Alternatives to sq
An open-source command-line tool to inspect, query, join, import and export data across databases and files. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
sq
An open-source command-line tool to inspect, query, join, import and export data across databases and files.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as sq.
usql
Use one command-line interface for many database systems.
usql gives one command-line interface across many database systems using ordinary SQL instead of the SLQ language, but it lacks sq's import, join and diff features.
trdsql
Query structured files with SQL from the command line.
trdsql runs plain SQL over structured files from the command line under MIT, focusing on file querying rather than moving and comparing data between databases.
Also worth comparing
These listings name sq as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
sqlite-utils
A Python command-line tool and library for creating, querying and transforming SQLite databases.
sq imports and exports data across databases and files, including Excel into tables, but uses its own SLQ query language and is not a Python library.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
VisiData
An interactive terminal multitool for exploring, cleaning and converting tabular data in many formats.
DuckDB
In-process analytical database that queries CSV, JSON and Parquet directly.
Harlequin
A SQL IDE that runs in the terminal, with adapters for DuckDB, SQLite, Postgres and more.
dblab
An open-source terminal UI client for browsing and querying PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite and other databases.
