Comparison

Inlet vs Postico

Postico 2 is a paid, Mac-only PostgreSQL client with a long track record and a deliberately narrow focus. Inlet is free and new, also covers MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite and MongoDB, and includes the backup, role and monitoring tools Postico leaves out.

Updated 9 October 2026

In short

Postico 2 is a native Mac app for PostgreSQL from Egger Apps. It’s been around in some form since 2015 and, as of October 2026, a personal licence costs $69. Postico’s own documentation says it isn’t designed for backup and restore, user and permission management, or database monitoring.

Inlet is a free native Mac app that covers those three jobs for PostgreSQL, and also works with MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite and MongoDB. It’s new (version 0.1) and needs macOS 26 Tahoe or later. If you’re after a Postico alternative for Mac because you need those admin tools, a second engine, or a free licence for work, Inlet is worth a look. If you want a focused PostgreSQL editor with years of releases behind it, Postico still fits that well.

At a glance

As of October 2026, from Egger Apps’ website and documentation.

	Inlet	Postico 2
Price	Free: no account, no trial	Personal $69 (up to 3 devices), commercial $99 per device plus VAT, student $29; perpetual for 2.x; free evaluation with some features disabled
Platforms	macOS 26 Tahoe or later (Apple silicon and Intel)	macOS 14 or later; older versions for older Macs
Built with	Swift (SwiftUI and AppKit)	Native Mac app
Engines	PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite, MongoDB	PostgreSQL 8.0 or later; Redshift, Greenplum and CockroachDB fully supported
Backups and restores	Yes, with the bundled `pg_dump` and `pg_restore`	Not designed for it
Roles and grants	Yes	Not designed for it
Monitoring	Activity monitor: sessions, locks, blocking; cancel or terminate	Not designed for it
Read-only production	Connections tagged production open read-only; unlock for ten minutes	Set a startup query or use a read-only role
Connection sync	None	Server settings sync through iCloud or Dropbox

Where Postico is stronger

Track record. Postico’s download archive goes back to 2015, and Postico 2 has been stable since March 2023. Inlet is at version 0.1, with far less real-world use behind it.
Older Macs. Postico 2 runs on macOS 14 or later, with older builds for older systems. Inlet needs macOS 26 Tahoe.
PostgreSQL-compatible databases. Redshift, Greenplum and CockroachDB are fully supported. Inlet doesn’t list them.
Sync. Postico can sync your server settings through iCloud or Dropbox. Inlet has no sync.
Its query editor and function editor. Postico has a multi-file query editor with folders and autosave, and a dedicated editor for functions and stored procedures.
Cloud sign-in scripts. A pre-connect shell script can fetch a token first, with documented recipes for Amazon RDS and Redshift with IAM, and Azure with Entra ID.
Distribution options. It’s on the Mac App Store, and organisations can activate licences through MDM.

Where Inlet is stronger

Price. Inlet is free for any use. Postico costs $69 for a personal licence or $99 per device for commercial use, and its free evaluation has some features turned off.
Backups, roles and monitoring. These are the jobs Postico leaves to other tools. Inlet backs up and restores with the bundled pg_dump and pg_restore, manages roles and grants, and has an Activity monitor that shows sessions, locks and which query blocks which, with cancel and terminate.
Query plans and schema tools. EXPLAIN and EXPLAIN ANALYZE are drawn as a tree, with the slowest step and badly misestimated row counts highlighted. There’s also a health check, schema compare that writes the differences as SQL, an ER diagram, and a structure editor that warns when a change rewrites or scans the table. These don’t appear in Postico’s feature list.
Read-only production connections. Postico’s documentation suggests a startup query (SET SESSION CHARACTERISTICS AS TRANSACTION READ ONLY) or a read-only role. In Inlet, tagging a connection production makes it open read-only, and unlocking it lasts ten minutes. On protected connections, DROP, TRUNCATE, and DELETE or UPDATE without WHERE ask you to type the table’s name.
Other engines. MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite and MongoDB in the same app, so you don’t need a second client for a side project or a legacy database.

Moving from Postico

Inlet doesn’t import Postico’s favourites. For each server:

Copy the connection details from Postico: host, port, user and database.
In Inlet, choose Connect from URL and paste a URL such as postgres://<user>@<host>:5432/<database>, or fill in New Connection. Inlet fills the form from a URL.
For an SSH tunnel, add it in the connection form. Inlet runs the tunnel through the system ssh, so host aliases in ~/.ssh/config, the SSH agent and the 1Password agent all work.

If you keep passwords in ~/.pgpass or connection settings in pg_service.conf, Inlet can import those: Import Connections in the Welcome window. Passwords you enter can be saved in the Keychain.

Which to choose

Choose Postico if you work only with PostgreSQL (or Redshift, Greenplum or CockroachDB), you want a mature, focused editor for data and queries, you use iCloud or Dropbox to keep servers in step across Macs, or you’re on macOS 14 or 15.

Choose Inlet if you’re on macOS 26 and want one free app that also handles backups, roles, query plans and live activity, or that opens your MySQL, SQLite or MongoDB databases too. Inlet is new, so keep Postico around while you try it if Postico is part of your daily work.