dbForge SQL Tools vs. Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials

dbForge SQL Complete is well suited for professionals that have to write code all day. In my role in the business intelligence department we are writing SQL pretty much all day. Having a tool that helps us do that faster, in a cleaner way is pretty awesome and something that pays for itself quickly.

Incentivized

We use SQL Compare to troubleshoot performance problems quite a bit since our data model is more like a template and not everything is 100% in sync and customization occurs between different client databases. We continually get pulled into performance issues and the developers will say Client A is performing different than Client B, why? Using SQL Compare, we usually find that one client was tuned and had indexes altered or added that weren't deployed to all clients or other objects weren't deployed correctly during the release. On the other hand, since our data model practices allow client databases to drift I tried to create a new golden image by trying to compare multiple databases based on the same data model and found it to be a very difficult process to complete using SQL Compare. SQL Compare gave me too much information and doesn't allow enough filtering to eliminate a lot of the noise.

Incentivized

• SQL complete allows you to create custom snippets that allow you to store frequently ran queries in shortcuts. The code can be populated within seconds!
• Another great benefit is custom aliases. If you frequently reference the same tables over and over again it gets tiresome to retype the aliases. Storing these can make your code more consistent and save time.
• SQL complete will also highlight the metadata within your database. For example, if you start typing an insert statement you populate code for all the field names by pressing the tab. This is a real-time saver for wide tables!

Incentivized

• Simple and easy comparison of database schemas and data. Differences can be copied or synced from one database to another with a click of a button.
• You can save "projects" so that you can easily rerun a previous comparison whenever you need to.
• It has a very simple, easy to learn interface. I've never needed to read any documentation or watch any tutorials in order to figure out how to do something.

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• Sometimes it can be slow to retrieve the database metadata.
• Updating the software with the activation/deactivation of licenses could be further streamlined.

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• Pricing.... I wish there was an inexpensive developer version I could buy for myself.
• Portability.... I would like to use it from a flash drive so I can use it where ever I am asked to work.
• Unbundled.... This may be available already but I dont' recall I can buy it cheaply as a stand-alone product. Its only part of the bundle - cost effectively.

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It's a good tool to have, but becomes expensive to buy a user license for each developer.

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They have a great community website where you can search for answers but are also very responsive when it comes to direct support.

Incentivized

I am very satisfied after using this tool. It is a full-stack tool that includes rich features that can be customized set of functionality as per your need. by using this tool:-

• Increased our productivity rate.
• Provides speed up your development work so you can focus on other stuff.

I've used Visual Studio Database Projects for this type of work in the past with some success, but Redgate SQL Compare is faster, more transparent, and simply easier to use. Faster is self explanatory. More transparent, means that it's much easier to set up your desired options for schema change deployment scripts. Easier to use, It's really dead simple. Start a project, connect your source, connect destination, click compare.

Incentivized

• Spending less time trying to figure out how tables are related thanks to the navigational help in dbForge SQL Complete, which means fixing issues takes less time.

Incentivized

• Makes deployment fairly simple. Cutting our deployment time down.
• With the SDK, we can customize our deployment process very quickly and easily.
• History is not great, it does create scripts you can go back and see but it would be nice to have a quicker version view by object to save time.

Incentivized