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

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Rapid SQL
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Rapid SQL is an SQL integrated development environment (IDE) from Embarcadero Technologies (acquired by Idera) in San Francisco.N/A
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
Visual Studio
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Visual Studio (now in the 2022 edition) is a 64-bit IDE that makes it easier to work with bigger projects and complex workloads, boasting a fluid and responsive experience for users. The IDE features IntelliCode, its automatic code completion tools that understand code context and that can complete up to a whole line at once to drive accurate and confident coding.
$45
per month
Pricing
Rapid SQLSQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)Microsoft Visual Studio
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Professional
$45.00
per month
Enterprise
$250.00
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Rapid SQLSQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)Visual Studio
Free Trial
NoNoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Rapid SQLSQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)Microsoft Visual Studio
Considered Multiple Products
Rapid SQL

No answer on this topic

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.
Chose SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
I would rather use SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). I've used Toad for Oracle before, and of course VS to connect and edit queries, but it's way easier for me to just use SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) as everything is right there.
Visual Studio
Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
A few years ago, Microsoft Visual Studio felt behind Rider in many features, these days, I'd say they go hand in hand.
Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
VS is intuitive and easy to understand. The compiling, notes, debugging, and testing make it easy to build your app. With the integrated repository, it makes it a breeze to stage and commit/update your files. You don't have to go to the OS folders to do it.
Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
Compared with Delphi it is night and day, but that is perhaps because my experience was coming from a Microsoft coding environment to having to setup a development machine for Delphi coding.

What made the alternative such a difficult process was having to download and install …
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User Ratings
Rapid SQLSQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)Microsoft Visual Studio
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(2 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(105 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(3 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
8.8
(15 ratings)
User Testimonials
Rapid SQLSQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)Microsoft Visual Studio
Likelihood to Recommend
Idera, Inc.
Rapid SQL is great for smaller organizations and development teams who are experienced with an SQL environment. It is not suitable for most beginners who are not familiar and need a learning platform.
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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.
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Microsoft
When working with base C# code for desktop and web projects, then Microsoft Visual Studio is ideal as it provides the libraries and interfaces needed to quickly create, test and deploy solutions. It is when slightly more complex scenarios are required that issues can arise. The built-in integration for things like PowerBI Paginated Reports and dashboards is far from ideal.
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Pros
Idera, Inc.
  • Robust
  • Simple to use
  • Affordable
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Microsoft
  • Database queries
  • Database management
  • Table design
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Microsoft
  • I like how the tabs and panels are organized; everything is gathered together so you can find what you're looking for quickly.
  • If you can't find something, there's a thorough search engine that searches all of Visual Studio's features.
  • The Team Foundation Server feature is fantastic since it allows us to easily deploy and roll back changes on the server.
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Cons
Idera, Inc.
  • User base support is not as great as MySQL, SQL Server, and Oracle.
  • The included editor could be refined. I notice some of the reserved words were not highlighted.
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Microsoft
  • Sorting of executed queries not available
  • Quality of life improvements on folders and managment
  • Some outdated tools that need revamping
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Microsoft
  • Would be great if there was a better way to save and restore open tabs.
  • The built-in test runner can be improved, for example, by adding the ability to save a set of commonly run tests, etc.
  • Better integration for Microsoft SQL server would be great.
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Likelihood to Renew
Idera, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
VS is the best and is required for building Microsoft applications. The quality and usefulness of the product far out-weight the licensing costs associated with it.
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Usability
Idera, Inc.
No answers on this topic
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.
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Microsoft
I love the overall usability of Microsoft Visual Studio. I’ve been using this IDE for more than 20 years, and I’ve seen it evolve by leaps and bounds. Today, with AI and code-suggestion/completion features, developers no longer need to remember countless libraries, methods, or language syntax, or invest a huge amount of programming effort to complete a project. It truly offers everything a developer needs to program, debug, test, and deploy in a single IDE.
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Support Rating
Idera, Inc.
Support is outstanding and gets answers quickly when confronted at a client site with an issue.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
There are many resources available supporting Visual Studio IDE. Microsoft whitepapers, forum posts, and online Visual Studio documentation. There are countless demonstration videos available, as well. If users are having issues, they can call Microsoft Support, but depending on the company's agreement with Microsoft, the number of included support calls will vary from organization to organization. I've found that Microsoft support calls can be hit or miss depending on who you get, but they can usually get you with the right support person for your issue.
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In-Person Training
Idera, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
IT is very complicated to understand all the functions that the environment has if you are not familiar with this type of development environments. It is important to select a good in-person training to achieve to understand all the possibilities and the capacity of the application. In this case, you will be able to develop a lot type of different applications.
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Online Training
Idera, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
If you are not accustomed to develop in this type of development environments it would be complicated to follow all the parts of the course because if the course does not include a great tour with all the concepts to develop you will not have the option to understand all the functions.
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Alternatives Considered
Idera, Inc.
The IT department uses it so we adopted the software. I would have chosen SQL Server myself.
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Microsoft
SSMS is very efficient and aids to do multiple tabs easily
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Microsoft
I personally feel Visual Studio IDE has [a] better interface and [is more] user friendly than other IDEs. It has better code maintainability and intellisense. Its inbuilt team foundation server help coders to check on their code then and go. Better nugget package management, quality testing and gives features to extract TRX file as result of testing which includes all the summary of each test case.
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Return on Investment
Idera, Inc.
  • Customer insight on issues
  • Maintenance package is affordable.
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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.
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Microsoft
  • Using the integration between Visual Studio and our source control service, the cost of re-work and losing code is drastically reduced.
  • Paid versions of Visual Studio enable developers to be so much more productive than hacked-together open source solutions that it's hard to imagine developing in Windows without it.
  • When combined with support subscriptions and the vast array of free online help options available, Visual Studio saves our developers time by keeping them coding and testing, not wasting their time trying to guess their way out of problems or spend endless hours online hoping to find answers.
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ScreenShots