 GitHub stars, 4,442 forks, 3,334 open issues and last shipped yesterday. toydb has 7,302 stars, 625 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. DBeaver leads on adoption by 616% (52,273 vs 7,302 stars). DBeaver is written in Java under Apache-2.0; toydb is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. DBeaver has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, toydb 9%. DBeaver was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (database), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| DBeaver | toydb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 7.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.4K | ⑂ 625 |
| 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 toydb if
- You want the toydb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and toydb fits your workflow better
About DBeaver
DBeaver Free multi platform database tool for developers, SQL programmers, database administrators and analysts. Has a lot of features including schema editor, SQL editor, data editor, AI chat, ER diagrams, data export/import/migration, SQL execution plans, database administration tools, database dashboards, Spatial data viewer, proxy and SSH tunnelling, custom database drivers editor, etc. Out of the box supports more than 100 database drivers . Supports any database which has JDBC or ODBC driver (basically almost all existing databases). Integrates AI tools for work with data, SQL and database structure…
read the full DBeaver overview →
About toydb
toyDB Distributed SQL database in Rust, built from scratch as an educational project. Main features: [Raft distributed consensus][raft] for linearizable state machine replication. [ACID transactions][txn] with MVCC based snapshot isolation. [Pluggable storage engine][storage] with [BitCask][bitcask] and [in memory][memory] backends. [Iterator based query engine][query] with [heuristic optimization][optimizer] and time travel support. [SQL interface][sql] including joins, aggregates, and transactions. toyDB is intended to be simple and understandable, and also functional and correct. Other aspects like…
read the full toydb overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Databases projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Databases field.
Frequently asked questions
Is DBeaver or toydb more popular?
DBeaver has 52,273 GitHub stars and toydb has 7,302. DBeaver has the larger community by that measure.
Are DBeaver and toydb free?
Both are open source. DBeaver is licensed under Apache-2.0 and toydb under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between DBeaver and toydb?
DBeaver is written in Java and toydb in Rust. 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 toydb?
Choose DBeaver if you want the larger community (52,273 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose toydb if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.