Can you fall in love with a database? I did: Lotus Approach. Alas, it no longer exists. PhpMyAdmin is not the same. Can any SQL database / CMS let us:

  1. work the backend data (the "worksheet") like a spreadsheet, including find-and-replace and copy-and-paste (to and from any # of cells)?

  2. design custom Views by so you can arrange all the relevant information for each record onto one screen, vs being in a long spreadsheet row where you need to keep scrolling right and left, and perhaps include an image or two associated with each record? (Lotus Approach let me design custom Views by drag-and-drop. That would be ideal)

I want to be able to do what I previously did: manage a complete business in one program - clients, prospects, financial transactions, projects, staff hours, performance reviews, customizable letters, a method for bulk importing clients' data and for "cleansing" that data (formatting it to match our formats), etc, all integrated (a relational database). Alas, it did not work online, and then was discontinued.

For Windows 10, or online.

Can you recommend anything?



The answer depends on which SQL database you need to support.

  • For SQL Server, SQL Server Management Studio supports these features.
  • For SQLite, SQLite Browser supports most of these features, including custom views.

In general, most SQL database editors support most or all of these features and will support multiple database engines, even though they're primarily designed for editing the structure of the database itself and not the data (though they do allow you to edit the underlying data table by table). To name a few: SQLGate, Postico, Valentina, PopSQL, DBeaver, Heidi SQL, RazorSQL, and Squirrel SQL.

If you're looking to start from scratch, I've used and had good luck with AirTable, which is in the same vein as what you're looking to do. It's a spreadsheet with a database as the backend. (I have only used the free version, though, so I can't vouch for the support or enterprise uses of it).

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