152 comments
Your 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!
What a nice tool. Thank you for building and maintaining the product. I casually use it to validate SQL joins
Thank you! I hope it will capture your interest with new features in the future.
Unsolicited 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
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)
In 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.
i 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.
That’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.
You simply use 301 redirects on the secondary domain(s).
You can also use secondary domains for landing pages. But that's probably out of pet projects' scope.
Alternate opinion: these URLs read as "spammy" to me and I would be less likely to click on them.
It would be apropos to at least have an "about" dialog somewhere, or maybe one of those "quick tour" popups.
Cool project. Congrats for keeping it up for so long!
Could you share some numbers like a ballpark of subscribers?
Thank you, unfortunately, almost zero.
hey, not to give you "armchair" advice, but I feel like a tool that's existed for 11 years and has 11k daily users is a super serious achievement.
I'd vicariously love for you to be able to make some/more revenue with this!
+1 on @redox99's comment that charging in rubles is most probably confusing, and that a flat $10 usd/month would be easier. I also would think that renewal should actually be on by default, not off - if people want the service and/or to support you, having auto renewal off is more of a hassle for them (the customers who want to pay you!) as they'd have to have to... re-enable their service? every 30-90 days?
and another point I wanted to bring up is that it feels to me like a small text-based advertisement from ethicalads.io (the folks behind the ads on Read the Docs sites) or carbonads.net (btw I have no affiliation to either) could definitely... bring in some not-bad revenue pretty much immediately?
again, huge congrats on your project and I truly wish you'll be able to find some path to monetization. cheers!
Thank you. I have been considering various monetization approaches, evaluating their convenience and potential demand. Unfortunately, certain external factors currently prevent me from implementing everything as I would like. However, I still have several ideas that I hope will be engaging, in demand, and easy to pay for.
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> charging in rubles is most probably confusing, and that a flat $10 usd/month would be easier
As a Brit, I'd rather GBP...
Isn't this comment a form of US defaultism?
for sure, my point was that usd would already be "better" (more common) than rubles - but yes, 'localized' currencies would be great too (although setting up "adaptive pricing" is a task in itself). baby steps :-)
As a rabbit, I'd rather carrots...
Isn't this comment a form of Brit defaultism?
My point was more about the original comment is fine from the perspective of an American, but for the rest of the world, it doesn’t really matter if it is USD or rubles - it’s still a foreign transaction. I appreciate that for a large percentage of the world, consumers can probably do an approximation of the USD conversion in their head, and not a rubles one, and therefore, USD may be more friendly. That being said, the sales page has already got the approximation in USD anyway, which would be enough for me.
I'd imagine most English-speaking internet users have gotten used to doing local-to-USD conversions. As someone in the US, I usually know about where CAD, AUD, and GBP are relative to me.
Even if you don't know the conversion, something in the range of 50-200% is a lot easier to adjust to, whereas Rubles are on a very different scale (1 GBP = 108 Rubles)
Obviously the ideal would be local listings, but USD is probably the most-familiar reference point if you have to choose exactly one
I have to agree.. given the amount of international business transacted in USD it's a pretty well known currency secondary in most of the world followed by EU then Chinese Yuan and GBP. That said, being in the US can't say how widespread rough translation values of Yuan are to most people outside the Asian/Pacific region.
That implies that all currencies have the same connotation. USD/Pounds/Euros seems much more not scammy to me tha baht or rubles. Especially the latter ones would prevent me from paying in that. Russia is a scam nation.
USD and rubles are definitely not the same from my euro using perspective.
It'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.
It's possible the local legislation disallows charging in non-local currency. Eg. can you charge in rubles in USA?
Sure, you could charge in hotdogs if you wanted to.
I wonder where's the Bank of Hotdogs based in the US? :)
The point is that you need a bank to accept a payment in foreign currency and debit it into your account.
I laughed, thank you for this.
The problem with charging in rubles in the USA isn't the currency, it is that a person who transacts in rubles likely lives in Russia. And, thanks to the Ukraine invasion, the USA has sanctions that make paying someone in Russia rather difficult.
I was somewhat curious about that myself... if someone in the US even could pay for this site/app.
Thanks for sharing. Still valuable for me in any interview if someone says they kept a service up for 11 years. Shows determination.
Or stubborness :-)
It 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.
Impressive, congrats! I‘m building https://sql-workbench.com which is similar, but focussed on DuckDB WASM instead of SQLite… Love that you offer different databases.
11 years of making SQL learning easier, that's what passion looks like!
I 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
Current 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...
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 async* https://sqliteonline.com/f/agw31.0.26.min.js:87 async* https://sqliteonline.com/f/agw31.0.26.min.js:89
You 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.
I 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?
Yes, the issue may be caused by WebRTC being disabled in your browser settings.
The right thing to do it to handle that gracefully on the website and inform the user.
You are right. I am gradually trying to describe all potential user issues more clearly, but unfortunately, it is still not done comprehensively.
I 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.
For me: Try queries without the hassle of setting up a database. Learn SQL. Experiment. Etc.
I 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.
The just-use-rsync line of thinking doesn't go away https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
I'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.
> For me: Try queries without the hassle of setting up a database.
sqlite3 some-file.db
This 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.
> 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").
> 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.
> 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.
It 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.
you can just share the file, huh
collaboration sounds nice though, it definitely has a market considering 11k daily users.
If 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.
how does collaboration works for SQLite, since the db is embedded?
When 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.
Uhm, by allowing multiple people to connect to the same database through a webapp like this?
Implicit 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
How 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?
On 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.
Thanks 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.
As 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?
>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.
Why would you assume that's the kind of person you're responding to? Their question alone leads me to believe it's exactly not that kind of person.
Their question was sarcasm basically saying this site provides convenience by way of not needing any up front steps.
I think someone forgot what made the web the most popular platform in the world.
sqlite3 :memory:
I 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.
Where do I type that in on my iPad?
Some people might not have computers but still want to learn?
Pay for one of the many SQLite Apps on the App Store, like Jobs intended?
It'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.
Yes, we plan to add starter tips with explanations of their purpose.
Just 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.
> 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.If you want your points to appear in different lines in HN, use two backspaces :)
Thank you
Agree 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
As 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.
I would have loved this 25-years ago during university.
Would have made homework (and just learning) significantly easier.
Yup, 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!)
Can’t people decide themselves what it’s for?
No?
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.
Thank 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.
At first I thought that was about SQLite development itself
I 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 :)
Thank you all! Special thanks to those who offered a fresh perspective and helped reveal the project’s challenges.
How do you make money?
Usually people start off by getting a job or apprenticeship. But from there, the sky is the limit! /s
Oh; I meant on this website, of course :) Not generally in life
Don't localise messages if you don't have anyone to proofread. Browsers have built in translation nowadays that users can activate if they need.
Could you please advise where the issue might be?
Not 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. :)
Thank 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.
Or use the latest llms for translation
The 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".
> 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.
Thanks for tool! I've been using this for conducting interviews.
I immediately tried to run .schema and a syntax error was returned.
I 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), 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.
This is a really nice tool, I use to practise my SQLite.
This reminds me a lot of RavenDB. I'm impressed.
Amazing 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?
wow that's a lot of users, congratulations. It says sqliteonline but it seems you support other db's as well.
What is the WebRTC connection used for?
P2P “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.
Молодец!
Great 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?
Thank you. Our entire life is but a moment: something disappears, and something new emerges.
I have heard something like “lottery factor” as a more pleasant term. Though personally bus doesn’t bother me.
this is fire. I didn't know that it have remote+memory db for testing
I'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.
11k daily users is very good even without this so-called "product mindset"!
The dev is asking on the site for people to support the development with subscriptions, but they say here they have basically zero subscribers. So 11k daily users hasn't translated to something that people want to actually pay to support. That could change.
Imagine how many more users could be using if it had a product mindset.
Thank you! I will strive to improve the interface and make it more intuitive.
It’s possible you’re not the target audience?
I guess if the target audience is people who already know what it is?
Devils 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.
That'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.
This 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.
No, please. Don't inflate the team to something that would need investors. It's cool that an alter-Web can exist without 10 person teams.
It is quite possible that this will be the case.
If you're making enough money, you can hire a designer every now and then to tell you where your UX suffers and how to fix it. No investors necessary.
(or: just solicit feedback in a space frequented by designers, and harness the power of being wrong on the internet ;)
It is very straightforward to hire UX designer in a contract, or even just ask ChatGPT to design an interface that is better than a software engineer's minimum effort (and possibly experience) in UX.
And what currency is it in? Seems so odd to not put it in dollars or euros.
And FURTHERMORE, the $ sign is incorrectly to the right of the numbers. It should be $10. Personally, this shows such a lack of product thinking, and simply hacking away at a tool instead of delivering a service.
I mean, it does clearly say it's 1,000₽ which is Russian rubles. Why would the price be listed in dollars if it's not being collected in dollars?
suggest adding "execute query on ctrl-return"
Use Shift + Enter to run the script.
fair enough, but ctrl-enter is a convention used reasonably widely, so sometimes, there's safety in numbers :-)
thank you for doing this, congratulations
What is it?
The paid subscription lists this feature:
> No auto-renewal
That's not subscription.
I 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.
The person is saying that the description says "subscription" which by definition automatically renews
Not the definition of a subscription. See: magazines, traditionally purchased with one-time annual payments.
Well, those still recur automatically
To my recollection, not the old fashioned kind where you send in a check/money order for the annual subscription.
No, I mean they recur monthly for the prepaid duration. The SQLite online is simply 1 term of access. There's no recurrence of any kind.
Alright I’ll just head over to the dictionary.
Emphasis mine, as long as the item is periodic in nature it’s a subscription. The SQLite online membership has a term of access so it’s a subscription.
3: an arrangement for providing, receiving, or making use of something of a continuing or periodic nature especially on a prepayment plan: such as
a: a purchase by prepayment for a certain number of regular deliveries of something (such as issues of a periodical) or for a certain period of access to or use of something (such as an online service)
b: application to purchase securities of a new issue
c: a method of offering or presenting a series of public performances d (British): membership dues
Sure it is. A subscription's defining trait is continuity of access contingent on periodic renewal, whether manual or automatic. People subscribed to things way before online payments or even credit cards were common. A modern, if niche, example is Tarsnap.com. Once in a while, I get an email from Colin telling me to pay up if I don't want my backups deleted.
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Some things in life are just not that serious. People can have passion projects they plan on going nowhere.
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A 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.
Ok, 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.