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An overview of the most popular text-to-SQL AI tools in 2026, including DataGrip, TablePlus, SQL Chat, Vanna.ai, SQLAI.ai, Postgres.new, and DBHub MCP server. Compare features and capabilities to find the best SQL AI assistant for your workflow.

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What are the top open source Postgres schema migration tools.

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MySQL schema compare tool is used to diff and synchronize schemas between MySQL databases. This article reviews the top 4 common tools in this category.

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Postgres 19 widens MultiXactOffset to 64 bits, eliminating the hidden 4 billion member limit that caused catastrophic outages for high-concurrency workloads.

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A guide to MySQL schema migration best practice.

MySQL Schema Migration Best Practice

Postgres 19 introduces automatic sequence synchronization for logical replication, eliminating manual tracking and making major version upgrades and failover significantly easier.

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A guide to open source sensitive data discovery tools - from lightweight CLI scanners like PiiCatcher and Hawk-Eye to full data platforms like OpenMetadata.

Top Open Source Sensitive Data Discovery Tools in 2025

Database Audit Logging - The Practical Guide

List of open source postgres connection poolers

Open Source Postgres Connection Pooler

Overview of PostgreSQL 18 features from a developer's perspective

What's New in PostgreSQL 18 - a Developer's Perspective

Top open-source Postgres authentication solutions for 2025.

Top Open Source GitOps Tools in 2025

Areas where MySQL shines and Postgres falls short.

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Areas where PostgreSQL shines and MySQL falls short.

Features I Wish MySQL Had but Postgres Already Has

Evaluate several database schema diagram tools, and help you to choose the right one for 2025

Top 4 Free, Open Source Database Schema Diagram Tools to Visualize Database Easier in 2025

Evaluate several TypeScript ORMs, and help you to choose the right one for 2025

Top TypeScript ORM 2025

Overview of PostgreSQL 18 features with spicy comments from a DBA's perspective

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In the post, we explore the Google Cloud SQL pricing structure, tools for estimating its cost, and tips for optimizing the cost.

Understanding Google Cloud SQL Pricing

Explore alternatives to Amazon RDS, including 

RDS Alternatives in 2025

Infrastructure as Code security tools help organizations identify vulnerabilities and misconfigurations in their infrastructure definitions. This post explores the top open-source IaC security tools available in 2025.

Top Open Source Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Security Tools in 2025

Compare the price of the mainstream managed PostgreSQL hosting providers

PostgreSQL Hosting Options in 2025: Pricing Comparison

Database governance tools help organizations manage database changes, enforce policies, and maintain data quality. This post explores the top open-source database governance tools available in 2025.

Top Open Source Database Governance Tools in 2025

Workflow orchestration tools help coordinate tasks, handle errors, and monitor execution processes. In this post, we are taking a look at open source workflow orchestration options

Top Open Source Workflow Orchestration Tools in 2025

Compare the price of the mainstream managed MySQL hosting providers

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A comprehensive guide to the best open-source Kubernetes cluster management tools in 2025, including Argo CD, Karmada, Sveltos, and Plural.

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Review the state of the Golang ORM and query builder

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Overview of MySQL 9 features with spicy comments

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SQL clients makes it safer and easier to manage databases. In this post, we are taking a look at open source SQL clients options for you to try in 2024.

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A comprehensive reference guide to standard port numbers used by popular database systems in 2025

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A comprehensive guide to the best free and open-source PostgreSQL EXPLAIN tools for query performance analysis, including built-in extensions, online visualizers, and integrated GUI solutions.

Top Free, Open Source Postgres Explain Tool to Analyze Database 2025

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Postgres schema compare tool is used to diff and synchronize schemas between Postgres databases. This article reviews the top 4 common tools in this category.

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What are the top Postgres extensions you may need to enhance your Postgres instance.

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When schema migration outage happens, who should be more responsible in order to prevent future incidents?

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What are the top open source MySQL schema migration tools.

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MySQL GUI clients makes it safer and easier to manage databases by providing a provide a graphical interface for MySQL databases. In this post, we are taking a look at top 5 MySQL GUI Clients.

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DataGrip is an database IDE developed by JetBrains and is closely integrated with the JetBrains ecosystem. As a database admin tool, DataGrip is not a comprehensive alternative to the other dedicated database GUIs. Here, we are taking a look at top DataGrip alternatives.

Top DataGrip Alternatives 2023

If you work exclusively with MySQL, MySQL Workbench is an excellent choice for a database GUI, but if you work with multiple databases, you need to look elsewhere. This article highlights five database GUI alternatives for MySQL Workbench.

Top MySQL Workbench Alternatives 2023

Postgres is one of the most advanced open-source relational databases, while you can leverage Postgres' capabilities without a GUI, having one can take your experience working with Postgres to the next level.

Top pgAdmin Alternatives 2023

Navicat is a long-established database GUI. However, it has a serious limitation in multi-user scenarios where team collaboration and centralized control are needed. Hence, we are taking a look at top Navicat alternatives.

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DBeaver is one of the most popular database management tools out there. If for some reason, DBeaver doesn't fulfill your requirements or you are just in the mood to try something new. Here, we are taking a look at top DBeaver alternatives

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List of Database-as-a-Service providers in 2023.

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Reviewing SQL can be somewhat tedious, yet is essential to keep your database fleet reliable. At Bytebase, we are building a developer-first SQL review tool to empower the DevOps system.

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The idea of codifying database schema changes (aka schema migration) is not new. While we are observing an accelerated trend of embracing Database as Code (DaC) across the industry. In this blog, we will review the state-of-the-art in the Database as Code landscape and share our own insight into the current and future trends in this space.

The Database as Code Landscape

This is the first of the DDD series, consisting of 10 stories of DBA & Database & developer.

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What happened in database industry in 2021. OLAP (Snowflake, Databricks, ClickHouse, Firebolt, ClickHouse), OLTP (PostgreSQL, PlanetScale, SQLite) and open source.

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Treat SQL as code ("[Why](https://blog.devgenius.io/why-google-treats-sql-like-code-and-you-should-too-53f97925037e)?", you may ask), which means all the reasons why we review other codes need to apply to SQL scripts. They interact straight with databases, and databases are too important. No matter how database vendors promise their products are stable and robust, databases are still pretty fragile. Even if we disregard the accidental "DROP TABLE" fiasco, ordinary queries like "SELECT FROM" can also overwhelm a database and bring it down. Let’s face it: databases are delicate, yet very few users understand how to treat them properly - meaning we should discipline the users’ behavior to some degree.

Here’s where SQL review comes in. It is the practice of reviewing DDL and DML statements before applying them to the database. It is one of the most critical aspects of database schema management. In the past, DBAs were in charge of the database. They know the database best, and thus should be the ones reviewing the SQL. This is reasonable, but there is a contradiction: developers (database users) cannot understand the many restrictions and want the most freedom. At the same time, DBAs insist that stability triumphs over everything.

![_](/content/blog/sql-review-tool-for-devs/dev-fighting-dba.webp)

With the proliferation of DevOps, the R&D process is also evolving, and many traditional "Ops" tasks are gradually integrated into the "Dev" team. Some organizations have even built "Platform Engineering" teams dedicated to providing tools and platforms for development teams, and the development teams themselves can do the Ops work.

![_](/content/blog/sql-review-tool-for-devs/devops-view.webp)

From the tooling’s point of view, what can be done to help the development teams complete the DevOps lifecycle? For example, how should the review process evolve? How to make it developer-friendly? Let’s break it down into the following six parts.

## Customizable Capability

For most developers, databases seem too complex and mysterious. For example, they know all about the business logic yet lack understanding of whether specific changes affect performance and maintainability. Fortunately, many tools have built-in policies for common issues and can give recommendations automatically. But database types are diverse, and database engines are advancing rapidly, policies for a specific database, and a specific version may become outdated. Using the set of policies meant for the last MySQL version on the newest version may seriously affect the efficiency of application development, which is a source of conflict between the development team and the DBAs. When the reviewer's ability is limited, it puts higher requirements on the review tool. An excellent SQL review tool should have a more refined capability of being able to:

- Apply to different database types;
- Apply to different workload types, such as OLTP, OLAP, or HTAP;
- Apply to different environments, such as dev, test, staging or prod environment;
- Follow the database version update policy timely.

## A Coherent Development Experience: the Shift-left Approach

A developer-friendly tool needs to integrate as much as possible into the working habits of the developers. For example, if SQL scripts are managed on a VCS (version control system), it's not pleasant to log into there and paste SQL for review in a different place. It should be integrated into the existing developer workflow: the support for GitHub and GitLab is a no-brainer. This [shift-left approach](https://devopedia.org/shift-left) makes it possible for the SQL scripts to be reviewed as they are submitted to VCS, rather than at the end of the development cycle, right before the deployment of a new application.

## End-to-End CI/CD Workflow

When we use the shift-left approach, and SQL is reviewed at the beginning of a workflow, it means that SQL needs to be parsed at the source where it is generated. The main challenge comes from the various ORM and state-based tools, where development teams do not directly commit the SQL statements; instead, they dictate declarative configuration. This way, change scripts are generated dynamically by the tool, which makes it difficult for review tools to capture the corresponding SQL. There are three possible ways to address this.

- Proactively embrace mainstream ORM tools for better integration at the source;
- Provide API to be hooked into the existing CI/CD pipeline;
- Provide an end-to-end Database CI/CD workflow, including state-based change capability and automatic deployment to achieve Database DevOps.

## A Flexible Mechanism

SQL review aims to help users better use the database, not be a constraint on their business. When non-development teams are responsible for database stability, it is often easy to create a one-size-fits-all mechanism. Under a DevOps system, where development teams need to balance efficiency and stability, it is necessary to implement some flexible reviewing mechanisms:

- The policies are adaptive to the business load. For example, queries that deliver business value but consume more resources can be relaxed during low business hours.
- Have different thresholds for different data sizes. For smaller databases or tables, some policies can be relaxed.
- Allow occasional violations, but there should be a bottom line. As long as the behavior is not forbidden or certain conditions are met, occasional violations should be allowed.
- Encourage compliance with non-compulsory rules. Let’s be real, when rules are not mandatory, no one will comply with them. Imposing soft penalties can help reduce such problems, for example, by dynamically adding the approval process when non-mandatory rules are frequently violated.

## Knowing What’s Right and Wrong

Like driving cars, we all need to get a license before legally driving. As a reviewer, it is essential to understand the reasoning behind a particular policy when using review tools. Otherwise, some policies can’t be enforced effectively. When the airplanes take off and land, we are always instructed to put away the tray table. This move seems trivial, yet can keep the tray table from stabbing straight into your abdomen in an emergency. Do you still mind this minor inconvenience? Of course, I’m not saying that all developers should have professional database knowledge. Still, SQL review tools for developers should clearly convey the principle and meaning of the policy rules, which will help promote the adoption.

## An Open Community

The combination of database engine type, version, business application, etc., generates a plethora of SQL review rules, which are difficult to support by a single vendor. At the same time, much wisdom is developed from production practice. Therefore, the only way to keep the tool alive and thriving is to attract more organizations and individuals to maintain a shared SQL review rule repository through open source. If the code can be shared globally, so can the SQL review rules.

## Where is SQL Review Headed?

After all, SQL is code, too, which means all the reasons we review other codes also apply to SQL. At this stage, strict SQL reviewing is still essential to manage a database fleet reliably. Bytebase is also happy to take a brick and build a developer-first [SQL review tool](https://docs.bytebase.com/sql-review/review-policy) to fill this gap in the DevOps ecosystem.



This is a series of articles about database version control and database-as-code (GitOps)

1. [What is Database Version Control?](/blog/database-version-control)
1. [Database Version Control, State-based or Migration-based?](/blog/database-version-control-state-based-vs-migration-based)
1. [Database as Code - the Good, the Bad and the Ugly](/blog/database-as-code)
1. The Database as Code Landscape (this one)
1. [Database Version Control Best Practice](/blog/database-version-control-best-practice)

---

The idea of codifying database schema changes (aka schema migration) is not new. Many engineering teams have employed Liquibase / Flyway to adopt this practice. At the same time, we are observing an accelerated trend of embracing [Database as Code (DaC)](/blog/database-as-code) across the industry. Several innovative products have also emerged to challenge the incumbents.

In this blog, we will review the state-of-the-art in the Database as Code landscape and share our own insight into the current and future trends in this space.

## The Overview

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/database-as-code-landscape-2022.webp)

## The Gatekeepers

### Liquibase

Started in 2006, Liquibase is arguably the most well-known product in this segment. When someone asks for database schema change advice on a forum, oftentimes, you will see a reply mentioning Liquibase.

![_](/images/products/liquibase/liquibase-overview.webp)

Liquibase is both an open source project as well as a company providing its commercial offering. The company used to be called Datical, and was renamed Liquibase to consolidate the branding (wise move).
Liquibase main product is a Java-based CLI. Via the CLI, developer teams can integrate the database schema migration into their CI/CD workflow. For the Java application, Liquibase can also be used as a library. Applications usually embed Liquibase library to apply any applicable schema migration on startup.

In Liquibase, a schema migration unit is encapsulated in a `Change Set`. Probably due to its age and root in Java, the most commonly used form is XML (YAML and JSON support have been added later):

![_](/images/products/liquibase/liquibase-xml.webp)

Plain SQL is also supported with proper annotation:

![_](/images/products/liquibase/liquibase-sql.webp)

Liquibase is [migration-based](/blog/database-version-control-state-based-vs-migration-based). It records the incremental change instead of the desired end state of the target database schema.

Recently, Liquibase introduced HUB, it's an information portal for paid customers to view, organize and monitor database change activity in real-time.

![_](/images/products/liquibase/liquibase-hub.webp)

### Flyway

![_](/images/products/flyway/flyway-overview.webp)

Flyway resembles Liquibase in many ways. It's an open source project with a long history and a large customer base. Its core product includes the CLI and a Java library. Flyway also recently announced a web portal named Hub.

The commercial entity behind Flyway is Redgate through an acquisition. The branding may cause some confusion, while it also sets a boundary between the open source and commercial offering. Flyway carries a more casual branding tone:

![_](/images/products/flyway/flyway-migration.webp)

Flyway website is not as shining as those new DevTools companies using sophisticated gradients. You can even spot some basic UI spacing issues. Yet Flyway shows a classic example that content matters more than cosmetic beauty and its documentation stands out because of the clarity.

Liquibase and Flyway are neck and neck. The major difference lies in their respective positioning. Liquibase caters to enterprise customers, while Flyway feels more accessible to the developers.

## Sqitch

Sqitch is also an open source project been on the market for a while. Sqitch is pure CLI-based and has no UI. Unlike Java-based Liquibase/Flyway, Sqitch is developed in Perl.

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/sqitch-overview.webp)

Choosing Perl is not the only interesting aspect. Sqitch has its own design philosophy about how to manage database schema changes. Both Liquibase and Flyway use the file naming convention to control the schema migration behavior (convention over configuration):

![_](/images/products/flyway/flyway-migration-version.webp)

While Sqitch takes an explicit approach. In the below example, you need to name the schema migration as `appschema`:

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/sqitch-migration.webp)

If you later want to apply another migration depending on `appschema`, you need to supply with `--requires`:

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/sqitch-migration-dependency.webp)

Sqitch also provides the unique tag and bundle command for the schema change deployment, which grants teams more power to wire the schema deployment into the application development lifecycle.

## The Starlets

### Atlas

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/atlas-overview.webp)

Atlas is a new database schema migration tool that debuted recently. It takes traits from existing tools:

- It resembles Liquibase / Flyway / Sqitch in that it's mainly CLI focused, though it also has a lightweight UI to visualize the schema.
- It resembles Prisma in that it designs its own Domain Specific Language (DSL) to define the database schema. Originally, it chooses the same state-based approach as Prisma, but looks like it also added the migration-based approach.

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/atlas-migration.webp)

- It's also heavily influenced by HashiCorp Terraform, using Go and inventing its own DSL. They even debuted as Terraform for Database Migrations on Hacker News:

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/atlas-terraform.webp)

Altas current focus is on CLI. While stacking it against existing CLI tools like Liquibase / Flyway, it has the advantage of employing a modern programming language (Go instead of Java), and learnings from tools like Terraform and Prisma.

## The ORMs

Database schema migration is an integral part of the application development, thus it's no surprise popular application frameworks and ORMs provide the built-in schema migration capabilities:

- [Ruby on Rails Active Record Migrations](https://guides.rubyonrails.org/active_record_migrations.html) (Ruby)
- [Django Migrations](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.0/topics/migrations) (Python)
- [MyBatis Migrations](https://mybatis.org/migrations) (Java)
- [GORM Migrations](https://gorm.io/docs/migration.html) (Go)

Though database schema migration falls into the backend category, the most recent innovation comes from Prisma, an ORM with a frontend root.

### Prisma

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/prisma-overview.webp)

Node.js unlocks the pandora box for frontend engineers to build full-stack applications. We call it pandora box because it brings both prosperity and chaos. Full-stack applications consist of 3 pieces:

1. The code (stateless part).
1. The data (stateful part).
1. And how the code interacts with the data.

To a typical frontend engineer wanting to build a sustainable full-stack application, TypeScript / Express.js is solving the code problem. NoSQL databases like MongoDB are solving the data problem. Prisma is targeting the last problem of wiring code with data.

For frontend engineers, usability and accessibility are especially important. They are used to perfect pixels and HCI, and are not versed in composing SQL. To lower the barrier of managing database schemas, Prisma specifically designs a DSL:

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/prisma-schema.webp)

The DSL takes the state-based approach (declarative), in that the DSL describes the desired end state of the targeting database schema instead of the incremental changes. This is different from Liquibase / Flyway / Sqitch.

Prisma also invests heavily in the integration and development workflow.

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/prisma-stack.webp)

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/prisma-lifecycle.webp)

Unlike its backend ORM peers, Prisma takes a refreshing approach and offers a more holistic view of managing database data and schema throughout the application development lifecycle.

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/prisma-product-line.webp)

By looking at their product line, you can easily tell their ambitions are definitely not limited to being an ORM and schema migration tool.

## The Database

All tools described above work with many different database systems. While the application of Database as Code is database agnostic, there emerge new database systems promoting developer experience as a key differentiator. This developer-centric perspective as well as features like branching / cloning aligns with the mindset behind Database as Code.

### PlanetScale

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/planetscale-overview.webp)

PlanetScale used to be a Vitess hosted service. They pivoted last year to focus on the developer workflow. Though you may still come across some Vitess footprint on their website, most new materials are talking about database development workflow features such as branching, online schema change, and the recently introduced rewind:

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/planetscale-rewind.webp)

When we covered Prisma above, we mentioned there are 3 pillars constituting a full-stack application:

1. The code (stateless part).
1. The data (stateful part).
1. And how the code interacts with the data.

For the data part, MongoDB is a popular choice, people choose it because of its usability rather than ubiquity. For hosting mission-critical application data such as user info, customer order, and billing, you still want a SQL-based relational database. PlanetScale is based on MySQL, enhanced with Vitess scalability, and crafted for usability by the amazing PlanetScale product team. These properties make PlanetScale an attractive choice. It seems to combine the best of both worlds, retaining all the SQL database benefits while not sacrificing developer experience.

### Neon

Neon is another open source database just announced.

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/neon-overview.webp)

At a high level, it shares a lot of similarities with PlanetScale, serverless, developer productivity, fully managed.

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/neon-about.webp)

The major difference lies in the technology stack:

- Neon is on the PostgreSQL camp while PlanetScale is MySQL-based.
- PlanetScale leverages Vitess to offer its advanced database features, while Vitess itself is a middleware on top of the MySQL server node. Neon takes a more drastic approach to build a dedicated storage layer to offer those desired features.

Neon could have higher potential because it has better control over the entire stack. It would be very interesting to see how Neon progresses compared to PlanetScale.
The love-hate relationship between MySQL and PostgreSQL is never-ending, from vanilla MySQL vs PostgreSQL, distributed database TiDB vs CockroachDB, cloud database AWS Aurora vs GCP AlloyDB, and now to the developer-centric database PlanetScale vs Neon.

## The Misfits

### Dolt

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/dolt-overview.webp)

Dolt is unique on its own. The website describes it as a database system with Git-like version control.

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/dolt-about.webp)

Dolt is drastically different from other database systems because it builds an engine with built-in Git semantics. This is a double-edged sword, on one hand, it brings those desired Git properties, on the other hand, it imposes challenges of optimizing the typical OLTP workload.

Dolt takes a much bolder move to adopt Database as Code since it blurs the lines between database and code. It currently positions itself as bringing the Git semantics into the database. Would the other way around work as well or even better, bringing the database semantics into Git? After all, many applications have already used Git as the only data store.

## The Bytebase

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/bytebase-overview.webp)

Bytebase is an open source project that started in Jan 2021. It also shares some traits with the aforementioned products:

- Like Liquibase / Flyway / Sqitch, Bytebase uses migration-based approach to apply database schema changes.
- Like Prisma, Bytebase offers a fully-fledged web UI to conduct database development activities (schema, data change, SQL query).
- Like Atlas, Bytebase employs a modern tech stack, using Go instead of Java.
- Like PlanetScale / Neon, Bytebase focuses on developer experience. One example is the VCS integration, Bytebase provides a point-and-click wizard to configure VCS (the similar experience you find in Vercel / Netlify to link the code repository):

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/bytebase-vcs.webp)

Bytebase is a jack-of-all-trades and the master of team collaboration:

- A standalone developer team can host a Bytebase workspace to manage database development activities.
- A DBA or platform team can also host a Bytebase workspace to be used by all the product teams in the entire organization.
- It has native VCS integration to streamline the code and database development together.
  Bytebase has concepts Project, Issue because it resembles systems like Jira, GitLab / GitHub.

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/bytebase-issue-detail.webp)

It also has concepts `Tenant`, `Environment` to manage database changes for multi-tenant applications spanning multiple environments.

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/bytebase-tenant.webp)

Bytebase also provides built-in schema review policies to enforce the schema standard across the whole engineering organization.

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/bytebase-schema-review.webp)

Bytebase is envisioned to be the counterpart of GitLab / GitHub to manage the database development aspect. It's positioned as a Database DevSecOps solution for team collaboration.

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/bytebase-position.webp)

How Bytebase compares against other tools:

|           | Language        | Change Format           | Genre                         | Interface | VCS Integration | Collaboration | Multi-tenancy |
| --------- | --------------- | ----------------------- | ----------------------------- | --------- | --------------- | ------------- | ------------- |
| Liquibase | Java            | XML / YAML / JSON / SQL | Migration-based               | CLI       |
| Flyway    | Java            | SQL                     | Migration-based               | CLI       |
| Sqitch    | Perl            | SQL                     | Migration-based               | CLI       |
| Atlas     | Go              | Custom DSL              | State-based & Migration-based | CLI       |
| Prisma    | TypeScript      | Custom DSL              | State-based                   | CLI + UI  | ✅              | ✅            |
| Bytebase  | Go + TypeScript | SQL                     | Migration-based\*             | CLI + UI  | ✅              | ✅            | ✅            |

_\*Though Bytebase uses migration-based approach, it records schema snapshot before and after the migration. Thus it also retains some state-based benefits such as drift detection_

## The Summaries

Though the idea of Database as Code is not new, the trend and innovation have been much accelerated in the last 2 years:

- Commercial companies like GitLab, GitHub keep investing heavily in the Git-based DevOps infrastructure.
- Commercial companies like HashiCorp leverages the Git infrastructure and build innovative products like Terraform. The success of Terraform in turn popularizes the GitOps workflow and transforms the industry mindset from point-and-click systems into code-based systems.
- The proliferation of open source ecosystem. Coincidentally, all products in this space are either open source projects or their derivations.

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/star-history.webp)

- New building primitives were invented to challenge the status quo:
  - The invention of the V8 JavaScript Engine and Node.js opens the door for frontend engineers to interact with the databases directly. The flock of frontend engineers demands a high bar for developer experience.
  - Thanks to its pragmatic design and riding the wave of cloud computing, Go becomes a mainstream language and challenges the common wisdom of using Java to build backend applications. Especially in the cloud-native era, Go even dominates the market. For deploying a Java-based program, you need to install JVM first, which is not needed for Go. Just by adopting Go, tools like Bytebase and Atlas gain a competitive edge against Liquibase / Flyway. Not to mention the developer productivity boost offered by the language itself.
- Even though the database market is very mature, however, the market is too lucrative to ignore. Becoming the next Snowflake is every database practitioner's wide dream. New database systems were built and the bar has been raised higher and higher. Core database capability and performance are just table stakes, to differentiate, they have to compete for developer experience.

The iconic [Evolutionary Database Design](https://www.martinfowler.com/articles/evodb.html) was written in 2016. Though the phrase "Database as Code" was not coined there, that article summarized the accumulated wisdom of applying Database as Code practice in the decade before.

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/you-do-not-need-army-of-dba.webp)

The article also predicted a trend that a sizable DBA team will become less common. Nowadays, many serious engineering teams still need DBA's expertise, meanwhile, interacting with databases has also become developers' daily routine.

The power dynamics for managing database development have shifted over time, and the quest for better developer experience and efficient developer workflow is more demanding than ever.

It requires a delicate dance among the database systems, the database tools, and the industry mindset to conquer it. Database as Code is the critical puzzle and the timing couldn't be better to build in this space.

![_](/content/blog/database-as-code-landscape/bytebase-land.webp)



A few days ago, we posted a question on HN: [Ask HN: Is DBA still a good job?](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31309729) The question quickly drew the attention of the HN community and got 236 thought-provoking comments. We share and feel the challenges, the frustration, the fatigue and the expectation.

We want to preserve all these heated discussions and help more people develop a multi-dimensional perspective on DBAs. That's how an idea for a blog series emerges -- **D·D·D** (DBA, Database, and Developer).

As the debut of this series, we compiled 10 stories about DBAs based on the replies and comments from the [HN thread](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31309729): we adopted the Decameron style, made up the story background, and borrowed the true stories shared by the commenters and turned them over to the storytellers (all credits go to the rightful owners). Some of these storytellers had experience as full-time DBAs; the others may be developers who have worked with DBAs before. You can regard this article as the appetizer of a full course meal. The crew welcomes all kinds of feedback and, last but not least: Bon Appetite!

10 people, consisting of developers and DBAs from different companies, woke up in a locked-up room. Apart from basic furniture, the room seems as normal as it could be except for a wooden board hung above the door with 3 letters carved on it -- DDD.

Nobody knows what happened and how they ended up there. Just when they were about to smash the windows, an electronic screen flashed for a few seconds and displayed their way out:

_"One true story about DBAs per day, you'll only get locked up for 10 days."_

Somebody sneered at the somehow sentient screen:

"Stupid rule...What could possibly happen if we don't?"

Another sentence appeared on the screen:

_"You could leave, but your team's databases will be dropped and won't be recovered."_

Dead silence permeats the room. After a while, somebody finally breaks the ice:

"Well, I'll go first."

## Day 1 From [donatj](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=donatj): Honestly Wish We had a DBA

We had a DBA about 6 years ago, he was one of the smartest guys I've ever worked with, and knew his stuff inside and out. I would recommend a DBA highly to anyone having growth issues. I honestly don't think we would have scaled without him. I learned a ton from him.

He got let go for basically having a really bad temper, and we decided not to look for a new DBA. I was sad he was gone but also glad to not be getting screamed at. It feels silly, but I've got really unresolved and mixed feelings about the whole thing. I genuinely really liked the guy, loved talking music and movies with him, but he would heel turn in an instant and just ruin your day.

Honestly wish we had a DBA, I ended up picking up a lot of his responsibilities. I'd love to have someone I could learn from. Basically, I'm getting real sick of optimizing reports.

The screen really is sentient, even intelligent at some level. It automatically summarized the story:

_"Honestly wish we had a DBA"_

## Day 2 From [steve_adams_86](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=steve_adams_86): Both Brilliant, both jerks

This is strange and funny to read; the only two DBAs I've worked with matched this description perfectly.

The first guy was so irate and literally yelling about his entitlement to punish us for making bad architectural decisions that I thought he was joking. I just laughed, but he got angrier. Then it clicked after maybe five or ten seconds – he was in the process of verbally punishing us for querying the database too much.

The second guy was similar, but didn't yell. Still super protective of his domain, almost antagonistic about us integrating with the database at all.

Both brilliant, taught me more than I can recount here, hilarious and interesting… But total jerks too, and both let go more or less for that reason.

One they had a great system in place and the product felt mature, the companies axed them.

The screen flashes:

_"All brilliant, all jerks."_

DBAs in the room frowned a little.

## Day 3 From [jamal-kumar](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=jamal-kumar): Gone DBA

Is this the DBA gone off the rails story thread?

I tried to hire a guy for a postgres DBA at a company I had worked at. I knew him from before as a MS SQL DBA from a previous company and hoped he could fulfill the role, he said he could. The guy saved our asses in the previous case.

We gave him like a month paid time to get acquainted with postgres. Dude DISAPPEARS, gets his vpn keys revoked and everything because we're like what the hell. A month later he sends this big long email saying how he got in some altercation with the police, and landed in jail... it was just way too rambling to take seriously. We ask a mutual friend what the hell was up and he said that since he was working too much his wife CONFISCATED HIS CELL PHONE.

I think we called him 'ballgag \*\*\*' (fill in the blank with your least favorite person's name) after that

These guys are worth their weight in gold though, I think I heard he ended up getting a job at Microsoft down the line.

The screen switches to today's theme:

_"Gone DBA"_

## Day 4 From [Simon_O_Rourke](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Simon_O_Rourke): He was Supposed to Know Everything

I had eerily similar experiences from an older DBA guy, who was going through college in his 40's while working away. He knew his stuff, helped a lot optimizing the ETL process, but could turn nasty in an instant, and had a major chip on his shoulder about younger analysts with college degrees.

Only thing, was this guy had zero programming experience outside SQL and Bash. Anytime he had a question in a meeting about some calling Java process, he used to wait until the meeting was finished and then grab five minutes with me privately to ask about whatever. So there was this perceived weakness that his professional persona "knew everything", which meant he couldn't ask fundamental questions or try to (publicly) learn things outside his domain.

In the end, we moved to Amazon Redshift, and he was progressively moved into a smaller and smaller role, where now he just curates 2-year old JIRA tickets. Probably knows he can't get a similarly well-paying gig elsewhere now.

The familiar flashes appeared once more:

_"He was supposed to 'know everything'"_

## Day 5 From [skc](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=skc): “UR RUINING MY F\*\*\*\*ING DATABASE”

This is eerily similar to my experiences with two very, very good DBAs I worked with.

I'm now wondering if there is something about the role that lends itself to such behavior. One day they are super pleasant, helpful and friendly. The next they are chewing people out for seemingly minor and random transgressions and saying things like "ruining my fucking database".

Today these guys remind me a lot of JK Simmons character in "Whiplash"

The screen displays an image this time:
![roaring-dba](/content/blog/dba-database-developer-decameron/roaring-dba.webp)

**The DBAs among these 10 people have been humble audiences for 5 days. This picture becomes the last straw to break their nerves. They decided to take the lead now.**

## Day 6 From [forinti](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=forinti): Try to be the person I needed help from before

I was a developer and turned into a DBA by necessity. When I was still just a dev, I couldn't get the support I needed from the DBAs, so now I try to be the person I needed help from before.

But, I now understand the problem. At my organisation we have only 2 DBAs, and we can't give all of our time to this task.

To be a DBA is an endless battle against the entropy some devs try to create. The data model should really always be validated by someone with more knowledge and experience. Also, some young devs come up with crazy ideas (for instance, we should not use foreign keys). Others want to load insane amounts of data to process in the database, instead of preprocessing, or using a staging database. There is a continuous stream of bad ideas being implemented.

And when a bad idea gets implemented, it is really hard to undo it and it tends to just create more chaos: you need materialised views to get around bad modelling, or weird views to compensate for duplicate data, etc.

So, yes, a DBA is a really important role. With regards to it being a good job, it depends if your company takes it seriously and puts you in the development process, otherwise you'll be in for a lot of stress.

Screen displays:

_"Try to be the person I needed help from before"_

## Day 7 From [compton93](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=compton93): For that company my role was priceless

I hate to imagine how many startups out there don't even create indexes and just consider it to be a database problem and increase CPU/RAM and look the other way.

I worked for several years at a semi-startup as a Database Engineer where my role was to guide developers in writing performant SQL (and writing indexes for them) and architect their schema to be inline with our future plans and various other database tasks (managing query plans, being an expert on the database feature set etc). I even created an internal course: SQL School, that I included the directors/customer support teams in.

To that specific company my role was priceless, new features could be built in 1/2 the time with an expert writing the queries and handling the database. My programmatic analysis of our 20 year old code base had 5000 unique queries and 3000 more when accounting for dynamic SQL. Not gonna lie it was a complete mess but if I didn't exist they would have needed a lot more database resources. It was a terrible code base and any plan to refactor and avoid this mess would still need my role to do the transition.

The screen flashes and shows:

_"For that company my role was priceless"_

## Day 8 From [Twisell](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Twisell): Exhausting yet rewarding

I would argue that it's way more accurate to say this role is actually outsourced in most organizations with all the tradeoffs that come with that strategy. I begged my former employer to subscribe to a good PostgreSQL support company. Guess what the one we picked is constantly looking to hire new DBA to sustain growth...

I was in database engineering/administration position for the last 10 year on a small company. It was exhausting because management wouldn't care to rely one guy to manage the whole data stack. It was rewarding because the CEO saw me as probably smarter than I was because I knew SQL well enough to produce outstanding value as a single individual.

I spent a few years complaining that my colleagues didn't know their database well enough, and it was causing unnecessary bugs and poor performance.

I wanted the company to pay for some basic courses on the databases we were using, especially for the more junior Devs.

Instead we switched database like 11 times and now I don't know the database either.

The bugs and poor performance lingers though.

The screen changed the sentence to:

_"Exhausting yet rewarding"_

## Day 9 From [jhugo](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=jhugo): Conflict comes from lack of understanding

I think this kind of conflict often comes from frustration at developers not having much understanding of the underlying technology that the network engineer / DBA is responsible for.

Networks & DBs present abstractions, but they're very leaky ones, yet developers often expect to just treat them as magical black boxes about which they don't need to know much of the inner workings, constraints, tradeoffs etc. That makes the interface between the network engineer or DBA and software developers a natural site of conflict.

(You even see this above in this very thread, someone complaining that a DBA was punishing developers for "querying the database too much". Most likely the DBA was actually upset about how they were querying the database, not that they were querying it too much, but the developers want it to "just work" so the distinction isn't important to them.)

Screen flashes:

_"Conflict comes from lack of understanding"_

## Day 10 From [niklasrde](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=niklasrde) &[ datalopers](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=datalopers): The lost art -- data modeling and SQL

Same at my previous role - we did have some people who were really good at some point, and into DBs. We had a very solid Redis and PostgreSQL set-up, and some advanced stuff for simple data in Redis - but once that knowledge fades with attrition, making space for continued personal development into how two very different DBMS work for a small team is not easy, and it just stays untouched, disliked, and somewhat abandoned forever more.

I honestly think the thing that costs most companies the most in their hosting is developers not using databases correctly

100%. Data modeling and SQL has become a lost art.

The screen flashes and literally drops a few pixel tears:

_"The lost art -- data modeling and SQL"_

## Finale

While the last story approaches its end, the doors and windows open up widely. 10 people storm out, rush back to their office, and thoroughly check their database. Everything is fine, nothing deleted. They sigh with relief and start to delve into their daily work, as concentrated as ever.

It all starts with one sentence:

**"Is DBA still a good job?"**

We look forward to your story.


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