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Redgate SQL Compare from the DBA perspective
August 27, 2020

Redgate SQL Compare from the DBA perspective

Kevin R. Zakoski | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Redgate SQL Compare

SQL Compare is being used by multiple departments across the organization. My area, Database Service, uses SQL Compare regularly when we're pulled in to look at performance issues. Since we have several thousand databases with many clients and a custom deployment process that doesn't necessarily deploy all objects exactly the same, we utilize SQL Compare as one of our main tools to look for differences between databases to gather an initial assessment of the database to determine if we may be missing an object, permission or any other database component.

On the application development side, they will use SQL Compare to assist with developing and generating SQL scripts for deployments.

  • Ease of use, doesn't require a lot knowledge or experience to use the tool.
  • UI is easy to navigate with several options filter content and results are grouped by content which makes comparing differences easy to find. Differences are also color coded and highlighted in code windows so you can pinpoint issues quickly.
  • Ability to pick and choose which items you want to sync at a push of a button directly to the database or generate the necessary code snippet needed to deploy to multiple databases using a deployment process.
  • Would like more filter options, like just looking for index differences between databases and tables and not seeing all the other differences that may exist in other components like triggers, extended properties, etc.
  • A 'Golden Copy', I compare multiple databases that are similar but not exactly the same but you're only can compare 2 databases at a time. I'd like to have the ability to save components from multiple sources to make a golden copy but also have the option to compare the 3 the same time.
  • Reduced SLA penalties by identifying missing indexes that caused performance to degrade over time.
  • Provides a low cost secondary verification check after release deployments to insure all objects have been deployed successfully.
  • Easy to use tools with no additional training overhead to get the most out of the tool.
I've been using Redgate SQL Compare for 15+ years and have no desire or need to look for anything to replace it.
I haven't had a need to submit a support case for SQL Compare, but I've dealt with Redgate support for other products and issues and the response was quick and accurate.

Do you think Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials's feature set?

Yes

Did Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials again?

Yes

We use SQL Compare to troubleshoot performance problems quite a bit since our data model is more like a template and not everything is 100% in sync and customization occurs between different client databases. We continually get pulled into performance issues and the developers will say Client A is performing different than Client B, why? Using SQL Compare, we usually find that one client was tuned and had indexes altered or added that weren't deployed to all clients or other objects weren't deployed correctly during the release.

On the other hand, since our data model practices allow client databases to drift I tried to create a new golden image by trying to compare multiple databases based on the same data model and found it to be a very difficult process to complete using SQL Compare. SQL Compare gave me too much information and doesn't allow enough filtering to eliminate a lot of the noise.

Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials Feature Ratings