Evaluation of Open‑Source SQL Audit Tools: SQLE, Yearning, and Archery

Background

Our company plans to introduce an SQL audit product to improve the control of manual SQL deployment processes. We investigated several open‑source solutions and selected SQLE, Yearning, and Archery for a hands‑on trial, focusing on deployment ease, rule compliance, workflow support, and product stability.

1. Deployment

Feature Comparison

SQLE

Yearning

Archery

Manual deployment

✅

✅

✅

Docker support

✅

✅

✅

Experience Comparison

Because the internal network cannot access the public internet, we used manual deployment for all three tools. SQLE and Yearning installed smoothly via RPM or ZIP packages, while Archery required Python dependencies and ultimately was deployed with Docker Compose after manual attempts failed.

SQLE: RPM package, one‑click install/start, managed by systemd; requires only database creation and config changes.

Yearning: ZIP package, similar to SQLE, plus an additional "Install" step after configuration.

Archery: Manual installation needed Python and dependencies; after difficulties we switched to Docker Compose.

Ranking

(SQLE = Yearning) > Archery

2. Audit Capability

Feature Comparison

SQLE

Yearning

Archery

Number of audit rules

Many (140+)

Several (40+)

Several (60+)

Open‑source rules

✅

❌

✅ (goInception for MySQL)

Rule granularity

Data‑source level

Global

Global (no UI configuration)

Multi‑database support

✅ (Community edition limited for non‑MySQL)

❌ (MySQL only)

✅ (fewer rules for non‑MySQL)

Experience Comparison

SQLE offers the most rules, though support for databases other than MySQL is minimal. Since our company uses MySQL, this limitation is not critical.

SQLE: Covers almost all of our internal MySQL requirements; rule granularity is per data source, allowing flexible rule sets.

Yearning: Focuses more on DDL; DML rules are scarce and the rule set is closed‑source, making custom extensions difficult.

Archery: Provides many rules for MySQL via goInception, but the UI does not display or configure them, limiting usability.

Ranking

SQLE > Archery > Yearning

3. SQL Workflow Deployment

Feature Comparison

SQLE

Yearning

Archery

Workorder approval

✅

✅

✅

Visual workflow configuration

✅

✅

❌

Automatic deployment

✅

✅

✅

Restricted operation time

✅

❌

✅

Scheduled deployment

✅

✅ (cannot modify schedule)

✅

Offline execution

✅

❌

✅

Online DDL

✅

✅

✅

DML transaction execution

✅

❌

❌

Backup support

❌

✅

✅

Message notifications

✅

✅

✅

Experience Comparison

All three tools provide the core SQL deployment functions required by our company. SQLE uniquely supports DML transaction execution, helping maintain data consistency during workorders, while Yearning and Archery offer pre‑deployment backup.

SQLE: Simplest configuration, directly visible in the project interface.

Yearning: Simple configuration but separates DML and DDL submissions; some UI quirks required community assistance, and schedule changes are not possible.

Archery: Configuration is cumbersome, requiring navigation between the UI and Django admin without a unified experience.

Ranking

(SQLE = Yearning) > Archery

4. Product Support

Feature Comparison

SQLE

Yearning

Archery

Release speed

Fast

Medium

Slow

Maintainer

Company

Individual

Individual

Issue response

Fast

Slow

Fast

Documentation

✅

✅

✅

Experience Comparison

All three projects are actively maintained; SQLE releases new versions roughly every month. For small companies the differences are minor, and most operational questions can be answered via the provided documentation.

Ranking

SQLE > Yearning > Archery

Summary

Our company is currently trialing SQLE, which now manages about five environments and is still being evaluated.

This article only covers the SQL audit and deployment capabilities of the selected open‑source tools; each product has additional features that were not tested. Readers should choose based on their own requirements.

References

[1] SQLE: https://github.com/actiontech/sqle

[2] Yearning: https://github.com/cookieY/Yearning

[3] Archery: https://github.com/hhyo/Archery