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Show HN: SQLite Online – 11 years of solo development, 11K daily users
- bob1029 11mo agoI am really struggling to figure out what this is or how it provides value. Edit: This discussion isn't exactly what I was hoping for. I was looking for ways to better highlight the features or value proposition of this site. Not defenestrate it altogether. E.g.: A simple modal that says "Welcome to SQLite Online! You can <core value proposition> with this tool." would have radically altered my initial perception.
- benibela 11mo agoAt first I thought that was about SQLite development itself
- zvmaz 11mo agoFor me: Try queries without the hassle of setting up a database. Learn SQL. Experiment. Etc.
- WesolyKubeczek 11mo ago> For me: Try queries without the hassle of setting up a database. sqlite3 some-file.db That's the whole "database setup" in case of SQLite.
- sqliteonline 11mo agoThis method is not available on all devices and does not support sharing or collaboration. The website, however, works on any platform and allows working together in a single shared database.
- zwnow 11mo agoyou can just share the file, huh collaboration sounds nice though, it definitely has a market considering 11k daily users.
- sqliteonline 11mo agoIf the database is loaded from an external source (as shown in the examples), using the "Share Script" feature automatically attaches a link to the database. The link allows both the database and the script to be accessed and loaded.
- avinassh 11mo agohow does collaboration works for SQLite, since the db is embedded?
- kijin 11mo agoUhm, by allowing multiple people to connect to the same database through a webapp like this?
- sqliteonline 11mo agoWhen you upload a database to the site, it is stored in your browser's memory or uses OpFS — a local storage within your browser. You can share a link to grant access to your database, with the connection handled via P2P through WebRTC.
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- WesolyKubeczek 11mo ago> This method is not available on all devices and does not support sharing or collaboration. The parent cites "hassle of creating the database" and does not mention sharing or collaborating. I showed that it doesn't get more hassle-free than this and doesn't even require connectivity (which might be a problem "on some devices" or "in some locations").
- rat9988 11mo ago> doesn't even require connectivity (which might be a problem "on some devices" or "in some locations"). You are just trying to prove a point instead of understanding it. > "hassle of creating the database" and does not mention sharing or collaborating. He might just have summarized everything as "hassle of creating the database". Not everything on internet is supposed to be a debate with highly and carefully developped wording.
- jermaustin1 11mo ago> You are just trying to prove a point instead of understanding it. > He might just have summarized everything as "hassle of creating the database". You are also making an assumption, though. That person might not have known "sqlite3 mydb.db" is all you need to create a sqlite database.
- hombre_fatal 11mo agoIt was just one item in a list and they used "etc." which prob refers to all the other obvious upsides, like why you would use pgadmin/postico to write postgres queries instead of psql cli. So to double down on that one detail as if it were a load bearing remark comes off as trying to win a point. If `sqlite3 test.db` launched a rich UI with tabs and such, then maybe they'd be onto something, but it does not.
- oblio 11mo agoI think someone forgot what made the web the most popular platform in the world.
- killerstorm 11mo agosqlite3 :memory: if you don't want it to be persisted
- ajmurmann 11mo agoHow do I get this sqlite3 command to work on my Chromebook? When I type this in on my Windows machine it's not working either. Are there other steps I need to take first?
- jermaustin1 11mo agoAs a developer, on your development machine, if you use sqlite even infrequently, then no. Anyone else, probably, but then why would you use this tool if you have no need for sqlite?
- encom 11mo ago>my Chromebook LOL >my Windows If you're the kind of person who even knows what SQL, SQLite or hell even a database is, you already know SQLite runs on pretty much anything.
- chasil 11mo agoOn your Chromebook, load the Linux subsystem, which you can find in settings. It will give you a shell that will have SQLite. For Windows, download the interactive command line tool from sqlite.org.
- ajmurmann 11mo agoThanks for your answer! That said, I know how to install SQLite and am well-familiar with it. My point was that the parent's comment did not tell the full story. A student just trying to do the first baby steps with SQL won't know any of this. Yet with the website shown here, they can immediately focus on the actual SQL, no matter what devise they are on, as long as it has a functioning browser.
- cortesoft 11mo agoWhere do I type that in on my iPad? Some people might not have computers but still want to learn?
- josefx 11mo agoPay for one of the many SQLite Apps on the App Store, like Jobs intended?
- Aeolun 11mo agoImplicit assumptions: You know what a CLI is, you have one on your system, and how to install the sqlite3 binary somehow. When I just started out with linux I was so frustrated with people just listing reams of commands, or files I needed to edit without stating I needed to look in /etc
- asveikau 11mo agoI had the same reaction, why not just use the command line interface? From there, I guess the value this adds is: 1. There is a UI, i.e. it has some autocomplete of sql syntax and it shows tables in a ... tabular format. 2. As others have mentioned, there are sharing features. Yes you could share a .db file, but with this you can also send a link viewable in a browser, with specific queries, etc. #1 reminds me of MS Access from back in the day. Those were sql dbs underneath, but they had some interfaces to show you how to build queries. It wasn't a bad way to dip your toes into the basics of sql.
- zvmaz 11mo agoI don't understand the people trying to convince others that this tool is useless by saying "just do it this way, duh!". It is useful, even from a rapid glimpse at the website. Be kind and sensible.
- mchaver 11mo agoThe just-use-rsync line of thinking doesn't go away https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
- Sohcahtoa82 11mo agoI'm at the point where I know exactly what comment that is because of the comment ID of 9224. Don't even need to mention rsync, Dropbox, or anything else.
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- tiffanyh 11mo agoI would have loved this 25-years ago during university. Would have made homework (and just learning) significantly easier.
- gwbas1c 11mo agoIt's clear that the tool is highly useful to the people who use it. That being said, I feel like I'm dumped into the playground without understanding what I am playing with. A few short paragraphs, examples, screenshots, explanations, ect, would go very far.
- sqliteonline 11mo agoYes, we plan to add starter tips with explanations of their purpose.
- tuveson 11mo agoJust to offer another perspective: I think the way your website works right now is actually very nice and the person you’re replying to is wrong. When I go to godbolt.org, it similarly puts me on the screen where I actually want to be, as a person that wants to use that tool. I think an “About” page or docs would greatly help people that want to know all of the features offered by the site, but I think the default of dropping you into the tool is ideal.
- jairuhme 11mo agoAgree with your edit saying that there should be a landing message that gives a quick overview. But with in a few moments I was able to see that you can create a database and then start inserting tables/records into it. Seems like a pretty good tool to learn how to create and manage a database without the hassle of having to download sqlite and start testing commands that might be new to you in the CLI
- sqliteonline 11mo ago> You can <core value proposition> It may be difficult to briefly describe all the website’s capabilities right now, but the key features include: * Federated queries across external and internal data sources. * Using query history as a source for new requests. * Collaborative access to databases — both server and local, with structure synchronization. * Automatic chart generation based on queries. * And much more, including hidden features that are not yet easy to summarize.
- LtdJorge 11mo agoIf you want your points to appear in different lines in HN, use two backspaces :)
- sqliteonline 11mo agoThank you
- crazygringo 11mo agoYup, I think it would be a big help if the home page ('/') was a landing page explaining who it's for and why, and why. Is this for students? For prototyping? For quick analysis? Sample data? Importing real data? Use cases are key. And then have a big hero button leading to the the actual tool ('/app' or '/playground' or whatever). Maybe preloaded with different sample data depending on the use case. Right now, being dumped into a complicated interface with zero explanation is very confusing. (None of this is to criticize the project itself, just to help identify it to the people who might find the most value in it!)
- qmmmur 11mo agoCan’t people decide themselves what it’s for?
- crazygringo 11mo agoNo? I don't have the time to spend 10 minutes getting to know a product's features to try to figure out what it might be for. Just tell me what it's for. I mean, it's great if people can figure out other uses for it too. If they want to use it in a new way, awesome -- don't get me wrong. But products are generally built with specific purposes in mind. So don't hide those.
- sqliteonline 11mo agoThank you for your feedback. The idea was to make the product understandable without additional explanations, but it seems I didn’t achieve that. I have a lot to improve.
- whizzter 11mo agoAs an educator I would've loved to have this last time I was teaching SQL. 1: No install 2: Ephermal (just reload if you've messed up?) 3: Good syntax highlighting 4: Visual UI to navigate the model Why to pay for it though? That's a harder nut to crack, the UI is quite nice compared to many I've seen so maybe sell as an addon for those that provider hosted databases, collaborative spaces or as a desktop app. No obvious slam dunks though.
- foofoo12 11mo agoI get this message: The site takes a long time to load: is your internet slow? If you have an old version of the browser update to the latest or use the latest version of chrome. Close all tabs with the site and reload the last one. support: z@sqliteonline.com
- foofoo12 11mo agoCurrent Firefox on Linux. This is the console message: downloadable font: Glyph bbox was incorrect (glyph ids 33 55 62 81 82 83 84 87 88 89 90 112 119 120 123 139 159 162 164 166 178 184 185 217 218 272 273 274 275 279 281 284 290 291 292 309 310 319 321 323 326 329 330 331 332 333 334 339 341 347 349 351 352 353 354 357 358 361 366 367 370 371 414 431 436 444 445 458 460 464 465 483 505 508 511 514 516 517 518 520 521 538 539 546 568 574 579 580 585 586 594 596 599 602 603 616 618 622 627 629 630 633 634 638 643 645 651 654 665 675 685 686 688 691) (font-family: "FontAwesome" style:normal weight:400 stretch:100 src index:1) source: https://sqliteonline.com/fonts/fontawesome-webfont.woff2?v=4.7.0 https://sqliteonline.com/fonts/fontawesome-webfont.woff2?v=4... using deprecated parameters for the initialization function; pass a single object instead sog3.js:2251:21 Uncaught (in promise) ReferenceError: RTCPeerConnection is not defined <anonymous> https://sqliteonline.com/f/agw31.0.26.min.js:49 https://sqliteonline.com/f/agw31.0.26.min.js:49 async* https://sqliteonline.com/f/agw31.0.26.min.js:87 https://sqliteonline.com/f/agw31.0.26.min.js:87 async* https://sqliteonline.com/f/agw31.0.26.min.js:89 https://sqliteonline.com/f/agw31.0.26.min.js:89
- sqliteonline 11mo agoYou may be using an outdated browser version that doesn’t support some features. Please update your browser to the latest version for the website to work properly.
- tecleandor 11mo agoI also get the glyph message on my Firefox 144.0b8 and it runs fast here, so I guess that shouldn't be the reason... RTCPeerConnection is available in Firefox and Chrome since 2017... son unless the browser is veeery old... Maybe something blocking RTC?
- hu3 11mo agoCool project. Congrats for keeping it up for so long! Could you share some numbers like a ballpark of subscribers?
- sqliteonline 11mo agoThank you, unfortunately, almost zero.
- hu3 11mo agoThanks for sharing. Still valuable for me in any interview if someone says they kept a service up for 11 years. Shows determination.
- bdcravens 11mo agoOr stubborness :-)
- redox99 11mo agoIt's weird you show the price in some currency I don't even know what it is (even if it says 10 dollars small next to it). Just show and charge 10 USD. You can localize that other currency (Rubles?) if GeoIP matches.
- stronglikedan 11mo ago[flagged]
- oooyay 11mo agoSome things in life are just not that serious. People can have passion projects they plan on going nowhere.
- FitchApps 11mo agoWhat a nice tool. Thank you for building and maintaining the product. I casually use it to validate SQL joins
- sqliteonline 11mo agoThank you! I hope it will capture your interest with new features in the future.
- melvinchus 11mo ago[flagged]
- hung 11mo ago[flagged]
- TiredOfLife 11mo agoDon't localise messages if you don't have anyone to proofread. Browsers have built in translation nowadays that users can activate if they need.
- sqliteonline 11mo agoCould you please advise where the issue might be?
- kijin 11mo agoNot the parent, but I see that several messages related to buying a subscription are translated into the locale of my browser. In my language, it just feels a little amateurish. In other languages, perhaps it might contain something totally wrong. So it will be safer to just use languages you are comfortable with, like English and Russian. Especially on pages that concern money. :)
- sqliteonline 11mo agoThank you. I used an LLM for translation, hoping to achieve a high-quality result and make the service convenient for users. It seems I was mistaken.
- dcreater 11mo agoOr use the latest llms for translation
- recursive 11mo agoThe sufficiently-late LLM seems a bit like a true Scotsman. After your comment, the OP explained that they did, in fact, use an LLM for translation. No info about whether it was "the latest".
- jve 11mo agoThe paid subscription lists this feature: > No auto-renewal That's not subscription.
- sqliteonline 11mo agoI aim to make the product convenient and as straightforward as possible. It's better to extend its use when needed than to worry about when to stop.
- caohongyuan 11mo ago[dead]
- qarthandyc 11mo agoI'd highly suggest getting a designer, or somehow thinking with more of a product mindset? I fail to understand what it does quickly, which shouldn't happen to a potential customer.
- alberth 11mo agoIt’s possible you’re not the target audience?
- anamexis 11mo agoI guess if the target audience is people who already know what it is?
- alberth 11mo agoDevils advocate: when Google launched it was just a blank form field. Similar to ChatGPT. But those who knew what it is, their usage is huge.
- tantalor 11mo agoThat's an absurd comparison. At the time there were dozens of search engines and new ones every day. Everybody knew what search engines were, and what they offered. Google did not invent the form field -> SRP pattern; people were already used to that. Google was able to rise above the field because 1. yes the homepage was nice, but more importantly 2. the results were so much better than competitors. I don't understand the comparison to SQLite online because what are the well-known competitors, and what is it even trying to do? Not even going to touch the ChatGPT comparison.
- conductr 11mo agoThis is accurate. Back then nobody went to google and was confused when it was just an input box. They went there already knowing it was a search engine and that search engines needed input. They came back because the results were so good (relative to competitors). The clean interface just stood out as the other competitors at the time we're bogged down by ads. So a quick loading page in a time of slow internet connections, was a very nice user-centric feature.
- saltserv 11mo ago[dead]
- gjvc 11mo agosuggest adding "execute query on ctrl-return"
- sqliteonline 11mo agoUse Shift + Enter to run the script.
- gjvc 11mo agofair enough, but ctrl-enter is a convention used reasonably widely, so sometimes, there's safety in numbers :-)
- Towaway69 11mo agoGreat job and many kudos for the determination to maintain a tool for 11 years! I thankfully have no use for the tool since I no longer have to code SQL - the world is a better place for it. It raises the question how many more "bus tools"[1] are there? Tools maintained and developed by a single developer with whom, when hit by a bus, the tool would die. [1] no offence meant but "bus developers" is the term I learnt, it seems a little cruel to speak of folks being hit by buses - is there something better nowadays?
- sqliteonline 11mo agoThank you. Our entire life is but a moment: something disappears, and something new emerges.
- therealdrag0 11mo agoI have heard something like “lottery factor” as a more pleasant term. Though personally bus doesn’t bother me.
- erickf1 11mo agoThis reminds me a lot of RavenDB. I'm impressed.
- BinaryIgor 11mo agoHow do you make money?
- ray_v 11mo agoUsually people start off by getting a job or apprenticeship. But from there, the sky is the limit! /s
- BinaryIgor 11mo agoOh; I meant on this website, of course :) Not generally in life
- BiraIgnacio 11mo agothank you for doing this, congratulations
- dsamy 11mo agoAmazing that SQLite Online has survived solo for 11 years. What technical or business pivots have kept it alive (and relevant) across changing web stacks and user expectations?
- aidenn0 11mo agoWhat is it?
- alberth 11mo agoUnsolicited suggestion: since some people are asking "what is this". Maybe buy a new domain name like below (and direct to your existing from this new url). EasyLearnSQL.com TrySQLonline.com LearnOnlineSQL.com All of these domain names are available for sale under $10. And the more descriptive name might allow you to not have to change the UI. (Very cool project by the way and congrats on 11 years)
- dewey 11mo agoIn my opinion that's not good advice. Over the past 11 years this domain already built up some domain reputation and incoming links. Changing the domain for no good reason won't help with people understanding the use case of the site. The domain doesn't really matter so much as you can see with "replit.com", "chatgpt.com" or "stripe.com" which don't explain anything either. If you want to invest time I'd suggest: - Clean up design (Remove multiple disclaimers, side bar etc.) - Add h1/h2 that instantly explains what this is about - Have a list of simple examples that can be executed, not just "select * from demo" - If you want to increase traffic, take a look at "site:sqliteonline.com" on Google. There's currently only 14 pages indexed, so lots of low hanging fruits to optimize. Could also be extended by having pages dedicated to examples or a topic that people can land on if they search for things like "left join sqlite" etc. - Change site title from "SQL Online AiDE - Next gen SQL Editor | SQL Compiler" to something explaining what this is about.
- chii 11mo agoi read the parent post's advice as duplicating, rather than changing - e.g., you keep the existing domain, but also the exact same app is available from those other domains. But you're not wrong - i dont think the domain has a big effect, and personally i'd rather save $10.
- dewey 11mo agoThat’s duplicate content and Google doesn’t like that. You can set the canonical url etc. but in the end the URLs will not make the difference between a user understanding the interface or not.
- foofoo12 11mo agoWhat is the WebRTC connection used for?
- appcustodian2 11mo agoP2P “Share/Collaborate” mode: the UI text and toasts (“Share”, “Close connect”, “connected”, “No connected.”) plus e.rtc.user strongly suggest a feature where someone “hosts” a DB and others connect directly to run queries/see results live.
- pdyc 11mo agowow that's a lot of users, congratulations. It says sqliteonline but it seems you support other db's as well.
- tonyhart7 11mo agothis is fire. I didn't know that it have remote+memory db for testing
- tobilg 11mo agoImpressive, congrats! I‘m building https://sql-workbench.com https://sql-workbench.com which is similar, but focussed on DuckDB WASM instead of SQLite… Love that you offer different databases.
- hoherd 11mo agoI immediately tried to run .schema and a syntax error was returned.
- tuveson 11mo agoI assume this is because sqliteonline is using the sqlite library, not running the literal sqlite command line application. Per item 7 in the faq (https://sqlite.org/faq.html https://sqlite.org/faq.html), the way to get that info would be to run something like the following: SELECT * FROM sqlite_schema WHERE type='table' ORDER BY name; The website does seem to correctly return the names/schemas of whatever tables you've created if you run the command above, but the editor (incorrectly) adds red squigglies around the command, since I guess it doesn't realize this is allowed.
- _el1s7 11mo agoOk, you also have a popup in your website showing that off. Cool, but, you're not breaking any Guinness world record. There are solo founders behind many websites and tools and you might not even know that.
- arnabnandi 11mo agoYour tool has been a huge help in the classroom over the past decade, thank you! Having a quick online link to get students started is really useful from a student motivation standpoint. This allows them to get a sense of the query flow before having to set up their own database or moving on to other DBMSes. Congratulations on 11 years!
- scottmcdot 11mo agoThanks for tool! I've been using this for conducting interviews.
- mmeoww 11mo agoI think the design not that bad but that green disclaimer appears on the first visit is kinda too long and nobody wants to read that in a mobile even in PC, so it might be cartoonized for the user to better understand it :)
- bilekas 11mo ago> The server is unavailable, contact your network administrator. Please try again in a few minutes. Also where is it based ? And your payment processor ? I like to support learning platforms like this financially, when they work of course, but that's going to be a problem if you're based in Russia.
- talljohnson1234 11mo agoThis is a really nice tool, I use to practise my SQLite.
- foofoo12 11mo agoIt might be a good idea to not attempt an WebRTC connection right away. Since you're only using it for collaboration, there's no need to connect right away. Privacy minded users might have it disabled by default since it's a good fingerprinting source. Currently the website doesn't load if WebRTC is disabled.
- scottm_64 11mo ago11 years of making SQL learning easier, that's what passion looks like!
- boxerab 11mo agoМолодец!
- Rickasaurus 11mo agoA potential sales tip: Going down the list of the $10 plan the first thing I saw was the 300 scripts limit and thought "no way". Pay attention to how supabase does it, basically no limits except compute and storage.
- sqliteonline 11mo agoThank you all! Special thanks to those who offered a fresh perspective and helped reveal the project’s challenges.