When comparing MySQL Workbench vs Sequel Pro, the Slant community recommends Sequel Pro for most people. In the question“What are the best MySQL GUI clients for OS X?” Sequel Pro is ranked 4th while MySQL Workbench is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose Sequel Pro is:
Clean, easy to use, highly polished interface.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Easy to use
Actions can be directly carried out on tables. The software prepares the relevant query for approval before execution.
Pro Community version
There is a community edition available that is free and open source; licensed under GPL.
Pro EER diagramming
MySQL Workbench has enhanced entity–relationship modeling support.
Pro Cross-platform
Works on Windows, Linux, OS X.
Pro Database synchronization
Forward & reverse engeneering
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 Mixed experience
Doesn't support HiDPi mode on Windows, everything looks blurry. On Linux it has missing features. On Mac seems to be working just fine. But overall a mixed experience.
Con Unintuitive UI
Workbench's user interface is regarded by a lot of users as unintuitive and hard to use.
It seems cluttered and hard to get used to. The left side of the application has several sections (which you get to choose which to open) with several tools for each. A lot of features are hidden behind menus and need some getting used to find them.
Con Freezes constantly
Running any kind of query with more than a thousand records or even just opening a file and other actions crashes the application. You are unable to actually stop a query. You have to kill from Windows Task Manager every single time.
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.