When comparing Adminer vs PHPMyAdmin, the Slant community recommends PHPMyAdmin for most people. In the question“What are the best MySQL management tools?” PHPMyAdmin is ranked 2nd while Adminer is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose PHPMyAdmin is:
Editions can be performed over a result table just by clicking the desired field.
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Pros
Pro Lightweight
The installation and Adminer itself only requires a single PHP file. Once it's uploaded you can log in and start using it.
Pro Supports more than MySQL
It supports several database management systems (Postgres, SQLite, Oracle, MS SQL and of course MySQL).
Pro Database views
Anyone who uses the views function will appreciate Adminer better. You can click on a view and edit to change the view. In phpMyAdmin, you can edit a view, but it's not easy or intuitive. SQL Buddy doesn't have any way of doing this.
Pro Themes
Has a great variety of themes which transfers pretty ugly application into a great looking one.
Pro Installation
No need to install, it's available to use out of the box.
Pro Easy to edit
Editions can be performed over a result table just by clicking the desired field.
Pro Available in most hosting services
Because of its portability, popularity and robustness phpMyAdmin is included in most hosting services that support the LAMP stack.
Pro Easy installation
The installation process itself is very simple, you need to have PHP and MySQL installed on your server, extract the files to a specified directory and run the install script. If you get stuck somewhere there's a lot of help online. The official wiki is very good too as far as the installation goes.
Pro Complete functionality
phpMyAdmin is complete as far as features and functionality go. You can even build a full website without knowing any MySQL.
Pro Portable
phpMyAdmin can run in a web browser, this makes it a very portable tool because it can be run on any computer and on any OS as long as it has a web browser installed.
Cons
Con Bulk edition problems
Con Confusing interface
It may take some time to get used to it.
Con No schema visualization
Con No code higlighting
phpMyAdmin does not have any code highlighting or auto-completion capabilities, unlike other options.