Microsoft Visual Studio Code vs. SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft Visual Studio Code
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft offers Visual Studio Code, an open source text editor that supports code editing, debugging, IntelliSense syntax highlighting, and other features.
$0
SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) is an integrated environment for managing any SQL infrastructure, from SQL Server to Azure SQL Database.
$0
Pricing
Microsoft Visual Studio CodeSQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft Visual Studio CodeSQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft Visual Studio CodeSQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
Considered Both Products
Microsoft Visual Studio Code
SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
Chose SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
SQL Server Management Studio is more seamless and comprehensive, handling just about everything we need to create and manage extensive SQL Server databases. SQL Server Management Studio is tied deeply into SQL Server specifically, vs. DBeaver's mission to be a more universal …
Chose SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
It still lacks some features that make DataGrip great for developers like tab history, persists the last session, detailed customization for query formatting, more data export options and the table edit dialog is more comfortable to use since it can be resized.
Best Alternatives
Microsoft Visual Studio CodeSQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
Small Businesses
BBEdit
BBEdit
Score 10.0 out of 10
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Vim
Vim
Score 9.6 out of 10
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Vim
Vim
Score 9.6 out of 10
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Microsoft Visual Studio CodeSQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
Likelihood to Recommend
9.5
(104 ratings)
9.2
(5 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.4
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.3
(21 ratings)
8.8
(4 ratings)
Availability
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.7
(23 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft Visual Studio CodeSQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
As a general workhorse IDE, Microsoft Visual Studio Codee is unmatched. Building on the early success of applications such as Atom, it has long been the standard for electron based IDEs. It can be outshone using IDEs that are dedicated to particular platforms, such as Microsoft Visual Studio Code for .net and the Jetbrains IDEs for Java, Python and others. For remote collaborative development, something like Zed is ahead of VSCode live share, which can be quite flakey.
Read full review
Microsoft
The tool is excellent for managing virtually all aspects of SQL Server - multiple servers, databases, hundreds of tables and procedures, dozens of SQL Agent jobs. We have not encountered any situations where it is not appropriate.
Read full review
Pros
Microsoft
  • Integrate with the git repository very well.
  • Integrated copilot chat is very helpful to write code snippets and helps beginners to start with coding and development.
  • Great library of available extensions is one of the best features in Microsoft Visual Studio Code.
  • Dedicated Testing option to configure pytest and others are quite handy to use.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Database queries
  • Database management
  • Table design
Read full review
Cons
Microsoft
  • The customization of key combinations should be more accessible and easier to change
  • The auxiliary panels could be minimized or as floating tabs which are displayed when you click on them
  • A monitoring panel of resources used by Microsoft Visual Studio Code or plugins and extensions would help a lot to be able to detect any malfunction of these
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Sorting of executed queries not available
  • Quality of life improvements on folders and managment
  • Some outdated tools that need revamping
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
Solid tool that provides everything you need to develop most types of applications. The only reason not a 10 is that if you are doing large distributed teams on Enterprise level, Professional does provide more tools to support that and would be worth the cost.
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Usability
Microsoft
Microsoft Visual Studio Code earns a 10 for its exceptional balance of power and simplicity. Its intuitive interface, robust extension ecosystem, and integrated terminal streamline development. With seamless Git integration and highly customizable settings, it adapts perfectly to any workflow, making complex coding tasks feel effortless for beginners and experts alike.
Read full review
Microsoft
It's very user friendly. If you know T-SQL then you can use this. Really even if you don't it's not that hard to figure out. You can create things visually as well.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Microsoft
Overall, Microsoft Visual Studio Code is pretty reliable. Every so often, though, the app will experience an unexplained crash. Since it is a stand-alone app, connectivity or service issues don't occur in my experience. Restarting the app seems to always get around the problem, but I do make sure to save and backup current work.
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Performance
Microsoft
Microsoft Visual Studio Code is pretty snappy in performance terms. It launches quickly, and tasks are performed quickly. I don't have a lot of integrations other than CoPilot, but I suspect that if the integration partner is provisioned appropriately that any performance impact would be pretty minimal. It doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles (unless you start adding plugins left and right).
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Microsoft
Active development means filing a bug on the GitHub repo typically gets you a response within 4 days. There are plugins for almost everything you need, whether it be linting, Vim emulation, even language servers (which I use to code in Scala). There is well-maintained official documentation. The only thing missing is forums. The closest thing is GitHub issues, which typically has the answers but is hard to sift through -- there are currently 78k issues.
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
Visual Studio Code stacks up nicely against Visual Studio because of the price and because it can be installed without admin rights. We don't exclusively use Visual Studio Code, but rather use Visual Studio and Visual Studio code depending on the project and which version of source control the given project is wired up to.
Read full review
Microsoft
SSMS is very efficient and aids to do multiple tabs easily
Read full review
Scalability
Microsoft
It is easily deployed with our Jamf Pro instance. There is actually very little setup involved in getting the app deployed, and it is fairly well self-contained and does not deploy a large amount of associated files. However, it is not particularly conducive to large project, multi-developer/department projects that involve some form of central integration.
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • Saves money by replacing suites of tools such as Visual Studio, IntelliJ, etc.
  • Speeds development time and developer environment setup time
  • Strengthens code quality with integrated autoformatting and linting
  • Strengths Git practices by keeping version control tightly connected with the code
Read full review
Microsoft
  • SQL Server Management Studio is our go-to tool for almost everything we do with SQL Server. Highly efficient and flexible.
  • Compared to other alternatives, I would say we save at least 25% of the overall time we need to spend working in SQL Server.
Read full review
ScreenShots