Congrats on launching, but this feels like an uphill climb to get paying customers. You need to find the intersection of potential customers that know SQL but don't want to use one of the open source options. (perhaps data analysts working in restricted environments where the only option is a web browser)
mritchie712 · 3h ago
this is a tarpit idea I've fallen into multiple times. It's really hard to make money from a desktop SQL client, let alone now that DuckDB has a good, free UI.
hultner · 22m ago
Can you use that with for instance a postgres server? I thought it would only work with DuckDB (sqlite?) databases.
jamroom · 41m ago
Quick question - is it possible to import multiple files at once? I frequently get ZIP files full of csv/xlsx files that I need to search through. I didn't see a way to import more than 1 file at a time. Thanks!
ayhanfuat · 3h ago
Congratulations. I do see value in quickly seeing, querying files in a nice desktop interface. I am curious why there is no parquet support though. If duckdb is running in the background it is probably easy to support it?
dowager_dan99 · 3h ago
parquet support would be pretty easy I think, but also way outside the target market user. These are the features that are really hard to avoid: easy, but not free, no benefit.
hermitcrab · 33m ago
>Pay Once, Use Forever ... Free updates
I suspect the vendor is going to regret that, further down the line.
rsstack · 20m ago
> The license entitles you to receive lifetime updates for the major version. When we release the next major version, you can optionally renew the license.
Fairly common. JetBrains started that way too. Will they one day have a major version that's using a subscription model? Perhaps. But they will likely not regret this too much.
hermitcrab · 1m ago
>The license entitles you to receive lifetime updates for the major version.
Where does it say that?
That is common and it is the model I use for my own software. But that isn't what I understood from their website.
Home page:
"Pay Once, Use Forever. We hate needless subscriptions as much as you do. TextQuery comes with a perpetual license with free updates."
Which strongly implies every update is free, forever.
_ink_ · 28m ago
No worries. They will just break their promise, just like most companies that claimed something similar.
hultner · 24m ago
I actually have some apps still which I bought for life years back but doesn't offer that anymore. For instance blink shell for iOS devices.
delusional · 27m ago
I don't know. We had a pretty well established model that included free updates, but required a new purchase for a new major version down the line. I think that worked pretty well.
account-5 · 3h ago
To be completely honest I tend to use either powershell or Nushell to query these sorts of files. I do also use sqlite as well when needed.
leftcenterright · 2h ago
does that also work with xlsx files without much pain?
A few hours ago this would have been useful, I will probably give it a try in few days.
On another note, I recommend clarifying in the heroes page that it's about a one-time purchase, because that's a really big plus.
flysand7 · 21m ago
Is it just me, or the images on the website aren't loading? Using firefox, from what I searched it seems like it could be just a firefox issue. The cdn links are https bt when navigating there manually it says the connection is not private.
whoomp12342 · 48m ago
oh man, I remebmer solving this problem by connecting these files into SQL SERVER and joining agains them. Those were the days
zipping1549 · 3h ago
I think someone who's willing to use SQL will also be willing to convert such files into, well, proper DB.
flysand7 · 24m ago
For a lot of files where you would want to perform a quick one-time analysis, I don't think it's worth starting up a new database, and write scripts that parse the file from the source format and import it into the database. The one time I did it for postgres it took me maybe 2-4 hours to finish the script and start looking at the data. Next time it would be maybe an hour, but it's still a time.
So I guess I can see how not having to do the conversion for quick one-time analysis could be beneficial.
dowager_dan99 · 3h ago
I think I'm your target user, but I currently use DuckDB for this type of work, so unlikely to buy your product. That said, lots of devs pay for Rider and/or DataGrip - sometimes with their own money - so maybe there is a market here?
snappr021 · 2h ago
Why not in vanilla js html?
sidcool · 3h ago
Pricing is too weird.
gkbrk · 3h ago
Feels like `clickhouse local` or `duckdb` with a price tag. Especially since duckdb even has a nice UI now.
shubhamjain · 3h ago
Author here. It uses DuckDB under the hood, which is a fantastic piece of software.
Yes, even DuckDB has UI now, but I didn't find it to my taste. There's no table view, filters are a bit weird, and not exactly keyboard accessible. TextQuery also has Visualize feature to quickly create charts and tabs to run things in parallel. Again, it's personal preference, but there are advantages in being a desktop-first app.
XLSX would be the same workflow with "save as" CSV and then push it into SQLite.
shubhamjain · 3h ago
IIRC, SQLlite requires you to define a schema first, which can be a bit tedious. DuckDB is actually a better tool for this in every regard, since it can parse CSV files quite well. The latest version includes support for XLSX as well.
My personal take is, yes, it's possible in multiple other ways, but I just like having a well-designed GUI app do it for me. Just how TablePlus does for Database Management.
bob1029 · 3h ago
> I just like having a well-designed GUI app do it for me.
MSSQL/SSMS supports this with some fancy techniques.
> This wizard was created to improve the current import experience leveraging an intelligent framework known as Program Synthesis using Examples (PROSE). For a user without specialized domain knowledge, importing data can often be a complex, error prone, and tedious task. This wizard streamlines the import process as simple as selecting an input file and unique table name, and the PROSE framework handles the rest.
> PROSE analyzes data patterns in your input file to infer column names, types, delimiters, and more. This framework learns the structure of the file and does all of the hard work so users don't have to.
It reminds me of Log Parser Studio [1] on Windows. Using SQL to query text and log files is a great idea.
[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20170710212920/http://gallery.te...
I suspect the vendor is going to regret that, further down the line.
Fairly common. JetBrains started that way too. Will they one day have a major version that's using a subscription model? Perhaps. But they will likely not regret this too much.
Where does it say that?
That is common and it is the model I use for my own software. But that isn't what I understood from their website.
Home page: "Pay Once, Use Forever. We hate needless subscriptions as much as you do. TextQuery comes with a perpetual license with free updates."
Pricing page: "Perpetual license Lifetime updates"
Which strongly implies every update is free, forever.
Powershell can query excel files in various ways and there's a module for native powershell excel work: https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/ImportExcel/5.4.2
So I guess I can see how not having to do the conversion for quick one-time analysis could be beneficial.
Yes, even DuckDB has UI now, but I didn't find it to my taste. There's no table view, filters are a bit weird, and not exactly keyboard accessible. TextQuery also has Visualize feature to quickly create charts and tabs to run things in parallel. Again, it's personal preference, but there are advantages in being a desktop-first app.
XLSX would be the same workflow with "save as" CSV and then push it into SQLite.
My personal take is, yes, it's possible in multiple other ways, but I just like having a well-designed GUI app do it for me. Just how TablePlus does for Database Management.
MSSQL/SSMS supports this with some fancy techniques.
> This wizard was created to improve the current import experience leveraging an intelligent framework known as Program Synthesis using Examples (PROSE). For a user without specialized domain knowledge, importing data can often be a complex, error prone, and tedious task. This wizard streamlines the import process as simple as selecting an input file and unique table name, and the PROSE framework handles the rest.
> PROSE analyzes data patterns in your input file to infer column names, types, delimiters, and more. This framework learns the structure of the file and does all of the hard work so users don't have to.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/i...
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