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What are the best database clients?

8

Options
Considered

23

User
Recs.

Feb 12, 2019

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

7 Options Considered

Best database clients	Price	License	Platforms
-- Intellij IDEA	-	Apache 2.0	-
-- dbForge Studio for Oracle	0-649.95	-	Windows
-- dbForge Studio for MySQL	$0-249.95	-	Windows
-- Navicat	-	-	-
-- Database .NET	Free / paid	-	Windows

Intellij IDEA

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Top Pro

Maintain multiple database connections

All added database configurations will show up as a list, so you can connect to the desired one with just a double-click. You can also mark some as global (so that they would be visible across multiple projects). See More

Top Con

Somewhat expensive

IntelliJ IDEA is fairly expensive, with a pricetag of $149/year. However there is a free community edition available. See More

Janaka Bandara's Experience

Well, it's true that this is a fully-fledged IDE; but the Ultimate Edition (paid) has a fantastic Database tool window that allows you to do almost anything with any database of your choice - as long as it is JDBC-compliant and you have the appropriate driver. See More

Specs

License:Apache 2.0

Top Pro

Transactional edits

You can perform several edits on the queried data (or as new inserts) and commit them to the database as one transaction (or discard them, effectively a rollback). See More

Top Con

Standard hotkeys behave differently

Seems like hotkeys assignment in Idea has no logical consistency. Like «F3» is usually next match, «Ctrl+W» - close tab, etc — they map to some different action by default. There is a good effort in making the IDE friendly for immigrants from other products: there are options to use hotkeys from Eclipse, and even emacs. But these mappings are very incomplete. And help pages do not take this remapping into account, rather mentioning the standard hotkeys. So, people coming from other IDEs/editors are doomed to using mouse and context menus (which are rather big and complex). See More

UpbeatBelenus's Experience

It's IDE, not the SQL Client. And if you want to pay just only SQL Client, stop right away, it's not that worth to pay. See More

Top Pro

In-place editable, tabular data view

Results of queries are displayed in a convenient tabular view (paginated for large sets), where you can directly modify the cells to effect updates of corresponding entries, clear (set NULL) entries, delete sets of rows, and so on. See More

Top Con

Lack of plugins

IntelliJ supports a very small amount of plugins. Althrough thesse are 'quality approved', many features are missing and can't be implemented because of that. See More

Top Pro

Intelligent query interface

Once IntelliJ knows the database schema, it provides rich assistance when composing queries - suggesting SQL constructs, auto-completing field names, syntax validation and the like. See More

Top Con

Bugs are not solved as often as they should

They are more interested in adding new features or issuing new versions than solving bugs. See More

Top Pro

Many convenient features

These simplify the daily work, e.g. copy/cut a whole line without the need to select it. See More

Top Con

Built with closed source components

The version with full features is not opensource. Parts of the code are under apache licence though. See More

Top Pro

Very powerful debugger

With ability to step into a certain part of a large method invocation (Shift+F7), drop frame, executing code snippets, showing method return values, etc. See More

Top Pro

Clear and detailed documentation

The documentation is exhaustive, easy to navigate, and clearly worded. See More

Top Pro

Android support, JavaEE support, etc

A very complete development environment support. See More

Top Pro

Lots of plugins

Many plugins are available for almost any task a developer may need to cover. Plugins are developed by Jetbrains themselves or by 3rd parties through the SDK available for writing them. See More

Top Pro

Smart refactorings

IDEA places an emphasis in safe refactoring, offering a variety of features to make this possible for a variety of languages. These features include safe delete, type migration and replacing method code duplicates. See More

Top Pro

Support for many languages

IntelliJ supports many languages besides Java, some of these are: golang, Scala, Clojure, Groovy, Bash, etc... See More

Top Pro

Free version available

There is a free community edition (open source) and an ultimate edition, which you can compare here. The ultimate edition is available for free for one year for students but must be registered through an .edu e-mail account. See More

Top Pro

Stable and robust

IntelliJ IDEA hardly ever crashes or has any issues that plague other Java IDEs like file corruption or slowness. See More

Top Pro

Intuitive and slick UI

IDEA has a clean, intuitive interface with some customization available (such as the Darcula theme). See More

Top Pro

Fast and smart contextual assistance

Uses a fast indexing technique to provide contextual hints (auto-completion, available object members, import suggestions). On-the-fly code analysis to detect errors and propose refactorization. See More

dbForge Studio for Oracle

Top Pro

Preview of Generated Update Script in the Wizard

Specs

Platforms:Windows

Top Pro

The Data Import and Data Export functionality support JSON

Top Pro

Detection of Column Types when Importing Data from Excel Format

Top Pro

Automatic selection of comparison key for objects without equal unique indexes

Top Pro

Support for Google Sheets

Top Pro

Documenter feature for documenting and presentation of the Oracle schemas.

Top Pro

You can execute stored programs step-by-step

Using the PL/SQL debugger you can execute queries step-by-step. Using breakpoints, evaluating and modifying variables or by analyzing the active stack of your PL/SQL program. See More

Top Pro

Oracle PL/SQL Debugger

Top Pro

IDE features

Has full IDE features for PL/SQL such as: Automatic code completion Code snippets Quick information on schema objects Document outline for navigation Smart formatting of SQL code See More

Top Pro

Oracle PL/SQL Debugger

The Oracle debugger serves for step-by-step execution of stored program units and SQL scripts. Oracle developers can edit, compile, run, and debug PL/SQL code easily. They can use breakpoints, evaluate and modify variables in the Watches window, and analyze the currently active stack of your PL/SQL program calls in the Call Stack window. See More

Top Pro

Import/Export Data

Export and import Oracle data for filling databases. dbForge Studio can export data to 14 popular formats and import it from 10 formats. Oracle import and export processes are customizable, and can be automated via the command-line interface. See More

Top Pro

Report and Analysis

Data analysis and reporting are performed with the help of oracle reporting tools, data reports, pivot tables, and viewing master-detail relations. Comprehensive wizards and tools can display data as charts and tables, and provide means for adjusting data layout, grouping, sorting, etc. See More

Top Pro

Oracle database management

Top Pro

Great overall functionality

dbForge Studio offers a very complete set of features. See More

Top Pro

Has an easy to use object manager

Top Pro

Very complete refactoring function

dbForge has a very complete refactoring function that leverages their dependency capability. Change a column name or attribute and it is reflected throughout the entire design. See More

Top Pro

Great data manipulation features

Top Pro

Query profiler

You can find any issues that slow down your queries using the query profiler. Once you detect these issues you can change your SQL and optimize the queries. See More

Top Pro

Query builder

Top Pro

Schema import/export

Top Pro

Oracle database management

Top Pro

Data Generator feature

Top Pro

Manages different database versions

Top Pro

PL/SQL coding assistant

Top Pro

Documenter

Generate Oracle database documentation in a wink. See More

Top Pro

Data Generator

Populate your Oracle tables with thousands of rows of realistic test data. Data Generator supports essential Oracle data types, includes 200+ meaningful generators with customizable settings, and allows generating data via the command-line interface. See More

Top Pro

Object Manager

Database objects are displayed as a tree in Database Explorer. To edit any object, you can call the corresponding visual editor from this window See More

Top Pro

Query Builder

Create complex queries visually without effort. The tool allows you to design SELECT statements with multiple tables, joins, and complex subqueries without manual typing of code. Just drag-and-drop required objects onto a visual designer to generate SQL statements. See More

Top Pro

Query Profiler

Improve multi-second queries using Oracle SQL Profiler. See More

Top Pro

Schema Import/Export

Export full schema structure or selected schema objects, copy database objects using schema export/import wizards. See More

dbForge Studio for MySQL

Top Pro

MySQL prompt

Сode completion, code snippets, SQL code formatter, сode profiles. See More

Top Con

No SSL and SSH in Express Version

Alena Subotina's Experience

Great tool! See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows

Top Pro

Support for MySQL 8.0

Top Con

Limited feature on express (Free)

No backup option (Limited to a few MBs in express version). See More

Top Pro

Database Documenter (in the Enterprise edition)

Top Pro

Data Generator (in the Enterprise edition)

Top Pro

Query profiler

Supports visual query profiling and can compare profiling results between different queries. See More

Top Pro

Copy database

Top Pro

Can schedule regular database backups

Top Pro

Support for MariaDB 10.3

Top Pro

GUI database designer

Has a GUI database designer and query builder for MySQL. Has support for design, editing, and viewing foreign key relations. See More

Top Pro

Built-in SQL syntax support

Has a built-in SQL syntax checker and highlighter. It also has support for MySQL-only syntax in the form of code completion and syntax highlighting. See More

Top Pro

Built-in schema and data comparison and synchronization

Supports comparing schema data and synchronization between them. See More

Top Pro

Powerful built-in debugger

Has step-by-step code execution, breakpoints, watches, a call stack and a variables evaluation mechanism. See More

Top Pro

Supports multiple relational database systems

Supports MySQL server, MariaDB server, Percona and Amazon RDS. See More

Top Pro

Can help developers detect problems and optimize SQL queries via the GUI

Top Pro

Supports Sphinx search engine

Top Pro

Can manage user privileges

Top Pro

Has a visual query builder

Top Pro

Database Projects

Top Pro

Can generate a refractoring script for a database without changing the data stored within

Top Pro

Detects column types when importing data from Excel format

Top Pro

Previews generated update script in the Wizard

Top Pro

The data import and data export functionality support JSON

Top Pro

Supports Google Sheets

Navicat

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Database .NET

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Top Pro

Supports a lot of databases

See supported functions here: https://fishcodelib.com/Database_Support.htm Supported databases: SQL Server SQL Azure LocalDB MySQL Oracle IBM DB2 Informix PostgreSQL HP Vertica NuoDB Teradata Sybase ASE Firebird SQLite SQLCe Access Excel VistaDB dBase FoxPro OleDB ODBC OData Text NoSQL See More

RickZeeland's Experience

Supports multiple databases, needs .NET framework. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows

Top Pro

Free

Has a free version, the paid versions offer additional features: https://fishcodelib.com/Compare.htm See More

Top Pro

Portable

Top Pro

Diagrams

Can generate diagrams, although they look a bit ugly. See More

DbSchema

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Top Pro

Multi-platform

Runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. See More

Mike's Experience

Multiplatform database tool with a pleasing graphical representation of existing databases structures. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac

Top Pro

Virtual Foreign Keys

If the Database schema is missing real foreign keys, it is possible to create virtual ones to be used within the tool. See More

Top Pro

Generator for Random Data

Includes the possibility to generate random numerical data or fetch random entries from a text file to populate the database. See More

Top Pro

Generate schema from existing database

Includes the possibility to generate an ER diagram from an existing database. See More

Top Pro

SQL editor with syntax highlighting

Includes an SQL editor with syntax highlighting and code completion feature. See More

Top Pro

Graphical Query Editor

Includes a visual query editor capable of using different join types, filters as well as the 'group by' clause. See More

Top Pro

Graphical Diagram Editor

Includes the possibility to edit tables and data directly in the diagram without writing SQL statements. See More

DataGrip

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