hey, not to give you "armchair" advice, but I feel like a tool that's existed for 11 years and has 11k daily users is a super serious achievement.
I'd vicariously love for you to be able to make some/more revenue with this!
+1 on @redox99's comment that charging in rubles is most probably confusing, and that a flat $10 usd/month would be easier. I also would think that renewal should actually be on by default, not off - if people want the service and/or to support you, having auto renewal off is more of a hassle for them (the customers who want to pay you!) as they'd have to have to... re-enable their service? every 30-90 days?
and another point I wanted to bring up is that it feels to me like a small text-based advertisement from ethicalads.io (the folks behind the ads on Read the Docs sites) or carbonads.net (btw I have no affiliation to either) could definitely... bring in some not-bad revenue pretty much immediately?
again, huge congrats on your project and I truly wish you'll be able to find some path to monetization. cheers!
Thank you. I have been considering various monetization approaches, evaluating their convenience and potential demand.
Unfortunately, certain external factors currently prevent me from implementing everything as I would like.
However, I still have several ideas that I hope will be engaging, in demand, and easy to pay for.
for sure, my point was that usd would already be "better" (more common) than rubles - but yes, 'localized' currencies would be great too (although setting up "adaptive pricing" is a task in itself). baby steps :-)
My point was more about the original comment is fine from the perspective of an American, but for the rest of the world, it doesn’t really matter if it is USD or rubles - it’s still a foreign transaction. I appreciate that for a large percentage of the world, consumers can probably do an approximation of the USD conversion in their head, and not a rubles one, and therefore, USD may be more friendly. That being said, the sales page has already got the approximation in USD anyway, which would be enough for me.
In my opinion that's not good advice. Over the past 11 years this domain already built up some domain reputation and incoming links. Changing the domain for no good reason won't help with people understanding the use case of the site.
The domain doesn't really matter so much as you can see with "replit.com", "chatgpt.com" or "stripe.com" which don't explain anything either.
If you want to invest time I'd suggest:
- Clean up design (Remove multiple disclaimers, side bar etc.)
- Add h1/h2 that instantly explains what this is about
- Have a list of simple examples that can be executed, not just "select * from demo"
- If you want to increase traffic, take a look at "site:sqliteonline.com" on Google. There's currently only 14 pages indexed, so lots of low hanging fruits to optimize. Could also be extended by having pages dedicated to examples or a topic that people can land on if they search for things like "left join sqlite" etc.
- Change site title from "SQL Online AiDE - Next gen SQL Editor | SQL Compiler" to something explaining what this is about.
You may be using an outdated browser version that doesn’t support some features. Please update your browser to the latest version for the website to work properly.
I am really struggling to figure out what this is or how it provides value.
Edit:
This discussion isn't exactly what I was hoping for. I was looking for ways to better highlight the features or value proposition of this site. Not defenestrate it altogether.
E.g.: A simple modal that says "Welcome to SQLite Online! You can <core value proposition> with this tool." would have radically altered my initial perception.
I don't understand the people trying to convince others that this tool is useless by saying "just do it this way, duh!". It is useful, even from a rapid glimpse at the website.
I'm at the point where I know exactly what comment that is because of the comment ID of 9224. Don't even need to mention rsync, Dropbox, or anything else.
If the database is loaded from an external source (as shown in the examples), using the "Share Script" feature automatically attaches a link to the database. The link allows both the database and the script to be accessed and loaded.
> This method is not available on all devices and does not support sharing or collaboration.
The parent cites "hassle of creating the database" and does not mention sharing or collaborating. I showed that it doesn't get more hassle-free than this and doesn't even require connectivity (which might be a problem "on some devices" or "in some locations").
It was just one item in a list and they used "etc." which prob refers to all the other obvious upsides, like why you would use pgadmin/postico to write postgres queries instead of psql cli.
So to double down on that one detail as if it were a load bearing remark comes off as trying to win a point.
If `sqlite3 test.db` launched a rich UI with tabs and such, then maybe they'd be onto something, but it does not.
Implicit assumptions: You know what a CLI is, you have one on your system, and how to install the sqlite3 binary somehow.
When I just started out with linux I was so frustrated with people just listing reams of commands, or files I needed to edit without stating I needed to look in /etc
I had the same reaction, why not just use the command line interface?
From there, I guess the value this adds is:
1. There is a UI, i.e. it has some autocomplete of sql syntax and it shows tables in a ... tabular format.
2. As others have mentioned, there are sharing features. Yes you could share a .db file, but with this you can also send a link viewable in a browser, with specific queries, etc.
#1 reminds me of MS Access from back in the day. Those were sql dbs underneath, but they had some interfaces to show you how to build queries. It wasn't a bad way to dip your toes into the basics of sql.
How do I get this sqlite3 command to work on my Chromebook? When I type this in on my Windows machine it's not working either. Are there other steps I need to take first?
It's clear that the tool is highly useful to the people who use it.
That being said, I feel like I'm dumped into the playground without understanding what I am playing with. A few short paragraphs, examples, screenshots, explanations, ect, would go very far.
It may be difficult to briefly describe all the website’s capabilities right now, but the key features include:
* Federated queries across external and internal data sources.
* Using query history as a source for new requests.
* Collaborative access to databases — both server and local, with structure synchronization.
* Automatic chart generation based on queries.
* And much more, including hidden features that are not yet easy to summarize.
As an educator I would've loved to have this last time I was teaching SQL.
1: No install
2: Ephermal (just reload if you've messed up?)
3: Good syntax highlighting
4: Visual UI to navigate the model
Why to pay for it though? That's a harder nut to crack, the UI is quite nice compared to many I've seen so maybe sell as an addon for those that provider hosted databases, collaborative spaces or as a desktop app. No obvious slam dunks though.
Agree with your edit saying that there should be a landing message that gives a quick overview. But with in a few moments I was able to see that you can create a database and then start inserting tables/records into it. Seems like a pretty good tool to learn how to create and manage a database without the hassle of having to download sqlite and start testing commands that might be new to you in the CLI
Yup, I think it would be a big help if the home page ('/') was a landing page explaining who it's for and why, and why. Is this for students? For prototyping? For quick analysis? Sample data? Importing real data? Use cases are key.
And then have a big hero button leading to the the actual tool ('/app' or '/playground' or whatever). Maybe preloaded with different sample data depending on the use case.
Right now, being dumped into a complicated interface with zero explanation is very confusing. (None of this is to criticize the project itself, just to help identify it to the people who might find the most value in it!)
I don't have the time to spend 10 minutes getting to know a product's features to try to figure out what it might be for.
Just tell me what it's for.
I mean, it's great if people can figure out other uses for it too. If they want to use it in a new way, awesome -- don't get me wrong. But products are generally built with specific purposes in mind. So don't hide those.
Thank you for your feedback. The idea was to make the product understandable without additional explanations, but it seems I didn’t achieve that. I have a lot to improve.
P2P “Share/Collaborate” mode: the UI text and toasts (“Share”, “Close connect”, “connected”, “No connected.”) plus e.rtc.user strongly suggest a feature where someone “hosts” a DB and others connect directly to run queries/see results live.
Amazing that SQLite Online has survived solo for 11 years. What technical or business pivots have kept it alive (and relevant) across changing web stacks and user expectations?
Sure it is. A subscription's defining trait is continuity of access contingent on periodic renewal, whether manual or automatic. People subscribed to things way before online payments or even credit cards were common. A modern, if niche, example is Tarsnap.com. Once in a while, I get an email from Colin telling me to pay up if I don't want my backups deleted.
Great job and many kudos for the determination to maintain a tool for 11 years!
I thankfully have no use for the tool since I no longer have to code SQL - the world is a better place for it.
It raises the question how many more "bus tools"[1] are there? Tools maintained and developed by a single developer with whom, when hit by a bus, the tool would die.
[1] no offence meant but "bus developers" is the term I learnt, it seems a little cruel to speak of folks being hit by buses - is there something better nowadays?
I'd highly suggest getting a designer, or somehow thinking with more of a product mindset? I fail to understand what it does quickly, which shouldn't happen to a potential customer.
The dev is asking on the site for people to support the development with subscriptions, but they say here they have basically zero subscribers. So 11k daily users hasn't translated to something that people want to actually pay to support. That could change.
At the time there were dozens of search engines and new ones every day. Everybody knew what search engines were, and what they offered. Google did not invent the form field -> SRP pattern; people were already used to that. Google was able to rise above the field because 1. yes the homepage was nice, but more importantly 2. the results were so much better than competitors.
I don't understand the comparison to SQLite online because what are the well-known competitors, and what is it even trying to do?
This is accurate. Back then nobody went to google and was confused when it was just an input box. They went there already knowing it was a search engine and that search engines needed input. They came back because the results were so good (relative to competitors).
The clean interface just stood out as the other competitors at the time we're bogged down by ads. So a quick loading page in a time of slow internet connections, was a very nice user-centric feature.
It is very straightforward to hire UX designer in a contract, or even just ask ChatGPT to design an interface that is better than a software engineer's minimum effort (and possibly experience) in UX.
And what currency is it in? Seems so odd to not put it in dollars or euros.
And FURTHERMORE, the $ sign is incorrectly to the right of the numbers. It should be $10. Personally, this shows such a lack of product thinking, and simply hacking away at a tool instead of delivering a service.
Not the parent, but I see that several messages related to buying a subscription are translated into the locale of my browser. In my language, it just feels a little amateurish. In other languages, perhaps it might contain something totally wrong.
So it will be safer to just use languages you are comfortable with, like English and Russian. Especially on pages that concern money. :)
The sufficiently-late LLM seems a bit like a true Scotsman. After your comment, the OP explained that they did, in fact, use an LLM for translation. No info about whether it was "the latest".
Could you share some numbers like a ballpark of subscribers?
I'd vicariously love for you to be able to make some/more revenue with this!
+1 on @redox99's comment that charging in rubles is most probably confusing, and that a flat $10 usd/month would be easier. I also would think that renewal should actually be on by default, not off - if people want the service and/or to support you, having auto renewal off is more of a hassle for them (the customers who want to pay you!) as they'd have to have to... re-enable their service? every 30-90 days?
and another point I wanted to bring up is that it feels to me like a small text-based advertisement from ethicalads.io (the folks behind the ads on Read the Docs sites) or carbonads.net (btw I have no affiliation to either) could definitely... bring in some not-bad revenue pretty much immediately?
again, huge congrats on your project and I truly wish you'll be able to find some path to monetization. cheers!
As a Brit, I'd rather GBP...
Isn't this comment a form of US defaultism?
Isn't this comment a form of Brit defaultism?
Just show and charge 10 USD. You can localize that other currency (Rubles?) if GeoIP matches.
Maybe buy a new domain name like below (and direct to your existing from this new url).
All of these domain names are available for sale under $10.And the more descriptive name might allow you to not have to change the UI.
(Very cool project by the way and congrats on 11 years)
The domain doesn't really matter so much as you can see with "replit.com", "chatgpt.com" or "stripe.com" which don't explain anything either.
If you want to invest time I'd suggest:
- Clean up design (Remove multiple disclaimers, side bar etc.)
- Add h1/h2 that instantly explains what this is about
- Have a list of simple examples that can be executed, not just "select * from demo"
- If you want to increase traffic, take a look at "site:sqliteonline.com" on Google. There's currently only 14 pages indexed, so lots of low hanging fruits to optimize. Could also be extended by having pages dedicated to examples or a topic that people can land on if they search for things like "left join sqlite" etc.
- Change site title from "SQL Online AiDE - Next gen SQL Editor | SQL Compiler" to something explaining what this is about.
The site takes a long time to load: is your internet slow?
If you have an old version of the browser update to the latest or use the latest version of chrome.
Close all tabs with the site and reload the last one.
support: z@sqliteonline.com
downloadable font: Glyph bbox was incorrect (glyph ids 33 55 62 81 82 83 84 87 88 89 90 112 119 120 123 139 159 162 164 166 178 184 185 217 218 272 273 274 275 279 281 284 290 291 292 309 310 319 321 323 326 329 330 331 332 333 334 339 341 347 349 351 352 353 354 357 358 361 366 367 370 371 414 431 436 444 445 458 460 464 465 483 505 508 511 514 516 517 518 520 521 538 539 546 568 574 579 580 585 586 594 596 599 602 603 616 618 622 627 629 630 633 634 638 643 645 651 654 665 675 685 686 688 691) (font-family: "FontAwesome" style:normal weight:400 stretch:100 src index:1) source: https://sqliteonline.com/fonts/fontawesome-webfont.woff2?v=4...
using deprecated parameters for the initialization function; pass a single object instead sog3.js:2251:21
Uncaught (in promise) ReferenceError: RTCPeerConnection is not defined <anonymous> https://sqliteonline.com/f/agw31.0.26.min.js:49 async* https://sqliteonline.com/f/agw31.0.26.min.js:87 async* https://sqliteonline.com/f/agw31.0.26.min.js:89
RTCPeerConnection is available in Firefox and Chrome since 2017... son unless the browser is veeery old... Maybe something blocking RTC?
Edit:
This discussion isn't exactly what I was hoping for. I was looking for ways to better highlight the features or value proposition of this site. Not defenestrate it altogether.
E.g.: A simple modal that says "Welcome to SQLite Online! You can <core value proposition> with this tool." would have radically altered my initial perception.
Be kind and sensible.
The website, however, works on any platform and allows working together in a single shared database.
You can share a link to grant access to your database, with the connection handled via P2P through WebRTC.
collaboration sounds nice though, it definitely has a market considering 11k daily users.
The parent cites "hassle of creating the database" and does not mention sharing or collaborating. I showed that it doesn't get more hassle-free than this and doesn't even require connectivity (which might be a problem "on some devices" or "in some locations").
You are just trying to prove a point instead of understanding it.
> "hassle of creating the database" and does not mention sharing or collaborating.
He might just have summarized everything as "hassle of creating the database".
Not everything on internet is supposed to be a debate with highly and carefully developped wording.
> He might just have summarized everything as "hassle of creating the database".
You are also making an assumption, though. That person might not have known "sqlite3 mydb.db" is all you need to create a sqlite database.
So to double down on that one detail as if it were a load bearing remark comes off as trying to win a point.
If `sqlite3 test.db` launched a rich UI with tabs and such, then maybe they'd be onto something, but it does not.
When I just started out with linux I was so frustrated with people just listing reams of commands, or files I needed to edit without stating I needed to look in /etc
From there, I guess the value this adds is:
1. There is a UI, i.e. it has some autocomplete of sql syntax and it shows tables in a ... tabular format.
2. As others have mentioned, there are sharing features. Yes you could share a .db file, but with this you can also send a link viewable in a browser, with specific queries, etc.
#1 reminds me of MS Access from back in the day. Those were sql dbs underneath, but they had some interfaces to show you how to build queries. It wasn't a bad way to dip your toes into the basics of sql.
It will give you a shell that will have SQLite.
For Windows, download the interactive command line tool from sqlite.org.
Anyone else, probably, but then why would you use this tool if you have no need for sqlite?
LOL
>my Windows
If you're the kind of person who even knows what SQL, SQLite or hell even a database is, you already know SQLite runs on pretty much anything.
Some people might not have computers but still want to learn?
That being said, I feel like I'm dumped into the playground without understanding what I am playing with. A few short paragraphs, examples, screenshots, explanations, ect, would go very far.
It may be difficult to briefly describe all the website’s capabilities right now, but the key features include:
1: No install
2: Ephermal (just reload if you've messed up?)
3: Good syntax highlighting
4: Visual UI to navigate the model
Why to pay for it though? That's a harder nut to crack, the UI is quite nice compared to many I've seen so maybe sell as an addon for those that provider hosted databases, collaborative spaces or as a desktop app. No obvious slam dunks though.
And then have a big hero button leading to the the actual tool ('/app' or '/playground' or whatever). Maybe preloaded with different sample data depending on the use case.
Right now, being dumped into a complicated interface with zero explanation is very confusing. (None of this is to criticize the project itself, just to help identify it to the people who might find the most value in it!)
I don't have the time to spend 10 minutes getting to know a product's features to try to figure out what it might be for.
Just tell me what it's for.
I mean, it's great if people can figure out other uses for it too. If they want to use it in a new way, awesome -- don't get me wrong. But products are generally built with specific purposes in mind. So don't hide those.
Would have made homework (and just learning) significantly easier.
> No auto-renewal
That's not subscription.
I thankfully have no use for the tool since I no longer have to code SQL - the world is a better place for it.
It raises the question how many more "bus tools"[1] are there? Tools maintained and developed by a single developer with whom, when hit by a bus, the tool would die.
[1] no offence meant but "bus developers" is the term I learnt, it seems a little cruel to speak of folks being hit by buses - is there something better nowadays?
Similar to ChatGPT.
But those who knew what it is, their usage is huge.
At the time there were dozens of search engines and new ones every day. Everybody knew what search engines were, and what they offered. Google did not invent the form field -> SRP pattern; people were already used to that. Google was able to rise above the field because 1. yes the homepage was nice, but more importantly 2. the results were so much better than competitors.
I don't understand the comparison to SQLite online because what are the well-known competitors, and what is it even trying to do?
Not even going to touch the ChatGPT comparison.
The clean interface just stood out as the other competitors at the time we're bogged down by ads. So a quick loading page in a time of slow internet connections, was a very nice user-centric feature.
(or: just solicit feedback in a space frequented by designers, and harness the power of being wrong on the internet ;)
And FURTHERMORE, the $ sign is incorrectly to the right of the numbers. It should be $10. Personally, this shows such a lack of product thinking, and simply hacking away at a tool instead of delivering a service.
So it will be safer to just use languages you are comfortable with, like English and Russian. Especially on pages that concern money. :)