PawSQL Community Edition: A Free & Self-Hosted Enterprise-Grade SQL Optimizer, Now Available to Individual Developers
Tomas

Tomas @pawsql

About: I am the founder of PawSQL, a startup revolutionizing SQL optimization. I share database tuning insights and PawSQL's tech, empowering data pros with effective strategies.

Joined:
Feb 20, 2023

PawSQL Community Edition: A Free & Self-Hosted Enterprise-Grade SQL Optimizer, Now Available to Individual Developers

Publish Date: May 19
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1.1 Overview of PawSQL
PawSQL is an enterprise-grade database performance-tuning platform that covers the entire SQL lifecycle—from development and testing to operations. It delivers:

  • Automated query-rewrite optimization
  • Smart index recommendation
  • Rule-based SQL review for DDL,DDL and DQL
  • Continuous monitoring & optimization

It supports all major open sourced and commercial engines (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server), providing developers and enterprises with a one-stop solution for innovative SQL optimization.

A case of optimizing a TPC-H query by PawSQL⁠.

1.2 PawSQL Community Edition
The PawSQL Community Edition is tailored for individual developers and small teams. It offers a permanently free, self-hosted deployment that you can spin up locally or in your private cloud—no external dependencies required. One-click SQL optimization and built-in performance validation come out of the box. This edition supports MySQL and PostgreSQL, and grants each user up to 600 optimization runs per month, easily covering day-to-day development and testing needs.

2. Core Advantages

2.1 Permanent Free-of-Charge & Self-Hosted

  • Forever-free: Same core SQL-review and optimization capabilities as our enterprise edition, ideal for long-term use by individuals and small teams.
  • Self-hosted deployment: Available via Docker image or binary package for your local server or private cloud—never send your SQL logs or data to the public internet.
  • No extra ops overhead: Deploy on any container-ready Linux host (4 GB RAM, 2 CPU), and you’re up and running.

2.2 Industry-Leading SQL Optimization Engine

The Community Edition ships with the exact same optimization core as our enterprise offering, giving you database-expert-level performance tuning.

Three Pillars of the PawSQL Engine

  1. Advanced Query Rewrites
  • Built on our in-house parser and rewrite algorithms
  • Performs deep AST-level transformations to produce semantically-equivalent, higher-performance SQL
  • Implements commercial-grade logical optimizations (predicate pushdown, projection pushdown), plus cost-based rewrites (subquery unnesting, query folding)

Snapshot on PawSQL

query rewrite example

  1. Smart Index Recommendations
  • Proprietary multidimensional algorithm evaluates query patterns, data distribution, and workload characteristics
  • Generates optimal index designs and flags redundant or overlapping indexes to reduce storage overhead

Snapshot on PawSQL

Smart index recommendation example

  1. Automated Performance Validation
  • End-to-end verification pipeline compares execution plans and performance baselines
  • Guarantees that every recommendation delivers measurable gains, with side-by-side visual plan comparisons

Snapshot on PawSQL
Performance Validation example

2.3 IDE Plugin Integration

PawSQL Community Edition integrates with popular IDEs—JetBrains (IntelliJ IDEA, DataGrip) and Visual Studio Code—so you can optimize your SQL with a single click, right in your editor.

  • PawSQL for JetBrains
    Config page of PawSQL for JetBrains

  • PawSQL for VS Code

One-click SQL tuning inside VS Code

3. Getting Started

3.1 Prerequisites

  • Docker
  • Linux or Windows host with ≥4 GB RAM, 2 vCPU

3.2 Deployment Steps

  1. Pull the image:
   docker pull pawsql/pawsql-ce:latest
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  1. Activate your instance: Visit https://pawsql.com/ce-activate and enter your activation code.
  2. Run the container:
   docker run -d --name pawsql-ce \
     -e activation_code=<yourCode> \
     -e activation_email=<yourEmail> \
     -e service_url=http://localhost:8080 \
     -p 8080:80 pawsql/pawsql-ce:latest
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You’re now ready to optimize your SQL workloads with PawSQL Community Edition!

4. PawSQL Community Edition vs. EverSQL

Feature PawSQL Community Edition EverSQL Free Tier EverSQL Starter
Monthly quota 600 runs 1 run 10 runs
Self-hosting Supported Not supported Not supported
Index advice Yes (with redundancy checks) Yes Yes
Query rewriting Yes Yes Yes
Performance validation Yes No No
Cost Free Free \$129/month

5. PawSQL Editions

  • Community Edition: Free, self-hosted, core optimization features
  • Enterprise Edition: Full-suite SQL performance and quality management for large organizations
  • Cloud Edition: Hosted SaaS with advanced monitoring, team collaboration, and auto-scaling

PawSQL Editions

Conclusion

With the launch of PawSQL Community Edition, we’re making enterprise-grade SQL optimization accessible to every developer. By offering a free, full-featured, self-hosted solution, PawSQL lowers the barrier to performance tuning and empowers more teams to build high-speed, reliable applications.

Reference 1: https://www.pawsql.com/community
Reference 2: https://hub.docker.com/r/pawsql/pawsql-ce

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