Spotlight: PG Orbit

When I launched Moatless, I said apps are things you should be able to buy the code for. PG Orbit is exactly that: a PostgreSQL client that's live on the App Store, Google Play and Linux, built by Adrian Rangel (@acrogenesis), and now you can buy the source.

What it is

It's one Flutter codebase, and you get a SQL editor with highlighting, saved queries and parameters, a data grid with real filters, and queries you can actually cancel on the server. It connects directly with SSL, through SSH tunnels, through Kubernetes port-forwards, or from a pasted DATABASE_URL, and it imports connections from RDS, Cloud SQL, Azure, DigitalOcean, Linode and Supabase. It works on desktop, phones and tablets.

The part I find most interesting

The selling is already built. There's a one-time Premium purchase through StoreKit and Google Play Billing, web purchases through Stripe with signed license keys, sync subscriptions, and a free read-only tier that routes every write to the paywall. If you've ever wired up in-app purchases on two platforms, you know that alone is worth a lot.

Who should buy it

If your team wants its own database tool, you can build it privately and ship it through MDM or a private app store. If you're building a different app, you can lift the billing and licensing pieces into it. The license is clear about the one thing you can't do: publish it, or anything built from it, as a competing database client.

In Adrian's words

I started PG Orbit when I switched to Android and couldn't find a PostgreSQL client that met my expectations. So I built the one I wanted using AI, and shipped it on iOS, Android, Mac, and Linux with what I think is a generous free tier and fair pricing. It's been selling steadily, but like almost any software product today, it's moatless.

It felt weird to sell the source code of a multi-platform app I've spent more than a year on. But I believe "source-ware" is where software is heading. As more people use an app, some will want its code to build the features they need, the way I built PG Orbit for myself.

It's $499 for the code, or add $199 a year for updates as new versions ship. Take a look at PG Orbit on Moatless.

Built something people use? Sell it on Moatless.