socAdmin docs
get started Desktop app

Desktop app

socAdmin Manager runs socAdmin on your own machine and can install MySQL, PostgreSQL and MongoDB for you. No terminal, no Docker.

socAdmin Manager is a native desktop app, in the spirit of MAMP. It starts the socAdmin server locally and opens it in your browser. It can also detect, install and run the database engines on your machine.

Download

Platform File Link
macOS (Apple Silicon) .dmg Download
macOS (Intel) .dmg Download
Windows (64-bit) .exe installer Download
Linux (Debian, Ubuntu amd64) .deb Download
Linux (Debian, Ubuntu arm64) .deb Download
Linux (Arch x86_64) .pkg.tar.zst Download

All versions are available on the GitHub releases page.

Install and start

  1. Install the app

    Open the .dmg and drag socAdmin Manager to Applications, run the .exe installer, or make the .AppImage executable and launch it.

  2. Start the server

    Click Start. The Manager runs socAdmin on http://localhost:8080 by default. You can change the port in the app.

  3. Create your account

    socAdmin opens in your browser. The first account you register becomes the admin. Its password needs at least 10 characters, with an uppercase letter, a lowercase letter, a digit and a special character.

  4. Connect a database

    Enter the host, port, user and password of a database server. If you don’t know them, see Connecting to a database.

What the Manager does

  • Start and stop the socAdmin server in one click.
  • Change the port socAdmin listens on.
  • Detect which database engines are installed on your machine.
  • Install and uninstall MySQL, PostgreSQL and MongoDB.
  • Start and stop each database service individually.
  • Run from the system tray.

Prerequisites for installing databases

You only need this if you want the Manager to install database engines. To connect to engines you already have, nothing else is required.

The Manager installs engines through your system’s package manager:

OS Package manager What you need to do
macOS Homebrew Install Homebrew first (below)
Linux apt (Debian, Ubuntu) or dnf (Fedora, RHEL) Nothing, it ships with your distribution
Windows winget or Chocolatey winget comes with recent Windows 10 and 11. Otherwise install Chocolatey

macOS prerequisites

  1. Xcode Command Line Tools — Homebrew and some database formulas need them. Run:

    xcode-select --install

    If you already have them, the command tells you so. Keep them up to date (softwareupdate --all --install --force) — an outdated version can cause Homebrew installs to fail.

  2. Homebrew — the Manager uses it to install database engines on macOS:

    /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

    Then restart the Manager so it detects brew. More at brew.sh.