head to head · open source
TiDB vs HeidiSQL
TiDB has 40,706 GitHub stars, 6,285 forks, 6,976 open issues and last shipped yesterday. HeidiSQL has 6,315 stars, 600 forks, 324 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. TiDB leads on adoption by 545% (40,706 vs 6,315 stars). TiDB is written in Go under Apache-2.0; HeidiSQL is written in Pascal under GPL-2.0. TiDB has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, HeidiSQL 10%. TiDB was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| TiDB | HeidiSQL | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 6.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Pascal |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.3K | ⑂ 600 |
| 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 HeidiSQL if
- You want the HeidiSQL feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Pascal
- You evaluated both and HeidiSQL fits your workflow better
About TiDB
TiDB TiDB (/’taɪdiːbi:/, "Ti" stands for Titanium) is an open source, cloud native, distributed SQL database designed for high availability, horizontal and vertical scalability, strong consistency, and high performance. Key Features Quick Start Need Help? Architecture Contributing License See Also Acknowledgments Key Features Distributed Transactions : TiDB uses a two phase commit protocol to ensure ACID compliance, providing strong consistency. Transactions span multiple nodes, and TiDB's distributed nature ensures data correctness even in the presence of network partitions or node failures. Horizontal and…
About HeidiSQL
HeidiSQL HeidiSQL is a graphical interface for managing MariaDB or MySQL servers, Microsoft SQL databases, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Interbase or Firebird. "Heidi" lets you browse and edit data, create and edit tables, views, procedures, triggers and scheduled events. Also, you can export structure and data, either to SQL file, clipboard or to other servers. Read about features or see some screenshots. Need help? Look at the online help page to learn how to use HeidiSQL. The forum is meant to ask questions. The issue tracker is the place to report bugs or request new features. Building For compiling on platforms other…
read the full HeidiSQL 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 TiDB or HeidiSQL more popular?
TiDB has 40,706 GitHub stars and HeidiSQL has 6,315. TiDB has the larger community by that measure.
Are TiDB and HeidiSQL free?
Both are open source. TiDB is licensed under Apache-2.0 and HeidiSQL under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between TiDB and HeidiSQL?
TiDB is written in Go and HeidiSQL in Pascal. 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 HeidiSQL?
Choose TiDB if you want the larger community (40,706 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose HeidiSQL if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.