# Database Access required for our forum
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/database-access-required-for-our-forum/194276
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [June 18, 2021, 9:20am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/database-access-required-for-our-forum/194276 "2021-06-18T09:20:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Bhagyashri](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Bhagyashri)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2021, 9:20am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/database-access-required-for-our-forum/194276/1 "2021-06-18T09:20:12Z")
Hi Team,
Could you please help me on accessing the community forum database? We had no idea about how to access it and need to know the top viewed topics.
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### Author:  [@TallTrees](https://meta.discourse.org/u/TallTrees)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2021, 9:44am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/database-access-required-for-our-forum/194276/2 "2021-06-18T09:44:41Z")
Is this what you are looking for?
> [@Discourse Data Explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/data-explorer-plugin/32566):
>
> discourse2Summary Discourse [Data Explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32566?silent=true) allows you to make SQL queries against your live database, allowing for up-to-the-minute stats reporting.open_bookInstall Guide This plugin is bundled with Discourse core. There is no need to install the plugin separately.information_source If you’re looking for examples or support for any custom queries, you can find lots of topics in our #Data & reporting category under the #sql-query tag. If there’s not one to suit your pa…
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### Author:  [@Bhagyashri](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Bhagyashri)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2021, 10:54am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/database-access-required-for-our-forum/194276/3 "2021-06-18T10:54:53Z")
Thanks!! I have already tried this but it shows me to upgrade to business plan.
Is there any other way for accessing database. May be through backend or any other way?
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2021, 11:20am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/database-access-required-for-our-forum/194276/4 "2021-06-18T11:20:24Z")
I don’t believe so. You might also look at search tools that might let you sort by views.
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### Author:  [@Bhagyashri](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Bhagyashri)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2021, 11:31am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/database-access-required-for-our-forum/194276/5 "2021-06-18T11:31:51Z")
thanks, that might help. But also want to know about the way to update the database if possible.
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### Author:  [@itsbhanusharma](https://meta.discourse.org/u/itsbhanusharma)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2021, 11:54am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/database-access-required-for-our-forum/194276/6 "2021-06-18T11:54:02Z")
On the SaaS version of discourse, You don’t have access to the database or application server. All the updates are being managed by the discourse engineers. If you’d like to access (not recommended) the database directly yourself, You may consider self hosting.
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### Author:  [@TallTrees](https://meta.discourse.org/u/TallTrees)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2021, 11:55am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/database-access-required-for-our-forum/194276/7 "2021-06-18T11:55:59Z")
If you self-host, you also have the option of installing the [data explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32566?silent=true) plugin, which in many cases is probably better than direct db access.
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### Author:  [@Bhagyashri](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Bhagyashri)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2021, 12:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/database-access-required-for-our-forum/194276/8 "2021-06-18T12:11:41Z")
What is self hosting?
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### Author:  [@TallTrees](https://meta.discourse.org/u/TallTrees)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2021, 12:15pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/database-access-required-for-our-forum/194276/9 "2021-06-18T12:15:52Z")
If you have an Internet facing host, a domain, mail servers and a whole lot of time, you can install Discourse and run it your own server: [discourse/docs/INSTALL.md at main · discourse/discourse · GitHub](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/master/docs/INSTALL.md)