When comparing MacPorts vs Sequel Pro, the Slant community recommends Sequel Pro for most people. In the question“What are the best power user tools for macOS?” Sequel Pro is ranked 22nd while MacPorts is ranked 41st. The most important reason people chose Sequel Pro is:
Clean, easy to use, highly polished interface.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Provides a consistent experience across OS X versions
MacPorts eschews Apple-supplied libraries and links sources against its own making sure that the experience is the same regardless of what OS X version is used.
Pro Easy to use
Detailed instructions on the homepage are easy to follow. Official GUI app is also available
Pro Generally very up to date
MacPorts generally gets new software soon after it's available. This way users will not have to worry if their software is up to date.
Pro Nice variants system
MacPorts has a variants system that allows customizing builds with author provided options.
Pro Has many more packages than its competitors
As of this writing, 20K packages. 3 to 5x more than other current package managers.
Pro Requires SUDO to install apps
No need to worry if some rogue app will change your binaries or configuration.
Pro Download libraries instead of relying on Apple's caprices
Considering just how often Apple breaks things, any reduplication of of Apple-supplied libraries with the canonical sources is an asset.
Pro Fast
Written in Tcl & C, it's generally significantly faster than the competition. Tcl is also quite readable and comparable to Ruby, so it's also friendly to newcomers.
Pro Supports older Mac operating systems
Homebrew dropped support for old Macs. MacPorts still supports them.
Pro MacPorts is a native application: C + TCL
No need to install Ruby, or any other programming language.
Pro More packages than competition
Pro Apple Silicon Ready
With Apple moving over to its own silicon, macports has been ready for the move to ARM since 2.6.4
Pro Initially started and developed by Apple employees and supported by Apple itself
Reading the story behind MacPorts, it is the only one that was developed by Apple by an Apple employee. In fact it is the same person that was responsible for creating the FreeBSD port system.
Pro Great support for older systems
Pro Most of the available packages work
For example, trying to install Finch using Pkgsrc doesn't work, while installing it using MacPorts works perfectly. Finch isn't even on Homebrew's radar.
Pro Great UI
Clean, easy to use, highly polished interface.
Pro Native OS X from the start
Unlike other solutions, Sequel Pro was built specifically for OS X and for MySQL from the beginning and as such the design takes better advantage of OS X features and is optimized for MySQL.
Pro Free and open source
Licensed under MIT.
Pro Multiple connection methods
Sequel Pro can choose between standard and SSH connection methods.
Pro Multiple import/export options
Sequel Pro can export to SQL, CSV and XML files and import SQL and CSV files.
Pro Command line access
Sequel Pro can also access and manage everything from the command line.
Pro Excellent user management
Has easy user privilege management.
Pro Highly flexible filters
Sequel Pro has highly flexible and customizable filters.
Cons
Con New Packages and Updates take time
Macports isn't the first choice for developers producing new packages or binaries for macOS. Nor is it the fastest in getting updates. But in general, it usually is one of the most up to date and will be updated eventually. Some would see this as a con in comparison to Homebrew.
Con Bad at limiting dependencies
MacPorts has a habit of pulling very specific versions of dependencies for each package. It downloads different version of already existing dependencies even in cases where the existing dependency version would have worked seamlessly.
Con Downloads unneeded libraries duplicating functionality already provided by Apple's libraries
As MacPorts eschews Apple-supplied libraries and links sources against its own a large duplication of functionality across MacPorts and Apple libraries can be found.
Con Requires root permissions (sudo) for installation of packages
A really good security feature, but some see it as a con.
Con Crashes constantly
Crashes when working with mysql 8.0.12 for macos 10.13. Unable to do anything.
Con Not maintained
The app crashes when you close a tab.
Con No MySQL 8 support
Con Not adapted for MacOS Catalina
Con No multiple query tabs
Sequel Pro does not support multiple query tabs in its editor. This is incredibly frustrating for a power user.
Con Text in the query lost on connection failure & crashes
Con OS X only, no Linux or Windows versions
Power users have to manage in many different environments. A consistent admin interface is hugely beneficial.
Con Query editing capabilities much poorer than MySql Workbench, Querious, and others
Con No visual query editor
Con Unable to import from binary SQL files
I frequently import binary multipolygon data from another source, and it won’t open.