head to head · open source
TiDB vs Beekeeper Studio
TiDB has 40,553 GitHub stars, 6,243 forks, 6,976 open issues and last shipped today. Beekeeper Studio has 23,629 stars, 1,628 forks, 1,168 open issues and last shipped yesterday. TiDB leads on adoption by 72% (40,553 vs 23,629 stars). TiDB is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Beekeeper Studio is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. TiDB has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, Beekeeper Studio 7%. TiDB 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.
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Side by side
| TiDB | Beekeeper Studio | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 24K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.2K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick TiDB if
- You weight community size — 41K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Beekeeper Studio if
- You want the Beekeeper Studio feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Beekeeper Studio fits your workflow better
About TiDB
TiDB is an open source, cloud native, distributed SQL database written in Go and licensed under Apache 2.0, aimed at teams that need ACID transactions, real time analytics, and vector search at scale without data silos.
About Beekeeper Studio
Beekeeper Studio is a cross platform, open source SQL editor and database manager for Linux, macOS, and Windows that gives developers and data teams one graphical client for many different database engines.
read the full Beekeeper Studio overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is TiDB or Beekeeper Studio more popular?
TiDB has 40,553 GitHub stars and Beekeeper Studio has 23,629. TiDB has the larger community by that measure.
Are TiDB and Beekeeper Studio free?
Both are open source. TiDB is licensed under Apache-2.0, and Beekeeper Studio has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between TiDB and Beekeeper Studio?
TiDB is written in Go and Beekeeper Studio in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, TiDB or Beekeeper Studio?
Choose TiDB if you want the larger community (40,553 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Beekeeper Studio if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.