When comparing DBeaver vs HeidiSQL, the Slant community recommends DBeaver for most people. In the question“What are the best GUI tools for PostgreSQL on Windows?” DBeaver is ranked 1st while HeidiSQL is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose DBeaver is:
Supported on Windows (2000/XP/2003/Vista/7/8/10), Linux, Mac OS and Solaris (x86).
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Cross-platform
Supported on Windows (2000/XP/2003/Vista/7/8/10), Linux, Mac OS and Solaris (x86).
Pro Free
It is licensed under GPL v2.
Pro Works for many types of databases
MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access, Sybase, Java DB (Derby), Firebird (Interbase), Derby (JavaDB), SQLite, Mimer, HSQLDB, H2, IBM Informix, Teradata, SAP MAX DB, Cache, Ingres, Linter, Vertica, MongoDB, Cassandra, ODBC, Any JDBC compliant data source.
Pro Follow foreign key to their primary key
If you have a table with a foreign key you can click on it to see the table row where this key references to.
Pro Formatted text view
It has the classic grid view and a well-organized text view that you can quick-select with CTRL-A.
Pro Easy to use, clean neat inteface
Pro Free
Licensed under GNU GPL.
Pro Portable
Alongside the possibility of downloading the installer and sourcecode, a portable version of the software is available.
Pro Great UI and ease of use
HeidiSQL has a comprehensive and intuitive interface.
Pro Syntax completion
Pro Lightweight
Pro Great user management
The user manager of HeidiSQL can easily set privileges on a per-database level or give access to only certain commands.
Pro Data synchronization
HeidiSQL can compare and synchronize your data and structure between local and remote databases.
Pro SSH tunnel
HeidiSQL allows connecting to your MySQL database via SSH tunnel.
Pro Connect to servers via command line
You can use command line parameters to automate connections.
Pro Works fine with Wine under Linux
Cons
Con Never-ending function errors
Like, 'Communications link failure', 'Connection refused' (Community Edition 6.2.1).
Con Cannot view function
Con Trigger edition
Until version 3.5.8 you can not edit triggers, only view (since 3.5.6).
Con Can be buggy
HeidiSQL is known to have some bugs that results in crashes.
Con Intellisense is not intelligent
No intellisense for columns unless table name is aliased.
Con UI design is very bad
Generic windows form
Con No session backup
You cannot recover your session after close or even worse crash.
Con Works under Linux only with Wine
It works quite well under Wine with Linux, but you must always take notice if the last version of HeidiSQL has been tested, for it may not run at all. There are some bugs in the Wine version that can be annoying and you have to kill the program and restart it. A native Linux version would be great.