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Oracle SQL Developer vs dbForge Studio for SQL Server comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

dbForge Studio for SQL Server
Ranking in IDE
9th
Average Rating
9.0
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Oracle SQL Developer
Ranking in IDE
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.9
Number of Reviews
36
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the IDE category, the mindshare of dbForge Studio for SQL Server is 5.0%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle SQL Developer is 6.4%, up from 4.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
IDE Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Oracle SQL Developer6.4%
dbForge Studio for SQL Server5.0%
Other88.6%
IDE
 

Featured Reviews

AM
Head BI SBU at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Easy to use, quick data usage, and a helpful knowledge base
The only issue that I have is that it depends on hardware resources, it takes a lot, that is the only set back with the solution. What we are using is fine for now. I believe that the newer versions 2016 or 2018 SQL have improved a lot and have all of the features available. It would be useful to have some form of self-service capabilities or some form an AI to provide a summary and to be able to tell you what has happened. Also, the inclusion of some integration tools would be helpful. In the next release, I would like to see some form of artificial intelligence with some form of summaries telling you what has happened without having to get into a complex query to get that information.
Vikram_Kumar - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Architect at Ontario Power Generation
Has improved development efficiency through reusable components and intuitive programming features
When errors occur while programming, they are very generic. Even when searching the internet, the errors remain generic and it takes considerable time to understand the fix. This was predominantly felt because we were mostly working on writing code and developing features. Error handling needs to be improved. The patches and upgrade process is very long. In the last year and a half, I haven't upgraded, so we don't know if latest features have arrived. Another issue is with sessions. If we were working on code and then switch off our laptop for two to three days, the session would keep running. This consumes many resources and flags to the team that a user has been continuously using Oracle SQL Developer. There should be a timeout period for inactive sessions.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"If you do SQL for a living you need a robust productivity tool."
"The features that I find are the most valuable are easy querying, screen objects, relational diagram creation, and simplicity."
"The solution is very scalable; if you set up a very large database, billions of records or so, if you have enough memory and enough disk space, it's quite easy to do."
"It's quite easy to install and use from a local machine or laptop, as well as on a server."
"I like the ease of use and quick data usage."
"It has done everything that I needed it to do, and it doesn't cost you anything."
"Using execution plan, I am able to do lots of query tuning."
"It's a no-cost license and it offers outstanding functionality on that basis."
"I assess the benefits of Oracle SQL Developer's reporting framework for data-driven decision making by stating that Oracle is the most efficient database for relational databases in my opinion."
"When I measure the amount of time for the same query to run on three different tools, Oracle SQL Developer leads the charts, and on average, if it takes around ten minutes on SQL Server, it takes roughly five to six minutes on Oracle SQL Developer, saving us nearly half an hour to one hour a day."
"Ability to analyze performance, using Explain Plan statement."
"The main benefits of using Oracle SQL Developer include maintaining different connections with environments such as development, quality, and production while ensuring good access control to prevent data mishaps."
"It's free and very user-friendly."
 

Cons

"The lock files and login are two features we've had issues with. As far as I can see, there's no way to switch off the login in SQL Servers."
"I once had a problem stopping a long running query, not sure whose fault was, mine, the server or something else."
"The only issue that I have is that it depends on hardware resources, it takes a lot, that is the only set back with the solution."
"The lock files and login are two features we've had issues with. As far as I can see, there's no way to switch off the login in SQL Servers. If there could be a way to switch off the login, for transactions, or in operations, or tables, that'd be great."
"The only issue that I have is that it depends on hardware resources, it takes a lot, that is the only set back with the solution."
"There are occasional runtime issues that are easily worked around, especially on a Windows deployment."
"They were not supportive. I didn't get a solution."
"Versioning is there, check. But it sucks a lot, double check."
"Could be made to load faster."
"It would be nice to have the ability to access DBs than Oracle."
"It's not so stable. Sometimes it crashes, and the connection to the databases is bad."
"Queries."
"My only complaint over the years has been memory usage, which seems to improve with each release."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Because it's 2012 version, it's a one-off enterprise license that we have never had to upgrade."
"It's a no-cost license and it offers outstanding functionality on that basis."
"It's a free tool."
"It has the advantage that it's free. The next best competitor would cost several thousand dollars."
"It is basically free."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
20%
Marketing Services Firm
14%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Energy/Utilities Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise20
 

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle SQL Developer?
The pricing of Oracle SQL Developer depends on the size of the company and the project. I cannot use Oracle or other solutions if I am just starting. If I start with MySQL, it depends on the size o...
What needs improvement with Oracle SQL Developer?
I want to address performance issues with large amounts of data. When I run queries that return lakhs or millions of rows, Oracle SQL Developer sometimes freezes, takes time to load, or even crashe...
What is your primary use case for Oracle SQL Developer?
In my current project at Cognizant, Oracle SQL Developer is one of the targets to load the data after extracting and transforming it, so this is our use case for my project. For example, I was at a...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Boeing, Sony, Honda, Oracle, BMW, Samsung
Prinova
Find out what your peers are saying about Oracle SQL Developer vs. dbForge Studio for SQL Server and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.