Sequel Pro is unmaintained. Sequel Ace is community-maintained. QueryFlow is the actively-developed Mac-native MySQL client with Claude AI, Python notebooks, and scheduled ETL.
Sequel Pro shipped in 2003. Twenty-plus years is a remarkable run for free open-source software. The community-maintained Sequel Ace fork still works for basic MySQL connections, and there is no urgent reason to abandon it if your workflow is happy. But modern data work involves cloud warehouses, AI assistance, and scheduled jobs — and neither tool is positioned to add any of those.
QueryFlow ships native MySQL support (port 3306, TCP, SSL optional) with the same credential security model — Keychain-stored, never in plaintext. On top of that base, QueryFlow adds cloud database connectors (Snowflake, Redshift, Postgres in addition to MySQL), Salesforce, Google Sheets, and CSV. The connection layer is dramatically broader than what Sequel Pro ever supported.
The single biggest difference between QueryFlow and Sequel Pro/Ace is Claude AI. QueryFlow's Claude panel sees your schema, your query results, and your recent errors. Ask Claude to write a query against your products table and it uses your actual column names. Ask why a query is slow and it reads the execution plan.
QueryFlow adds Flow Books (SQL plus Python notebooks with shared state), a Visual ETL builder with AI Map field matching, a Scheduler for cron-style automation, and nine output destinations including S3, SFTP, email, and Google Sheets. If your work involves anything beyond running queries and copying results, this is the leverage.
QueryFlow shipped v1.5.0 in May 2026 with schema-aware Claude improvements, Snowflake bug fixes, and a redesigned trial flow. The roadmap continues. Versus a frozen tool, an actively-shipping tool means features you actually want will arrive.
The original codebase had no maintainer and the last stable release predates modern macOS versions. Sequel Ace forked the project and is community-maintained, but updates are sporadic. Users on modern Macs increasingly hit compatibility issues and missing features like AI assistance and cloud database support.
Sequel Ace works on current macOS versions for basic MySQL connections. The risk is not security so much as stagnation — features like cloud authentication, modern connection pooling, and AI assistance are not coming.
Yes. QueryFlow supports MySQL connections via direct TCP, the same as Sequel Pro and Sequel Ace. Add the host, port (3306 by default), database, username, and password. SSL is supported.
QueryFlow is built and maintained by yforest llc with a paid subscription model. Unlike free open-source tools with no maintainer, paid software has a direct economic incentive to keep shipping updates.
Not directly. QueryFlow does not import .sqlpro or .sqlace connection bundles. Most users have a manageable number of MySQL connections and re-adding them takes about a minute each.
14-day free trial. No credit card. Re-add your MySQL connections in minutes — and gain Claude AI, notebooks, and scheduling in the process.