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BMC AMI DevX vs Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 15, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

BMC AMI DevX
Ranking in Database Development and Management
16th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
Software Configuration Management (1st), Debugging (6th), Mainframe Application Development (1st), Test Data Management (5th), Mainframe Testing Tools (1st), Data Masking (4th), AI Software Development (217th)
Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essent...
Ranking in Database Development and Management
10th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Database Development and Management category, the mindshare of BMC AMI DevX is 1.8%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials is 4.2%, down from 6.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database Development and Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials4.2%
BMC AMI DevX1.8%
Other94.0%
Database Development and Management
 

Featured Reviews

FI
Devops Engineer / Ispw Admin at a insurance company with 201-500 employees
Tight deployment controls have secured production and simplified complex release rollbacks
The best feature of BMC AMI DevX Code Pipeline that impresses me is the fallback functionality. The fallback functionality impresses me because when developers deploy large releases involving multiple components, such as COBOL programs, underlying copy books, and CICS modules, backing out changes would typically become a nightmare. With ISPW, developers can back out the entire release or entire package. If they deployed 100 components and want to back out everything, they can do so with one function and back out all components without worrying about backing out each individual component. They can back out the entire deployment set, which handles everything and brings them back to the previous versions. Developers can also selectively back out a subset of the deployed components. They also have the ability to revert to not just the most previous version but can go back several versions if they choose to do so. This gives them a lot of flexibility.
CS
Director, Enterprise Data Management at Glatfelter Insurance Group
SQL Search and change automation functionality help us manage our code repository and databases
The biggest problem with the Redgate SQL Toolbelt is just how heavy it is; it seems to take a lot of resources. It takes a lot of memory and a lot of processing power to run, and that tends to slow things down a bit. Making it a little more lightweight while still doing the same thing, as much as possible, is what we would like to see in the future. I've noticed that Microsoft SSMS runs much quicker without RedGate installed than it does with it installed. From bootup of the app to opening query windows and connections, SSMS is quicker without Redgate than with, by a significant margin. The other area for improvement is regarding licensing. Every month or two my SSMS loses it's redgate license key and I need to re-enter the key to continue using Red Gate, even though the license is annual.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"My guess is this would have taken twice as long, or we would have had many more issues without using Xpediter."
"I like that Compuware File-AID can actually map out control sections within load modules, or, as they're now known, program objects."
"The most valuable feature of Topaz is Xpediter. It's more flexible than Xpediter through MVS."
"I have worked with DB2's great features in the last five years. The IDAA feature transformed the vision of warehousing, business analytics, and big data at my bank. Besides the mainframe, I saw that this solution was evolutionary. It gives real-time information."
"The smart editor helps because it will code-complete for me. I can see code working a lot faster and I'm able to get things coded in less time."
"I like the ability to flow through the source and see what happens to the data as the statements are executed. If there is a fault, it will track the event, and we can then look back to see why it may have caused the fault. You can also reverse engineer your test. You can set it so that you can go backward as well as forward in your test. This is something that I haven't done here at my company. Compuware Xpediter is one of the best debugging tools for mainframe software development. We have currently licensed only the COBOL language for Xpediter, but I know they have other languages, including Assembler, PL/I."
"With the use of ISPW, we were able to reduce our deployment time for specific applications by utilizing the auto-deploy features."
"Topaz workbench is one of the most integrated into Eclipse that I've seen from the mainframe vendors."
"It is easy to track the reports, this is what is most valuable for me."
"It is easy to track the reports, this is what is most valuable for me."
"The most valuable feature is SQL Search."
"I've had really good luck with this product and I've been happy with it."
 

Cons

"It's a very complicated tool."
"The area for improvement is related to the testing tools that are available for unit testing or acceptance testing. I know they have some out there that we are not licensed for at this time, but it seems like some of the Eclipse tools that are used for other programming languages, they're all just built-in and they're a little more intuitive to the developers. Making those testing tools as intuitive as possible, and as integrated as possible into the workbench, would be really beneficial."
"The ISPW plugin could be improved to add some functionality which is already in ISPF panels and not in the plugin."
"The solution could be improved by being better integrated with the open world. In the next release, I would like to have the ability to work in an open environment whilst remaining integrated with the legacy environment."
"The ability to edit source code that has special characters is limited. The ability to incorporate or convert REXX into macros that are usable under the Topaz software is not there. And the REXX macros that I have developed over 40 years of work are useless, so I have a toolbox I can't use or deploy using the Topaz technology, while I can use it under MVS."
"It often doesn't play well with other plugins in the environment."
"When you're setting up the parameters for how ISPW will work in your shop, there are a lot of questions that have to be answered... BMC Compuware should have more in-depth explanations about what the choices in each question mean."
"Technical support has gotten better over the years, though there's always room for improvement."
"The biggest problem with the Redgate SQL Toolbelt is just how heavy it is; it seems to take a lot of resources."
"Redgate SQL Toolbelt is a reliable solution, but it occasionally hangs when I generate a report with more than two gigabytes of data."
"The biggest problem with the Redgate SQL Toolbelt is just how heavy it is; it seems to take a lot of resources."
"I would like to see the bandwidth increase allowing me to easily analyze more data."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The only thing I would mention related to the licensing and/or the pricing, is that they have some visualization features in there that are licensed by concurrent users. We're starting to trip up on that. We're looking to probably increase the number of concurrent licenses that we have. But those types of licensing strategies, where they license by concurrent users or the number of seats is confusing for some people. They don't understand why it works sometimes and doesn't work other times."
"In terms of pricing, there isn't an extra charge for the parts of it we use. It comes with the licenses we purchased for other products, so no complaints there. The licensing is built in with the other products that you purchase from Compuware."
"In general, Compuware tools are very competitive."
"It has saved our developers time and effort when working on documentation, which is now more readable and fluent."
"The price point is great."
"I like the seat-based licensing much more than MSU-based licensing, and that the cost has been competitive."
"Our fees are paid on an annual basis."
"The cost is about $3,500 USD per individual to buy, and then it's about 20% per year for renewal."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
33%
Insurance Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
9%
Insurance Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise16
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with BMC Compuware Topaz Enterprise Data?
It's a very complicated tool. Sometimes the customer wants better, faster transaction times. They want the solution to move as fast as possible. We're trying to scale and grow our application with ...
What is your primary use case for BMC Compuware Topaz Enterprise Data?
We do development for our customers and we use Topaz to do backend systems for some Latin American banks. It's for enterprise data. It runs on AWS. I'm working on performance testing to do batch pe...
Ask a question
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Also Known As

File-AID, Data for Db2, Code Debug, Data Studio, Workbench for Eclipse, Code Pipeline
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Helvetia, The IMT Group, Hapag-Lloyd, Royal Bank of Canada, Chunghwa Telecom
Thinger.fi, Churchill College Univeristy of Cambridge, Margin Business Solutions Ltd., 4Penny.net, Sportinginsider.net, Lockheed Martin, Phillip Securities Pte Ltd, Nmbrs
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC AMI DevX vs. Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.