Oracle SQL Developer vs. Toad Database Developer Tools

[Oracle SQL Developer is] best suited if your company works with different databases and needs a common SQL editor to manage and query data for its user. Oracle SQL Developer works very well with Oracle but also some other relational databases. If you do lot of querying and import/export in database, then this is tool for you. It's ideal for DBAs as well for data modeling, management, session monitoring, logging, versioning, etc. It’s not ideal for no relational/noSQL or big data. It is not tool for visualization. It’s best suited for querying using SQL. Companies that are looking for free tools that are robust and most useful should definitely look at it.

Incentivized

Well suited for development of stored procedures, packages, running scripts, and each and every DBA operation. Not very well suited for quick and simple querying. Toad seems to be overkill for simple things. Also, it's not very well suited for non-Oracle developers, who might be scared of by the endless amounts of options, tools and windows that Toad offers.

Incentivized

• Export SQL results to a spreadsheet. After a query is run, you are able to export the results to a spreadsheet
• Easily preview data columns on an Oracle table or view and the metadata on those columns.
• SQL Editor is color-coded so that you can tell easily what are keywords.
• You can set up SQL code templates to be able to use shortcut keys to format your SQL query easily in a readable format that you prefer.

Incentivized

• I appreciate the library feature that enables me to label and store previously created statements. These are saved off to a network share for future use.
• I also really like the describe function that lists all fields in a table. This helps as I build new queries.
• I wish I was better at using the tuning function. I have seen others use it and am very impressed with the graphical depiction of query costing.

Incentivized

• Setup can be challenging if your schemas aren't well formed or managed. Also, the ability to model/develop extensions for an existing database solution will depend on how robust the DBA provisioned roles and designed the respective schemas.
• Detailed analysis of models can be clunky for complex relational models.

Incentivized

• The date/time settings in Toad are kind of difficult to figure out. I have to use an ALTER SESSION command to format the dates so I can actually query date/time fields.
• It seems to be updated too often. I get notifications very frequently about new versions being available.
• The export function is difficult to use.

Incentivized

It allows most users to perform daily activities in a simple way, with no cost since the tool is free.

Incentivized

It is the preferred tool for our organization.

Incentivized

Oracle SQL Developer is very easy to use and there are a wide range of courses available which can help you get started just within a day. Data can be exported in multiple formats based on user requirements. Organizational data can be stored and management effectively using Oracle SQL Developer. All the data, tables, sequences, indexes can be easily created and updated in Oracle SQL Developer.

Incentivized

I give is an 8 because nothing is a 10 and there is always room for improvement. I believe the user who is not as technologically inclined would be better suited with an easier way to identify the options for setting the layout up for Toad's GUI. To some it is very cumbersome and confusing.

Incentivized

Large user community support

Incentivized

I give the overall support for Toad for Oracle a 10/10. This is because whenever there has been an issue with this software, our team has got an immediate response. The same can not be said for similar software. The most recent example of this is when we needed to renew our licenses. Some employees were unable to log in to code with the given license key. Support was able to resolve the issue quickly.

Incentivized

Just download and uncompress!

Incentivized

Oracle SQL Developer is available on multiple platforms, Windows Mac Linux and it's free. SQL Developer is best suited for a big cross functional globally based team. SQL Developer is less resource intensive, compared to other IDEs. SQL Developer has the capability to manage and develop Oracle Database in both on premise and Cloud deployments. SQL Developer can also connect and interact with non oracle database like MS SQL server and MySQL etc.

Incentivized

We didn't make a decision of choosing one and dropping the other. Our database guys have their own preference of tools. Since SQL Developer is a free-to-use tool and light weighted tool, we used it for education materials. For those who need advanced functions, database administrators for example, we bought an enterprise license of Toad and distributed them to developers. For enterprise level of analytics running Oracle based databases, I believe SQL Developer and Toad are two basics and safe choice to start with, unless one has very particular need (or preference).

Incentivized

• No impact on the organization's budget as Oracle SQL Developer is free.
• With the increased productivity of our database administrators, they are able to better assist the software developers in prototyping future products.
• Through Oracle SQL Developer, our administrators were able to normalize many of our databases, reducing the amount of redundancy, and hence increasing the performance of our main application.

Incentivized

• Quick and easy query development helps reduce man-hours in a project which converts to real dollars.
• Query analysis and tuning result in low database overhead and low latency, thus translating into real dollars because a system can thus handle more requests from customers.
• Ease of use makes it easy to deploy greenhorns in projects with minimal training, thus helping save money. Otherwise menial and simple jobs would have required experienced DBAs.

Incentivized