ShellYard vs JetBrains DataGrip

Keep DataGrip for SQL refactoring.
Use ShellYard for everything else.

DataGrip is a deep IDE for SQL authoring. ShellYard is an operations workspace where a 6-engine DB inspector is one tab among many — SSH, HTTP, network diagnostics, docs, vault, AI. Use both.

Download free for macOS, Windows, Linux

Free forever · 6-engine DB inspector · SSH + HTTP + network tools included

ShellYard · one window

▮ acme-prod.psql · DB

▮ bastion.acme.io · SSH

▮ api.acme.io · HTTP

▮ mtr 8.8.8.8 · MTR

▮ db-failover.md · Runbook

SELECT id, email, last_seen_at
FROM users
WHERE last_seen_at > now() - interval '24 hours'
ORDER BY last_seen_at DESC LIMIT 5;

5 rows 12 ms Health: cache 98.4% · repl lag 0 ms

idemaillast_seen_at

4821maya@acme.io2026-06-02 09:14:02

4811raj@acme.io2026-06-02 08:47:31

4806j.davis@acme.io2026-06-02 08:02:18

Five-second decision

Which side of the line are you on?

Use DataGrip if

SQL authoring is the job.

SQL is 80% of your day — you write, refactor, and review queries for a living.
You want deep dialect-specific refactoring (rename a column across views, procs, and triggers).
Your stack includes 5+ obscure engines — Oracle, DB2, ClickHouse, Snowflake, Sybase.
You live in the JetBrains ecosystem (IntelliJ / PyCharm / GoLand) and want the same keymap.

Use ShellYard if

The database is one of five tabs.

SQL is 30% of your day — the other 70% is SSH, APIs, networks, and runbooks.
You SSH to DB hosts daily — bastions, jump hosts, AWS SSM-managed instances.
You also test internal APIs — and want the HTTP client in the same window.
You want an AI assistant that reads query results, DB Health, and SSH output natively.

Side by side

Feature-by-feature, every row.

DataGrip wins the SQL-authoring depth rows. ShellYard wins the operations-surface rows. The rows below are sorted into three bands so you can scan honestly.

ShellYard advantage DataGrip advantage Parity

Feature	DataGrip	ShellYard
PostgreSQL workspace	Yes — deep	Yes — query + schema + Health
MySQL workspace	Yes	Yes — query + schema + Health
SQL Server (T-SQL + AAD)	Yes	Yes — AAD auth, 3-part schema
SQLite	Yes	Yes — unlocked at Free
Redis	Yes	Yes — CLI + per-key viewer + Health
MongoDB	Yes	Yes — find / projection / Health
SSH-tunnel routing for DB conns	Yes — per-connection	Yes — via active SSH session
CSV / TSV / JSON result export	Yes	Yes — RFC 4180 quoted
Schema-aware autocomplete + refactor	Yes — deep IntelliJ-grade	Basic — column metadata only
Query plan visualization	Yes — visual EXPLAIN tree	EXPLAIN text only
Visual ER diagrams	Yes	No
Stored procedure debugger	Yes	No
Schema compare + migration scripts	Yes	No
Engine coverage	20+ engines (Oracle, DB2, ClickHouse, Snowflake, Sybase, …)	6 engines (Postgres, MySQL, SQL Server, SQLite, Redis, Mongo)
Git diff for SQL files inside the IDE	Yes — JetBrains VCS	No
Live Health dashboards per engine	No — monitoring is separate	Yes — all 6 engines (running queries, replication, cache, slow ops)
SSH client (terminal, jump hosts, SSM)	No	Yes — SSH, Telnet, RDP, VNC, serial, AWS SSM
HTTP / GraphQL / Realtime client	Basic HTTP requests only	Yes — Postman-class, with SSH-tunnel routing
Network toolkit (40+ tools)	No	Yes — MTR, pcap, TLS, SNMP, DNS, Nmap, …
Docs / runbooks in the same Space	No	Yes — Tiptap WYSIWYG, IPAM, PDF export (Team+)
Credential vault	Per-connection only	Local AES-256-GCM + KMS-wrapped cloud sync
AI assistant over results + Health	JetBrains AI — separate subscription	Magellan — BYO Anthropic / OpenAI / Gemini / Ollama key
Native desktop (not Electron JetBrains shell)	JVM-based IDE (~1+ GiB)	Wails + Go + native webview (~120 MiB)
Linux support	Yes — tarball	.deb / .rpm / AppImage
Pricing	~$229/yr individual	Free $0 · Pro $24/mo · Team $49 · Enterprise $99

Reflects publicly documented DataGrip capability at time of comparison.

Honest

Where DataGrip still wins.

If your job is SQL authoring, these are real reasons to stay on (or add) DataGrip — and the reason most teams end up running both.

1 Deep SQL refactoring. Rename a column across views, stored procedures, and triggers in one action. IntelliJ-grade rename, inline, and extract refactors. ShellYard does not match this.
2 Engine coverage. Oracle, DB2, ClickHouse, Snowflake, Sybase, Vertica, Greenplum, Cassandra, CockroachDB — 20+ engines deeply supported. ShellYard ships six.
3 Query plan visualization. Visual EXPLAIN trees with cost annotation, plan-node drill-down, and optimization hints. ShellYard renders the EXPLAIN text but does not visualize it.
4 JetBrains plugin ecosystem. Database Navigator extensions, vim emulation, custom keymaps, AI tools that integrate at the IDE level. ShellYard is a closed desktop app — no plugin surface.
5 In-IDE Git diff for SQL files. Side-by-side diffs of .sql files against your branch, with the JetBrains VCS surface. ShellYard does not ship Git integration.

Five minutes

Switch — or run both — in five minutes.

Keep DataGrip open. Install ShellYard alongside it. Most people end up alt-tabbing between the two for a week, then realize they reach for ShellYard first.

1 Install ShellYard. macOS .dmg, Windows .msi, or Linux .deb / .rpm / AppImage. ~120 MiB. Code-signed and notarized. No account required to try it.
2 Add your DB connection. Host, port, credentials, optional SSL mode. Vault-backed — rotate once, every DB tool picks it up next session. (Or paste from DataGrip's connection-detail panel — same fields.)
3 SSH-tunnel from your bastion if needed. Pick the SSH session in the connection editor — same vault credentials, same ~/.ssh/config. No ssh -L dance.
4 Run your first SELECT. Click the Health tab — running queries, replication lag, cache hit ratio, slow ops appear side-by-side. Click Ask Magellan on the Health header to get a plain-English read on what's happening.

Before you install

The questions a DataGrip user asks first.

How does the pricing actually compare?

DataGrip is ~$229/year on the JetBrains individual plan. ShellYard Pro is $24/mo — $288/year — within about $60 of DataGrip on annual cost. The difference: ShellYard Pro also ships the SSH client, the full HTTP / GraphQL / Realtime client, the 40+ network diagnostic toolkit, the credential vault, and Magellan AI (BYO key). DataGrip's $229 is database authoring only. If you'd otherwise buy DataGrip + Postman + Termius + a notes app, the comparison shifts hard.

Six engines vs. DataGrip's 20+ — isn't that a downgrade?

Yes, in coverage. No, in depth on the six we ship. ShellYard supports Postgres, MySQL, SQL Server (T-SQL with AAD), SQLite, Redis, and MongoDB — and every one of those six has a live Health dashboard (running queries, replication, cache hit ratio, slow ops, connection-pool pressure) that DataGrip doesn't ship. If your stack is Oracle, DB2, ClickHouse, Snowflake, or one of the long-tail engines DataGrip supports, stay on DataGrip — or run both.

How deep is the MongoDB / NoSQL workspace?

Honest answer: not as deep as DataGrip's NoSQL mode. ShellYard ships a JSON spec editor for find / projection / sort / limit, a database/collection tree, a document viewer with pretty-print, saved spec queries, and the Mongo Health dashboard (serverStatus, repl set state, dbStats, currentOp). If you live in aggregation pipelines and need a visual builder, DataGrip wins this row.

What's actually in the Health dashboards?

Per-engine, polled on a user-set cadence with Pause/Resume/Refresh-now and an Ask Magellan button on the header. Postgres: version, role, pool vs max_connections, buffer cache hit %, commit/rollback ratio, pg_stat_activity, pg_stat_replication. MySQL: SHOW GLOBAL STATUS, InnoDB buffer pool hit ratio, processlist, slave status. SQL Server: sys.dm_exec_requests, performance counters, buffer-pool hit ratio. Redis: INFO sections (memory vs maxmemory, hit ratio, persistence, replication), SLOWLOG GET 10. MongoDB: serverStatus, repl set state, dbStats, currentOp. SQLite: file size, fragmentation, journal mode, PRAGMA quick_check.

Can I keep DataGrip and run both?

Most users do. DataGrip handles deep SQL refactoring, ER diagrams, stored-procedure debugging, and migration scripts. ShellYard handles the moment you need to SSH to the DB host, tail a worker log, hit the API that wrote the row, and capture the runbook — without closing the database tab. The two products do not collide; they sit beside each other on the dock.

Is there a JetBrains-style keymap?

Not bundled. ShellYard ships standard navigation shortcuts (⌘P, ⌘T, ⌘N for new window, ⌘↵ to run a query) but does not emulate the full IntelliJ keymap. If muscle memory for refactoring keys is important to you, that's another reason to run both.

Keep DataGrip for SQL.
Get ShellYard for the rest.

Six-engine database inspector with live Health dashboards, alongside the SSH client, HTTP client, network toolkit, docs, vault, and AI you were going to install separately anyway. One window.