BMC AMI DevX vs SQL Sentry comparison

BMC and SQL Sentry are both solutions in the Database Development and Management category. BMC is ranked #17 with an average rating of 7.7, while SQL Sentry is ranked #14. BMC holds a 2.1% mindshare in DDM, compared to SQL Sentry’s 2.8% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of BMC users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 66% of SQL Sentry users who would recommend it.

BMC AMI DevX

Read 19 BMC AMI DevX reviews

4,427 Views
443 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

SQL Sentry

Read 2 SQL Sentry reviews

692 Views
692 Comparison Views

66% willing to recommend

BMC AMI DevX

SQL Sentry

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 14, 2025

SQL Sentry and BMC AMI DevX are in direct competition within the database management and application development arena. While SQL Sentry stands out for its cost-effectiveness and robust support, BMC AMI DevX attracts users with its more extensive feature set.

Features: SQL Sentry provides real-time performance monitoring, SQL query tuning, and intuitive functionality. BMC AMI DevX includes advanced development tools, seamless integration capabilities, and a broad spectrum of features for diverse needs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SQL Sentry offers a straightforward deployment process with efficient customer support for quick adaptation. BMC AMI DevX, despite its complex implementation, offers extensive customer service that ensures a smoother transition when integrating comprehensive solutions.

Pricing and ROI: SQL Sentry is noted for affordable setup costs, offering high returns through efficient resource management and reduced troubleshooting time. BMC AMI DevX requires a higher initial investment, balanced by its rich feature offering and long-term advantages for businesses focusing on expansive development.

To learn more, read our detailed BMC AMI DevX vs. SQL Sentry Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

BMC AMI DevX vs. SQL Sentry

December 2025

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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

17th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Software Configuration Management (1st), Debugging (6th), Mainframe Application Development (1st), Test Data Management (6th), Mainframe Testing Tools (1st), Data Masking (7th)

SQL Sentry

Ranking in Database Development and Management

14th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Database Development and Management category, the mindshare of BMC AMI DevX is 2.1%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SQL Sentry is 2.8%, down from 5.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Database Development and Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
SQL Sentry	2.8%
BMC AMI DevX	2.1%
Other	95.1%

Database Development and Management

Featured Reviews

Brian Westerman

Director of R&D at Syzygy Inc.

Helps to make mainframe data management process easier and saves manhours

We plan to replace BMC Compuware File-AID due to its price. Two years back, we paid 11,000 dollars. However, the current price is 27,900 dollars. The price has increased to at least eight times its initial cost. We would need to pay around 60,000 dollars to have all three products together. We also encountered issues during version updates.

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Steve McCubbin

Sql Db Administrator at a non-tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Lets you know when your jobs are taking longer than average and allows you to go back in history and find out what was happening at certain times

To be able to go back in history and find out what was happening at certain times is the most valuable feature of the product. Another thing that's good about the product is that it will let you know when your jobs are taking longer than average so that you can foretell that there's going to be an issue coming up. Your SQL agent job is taking longer.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The product has made our mainframe data management process easier. It has helped us save manhours. The tool's most valuable feature is the ability to edit tape files. Its ability to clone files is beneficial in application development."

"I like the ability that it has to format copy books in a presentable manner. So, you will be able to see the starting offset in length of each field within the layout."

"One of the features that the developers like is that they can retrieve what they need with the tool. They don't have to go through some process or request something be done by another team. They can get the programs they need, compile them, retrieve the JCL and alter the JCL if they need to, and put these programs wherever they need to go for their testing."

"It helps our staff work by speeding up their documentation process."

"We can develop in parallel today on ISPF, but it's giving us the advantage of the newer interface into the mainframe programming languages that younger programmers can use and are familiar with, rather than using the ISPF green screen."

"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."

"Once we got the configurations and deployment rolled out, it was very stable. I haven't had any major issues with Eclipse or the Topaz Workbench plugins."

More BMC AMI DevX pros

"To be able to go back in history and find out what was happening at certain times is the most valuable feature of the product."

"This solution has identified blocking, deadlock, memory pressure, and high CPU consumption issues."

Cons

"There are some features that are not well documented, so documentation could use a little help, on things like setting up deployment and which structures in the database correspond to which tables."

"One thing I would really like to see some improvement on is the promotion diagnostic messages. It invokes utilities "under the covers" to copy components, and it does not echo back any of the error messages from those utilities."

"I'm waiting to see what 19.2 for Topaz looks like, but I have a problem with the JES Explorer right now. It limits you to a certain prefix for job names and there are some groups that have multiple prefixes that they'd like to see all at once in their job names, because of how they work in a group. And they can't see that in the JES Explorer."

"It would be nice to have an audit trail to see what mainframe developers are using what."

"It's a very complicated tool."

"DB2 is a hard tool to grasp. It's hard for users to learn how to use it. It's not easy to see how it works."

"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. If you pick A, what does that mean has to happen? What does that impact? If you pick B, what does that mean? What does that impact?"

"It's not as intuitive as it should be. In terms of navigation, there is a large training curve for using it. For a millennial it might be better, if they're used to Eclipse. But coming from a non-Eclipse environment and using Eclipse, though I have experience with Eclipse, it might be cumbersome."

More BMC AMI DevX cons

"There could be some more metrics on the high availability to let us know when there are issues synchronizing between the hosts."

"If we can get details on wait types from system views, it will help identify a more detailed root cause."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price point is great."

"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."

"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."

"It has saved our developers time and effort when working on documentation, which is now more readable and fluent."

"I like the seat-based licensing much more than MSU-based licensing, and that the cost has been competitive."

"In general, Compuware tools are very competitive."

"It's fairly expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

34%

Insurance Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Large Enterprise	16

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Compuware File-AID?

The product has made our mainframe data management process easier. It has helped us save manhours. The tool's most valuable feature is the ability to edit tape files. Its ability to clone files is ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Compuware File-AID?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Compuware File-AID?

We use the solution clone test files.

See all answers

Ask a question

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Comparisons

Endevor vs BMC AMI DevX

Compared 19% of the time

IBM File Manager vs BMC AMI DevX

Compared 11% of the time

InterTest vs BMC AMI DevX

Compared 7% of the time

IBM Debug for z/OS vs BMC AMI DevX

Compared 6% of the time

Broadcom Test Data Manager vs BMC AMI DevX

Compared 5% of the time

More BMC AMI DevX Competitors

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer vs SQL Sentry

Compared 47% of the time

IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server vs SQL Sentry

Compared 14% of the time

Foglight for Databases vs SQL Sentry

Compared 13% of the time

Spotlight vs SQL Sentry

Compared 12% of the time

Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials vs SQL Sentry

Compared 8% of the time

More SQL Sentry Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

BMC AMI DevX

January 2026

Download BMC AMI DevX product report

Buyer's Guide

Database Development and Management

December 2025

Download SQL Sentry product report

Also Known As

File-AID, Data for Db2, Code Debug, Data Studio, Workbench for Eclipse, Code Pipeline

No data available

Overview

BMC AMI DevX is a comprehensive solution enhancing code management and testing efficiency. It offers debugging capabilities within financial applications and integrates data management seamlessly, serving major banking sectors with reliable performance.

AMI DevX is tailored for banking industries, optimizing application debugging in COBOL and enhancing data handling in robust financial systems. It simplifies mainframe data management with real-time insights, improving efficiency through editing and cloning functionalities. The tool's integration with Compuware File-AID for IMS and DB2 ensures streamlined development processes. Challenges include a steep DB2 learning curve and initial setup complexities, with technical support inconsistencies and steep pricing impacting affordability. Despite this, its valuable features significantly support large banking operations.

What features make BMC AMI DevX valuable?

Line-by-Line Code Debugging: Allows precise identification and rectification of issues.
Variable Change & Line Skipping: Flexibility in testing without recompiling.
Database-Independent Testing: No need for loading databases during testing.
Real-Time Data Insights: Enhances decision-making with immediate information.
Data Warehousing & Analytics: Facilitates comprehensive data analysis.
Integration & Formatting: Streamlines development by simplifying data processes.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Improved Efficiency: Streamline data management and editing capabilities.
Robust Debugging: Effective in both online and batch COBOL program debugging.
Enhanced Financial Application Support: Superior handling in grants and loans applications.
Comprehensive Testing: Enables creation of clone test files for thorough testing.

In large banking sectors, BMC AMI DevX is integral for grants and loans-related applications. Its robust nature supports financial systems, offering debugging for COBOL, updating data in Compuware File-AID for IMS, and integrating DB2. Users implement this for exceptional data management and application reliability.

BMC

SentryOne is the most capable, scalable platform for enterprise data performance management, from development through production. We empower Microsoft database professionals with the best solutions for developing, testing, documenting, and monitoring the Microsoft Data Platform.

SQL Sentry

Sample Customers

Helvetia, The IMT Group, Hapag-Lloyd, Royal Bank of Canada, Chunghwa Telecom

Coeo, Stack Overflow, GreatAmerica Financial Services Corporation, Hawaiian Airlines, Hennepin County Medical Center, Racing Victoria, Citrix, Insight, Shi, Woodforest National Bank, Telular

Buyer's Guide

BMC AMI DevX vs. SQL Sentry

December 2025

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