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A good database development tool: SQL Developer
August 11, 2017

A good database development tool: SQL Developer

Paolo Borghi | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with SQL Developer

I work in a consultancy company, which is specialized on SAP and Oracle, even if these aren't its only businesses. I work in the Oracle practice, and I've used Oracle SQL Developer since the first day I've been in my organization. Through this tool I've been able to solve a lot of "business problems", thanks to its ease of connection with many database technologies. Moreover, thanks to the many extensions that have been developed for it by Oracle and third parties, it has a great flexibility and a huge variety of tools that can be used for any purpose.
  • It's a free Oracle tool, that comes with Oracle Database
  • It allows the access to many database technologies, even if is specialized with Oracle
  • It has many add-ons, released by Oracle or by third parties, but supported by Oracle
  • It grants access to practically all the features of Oracle and similar database (i.e.: object development and management, SQL worksheet, DBA controls, database utilities, modeling and migration)
  • For its basic functionalities (i.e.: database object access) is really intuitive
  • Being an Oracle product, if you're working on Oracle Database, you can be sure to have full support on any kind of bug or malfunction from Oracle itself
  • It doesn't require being installed, but it's enough to copy its folder on an operating system
  • DBA utilities, such as resource manager and storage, are not really intuitive and may be improved
  • The graphical interface may be more intuitive and captivating: current one is quite rough, due to the low product maturity, being it a quite young product (first release in 2006)
  • It would be nice to integrate SQL Developer with Enterprise Manager, which is the main Oracle tool for db monitoring and administration
  • SQL Developer is a free tool, that comes with the licenses of Oracle Database, so it's quite inappropriate to talk about ROI of this software itself
There are a lot of products that allow to work with database, but most of them, even if they may be better than SQL Developer, have license costs, while SQL Developer is free.
For example, Toad for Oracle is probably better than SQL Developer: is more mature (first release in 1998), has a more captivating GUI and a better management of DBA tools. But it requires to be installed and is not free at all and there may not be enough good reasons to invest on it, while SQL Developer doesn't need to be installed and offers practically the same functionalities.
Whenever you're developing on an Oracle Database, SQL Developer is well suited. [Well suited] For creation of E-R models, schemas, database monitoring and administration or simple relational structure enquiring. To help with these tasks, you can improve your experience with this software by coupling it with other add-ons, like SQL Developer Data Modeler or other tools with specific functionalities. SQL Developer is not invasive since it doesn't require being installed. You just need to copy its files to a folder (both on a local computer or on remote) and, as you have the client for database connection, you're done. But, above all, it's a free tool! You or your organization don't have to pay anything to use it. You just have to download it from the Oracle website (like 400 Mb) and you're ready to start your work.