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Wondering what is the best or most popular database client tool. Similar to Microsoft's SQL management studio, but one that can work with various databases. Other tools I have found are:
Toad for SQL Server
Database fishing tool
Apex SQL Studio
Some of these tools can even compare and sync database schema's and some cases the data itself as well. Very useful when deploying applications for example from a pre-production environment to production environment.
So what's your favourite database manager ? Maybe there is a nice open source tool out there that is well rounded with the most useful features.
SQuirreL SQL
Open source
Works with many databases
SqlDbx - www.sqldbx.com - has a free edition, is portable and works with quite a few dbs.
Also AnySQL Maestro - http://www.sqlmaestro.com/products/anysql/maestro/
I use PL/SQL Developer, as soon as I have to work on an Oracle Database. I like the UI, simple and fast.
I'm using Aqua Data Studio for many years now and it is the most valuable of all my tools - see Aquafold
I use Navicat myself. It supports MySQL, PostgreSQL and Oracle.
SQL Developer is nice for Oracle and has plugins for several other databases.
http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/sql_developer/index.html
Eclipse Data Tools Platform within Eclipse (my primary IDE):
Open source, works with many databases
Do all the basics and some advanced stuff. In recent versions you can find some kind of visual query builder as well.
Oracle has a plugin where implemented some Oracle-specific functions.
If you are using PostgreSQL (and, really, you should be!), PgAdmin rocks. It lets you query, explore tables, do administrative tasks, manage users, visually explain complex queries, graphically build queries and much more. It runs on Windows, Linux and OS X and can connect to local or remote PostgreSQL servers.
DbVisualizer - there's a free version with a bit limited functionality and a fully fledged one for $149.
If your're using MS Sql Server, try using LinqPad; it's much more lightweight than the Management Studio, and you'll be practicing writing queries in linq in the meantime as well.
(source: linqpad.net)
I prefer...
PL/SQL Developer for Oracle
The inbuilt tool for MSSQL
The inbuilt tool for DB2
RazorSQL - it works with pretty much any database you can think of.
Any comments on LyteRAD? Not a pure database management tool, but good for creating and prototyping db apps quickly.
I've used Query Express and it's great because it's actually a standalone 100 KB file, no installation needed. It only does querying but it's fast and free.
SQLyog for MySQL.
TOAD for when I worked with Oracle.
If you need data comparison, schema comparison or visual query builder, than you should take a look at our database tools for SQL Server:
dbForge Schema Compare for SQL Server
dbForge Data Compare for SQL Server
dbForge Query Builder for SQL Server
All these tools are quite affordable and have 30-days trial period.
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Has anyone used all three of these databases? What are your experiences with them? PostgreSQL looks pretty tempting for a project but I'm curious to learn more about it (We're a .NET Shop). I've also heard of quite a lot of people being satisfied with DB2.
I work in a very large organization that uses DB2 primarily on Linux (Red Hat). We have a number of large databases and have investigated moving to other RDBMS solutions, such as Oracle and SQL Server. I did a lot of work on the SQL server end of that.
We found that SQL server performs much better and requires less tuning than DB2, especially when tables frow larger than 1M records. HADR is also difficult and bulky, to say the least.
We found many differences between DB2 and SQL Server, and too many to list here. I was responsible for doing a lot of the engineering behind code conversion from one platform to another, and can't say I found anything in DB2 to be superior to SQL server, but did find many things I liked better about SQL server. Here are some off the top of my head:
Better selection data types in SQL Server, such as MONEY and SMALL MONEY.
Mixed character encoding in SQL Server. Some columns can be ANSI and others UNICODE (char and nchar, respectively). Setting this up in DB2 is neither straightforward nor easy.
Better tools in SQL server, mainly SSIS for ETL (As opposed to the insanely priced IBM Data Stage).
SQL server has more forgiving syntax. For example, you don't need semi-colons everywhere. Maybe just a personal preference but I found it much easier to code in T-SQL.
Many advanced features seem to work better in SQL server. For example, SQL server lets you do page-level compression, where DB2 is limited to row-level compression.
It was easier to tune SQL Server queries with the SQL Server IDE
There are more, but honestly I suggest that anyone who is considering one over the other should set both up and spend some time working with both systems. Right now it seems like SQL server is a better overall solution, but DB2 may one day take the crown.
Lastly, when dealing with data warehousing, SQL, SSIS, and SSAS made a much better solution than InfoSphere, DataStage, and DB2. I could write a whitepaper on it, but my suggestion here is to set it up on your own and spend a week or to playing with each solution. Microsoft's solution here was faster and cheaper than IBM's. I don't know of any other basis upon which to make a decision.
Platform shouldn't be an issue since databases generally run on their own machines, but there are always those "no microsoft!" and "no linux!" shops around. It's a shame, really. I'd recommend SQL server.
As a DB2 person, I can offer a few details about what you could expect from running DB2 for Windows and developing .NET applications for it. The following details were current as of version 9.7, which was released in June 2009.
Drivers and API support for just about any Windows programming language and IDE, including .NET and Visual Studio extensions
A no-cost, production-ready database engine (Express-C) that has no database size limit and is the least restricted when compared to Oracle Express and SQL Server Express
A self-tuning database engine for Windows that automatically handles the sizing of several memory buffers that are critical to good performance
Rock-solid support for XML as a native datatype, handled by its own dedicated query engine that is optimized for XML's hierarchical nature. Queries can access any combination of XML and tabular data with any combination of SQL and XQuery expressions
Avoid microsoft like the plague. Always push to use PostgreSql even on windows, way better support for developing applications for e.g. Java/Python and still has good support in .NET. Also of course is completely free which given the current license fees for SQL Server is nothing to be sniffed at even if you're a multi-million dollar company.
For the cost of 1 SQL Server license you are going to save £30,000 (say $40,000) or more - buy better hardware to run Postgres on and still have a net benefit.
As far as performance, really if this is such a massive issue we should not be using either DB2, SQL Server or Postgres anyway. The difference between the three is negligible for their design purposes.
Edit: On the .NET integration, actually this is really poor in SQL Server anyway, it does have more features than Postgres/DB2 admittedly but it's not really hugely advantageous over SSIS or stored procedures. I could see the main use case in my work as accessing classes and functions from a CLR .dll but then you're implementing logic in the database which may or may not be a good idea for you.
If you're a .NET shop, and are either using a small database (i.e. Sql Server Express), or have the money for the full SQL Server, use it. SQL Server will perform better than PostgreSQL for most actions, and about the same as DB2.
PostgreSQL is fantastic if you need multi-platform support, are Linux-based, or need a free product that's not Microsoft.
I haven't used DB2 in over 10 years, other than running an in-house performance test vs. other databases (where it was about the same for a transactional database as Oracle/SQL Server, where were better than MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc).
If you are a .net shop stay with SQL Server.
Using any other database platform would require non-Windows to get the best out of it. On Windows, SQL Server is king simply because MS own both OS and SQL Server (Like Oracle/Red Hat).
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I'm just looking for a management tool like TOAD for Postgres. Anyone used a good one?
Edit - I work mostly within the data itself and the database already has a mature model/design. I use the edit windows the most (well, in TOAD for Oracle anyway.)
As far as I know, Toad only exists naturally for: Oracle, MS SQL, DB2 and MySQL...
--JS
Doesn't TOAD exist for several plattforms?
I'm using pgAdmin III which fills my needs so far.
http://www.pgadmin.org/
Not sure if TOAD for specific DB versions is any different than TOAD for Data Modeler, but it appears that TOAD Data Modeler supports PostgreSQL, along with a few others.
If you're looking for something like SQL Server Management Studio, but for Postgres, how about EMS SQL Manager or Lightning Admin?
See the wiki: http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Community_Guide_to_PostgreSQL_GUI_Tools
TOra has some nice features and is supposed to be a lot like TOAD. Also, it is completely GPL so you can change the code yourself.
BTW: Toad is not OpenSource and is now only trialware (must re-install every 120 days). TOra is OpenSource so you don't have those issues.
I've used Navicat fairly extensively and successfully but only on a Mac. It has a Windows implementation that is, as far as I know, more feature rich than the Mac implementation.
I've had the odd data typing issue with it but, if you are not doing data modelling, that may not be an issue for you
Because you do not need to edit the database design, I suggest SQL Workbench/J. It is Java application. You can use GUI mode (which I prefer to) and console mode (if you like psql-like command console).
I use this app much more than pgAdmin III or pgAdmin 4 because it helps me to ease monitoring the database activity, deploying new version of DB app, etc.
Navicat for PostgreSQL is working really well for me natively.
I set up phppgAdmin for the teams general use and it has been quite valuea
ble
Which of the Database servers would you people recommend for using in a moderate-to-large scale (will vary from customer to customer) application.
I know MS SQL but since the app will be developed using delphi the .net framework is kind of annoying to deploy aswell. Also how realiable is Interbase.
Thanks in advance.
Since I have been developing in Firebird for several years now, if I were in your situation, I would look no further. The fact that you can develop your own extension library (udf library) in Delphi makes it very attractive to start with. Some of the new SQL constructs like the List aggregator and Common Table Expressions are icing on the cake. Deployment is very light (under 5 MB), and the support is excellent including incredible tools like IBExpert. I used MS SQL Server in a big company I worked at a few years ago and I would choose Firebird over MS SQL Server.
Data Access to SQL Server has nothing to do with the .NET framework. Delphi can connect just fine to SQL Server.
In terms of database engines that work with delphi, another you can consider is the Sybase Advantage Database server
Interbase is as reliable as they come. In fact, I'd like to get a job as an Interbase DBA, because I could uses the sleep.
I would definitely recommend looking at Interbase by Embarcadero or the open-source sibling, Firebird. Both are very well supported by Delphi by means of native, high-performance db-access components and such.
Interbase is a totally rock-solid database - I would put it on a par with SQL Server or Oracle. It's totally capable of handling medium to high traffic for at least 50-100 users concurrently, no problem at all.
Another two worth competitor would be Elevate DB and Nexus DB. Both grew out of Delphi file-based database systems, and both have been around for quite some time (in one form or another) and are well proven, widely used, well tested.
Marc
This seems back-to-front to me. I would choose the database server first, then select the development environment that works best with the selected database.
SQL Server. For 2005, you can make your own SQL Server deployment application that automates installing of Windows Installer 3.1, .NET Framework 2.0, SQL Server 2005 then installing the database through generatated SQL script (Feel free to contact me if you need help with it, I'd gladly help you). If you still insist on not installing .Net framework which is 22MB, I'd say go with SQL Server 2000 as you can still upgrade it to 2005+ when you'd like to.
Also, I had been using Advantage Database Server for few years and it's alright, Few DLLs to copy and you're ready to go even if you'd like to switch to remote version.
Both Server and Client installations of MS SQL require the .NET framework on the target machine. That's about it. If we can use ms sql without .net on target machine then ms sql is fine.
I have being developing in Delphi for about 6 years using distinct editions of SQL Server, and this database server behaved very very well. All of them were critical applications.
So, I would recommend you to keep with it.If you don't want to use .NET with and keep SQL Server I would recommend an older version pre-2005.
This isn't really an answer, but some things you might like to consider before making your mind up.
What do you mean by moderate-to-large scale? Do you mean by the number of concurrent users or by the amount of data being stored?
Are you going to be supporting the database as well when it's deployed, or might the customer have their own DBAs and want to incorporate it into their infrastructure team's remit?
Do you need to build-in complex features like auditing or granular security that some databases might provide out-of-the-box? Do you need to be able to run an overnight batch process on the database in some controlled manner?
Do you need to be able to have robust high-volume transactional support, or is it more for just using as a sink for reporting data? i.e. is it more OLTP or OLAP?
Are you limited by cost? i.e. does it need to be free/open-source, or can you select paid-for vendor product?
Both Firebird & Interbase are great, but not generally well-received into an "enterprise" environment in my experience unless they're "hands-off" and embedded into the application. MS SQL Server is a "safe-bet" for most systems. There is a cost associated with it but, as you know, it does come with a complete toolset and very good support.
If you do go down the Firebird or Interbase route then do take a look at Jason Wharton's IBObjects library which provides a high-performance replacement for BDE when using these databases. http://www.ibobjects.com/
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Is there a way to produce a diagram showing existing tables and their relationships given a connection to a database?
This is for SQL Server 2008 Express Edition.
Yes you can use SQL Server 2008 itself but you need to install SQL Server Management Studio Express (if not installed ) . Just right Click on Database Diagrams and create new diagram. Select the exisiting tables and if you have specified the references in your tables properly. You will be able to see the complete diagram of selected tables.
For further reference see Getting started with SQL Server database diagrams
Try DBVis - download at https://www.dbvis.com/download - there is a pro version (not needed) and a open version that should suffice.
All you have to do is to get the right JDBC - database driver for SQL Server, the tool shows tables and references orthogonal, hierarchical, in a circle ;-) etc. just by pressing one single button. I use the free version for years now.
SQLDeveloper can do this.
http://sqldeveloper.solyp.com/
For SQL statements you can try reverse snowflakes. You can join at sourceforge or the demo site at http://snowflakejoins.com/.
Why don't you just use the database diagram functionality built into SQL Server?
Visio Professional has a database reverse-engineering feature if yiu create a database diagram. It's not free but is fairly ubiquitous in most companies and should be fairly easy to get.
Note that Visio 2003 does not play nicely with SQL2005 or SQL2008 for reverse engineering - you will need to get 2007.
DeZign for Databases should be able to do this just fine.
SchemaCrawler for SQL Server can generate database diagrams, with the help of GraphViz. Foreign key relationships are displayed (and can even be inferred, using naming conventions), and tables and columns can be excluded using regular expressions.
MySQL WorkBench is free software and is developed by Oracle, you can import an SQL File or specify a database and it will generate an SQL Diagram which you can move around to make it more visually appealing.
It runs on GNU/Linux and Windows and it's free and has a professional look..
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How can I connect to a remote SQL server using Mac OS X? I don't really need a GUI, but it would be nice to have for the color coding and resultset grid. I'd rather not have to use a VM.
Is there a SQL client for Mac OS X that works with MS SQL Server?
Let's work together on a canonical answer.
Native Apps
SQLPro for MSSQL
Navicat
Valentina Studio
TablePlus
Java-Based
Oracle SQL Developer (free)
SQuirrel SQL (free, open source)
Razor SQL
DB Visualizer
DBeaver (free, open source)
SQL Workbench/J (free, open source)
JetBrains DataGrip
Metabase (free, open source)
Netbeans (free, open source, full development environment)
Electron-Based
Visual Studio Code with mssql extension
Azure Data Studio
SQLectron
(TODO: Add others mentioned below)
The Java-based Oracle SQL Developer has a plugin module that supports SQL Server. I use it regularly on my Mac. It's free, too.
Here's how to install the SQL Server plugin:
Run SQL Developer
go to this menu item: Oracle SQL Developer/Preferences/Database/Third-party JDBC Drivers
Click help.
It will have pointers to the JAR files for MySQL, SQL Server, etc.
The SQL Server JAR file is available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/jtds/files/
This will be the second question in a row I've answered with this, so I think it's worth pointing out that I have no affiliation with this product, but I use it and love it and think it's the right answer to this question too: DbVisualizer.
When this question was asked there were very few tools out there were worth much. I also ended up using Fusion and a Windows client. I have tried just about everything for MAC and Linux and never found anything worthwhile. That included dbvisualizer, squirrel (particularly bad, even though the windows haters in my office swear by it), the oracle SQL developer and a bunch of others.
Nothing compared to DBArtizan on Windows as far as I was concerned and I was prepared to use it with Fusion or VirtualBox. I don't use the MS product because it is only limited to MS SQL.
Bottom line is nothing free is worthwhile, nor were most commercial non windows products
However, now (March 2010) I believe there are two serious contenders and worthwhile versions for the MAC and Linux which have a low cost associated with them. The first one is Aqua Data Studio which costs about $450 per user, which is a barely acceptable, but cheap compared to DBArtizan and others with similar functionality (but MS only). The other is RazorSQL which only costs $69 per user.
Aqua data studio is good, but a resource hog and basically pretty sluggish and has non essential features such as the ER diagram tool, which is pretty bad at that. The Razor is lightning fast and is only a 16meg download and has everything an SQL developer needs including a TSQL editor.
So the big winner is RazorSQL and for $69, well worth it and feature ridden. Believe me, after several years of waiting to find a cheap non windows substitute for DBartizan, I have finally found one and I have been very picky.
My employer produces a simple, proof-of-concept HTML5-based SQL client which can be used against any ODBC data source on the web-browser host machine, through the HTML5 WebDB-to-ODBC Bridge we also produce. These components are free, for Mac, Windows, and more.
Applicable to many of the other answers here -- the Type 1 JDBC-to-ODBC Bridge that most are referring to is the one Sun built in to and bundled with the JVM. JVM/JRE/JDK documentation has always advised against using this built-in except in experimental scenarios, or when no other option exists, because this component was built as a proof-of-concept, and was never intended for production use.
My employer makes an enterprise-grade JDBC-to-ODBC Bridge, available as either a Single-Tier (installs entirely on the client application host) or a Multi-Tier (splits components over the client application host and the ODBC data source host, enabling JDBC client applications in any JVM to use ODBC data sources on Mac, Windows, Linux, etc.). This solution isn't free.
All of the above can be used with the ODBC Drivers for Sybase & Microsoft SQL Server (or other databases) we also produce ...
I thought Sequel Pro for MySQL looked pretty interesting. It's hard to find one tool that works with all those databases (especially SQL Server 2005 . . . most people use SQL Server Management Studio and that's Windows only of course).
Squirrel SQL is a Java based SQL client, that I've had good experience with on Windows and Linux. Since it's Java, it should do the trick.
It's open source. You can run multiple sessions with multiple databases concurrently.
I vote for RazorSQL also. It's very powerful in many respects and practically supports most databases out there. I mostly use it for SQL Server, MySQL and PostgreSQL.
DbVisualizer supports many different databases. There is a free edition that I have used previously. Download from here
I have had good success over the last two years or so using Navicat for MySQL.
The UI could use a little updating, but all of the tools and options they provide make the cost justifiable for me.
I use the Navicat clients for MySQL and PostgreSQL and am happy with them. "good" is obviously subjective... how do you judge your DB clients?
I've been using Oracle SQL Developer since the Microsoft software for SQL Server is not currently available on Mac OS X. It works wonders. I would also recommend RazorSQL or SQLGrinder.
I use AquaFold at work on Windows, but it's based on Java and supports Mac OS X.
I like SQLGrinder.
It's built using Cocoa, so it looks a lot better and feels more like an Mac OS X application than all the Java-based application mentioned here.
It uses JDBC drivers to connect to Microsoft SQL Server 2005, FrontBase, MySQL, OpenBase, Oracle, PostgreSQL, and Sybase.
Free trial or $59.
I've used (DB Solo) and I like it a lot. It's only $99 and comparable to many more expensive tools. It supports Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase, MySQL, PostgreSQL and others.
Not sure about open-source, but I've heard good things about http://www.advenio.com/sqlgrinder/ (not tried it, I prefer to write Python scripts to try things out rather than use GUIs;-).
When this question was asked, Microsoft's Remote Desktop for OS X had been unsupported for years. It wasn't a Universal Binary, and I found it to be somewhat buggy (I recall that the application will just quit after a failed connection instead of allowing you to alter the connection info and try again).
At the time I recommended the Open Source CoRD, a good RDP client for Mac.
Since then Microsoft Remote Desktop Client for Mac 2 was released.
I use Eclipse's Database development plugins - like all Java based SQL editors, it works cross platform with any type 4 (ie pure Java) JDBC driver. It's ok for basic stuff (the main failing is it struggles to give transaction control -- auto-commit=true is always set it seems).
Microsoft have a decent JDBC type 4 driver: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6D483869-816A-44CB-9787-A866235EFC7C&displaylang=en this can be used with all Java clients / programs on Win/Mac/Lin/etc.
Those people struggling with Java/JDBC on a Mac are presumably trying to use native drivers instead of JDBC ones -- I haven't used (or practically heard of) the ODBC driver bridge in almost 10 years.
It may not be the best solution if you don't already have it, but FileMaker 11 with the Actual SQL Server ODBC driver (http://www.actualtech.com/product_sqlserver.php) worked nicely for a client of mine today. The ODBC driver is only $29, but FileMaker is $299, which is why you might only consider it if you already have it.
This doesn't specifically answer your question, because I'm not sure in any clients exist in Mac OS X, but I generally just Remote Desktop into the server and work through that. Another option is VMware Fusion (which is much better than Parallels in my opinion) + Windows XP + SQL Server Management Studio.
I've used Eclipse with the Quantum-DB plugins for that purpose since I was already using Eclipse anyway.
Ed: phpMyAdmin is for MySQL, but the asker needs something for Microsoft SQL Server.
Most solutions that I found involve using an ODBC Driver and then whatever client application you use. For example, Gorilla SQL claims to be able to do that, even though the project seems abandoned.
Most good solutions are either using Remote Desktop or VMware/Parallels.
Try CoRD and modify what you want directly from the server.
It's open source.
http://cord.sourceforge.net/
For MySQL, there is Querious and Sequel Pro. The former costs US$25, and the latter is free. You can find a comparison of them here, and a list of some other Mac OS X MySQL clients here.
Steve
Since there currently isn't a MS SQL client for Mac OS X, I would, as Modesty has suggested, use Remote Desktop for the Mac.