You may have noticed that MySQL Workbench has not been actively developed for a long time… You can see the number of open bugs. And the number of commits illustrates this too:
In fact, Workbench has been put out of maintenance mode to add the MySQL HeatWave Migration Assistant to OCI. Not less, no more.
On some versions, it is no longer able to connect to a MariaDB Server, or to use it on new OSes (Fedora 43, recent macOS, …).
These kinds of GUI tools are very popular for developers, and I was surprised by the number of users Workbench had. The majority were sad about the decision not to actively develop it anymore…
Hopefully, there is a very nice alternative: DBeaver!
DBeaver
DBeaver Community is a free, open-source database management tool for managing and exploring SQL databases, including MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Apache Family, and more.
And of course, it works like a charm with MariaDB!
The latest version of DBeaver Community Edition is 26.0, released on March 1, 2026.
Entity Relation Diagrams
In DBeaver, you can generate diagrams of your existing database structure. This helps you to analyze the relations between tables and provide an immediate overview of tables and views.
This is an example with the employees test database:
Such a feature is very popular with developers.
You can also modify the style and export it:
AI – NL2SQL
I also tried the AI feature provided in DBeaver. With the Community Edition, I could use OpenAI or Copilot to perform NL2SQL.
The setup of the AI service is easy and intuitive:
With the sakila sample database, I wanted to execute the following query, which is not the simplest to generate for some LLMs:
| For each category of movies, list the actor who played in the most movies of that category, display only one actor per category, and sort by the highest participation first |
And the result with Copilot is excellent and well integrated in the tool:
The generations are fast and correct, and you can see the result immediately in the interface.
Conclusion
With MySQL Workbench clearly drifting away from day-to-day developer needs—especially for MariaDB users—having a modern, actively maintained GUI becomes more than a “nice to have.” DBeaver Community Edition feels like the most natural replacement: it connects reliably to MariaDB, runs on all platforms, and continues to improve regularly.
What really stood out in this quick tour is how well DBeaver covers both ends of the workflow. The ER diagrams make it easy to understand (and share) an existing schema in minutes, while the new AI integration turns natural language into solid SQL directly inside the editor. If your goal is to explore unfamiliar databases faster, document structures, or speed up query writing and iteration, DBeaver 26.0 is a strong tool to keep in your MariaDB toolbox.
Just like DBeaver, you can find lots of other tools for your toolbox and more on our brand-new Ecosystem Hub: https://ecohub.mariadb.org.
In short: if you’re looking for a Workbench replacement that’s not only alive, but moving forward, DBeaver is an easy recommendation.