Built natively for macOS, iPadOS, and Apple Silicon

The MariaDB and MySQL client that lives in the Apple ecosystem.

Calíope is a SwiftUI-native MariaDB and MySQL client for macOS and iPad — the only one with desktop widgets, Home Screen widgets, a schema-aware AI assistant, and iCloud-synced connection profiles. One subscription, both platforms, $49.99 a year.

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Calíope real-time dashboard with query throughput, InnoDB memory, and thread distribution
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A tour of Calíope.

Calíope demo video thumbnail
One workspace

A DBA doesn't switch tasks — they switch apps.

Eight windows for a single shift on call. The real cost isn't the licences, it's the context you drop every time you move. Calíope's tools exist so a whole working day fits in one window — not to make a feature list look long.

Run SQL against a remote server

TodayTerminal, an ssh session and the mysql client

In CalíopeSQL Editor over a native SwiftNIO SSH tunnel, with schema-aware autocomplete and a linter

Read a schema you didn't design

TodayphpMyAdmin, or a desktop client you keep around just for its object browser

In CalíopeCatalogs, Table Builder and an interactive ER Diagram with editable foreign keys

Watch a server under load

TodayYour host's console, a Grafana tab, and SHOW PROCESSLIST on repeat

In CalíopeDashboard, Server Info, Process List, Connection Monitor and configurable health alerts

Take a backup — and keep taking it

TodayA mysqldump script plus a cron entry you hope is still running

In CalíopeBackup with granular selection, daily or weekly scheduler, retention rules and gzip

Open a local .sqlite file

TodayDB Browser for SQLite — a second application, with its own window and habits

In CalíopeSQLite Editor: structure, data, Execute SQL and pragmas. No server, no connection.

Read the .sql, .csv or .log someone sent you

TodayA text editor, or a spreadsheet that reformats your CSV on the way in

In CalíopeFile Previewer: highlighted SQL, CSV as a table, rendered Markdown. Read-only, offline.

Ask for help with a query

TodayA chatbot in the browser, where you paste the schema by hand every single time

In CalíopeAI Assistant that already holds the active schema as context. Metadata only — never rows.

Check on things away from the desk

TodayVNC into the Mac, or a mobile client that stops at listing tables

In CalíopeThe same app, native on iPad, plus Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets

23
tools in the workspace — 21 tabs plus 2 contextual
2
of them need no server at all
0
apps to switch to for any of it

And none of it is permanently on screen. Every tool is a tab you open when the task asks for it, pin if you use it daily, and close when you're done — the workspace only ever shows what you opened. The list is long because a DBA's day is long. See the full inventory →

Why Calíope

Three things no other MariaDB or MySQL client does.

We're not trying to support every database engine on Earth. We focus on MariaDB, MySQL, and Amazon Aurora, and we build the parts the Apple ecosystem expects but no one else delivers.

Native widgets, every screen.

The only MariaDB or MySQL client with widgets on every Apple surface: 3 sizes on macOS desktop, 4 sizes on iPad Home Screen (incl. Extra Large), and 3 iPad Lock Screen accessories (Rectangular, Circular, Inline). Live Threads_connected, QPS, InnoDB hit rate and uptime — no app launch required.

Unique in the market

AI that knows your schema.

Ask in plain English. The assistant sends the active database's tables, columns and foreign keys as context to OpenAI, Google Gemini, or Anthropic Claude, so the SQL it returns is runnable against your data — not a hypothetical schema.

Unique among native clients

iPad as a first-class citizen.

Sequel Ace has no iPad. TablePlus treats it as a second-class device. Calíope's iPad app is 100% SwiftUI — DDL Hint Bar, drag gestures, Extra Large widgets and AppIntents for Siri.

Unique
Honest pricing

An order of magnitude less than the enterprise option.

Verified July 2026. Subscription prices for the MariaDB / MySQL-targeted SKU of each vendor.

Product Price Platforms iPad native Widgets AI
Calíope $49.99 / year macOS + iPad Yes Mac + iPad + Lock Screen Yes — BYOK (OpenAI, Gemini, Claude)
TablePlus $99 perpetual + $39–49/yr updates macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS Minimal iOS app No Yes — BYOK (v6.6.4+)
Sequel Ace Free (MIT) macOS only No No No
Navicat for MySQL $799.99 / year macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS Separate basic app No Add-on
DBeaver Lite $113 / year macOS, Windows, Linux (Java) No No Yes — AI assistant
DB Pilot $79 one-time (BYOK) or $20 / mo macOS only (Swift) No No Yes — BYOK (OpenAI only)
Beekeeper Ultimate ~$7 / mo (Electron) macOS, Windows, Linux No No Yes — AI Shell BYOK
DB Compass (iPad) Freemium + Pro IAP iPad only Yes iPad only (chart widgets) Yes — query scripts
SQLPro Studio Subscription / lifetime macOS, iPadOS, Windows Touch-adapted No No
Everything inside

A full database workstation, native to your devices.

Calíope ships with the same depth you'd expect from a premium desktop client — plus the parts only Apple platforms make possible.

SQL Editor

  • Schema-aware autocomplete with JOIN suggestions on foreign keys
  • SQL Linter warns about DELETE/UPDATE without WHERE
  • SQL Player — step through multi-statement scripts
  • Snippets library, grouped by engine and synced via iCloud
  • Quick-open palette (⌘⇧O) and rename-symbol refactor with word boundaries

Connection & Security

  • Native SSH tunnel via SwiftNIO (ed25519, ECDSA P-256/384/521)
  • TOFU host-key verification equivalent to StrictHostKeyChecking
  • Strict TLS verification by default, opt-in for self-signed certs
  • Touch ID / Face ID before connecting (per profile)
  • Keychain with opt-in iCloud sync

Schema & Modeling

  • Interactive ER diagram with foreign-key editing
  • Visual Table Builder for create & alter
  • Schema Diff generates the ALTER script
  • Object Migration between two connected servers
  • Dedicated editors for index, view, trigger, event, routine

Administration

  • Real-time Server Dashboard (Threads, QPS, InnoDB hit rate)
  • Process List with guided KILL
  • User Admin for grants, password, auth plugin
  • Replication monitor + binlog viewer
  • Configurable health alerts

Backups

  • Granular selection: pick tables, views, routines, triggers
  • Daily & weekly scheduler with retention
  • Reports per-object errors in the footer (no silent fails)
  • Values as prepared-statement bindings; identifiers escaped
  • Optional gzip compression

Analysis & Profiling

  • Visual EXPLAIN with relative cost
  • Query Profiler with per-phase timings
  • Column Profiler (cardinality, nulls, top-N)
  • Index Advisor from real queries
  • Comparison view for diffing result sets

AI Assistant

  • Natural language → SQL with active schema as context
  • OpenAI, Google Gemini, and Anthropic Claude providers
  • Bring your own API key (stored in Keychain)
  • Voice input via SFSpeechRecognizer
  • Only metadata is sent — never row data or credentials

Widgets

  • macOS desktop: Small, Medium, Large
  • iPad Home Screen: Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large
  • iPad Lock Screen: Rectangular, Circular, Inline
  • Deep links (caliope://server/<uuid>): tap widget → dashboard
  • Background refresh with timeout, no credentials in shared container

Apple Ecosystem

  • AppIntents / Siri: connect, query, list, open tab
  • iCloud sync for profiles, groups, snippets, schedules
  • Localized in English, Spanish, French — app and widgets
  • Opens .sql files from Finder
  • Contextual TipKit onboarding

Privacy & Compliance

  • App Sandbox enabled (Mac App Store grade)
  • "Erase all my data" button (GDPR Art. 17)
  • Privacy-by-default: Keychain local, iCloud opt-in
  • Centralized SQL identifier escaping against injection
  • No analytics, no tracking, no ads
The full inventory

Twenty-one tools, one workspace.

These are the actual workspace tabs shipped in Calíope — not a marketing tour. Every one is native SwiftUI, works on macOS and iPad, and opens as a dedicated tab you can pin, reorder or close.

SQL Editor

Schema-aware autocomplete, SQL linter, formatter and multi-statement Player that runs the whole script or steps through it one query at a time.

Dashboard

Live server pulse: Threads_connected, QPS, InnoDB buffer pool hit rate, uptime and slow queries per second, polled at your chosen interval.

AI Assistant

Plain-English prompts against the active database's schema. Bring your own OpenAI, Gemini, or Anthropic Claude key; only metadata leaves the app — never rows or credentials.

Catalogs

Full database → table → column tree with dedicated tabs for indexes, foreign keys, views, routines, triggers and events.

Query Builder

Visual constructor: drag tables to a canvas, pick columns and WHERE conditions, and watch the SQL preview update as you build.

Server Info

Global and session variables, live status counters and HDD usage — all browseable in one panel with a filter box on top of every list.

Process List

Running threads with filters, guided KILL QUERY / KILL CONNECTION and bulk kill of idle or busy sessions — with confirmation before every destructive action.

Connection Monitor

Custom health checks: define SQL probes, thresholds and operators, and get alerted when a metric crosses the line — long before your dashboard notices.

Backup

Granular selection of databases, tables, views and routines. Daily or weekly scheduler with retention rules and optional gzip compression.

User Admin

Create and modify users, manage grants by scope and switch auth plugins — no more hand-writing GRANT / REVOKE by memory. Identifiers escaped end-to-end.

Table Maintenance

Run CHECK, REPAIR, OPTIMIZE and ANALYZE across a multi-selection, with progress and per-table error reporting.

Object Migration

Copy tables, views, triggers, events and stored procedures between two connected servers — without mysqldump | mysql.

ER Diagram

Interactive relational diagram with draggable tables, editable foreign keys and PNG / PDF export. Understand a legacy schema in thirty seconds.

Schema Diff

Compare two schemas side by side and generate the ALTER script that reconciles them. Sync staging with production without hand-writing migrations.

Replication Monitor

Master / replica state, replication lag and binlog coordinates, refreshed in real time — spot a stalled slave without SSHing into the box.

Binlog Viewer

Read and filter binary log events without shelling into the server. Follow row-level changes, transactions and GTIDs from macOS or iPad.

Snippets

Reusable SQL library grouped by engine (MariaDB / MySQL) with one-shot seeding of built-in defaults per engine. Categorized, searchable, and synced across every Mac and iPad on your Apple ID.

Query Log

Persistent history of every executed query in local SQLite — searchable, filterable, exportable, and with opt-in iCloud sync.

Server Health Monitor

Configurable alerts on server metrics — Calíope pings you before your external monitoring does. Runs in the background across sessions.

SQLite Editor

Open and edit local SQLite files with no server: structure designer, data grid, Execute SQL, editable pragmas, Save/Revert transactions and CSV/JSON/SQL import-export. Unencrypted databases only.

File Previewer

Read-only viewer for .md, .sql, .json, .csv and .log: rendered Markdown, highlighted SQL, re-indented JSON, CSV as a table. Refreshes when the file changes on disk — and never runs anything.

Two more contextual tools — Table Builder (visual create/alter) and Visual EXPLAIN (query plan viewer) — open in-line from Catalogs and the SQL Editor.

See it in action

Real screens, straight from the app.

These are the same screenshots reviewed and approved by Apple. Every window is native SwiftUI — no web views, no cross-platform emulation.

SQL Editor with syntax highlighting and query results
SQL Editor — Execute, Run Script, Format, Expand *, Safe Mode, Transactions and inline results.
Real-time server dashboard with connection, QPS and cache metrics
Real-time Dashboard — Threads connected, queries per second, bytes sent/received and InnoDB cache hit rate.
Schema catalogs with tables, views, indexes and routines tabs
Catalogs — Tables, Views, Indexes, Fields, Routines, Triggers and Events for the active database.
Interactive ER diagram with tables and foreign keys
ER Diagram — Interactive relational layout with editable foreign keys and SVG/PDF export.
Process list with running queries, user, host and state
Processes — Live thread list with user, host, command and state — spot and kill a runaway query in one click.
Connection manager with grouped MariaDB profiles
Connection Manager — MariaDB and MySQL profiles grouped, with SSH tunnel and TLS toggles per connection.
Replication monitor showing I/O and SQL threads status
Replication Monitor — Master/replica state, GTID position and binlog coordinates refreshed live.
Snippet library with reusable SQL organised by category
Snippets — Reusable SQL organised by category, ready to drop into the editor — your diagnostics kit always at hand.
Query results plotted as a bar chart inside the SQL editor
Result Charts — Turn any result set into bars, lines or a pie without leaving the editor; axes are picked for you.
SQL terminal docked at the bottom of the editor
SQL Terminal — A mysql-style prompt docked in the editor, for the one-liners you would otherwise run in a shell.
Glanceable monitoring

Your servers, before you unlock the iPad.

Calíope's widget shows live metrics from your pinned profile — 3 sizes on macOS desktop, 4 sizes on iPad Home Screen and 3 iPad Lock Screen accessories. Tap the widget to jump straight to the dashboard of the right server.

macOS desktop widget

macOS desktop · Small

iPad Home Screen widget

iPad Home Screen · Medium

iPad Lock Screen widget

macOS desktop · Large

AI with context

You don't explain the schema. It already knows.

Calíope sends table names, columns, and foreign keys of the active database to your chosen provider so the SQL it returns runs against your data, not a guess.

U
Show me the five users with the most orders in the last 30 days, including their email and the total order amount.
↓ SQL generated against your schema
SELECT u.id,
       u.email,
       COUNT(o.id) AS total_orders,
       SUM(o.amount) AS total_amount
FROM   users u
JOIN   orders o ON o.user_id = u.id
WHERE  o.created_at >= DATE_SUB(NOW(), INTERVAL 30 DAY)
GROUP BY u.id, u.email
ORDER BY total_orders DESC
LIMIT 5;
Hardened by default

Security as a design choice, not a checkbox.

A full security audit was performed in July 2026. Identifiers are escaped centrally, TLS verifies by default, and the keychain stays local unless you say otherwise.

SwiftNIO SSH

Native SSH tunnel with ed25519 and ECDSA P-256/384/521. No dependency on system ssh. Decrypted keys never written to disk.

TOFU host keys

The host fingerprint is stored in Keychain on first connection. If it changes, Calíope refuses to connect — same behavior as OpenSSH's StrictHostKeyChecking=yes.

Strict TLS

When you enable SSL, certificate chain is fully verified by default against system trust roots. Accepting unverified certs requires an explicit, warned-toggle.

Opt-in iCloud Keychain

Database passwords stay on the device by default. iCloud Keychain sync is a deliberate choice, not an automatic side effect of using iCloud.

SQL injection-safe

Values travel as native MySQLNIO prepared-statement bindings — never concatenated into the SQL. Identifiers (database, table, column names) flow through a centralized escape helper, so a malicious object name in the schema can't break out into your queries either.

Erase all my data

A single button wipes profiles, Keychain entries, query log, snippets and widget cache. GDPR Article 17, in one tap.

Community & Insights

Built with you. Guided by community.

Calíope grows from direct user feedback and opt-in telemetry. Your feature requests shape our roadmap, and transparent diagnostics help us eradicate bugs fast.

💡 Feature Requests Drive Growth

Every suggestion sent to us is logged on the public roadmap. Your feedback signals what database tools and workflows we should build next.

Suggest a feature →

🛡️ 100% Opt-In & Transparent Telemetry

No background tracking or hidden analytics. You decide whether to share your usage report, stored in plain, human-readable JSON in Preferences.

How telemetry works →

🐞 Crushing Bugs & Focusing Effort

Anonymous tool usage metrics and error reports help us eliminate bugs swiftly and focus engineering effort on the tools you use most.

Explore public roadmap →

Pricing

One subscription. Both devices.

Use Calíope on every Mac and iPad signed into your Apple ID. Cancel any time from the App Store.

7-day free trial
$49.99
per year, billed annually
Start free trial on App Store Download on the App Store

Auto-renews unless cancelled at least 24 hours before period end.
Managed by your Apple ID — no separate accounts, no card on our side.

FAQ

Short answers to honest questions.

Twenty-one tools sounds like bloat. Is it?

Every tool is a workspace tab, and the workspace only shows the tabs you opened — a new session starts with one. Nothing polls, renders or holds memory until you open it, so you can pin the three you use daily and never think about the rest. The list is long for the same reason you have eight apps open right now: a DBA's day covers querying, schema work, monitoring, backups, users, local files and the odd .csv someone emails you. That's the trade we made — breadth so you stop switching, not breadth for its own sake.

How many tools does Calíope actually include?

Twenty-one top-level workspace tools — each opens as a dedicated tab you can pin, reorder or close: SQL Editor, Dashboard, AI Assistant, Catalogs, Query Builder, Server Info, Process List, Connection Monitor, Backup, User Admin, Table Maintenance, Object Migration, ER Diagram, Schema Diff, Replication Monitor, Binlog Viewer, Snippets, Query Log, Server Health Monitor, SQLite Editor and File Previewer. Two more — Table Builder and Visual EXPLAIN — open contextually from Catalogs and the SQL Editor. See the full inventory.

Does Calíope support PostgreSQL or other databases?

Not today — Calíope is a specialized client for MariaDB and MySQL, and that's where we put all of our depth. PostgreSQL is currently listed as Under consideration on our public roadmap: it's not committed work, but if enough customers ask for it we'll prioritize it in a future version. If you'd like to see it, send us a feature request — every request counts toward that decision. In the meantime, if you need a Swiss Army knife across engines, TablePlus or DBeaver are excellent alternatives.

Is there a Windows or Linux version?

The current Calíope is Mac and iPad only — its value is the deep integration with macOS, iPadOS, widgets, AppIntents, Keychain and iCloud, which a cross-platform port would lose. If you need Windows or Linux, the older Qt-based Calíope is still available as an unmaintained archive on the Legacy Qt builds page.

What happens to my data if I cancel?

Your local data (profiles, query log, snippets) stays on your device. If you also want to erase it, use Preferences → Privacy → Erase all my data. iCloud-synced metadata can be managed from iCloud Settings.

Do my queries go to the cloud?

Only if you turn on optional features. The query log is local by default. iCloud sync of the query log is opt-in with a clear warning that literal query text travels to your private iCloud. The AI assistant only sends what you type plus schema metadata — never row data or credentials.

Do I need an OpenAI key to use Calíope?

No. The AI assistant is one of many features. If you don't configure an API key (OpenAI, Gemini, or Anthropic Claude), every other capability works as expected.

Can I use Calíope at work for production servers?

Yes — Calíope is built and audited for daily professional use. SSH tunnel, TLS verification, biometric auth, DDL audit log and the SQL linter exist precisely for that scenario. Subscriptions are per Apple ID; for team licensing, please contact us.

Which MariaDB and MySQL versions are supported?

MariaDB 10.2.3 or newer, MySQL 5.7.5 or newer. Older versions lack the CLIENT_DEPRECATE_EOF protocol flag that Calíope relies on.