Free, simple to use and complete development IDE for Oracle databases
May 13, 2021
Free, simple to use and complete development IDE for Oracle databases
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Oracle SQL Developer
[Oracle] SQL Developer is a free to use IDE that allows to manage and use Oracle databases both on premise and in the cloud. We used it in the different development teams to design and develop Oracle databases, allowing to easily create tables, views, procedures and functions. We also used some of the features to troubleshoot or monitor small incidents (like performance bottleneck) in our development and testing environments.
- Ability to browse across all database components and easily modify or drop them, or create new ones.
- Very simple to use and learn, yet includes many personalization options (like snippets and SQL history)
- You can define window border colors for different connections, thus easily identifying production or sensitive environments at glance!
- Import and Export data in a very simple way
- Being a JAVA application, response times are sometimes not as good as native applications
- Sometimes it uses more RAM than expected
- Sometimes gets disconnected from DB
- Really fast ROI, since the tool is 100% free.
- Just needs to be downloaded and decompressed (no complex installation). You can have it working in 5 minutes!
- Easily import previous versions configuration and connections, making upgrades really simple.
Having used both TOAD and PL/SQL Developer, I believe SQL Developer from Oracle is a most than acceptable alternative, maybe not as powerful and complete as them but being free has a very positive impact. Most development profiles can work perfectly using SQL Developer while specific admin task may require TOAD or other tools.
Do you think Oracle SQL Developer delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with Oracle SQL Developer's feature set?
Yes
Did Oracle SQL Developer live up to sales and marketing promises?
Yes
Did implementation of Oracle SQL Developer go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy Oracle SQL Developer again?
Yes
Using Oracle SQL Developer
50 -
Almost all members of development teams, including
a) Architects (they define tables and views, perform code review of procedures and functions)
b) Developers (they define tables and views, create procedures and functions, insert configuration data)
c) Testers (they review table definitions, update configuration data, query database contents to verify scenarios / test cases)
1 - No support is really required, I usually assist developers to configure / personalize the IDE when they find something they cannot do by themselves, but is not something frequent.
- Allow Architects to define or review data model
- Allow Developers to implement tables and views, and to develop procedures and functions
- Allow Testers to verify test cases against the data processed
Evaluating Oracle SQL Developer and Competitors
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
Being free allowed all users in the company to connect to Oracle databases, either to design, develop or test the software being developed.
Oracle SQL Developer Implementation
- Implemented in-house
Change management was minimal -
Nothing at all! Just download the compressed software into a shared folder and ask users to copy and uncompress it on their computers. I usually downloaded the latest version every 3-4 months and notified users so they update their local versions (that is simple since it automatically offers to import configuration and connections from previous versions)
Using Oracle SQL Developer
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- Slow queries are sometimes disappointing since may produce a disconnection from the Database