What is Liquibase used for?

Liquibase is a Java tool for tracking, versioning and deploying database schema changes across many database engines, with rollback support. It is a good fit for database migrations in CI/CD and controlled schema releases across environments.

Is Liquibase open source?

Yes. Liquibase is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at liquibase/liquibase and is written mainly in Java.

Yes. Liquibase is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence.

What are some alternatives to Liquibase?

Similar open-source tools in the Database Tools category include Flyway, Goose and DBeaver. SaaS products in the same category include AI2sql, Aqua Data Studio and DBCode.

Is Liquibase actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Liquibase was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v5.0.4, published on 20 August 2026. The project has 5.6k stars on GitHub.

Liquibase: open-source database tools

About Liquibase

Liquibase helps teams track, version and deploy changes to database schemas. Instead of applying SQL by hand, you define changes in versioned scripts, and Liquibase works out which still need to run, applies them in order and records what was done, which reduces errors and delays when releasing database updates.

The README lists benefits including control of schema changes for specific versions, automatic ordering of deployment scripts, easy rollback of changes and collaboration with tools already in use. Repository topics name MySQL, MariaDB, SQL Server, DB2 and Oracle among supported databases, plus continuous delivery and DevOps use. The project is written in Java and ships as a command-line tool and as a library.

This repository holds the source of Liquibase Community, whose license shows as 'Other' on GitHub, so check the terms for your use. The vendor also sells commercial editions with additional capabilities. It suits developers and database administrators who want database changes handled in the same pipeline as application code.

Key features

Versioned database schema change tracking
Automatic ordering of deployment scripts
Rollback of applied changes
Support for many relational databases
Command-line tool and Java library
Fits CI/CD pipelines

Good fit for

→Database migrations in CI/CD
→Controlled schema releases across environments

Built with: Java; MySQL
Tags: database-migrations; schema-management; devops; java; liquibase; continuous-delivery; sql

Liquibase: questions and answers

What is Liquibase used for?: Liquibase is a Java tool for tracking, versioning and deploying database schema changes across many database engines, with rollback support. It is a good fit for database migrations in CI/CD and controlled schema releases across environments.
Is Liquibase open source?: Yes. Liquibase is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at liquibase/liquibase and is written mainly in Java.
Is Liquibase free?: Yes. Liquibase is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence.
What are some alternatives to Liquibase?: Similar open-source tools in the Database Tools category include Flyway, Goose and DBeaver. SaaS products in the same category include AI2sql, Aqua Data Studio and DBCode.
Is Liquibase actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Liquibase was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v5.0.4, published on 20 August 2026. The project has 5.6k stars on GitHub.