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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
12th
Average Rating
9.0
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Oracle SQL Developer
Ranking in IDE
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the IDE category, the mindshare of dbForge Studio for SQL Server is 1.3%, down from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle SQL Developer is 3.8%, down from 5.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
IDE
 

Featured Reviews

Lucas Dreyer - PeerSpot reviewer
A stable, scalable solution with excellent administration
The initial setup is straightforward. It's quite easy to create databases, administrate databases, and set up a backup. It's quite easy to install and to manage. Deployment can take up to three hours if you are installing the full SQL server. Setting up just the database is a couple of minutes. I haven't set up a full backup, or any of that myself. I've set up backups to local disks, however, and that's quite easy to do. Setting up jobs, or maintenance jobs that are running statistics on variables, shrinking, translating locked files, etc., only take a few minutes to set up. A full configuration would take two hours maximum.
Theodoros Loizou - PeerSpot reviewer
Useful features, simple implementation, and scalable
For first-time users of Oracle SQL Developer, it's going to be a bit difficult, but they can find their way around over time. I rate Oracle SQL Developer a nine out of ten. I didn't face any other issues other than it being a bit slow when you have a lot of work to do.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like the ease of use and quick data usage."
"It's quite easy to install and use from a local machine or laptop, as well as on a server."
"You can install it on every platform. It just works. The other thing is that it's free. And Oracle is committed to the development of the tool, so it has been improving."
"I like it because it's very similar in output to SQL *Plus, and it has many convenience features that make it easier to read the data and use the basic reporting features it provides."
"You do not have to install it, just dump it on the OS, then use it."
"I have a lot of flexibility with it."
"The newer version has a lot of new features. It generates output and scripts for your Ultrix. It can generate JSON, XML, etc."
"The most valuable features of Oracle SQL Developer that I use. However, I do not use all of them"
"It allows us to implement a form of test driven development (TDD) for database-resident code."
"Using execution plan, I am able to do lots of query tuning."
 

Cons

"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."
"There are occasional runtime issues that are easily worked around, especially on a Windows deployment."
"If they had something on the Web then you wouldn't need to install it, just query, like Enterprise Manager."
"It's more stable sometimes and less stable other times. I have used it in Windows, Mac, and Linux. It's variable, it's not the same stability. I think that can be improved on."
"I think it would be great to have an overview over the sessions it opens so that we could easily see and control which connections to the database we want to keep open, which ones are hanging; and it would be great to make them independent from each other."
"Scalability has room for improvement. Often if you have to do a heavy load of queries or are getting large result sets you have to be careful not to overload the Java virtual machine that's running."
"The stability depends on what version you're using. There are more successful versions and are less successful versions. For example, 17.3 is less successful. There were many bugs. Now, we are trying to pull all the developers to upgrade to 17.4."
"I would like it to support background processes better."
"Oracle SQL Developer could improve the speed, it is a bit slow."
 

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 has the advantage that it's free. The next best competitor would cost several thousand dollars."
"It is basically free."
"It's a free tool."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
24%
Government
13%
Computer Software Company
9%
Healthcare Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Boeing, Sony, Honda, Oracle, BMW, Samsung
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Find out what your peers are saying about Oracle SQL Developer vs. dbForge Studio for SQL Server and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.