When comparing Spectacle 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 Spectacle is ranked 35th. The most important reason people chose Sequel Pro is:
Clean, easy to use, highly polished interface.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Free and open source
Spectacle is licensed under MIT with source code available on GitHub.
Pro Simple hotkeys
Spectacle offers easy-to-remember preset hotkeys.
Pro Mouseless
All windows in Spectacle can be controlled with keyboard shortcuts, so no mouse is needed. This makes for a fast way to control windows.
Pro Great UX
Spectacle is easy to use and configure. It's plug and play.
Pro Low footprint
Spectacle only uses up 18-19 MB of RAM, which means there is not much overhead by using this app.
Pro Multi-monitor support
Pro 7+ years of use
Using it for 7 years
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 Not maintained
The software is free, but no longer seems to be maintained.
Con Impossible to add new functions
While keyboard shortcuts can be changed for the available actions, there is no way to add custom actions which in turn limits the functionality of the app.
Con Limited window sizing capabilities
You can use 1/2 of the screen vertically and horizontally (divide into 4 parts). You can also use the screen in thirds too, but only the left and right third: you can't use the 1/3 in the center. There is no way to do a more granular distribution.
Con Breaks on macOS High Sierra / Chrome or Firefox
Doesn't support side by side windows.
Con Doesn't work with any Adobe products
There are some apps like Adobe Reader that do not work with Spectacle. Basically, any app with a heavily customized UI that breaks OS X accessibility will not work correctly under Spectacle.
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.
