Navicat vs. Oracle SQL Developer

Navicat Premium is a very well-rounded tool with a reasonable licensing fee given its feature set. It is primarily suited for technical resources who must work with a variety of different database systems, but who may not be database or command line tool wizards. However, its query building and job batch scheduling feature support end-users as they build competency, and it continues to hold its value even as users outgrow their training wheels. Navicat is probably not so appropriate for DBAs and others for whom database development and management is already a career path; these folks have their preferred toolsets, both vendor-supplied and homegrown, and they might consider the additional licensing cost to outweigh the value they'd personally get out of Navicat.

Incentivized

Almost all development activities (the tool is called "SQL Developer", not "DBA Toolset") can be done easily and quick with [Oracle] SQL Developer. From data model creation (tables, views) to development (creation of procedures, functions, packages) and then testing (SQL Developer includes an easy to use debugger), all tasks can be performed in a single tool.

It may not be as complete as other solutions for DBA tasks like instance monitoring, but it is usually OK for development and testing environments if you want to do some basic troubleshooting.

Incentivized

• Access via standard html
• Alert notification

Incentivized

• Object Browser in SQL Developer allows you to explore the contents of your database using the connection tree.
• The SQL Worksheet is an editor that allows for execution of SQL statements, scripts, and PL/SQL anonymous blocks. SELECT statements can be executed to return results in a spreadsheet-like 'grid' or can be executed as a script such to emulate SQL*Plus behavior and output
• DBA Console allows users with administrative privileges to access DBA features such as database init file configuration, RMAN backup, storage, etc.

Incentivized

• There is room for improvement with customer support and vendor account management
• Onboarding option/support for new team members within the business using the tool
• More product/feature updates and trainings

• Inability to run multiple queries on the same database. You can only run one query on a given database.
• Analytical models created from complex tables isn't accurate, and needs work.
• Inability to view multiple tables of a database side-by-side. When trying to find correlations between tables, it would help to be able to see them at once on the same page.

Incentivized

We had already thought of changing to TOAD, but we decided to stick with Oracle SQL Developer until the end.

Incentivized

At times, Oracle SQL Developer may experience freezing issues. However, despite this occasional inconvenience, the tool offers valuable features such as the ability to integrate plugins like utPLSQL, which greatly assists in debugging and testing our packages. Additionally, the usage of breakpoints and the flexibility to format text according to individual configurations enhance the debugging process.

Incentivized

Very robust online community and well as excellent support staff. Easy to follow video tutorials. Detailed sample configurations are provided with guided walk-throughs via remote classroom instruction. Very fast response from support staff. No internal hires were necessary for support as vendor support staff fully met all technical expertise. 24/7 incident reporting and tracking is great.

Incentivized

Large user community support

Incentivized

Just download and uncompress!

Incentivized

Navicat is superior in allowing us to save complex queries and share them with other users. It is also better at administering the database. It also allows us to easily transfer data and structure to a test database server. This saves a ton of time when working on our dev environment to get access to fresh data.

Incentivized

I have started to use Toad for Oracle recently because it is easier to sort and filter results, due to their memory sort feature that puts the results from your query in memory so that you don't have to rerun your query. I have used SQL Developer to easily update records in tables that I need to fix. I haven't found an easy way to do this in Toad other than writing SQL insert statements.

Incentivized

• Practically speaking, Navicat Premium has enabled our department to support database maintenance and extension, migrations, and customer data reporting and analysis requests, without requiring staffers to be database mavens, thereby extending our limited (non-profit) resources in a significant manner.
• In the long term, we may find our perpetual licenses will age out of usefulness, given that major version updates are (not unreasonably) unavailable for perpetual licensing. However, three years in, we've found it to continue to provide value. And going forward, should a major version upgrade be required, upgrade licensing is available at a reduced cost.
• As we are a non-commercial organization -- part of the California State University system -- Navicat Premium's one-time license cost is low enough to provide a great value for our department, given the large suite of features it offers; at current non-commercial pricing, one perpetual seat costs out at $599. If you are a commercial organization, the "enterprise edition" is what you'll need to purchase, and at $1,299 per perpetual license, it may be tougher to justify the expenditure. However, Navicat Premium's support for a wide variety of database systems does positively differentiate this product!

Incentivized

• It gives 100% return on investment as it is free of cost.
• No need to have multiple tools for each database
• Considering the employee training, so one can save money on training, as it is not very hard to use so still savings.

Incentivized