When comparing DbForge Studio for MySQL vs HeidiSQL, the Slant community recommends HeidiSQL for most people. In the question“What are the best SQL clients for Linux?” HeidiSQL is ranked 3rd while DbForge Studio for MySQL is ranked 16th. The most important reason people chose HeidiSQL is:
Licensed under GNU GPL.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Built-in debugger
Quite functional debugger for MySQL stored routines. A step-by-step code execution, breakpoints, watches, a call stack, a variable evaluation mechanism to automate debugging of MySQL stored functions and procedures.
Pro Backup and restoration
Quick backup and restoration of MySQL databases. Also, there is an option to schedule an automated MySQL database backup.
Pro Build-in documenter
Generation of MySQL and MariaDB database documentation in the HTML, PDF and Markdown formats
Pro Has a handy 'Copy Databases" tool
Easily transfers MySQL Server databases from one server instance to another
Pro Database diagrams
Just perfect feature for db analysis and reverse-engineering.
Pro Schema and data comparison
Pro Relational database systems support
MySQL server, MariaDB server, Amazon RDS and more
Pro Query profiler
Supports visual query profiling & can compare profiling results btw different queries.
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 Only Windows
Only available for Windows.
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.