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Tabix is the classic lightweight ClickHouse web client: open a browser tab, point it at your server, run SQL. It needs no backend and no install, and for a quick look at a database that is genuinely hard to beat. The trade-off is that the project has been effectively dormant since mid-2022, and it stops at querying and basic charts. CH-UI is a self-hosted workspace that covers the rest of the job: dashboards you can share, ingestion pipelines, dbt-style models, cluster health, query-log analytics, cost showback, governance, and an AI copilot, at the cost of actually running a (single) binary.
| Tabix | CH-UI | |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | Static browser app. Use the hosted page or serve the files yourself; talks directly to ClickHouse HTTP from the browser. Nothing to run server-side. | One self-hosted binary (or Docker/Helm) with state in a local SQLite file. Connects directly or over an outbound tunnel, so ClickHouse needs no inbound exposure. |
| Maintenance status | Effectively unmaintained: the last commit to tabixio/tabix was May 2022. It still works, but do not expect fixes or new ClickHouse feature support. | Actively developed; regular releases (v2.18.0 in October 2026), public changelog, signed release artifacts. |
| SQL editing | Solid SQL editor with autocomplete for fields/functions/dictionaries, query formatting, and a process list with KILL QUERY. | SQL workspace with streaming results, sort and filter on results, automatic query history, ClickHouse error parsing with jump-to-error, and Ask AI query generation (Pro). |
| Dashboards | Inline charts and simple drawn dashboards for query results. | Dashboard builder with shareable public links (rate-limited, sanitized), scheduled refresh, and alerting on top (Pro). |
| ClickHouse operations | Realtime metrics view from system.metrics / system.events, process list. | Cluster Health (per-node replication, merges, mutations, parts, Keeper, backups) and Query Insights (query_log latency percentiles, slow patterns, failures, hot tables) as Pro modules. |
| Cost visibility | None. | Cost Center (Pro, v2.7.0): showback/chargeback from query_log CPU time and parts storage, team attribution, CSV export. |
| Ingestion & modeling | None, query-only. | Pipelines (Kafka, S3, webhooks, databases) and dbt-style SQL models with scheduling, plus GitHub sync (Pro). |
| AI | None. | Brain AI chat, bring-your-own-key, your provider, your data path; in-editor Ask AI and agentic tools are Pro. Plus an embedded MCP server, so Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor query through CH-UI with read-only guardrails and an audit trail. |
| Auth & governance | Credentials live in the browser; no workspace users, audit, or roles beyond what ClickHouse itself enforces. | Workspace users with roles, SSO/OIDC (Pro), immutable audit log, governance catalog and guardrails (Pro). |
| Licensing & price | Free, Apache-2.0. | Core free, Apache-2.0. Pro modules (BSL, source-available) at $1,199/year flat per instance, never per seat. |
Questions
The tabixio/tabix repository has had no commits since May 2022. It still works for basic querying against current ClickHouse versions, but new ClickHouse features, bug fixes, and security updates are not arriving. CH-UI ships regular releases; v2.18.0 landed in October 2026.
Yes, one. CH-UI is a single self-hosted binary (also available as Docker image and Helm chart) with all state in a local SQLite file and no external database or services to operate. Tabix runs entirely in the browser, which is genuinely simpler if a SQL console is all you need.
The core is free and Apache-2.0: SQL workspace, dashboards, pipelines, models, Brain AI chat (bring your own key), the MCP server for AI clients, and the OpenTelemetry log explorer. Pro modules (Cluster Health, Query Insights, Cost Center, Governance, scheduled query jobs, Alerts, OpenTelemetry traces and metrics, Ask AI and Brain agentic tools, SSO) cost $1,199/year flat per instance, with a 30-day free trial.
There is nothing to migrate: Tabix stores no server-side state. Install CH-UI, add your ClickHouse connection (direct URL or outbound tunnel), and your databases, tables, and data appear as-is.
Self-host the Apache-2.0 core for free, or start a 30-day Pro trial: no card, no sales call, license delivered by email.
