Toad Data Point Reviews

We are working for US banking, and for that, we have a project where we are using PowerCenter along with ETL; in that, we are using Toad Data Point for the SQL queries.

Drag-and-drop functionality is useful for people who do not know how to code. In Toad Data Point, even those without coding knowledge can work effortlessly using the visual query builder where they can drag tables into the workspace, including columns, and create joins without needing to know SQL or other commands. This accessibility empowers non-technical individuals to build queries effectively.

Based on the integration capabilities of Toad Data Point, I would say it is medium; it is easy for beginners or intermediate people to connect. Even for individuals unfamiliar with Toad Data Point, it is not overly difficult to learn and can be grasped within a few minutes, especially since over 50 different data sources are built-in, requiring less manual setup than traditional ETL or integration tools. With simple drag-and-drop functionality for blending different sources without coding, it makes it accessible for everyone; however, people who do not know what Toad Data Point is may need a little time to understand it.

I would estimate that Toad Data Point saves me about 30 to 70 percent of my time depending on the work type. Usually, without Toad Data Point, ad-hoc queries take 30 to 45 minutes, but with Toad Data Point, it takes just 10 to 15 minutes, saving me 20 to 30 minutes per task. For daily repetitive reports that typically take one hour without Toad Data Point, I only spend about 5 to 10 minutes monitoring after using it, saving 40 to 50 minutes. Additionally, for cross-database tasks that previously took one to two hours, Toad Data Point reduces that time to just 20 to 30 minutes, indicating a substantial time saving overall.

My advice for others considering Toad Data Point is that it excels for ad-hoc SQL querying, data preparation, cross-database analysis, and quick reporting. Instead of relying on multiple tools, investing in Toad Data Point can streamline operations and reduce licensing concerns, especially since Toad Data Point optimizes SQL performance when processing systems such as Amazon Redshift or Snowflake are tuned properly to get optimal results.

The best features of Toad Data Point include extensive data connectivity as I can connect a wide range of data sources such as NoSQL, files, and ODBC sources; I can also use AI-assisted analysis that allows me to type questions in natural language instead of technical language. In addition, I am able to have cross-connection queries, blend and join data from multiple different databases in a single query, with data profiling, automation and scheduling, and export and reporting tools; in one click, I can export to Excel, CSV, HTML, or anything. Furthermore, I can collaborate via Toad Intelligence Central, sharing queries, workflows, reports, and more. All these things make Toad Data Point the best.

I would say the visual query building and automation feature in Toad Data Point is productive, as I have used it extensively during my projects. The faster query building, drag-and-drop functionality, auto-generated SQL, and reusable queries save time compared to other workflows. Since completing work promptly is essential, Toad Data Point becomes a very productive tool; additionally, I do not need separate tools for each database, as Toad Data Point supports cross-database access, enabling me to use SQL, Oracle, Snowflake, Excel, and more within one tool. Moreover, it automates reports and re-runs saved workflows, significantly reducing manual work and enhancing productivity for those working on production support projects such as myself.

I consider user interface modernization in Toad Data Point to be an area for improvement; it could be enhanced with a more modern, web-based look and smoother navigation, focusing on better UX and dashboard customization. Real-time collaboration could benefit from trying Git-style integration, which would strengthen team collaboration features. Performance with large data sets sometimes slows down our workflows, so implementing a better optimization engine specifically for big data workflows could enhance functionality, along with improvements in cloud-native deployment for better browser access.

For the dashboarding feature, I believe Toad Data Point could improve by offering more interactive dashboards and advanced visualizations beyond the current basic charts and pivots. Implementing capabilities such as drill-down, interactive filters, and dynamic parameter selections would align more with BI-style interactivity. Visualizations compared to tools such as Microsoft Power BI or Tableau are quite limited, so enhancing this area with cloud-hosted interactive dashboards and seamless auto-refresh options would greatly improve user experience.

I have been using Toad Data Point for almost one and a half years.

Financially, I understand that teams often see a return on investment of one hundred percent plus annually from Toad Data Point through time savings and tool consultation; for instance, a five percent analytical team can save over five lakh annually after accounting for licensing costs.

Toad Data Point is stronger for preparing and querying data compared to other vendors such as Tableau, which emphasizes presenting insights visually. Toad Data Point's core functionality focuses on data access and preparation important for data analysts and developers, making it more beneficial for me, as query building, blending, and maintaining extensive data access capabilities define its strengths compared to other solutions.

When comparing Toad Data Point with other vendors and solutions such as Tableau or Microsoft BI, I find that Toad Data Point is stronger for preparing and querying data, while Tableau excels in presenting insights visually. Toad Data Point's core purpose focuses on data access, preparation, and querying, making it more useful for me as a data analyst and developer compared to platforms primarily geared toward data visualization and storytelling. The main strength of Toad Data Point lies in query building and blending, vital aspects for my work.

Regarding pricing for Toad Data Point, it varies by edition; Quest does not publicly list all prices on its official site, but based on real-market prices, I find it to be a good tool overall. Compared to other tools, it is worth the cost, especially since it focuses on analytics, data access, and automation, which are presented at a lower price; for analysts or developers such as myself, it is a four out of five. However, Power BI users may find it not as beneficial, deeming Toad Data Point mid-range, still more expensive than Power BI but cheaper than Alteryx and similar to Tableau.

Drag-and-drop functionality is useful for people who do not know how to code. In Toad Data Point, even those without coding knowledge can work effortlessly using the visual query builder where they can drag tables into the workspace, including columns, and create joins without needing to know SQL or other commands. This accessibility empowers non-technical individuals to build queries effectively.

I would estimate that Toad Data Point saves me about 30 to 70 percent of my time depending on the work type. Usually, without Toad Data Point, ad-hoc queries take 30 to 45 minutes, but with Toad Data Point, it takes just 10 to 15 minutes, saving me 20 to 30 minutes per task. For daily repetitive reports that typically take one hour without Toad Data Point, I only spend about 5 to 10 minutes monitoring after using it, saving 40 to 50 minutes. Additionally, for cross-database tasks that previously took one to two hours, Toad Data Point reduces that time to just 20 to 30 minutes, indicating a substantial time saving overall.

I rate Toad Data Point between eight and eight point five out of ten.

Currently, we are on a single database that we are using. However, a couple of years back, there was some data migration happening. We were bringing in data from other different databases and even flat files from heterogeneous sources. We were consolidating the data to one place. At that point, Toad Data Point was more useful because it is not just for connecting to different databases. You can also have a connection for a file on your local machine. You can create a CSV file, open a connection for that CSV, and query the CSV the same way you would query a table using SQL. You can run a query, SELECT * from the file name, and it will give you the results. This is very important if you are having multiple or heterogeneous data coming from different sources.

Toad Data Point is mainly a tool for querying the database. You can connect to different databases such as Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server or any other database. There are multiple databases that you can connect to and query those databases.

Apart from that, the main functionality is that you can query multiple databases by joining them. On a SQL query tool, this feature is not there. In Toad Data Point, you can make heterogeneous queries. I can join a table in Oracle with a table in SQL Server. If I have common columns, I can join and run a query joining them both. Other querying or editors in the market, such as Oracle SQL Developer, are specific to that database. Oracle SQL Developer is only for Oracle, whereas in Toad Data Point, you can make heterogeneous queries. You can join different tables from different database vendors and view your results. Toad Data Point has a data profiling feature and a data compare feature. You can run your queries side by side, then compare the result sets and select the keys on which you want to compare. These are the important features of Toad Data Point.

It is very easy to connect Toad Data Point. The only thing that you need is the server port and the credentials to connect to the database. You can create a connection. There is a drop down where it is very easy. There are icons as well. You can give a connection, create a new connection, select whichever database you want, enter the server and port details and the credentials of the user. It should be able to connect automatically.

I have not used drag and drop much. More than drag and drop, I have seen that it starts suggesting as soon as you connect to a database. When you start typing a query, it will start suggesting which table name or column name you have to use. It will give you suggestions. If you are aware of basic SQL, any user who is going to use Toad Data Point will have prior knowledge of SQL. The tool provides suggestions for table names and column names. You can see the list of databases, tables, and columns on the left side. There is an object explorer where you can explore everything. It usually displays everything on the left side. You can pick anything from there. You can check any view or table or any index or anything, including materialized views.

To create a heterogeneous query in Toad Data Point, there is an option on the editor itself. You go and click there, select new heterogeneous query. Before that, you need to create the connections. For example, for Oracle and SQL Server, you create two different connections. Then you open a new editor and a new query, which is a new heterogeneous query. It uses a common MySQL syntax. The syntax it follows is mostly similar to the regular SQL that you use, so it is very easy. It provides suggestions like I mentioned. If you start entering the table name, it will give you suggestions according to the table name and column name. It takes one or two times to get used to it, but after that it is easy. With a heterogeneous query, you can connect to multiple databases, even three databases or more if required.

Toad Data Point has an automation feature called Toad Automation or Toad Data Point Automation. There is an option to create automation. In this, you can use drag and drop. You can use the automation for running SQL queries, for extracting data or the result set from the database tables, or to import something into your table, import from different files or Excel into your database. You can use this automation to compare result sets. What I have done is use it for comparing result sets. I generally extract the results by giving a query and putting it there for two different tables, then extract that in different files and compare those files. You can do all these activities in one workflow. It is a workflow where you can see different icons. You can drag and drop whichever automation you want. Say you want to run a query, you can drag and drop the icon there. You can run the query for extracting and importing and exporting files, there are icons, so you can drag and drop. You have to configure the path and all. Say you are exporting something, then you give the query, then on the export side, you give the path where you want to save that file on your local. Then you save the automation workflow and give it a run. There is a play button where you click on it, it runs, and you will see after the end of it, the result set has been exported. It is very intuitive. You can also schedule these automation jobs. Whatever automation workflows that you create, you can schedule it. You can also have an email service. Once this automation service runs, you can send the results to an email ID. These additional features are also there.

Right now, we run data comparisons and everything, which is fine. But there are some limitations with respect to the number of rows that we can compare or fetch. When we compare a very large data set, say when the data set runs in millions, the Toad crashes sometimes. I am not sure if that is because of the system that we have, the machine on which it is installed, or if it is a limitation of the tool itself. If they can handle more data, if Toad Data Point can handle more data thrown at it, that would be very helpful. Especially when the larger the organization, the more the data, the tool should also be able to handle that data. If something can be improved, it could be improved on that front. But apart from that, I have not seen any major disadvantage. It has all the features and everything. Even the automation can be done by a new user. You just need to explore it. They have clear legends and descriptions to help you out. They have a forum support where if you have any query, you can put your question there, and it will get answered.

If the table has LOBs, large objects within it, sometimes it crashes. The comparison as well crashes, as I mentioned. These are things that can be improved. But otherwise, Toad Data Point is very good and very intuitive for any newcomer. The settings and options are extensive, so you can play around with them.

I have been using Toad Data Point for the past four years.

I would rate stability at 8.5.

The pros that I have mentioned include data comparison, Toad Data Compare, the Toad Automation feature, the data profiling, and the heterogeneous query, which is very important. Connecting to multiple databases from different vendors through one tool is very important and the best feature of Toad Data Point. All of these features are major advantages.

The cons are that sometimes the tool crashes if the memory load is too high, such as when the data volume that you are querying is large.

I have not personally posted any question, but I have seen others do it. When I have faced an error, I copied and pasted it on Google and I could see answers for the same error that others have raised. People raise those errors or bugs that arise in Toad Data Point on the forum and it gets fixed in the next version. Whenever they release an upgrade or update, it gets fixed there. There are developers who work on Toad Data Point. When any bugs or errors occur, you can post it on the forum with a description of what is happening. The developers will ask you about your local machine details, such as the RAM that you are using, if it is something related to memory. But for any general error that you get, you can post it there and it will get answered if it is not already answered. Most of the times, the questions that you have are already there. Others have already encountered similar issues and it has been answered. You can refer to that and work on it.

I have used Oracle SQL Developer earlier. I have also used SSMS, Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio. I have also used one tool for Sybase. I have used two or three other products. All of them have the limitation that you connect to only that particular database. You cannot connect to any random database from a different vendor.

Unfortunately, I cannot provide information about the initial setup because it is installed on the client machine, and the client takes care of all of that. I have no idea about it.

For data integration, we have a different tool. Right now we are using DataStage. That is the ETL tool that we are using. That takes care of the data ingestion part.

The key features that are important - when you compare Toad Data Point against any other SQL querying tool, the most important feature is the ease of use. How easily I can connect to a database, create a connection, connect to a database, query, how quickly the results are fetched, and how quickly I can export it. These are important features that are common for all tools. What separates Toad Data Point from the rest is the additional features which I mentioned, such as the data comparison or Toad Data Compare, the Toad Automation, and the heterogeneous query, which is very important. It also has data profiling tools. You can do data profiling on any data that you have in your system. You can select a table, do a data profiling, and it will show you the max value, min value, how many nulls are there, and these kinds of data profiling. This data profiling helps in data cleansing. If you have junk data or incorrect data which needs cleansing, you can do that. This will enable that. It will show you what is missing and based on that you can take a call. I have not seen so many features in other tools that I have worked on, but Toad Data Point has all of them. You can say it is a one-stop shop for anything that you have to do with a database or SQL.

I have never seen two interfaces and I have not explored it. I have only seen one interface that I have used.

I do not personally derive any insights from it, so I am not the right person to answer that. Someone like a business analyst would be the right person to answer that.

Unfortunately, that feature is not available in the version that I am using right now. I think I am on an older version, and maybe the later versions or the latest ones might have it.

I would recommend using Toad Data Point for all SQL related or database related work. It is a very good tool. I do not know if you have multiple sources or multiple data sources, or even otherwise, or how the cost or economics of this works for other organizations, but if you have the option and if you can afford it, then go for Toad Data Point. It is excellent for day to day querying and everything. I rate this product a 9 out of 10.

My use cases for Toad Data Point are that we are currently hosting a SQL server on our bare metal cloud, and we are trying to access the application server using Toad Data Point.

What I like the most about Toad Data Point is the automation feature, which is mostly useful for us. I have not found it in any other systems that I have worked with so far, and it can easily schedule any automation tasks that we provide. I do not have to rely on an external tool to do that; Toad Data Point automatically does it using its services.

The ease of connecting Toad Data Point to different data sources such as SQL, NoSQL, and ODBC is excellent. I believe the connectivity is not an issue at all because we did our homework before choosing Toad Data Point. We have a license for about three years from now, for about 1,000 plus days, and the connection is very good. We see a spectrum of different tools where we could connect and fetch data from, so I do not think connectivity is an issue at this point.

The drag-and-drop functionality is helpful for people who are not familiar with coding. For people who are not familiar, if I share them a code snippet and they can run it on their local machine, it provides an opportunity for them to do a quick pivot. What you do on a simple Excel sheet can be done here, and you could get some quick results from it. That is most interesting for people who want to quickly get that data point from the query or the results of the query. The drag-and-drop features give a similar look and feel of an Excel sheet, and we have been experiencing this with some folks in the leadership team who do not have the time or the experience with coding. They are mostly in management roles and they want to look at quick results and patterns.

The importance of Toad Data Point's multi-platform tools in the management of the database platforms is that we have integrated a few servers from different tools, including a few MySQL servers, one SQL Server, and IBM's homegrown DB2. The integration between these tools works very well, and we could create automations between these databases or tools, which also works as expected. I do not think there are any issues that we have been experiencing or run into every now and then; it is all doing well.

What could be improved is probably the user interface. The application is heavy on my local PC; however, if I connect to a remote server, I think it works better. I experience degraded performance on my local compared to a server, which is more powerful, obviously.

I have been working with Toad Data Point for close to two and a half years now.

I often feel instability locally because it is a heavy application, and I feel some slowness in the response of the user interface. That is what I have observed on my local when there are a lot of things running in parallel. Otherwise, the server application is working fine, and I do not see any issues as such. My local PC performance has degraded over the years, which could be a reason as well, but I would say a lighter version for local will be helpful for people.

I think Toad Data Point is scalable. Scalability has not been an issue because so far we have dumped about a billion records per year, and I do not see any issues as such. When you do some operations on the dataset, they take time because the dataset is huge. That is expected. I do not think scalability has been an issue from my side at least; we have primarily hosted it on a server, and I do not think there is any performance issue connected to that. We are handling very high row counts in the server, and scalability has not been an issue.

I have not contacted the technical support or customer support of Toad Data Point or Quest yet; hopefully, that has not happened so far. Probably if there is something, I will have to contact them.

The initial deployment when we first started with the solution was that we actually did a migration of the server from Microsoft SQL Server to MySQL on Toad Data Point. We already had an architecture that was preexisting, and we tweaked and optimized a few things so that we could do things in a better way on Toad Data Point. I do not think it was that difficult of a task; it was fairly easy.

One person can do this deployment, but we need a few stakeholder teams for inputs. Otherwise, it was just two people who did the entire migration or implementation of the server itself. We obviously took feedback and advice from the team, but the implementation was done by two people, one in the US and one in India.

I have used alternatives to Toad Data Point, similar solutions, and there are a few cloud-based data sets where we fetch data from, and there is no straightforward way for us to fetch data and dump it into a SQL server. That is when we rely on Python scripts to generate or fetch data from that source and load it into an Excel sheet. The results of those things go into an Excel sheet. We use the scheduling automation scripts in Toad Data Point to fetch data from that folder, which happens repeatedly based on a schedule. The Python scripts run and dump data into a CSV or Excel sheet, and periodically the data is egressed or ingressed into the SQL Server from Toad Data Point automation. The data coming in also needs a lot of transformation, which is fairly complicated on a SQL server. We do the most optimized way possible, and that is why we are relying on Python. There is nothing to do with Toad Data Point's negatives as such; it is a situational thing.

I have not used the AI Ask feature so far. Toad Data Point does not require any maintenance on my end in terms of the application, but in terms of the deployment or the server, we do a few maintenance tasks on a periodic basis based on the changes in the business decisions in the organization, which has nothing to do with Toad Data Point as an application. My overall rating for Toad Data Point is 9 out of 10.

My use case is mainly for business analysis, and I also use it for some parts of machine learning and AI, and in some cases, I use it for healthcare purposes.

The major best features in Toad Data Point are the integrity part; I use it for USSD as well as SQL, and some parts into NHS ID, DL, and session ID, including end-user inputs, transaction data, and timestamps for various operations and service types, which I also leverage for capturing data stored in SQL databases where I write queries to analyze.

Integrating multiple data sources using Toad Data Point's interface is not much difficult; Toad Data Point is a major key point and is much more useful compared to SQL developers, providing multiple features. However, when accessing large data volumes and running complex queries like nested queries or stored procedures, Toad Data Point might get hung during those operations, which is the only significant challenge I encounter.

When discussing the visual query building and automation features, I utilize automations in my database with Ansible automations, performing automation data processing units and deployment, which has a positive impact, increasing efficiency and reducing human error, as well as saving time, thus improving productivity and scalability compared to human errors. The initial cost for automation may be higher and could reduce the need for technical expertise, but my overall impression is quite positive.

With automations, the time-saving is around forty to fifty percent, while running on a script basis typically saves around ten to fifteen percent, but during long-term operations, it will be forty to fifty percent.

Human error reduction is about twenty to thirty percent.

Toad Data Point plays a crucial role in data-driven decision-making processes by facilitating data access and retrieval operations, data analysis, validations, quality checks, and performance monitoring for scenarios such as slow running queries, high database loads, or system bottlenecks, which are valuable for troubleshooting and debugging.

Areas for improvement in Toad Data Point usage could include a better UI interface, building in AI assistance, and faster performance for large databases, especially since accessing a terabyte of data can slow down performance; thus, better data visualization tools, improved integrations with modern tools, and enhanced collaboration features such as shared query libraries and real-time collaborations would be beneficial.

I have been using the solution for the last two to three years.

I rate the stability as good, a ten out of ten.

I find the scalability to be around nine.

For technical support, I would rate it a nine out of ten; the only issue is the occasional slow response, but overall, the service is excellent.

The deployment is easy and not complex.

It takes days to deploy, not months.

I see a return on investment of around thirty percent.

The pricing is cost-effective; it is neither too cheap nor too expensive, it's a good value.

I find that other vendors have various features; while Toad Data Point may have a paid version, some other vendors offer free versions, but in terms of features, they tend to be less comprehensive compared to Toad Data Point. Toad Data Point is a strong tool for database operations, performance tuning, and debugging, providing more visibility in the market.

I am a customer for one of a few clients, and I provide the complete service to them.

I connect to SQL, as well as some ODBC connections within my on-premises and the cloud, which I use for the database as well as with the OCI.

The drag-and-drop functionality is not much familiar with those clients, but I use most of it in the coding part itself, where I perform multiple SQL operations, and sometimes with OCI and NoSQL based on customer requirements.

I utilize Toad Data Point's two interface options.

For the two interface options, in the Toad Data Point interface operations, I find it useful for viewing data, validating records, updating transaction statuses, and troubleshooting errors, providing easy database access, fast query executions, and helping debug interface issues while performing monitoring for transactions with substantial benefits in validation.

I have used the AI Ask feature, but not to much extent; I am still exploring it.

Approximately, I have around fifteen to twenty users utilizing the solution.

The solution requires maintenance.

Maintaining it is easy.

I give this review a rating of nine out of ten. I highly recommend implementing Toad Data Point because I understand its features and value, and most others have already used it as well.

My main use case for Toad Data Point is to connect various databases, for example, Oracle or DB2 or MySQL server, so we can connect all the types of databases that we have in the industry into a single platform, and it is used for validating all sorts of data validations, validating the flow of various tables, and how the data will flow from one hop to another hop, validating the counts, validating the duplicate checks, and all that.

In our project, there was a requirement where we had to validate the counts from different databases; one was on Oracle, another was PostgreSQL, and the other was Microsoft SQL Server. To do that, we had to provide the credentials for each database, and then in the same Toad Data Point, on the same platform, we could validate the number of records that were in a specific database and validate that instead of installing different kinds of databases for connecting each specific flavor of database, we could validate all the counts from different databases into a single platform.

In my opinion, the best features that Toad Data Point offers are the security that it provides when connecting all sorts of databases, and moreover, we do not have to rely on multiple DB connectors for that; we can use Toad Data Point as a single source of connections for all DBs, and that serves the purpose of connecting all these DB flavors that we have in the industry on a single platform instead of installing multiple DBs and their UI.

The security features help my team or organization because we use it only in thin clients such as C-SPAN or features where we do not have access to any other platform, and this is the only platform available in the cloud; this is the benefit that we have for Toad Data Point.

In our organization, Toad Data Point positively impacts by helping with data migration projects that are implemented whenever we are implementing our product for a client, so to migrate the data, we have to validate the counts and the duplicate records and remove them, making Toad Data Point handy in those scenarios.

I have seen that at times Toad Data Point errors out in some scenarios, so if there is full-time dedicated support from Toad Data Point application team when we encounter errors while connecting to some databases, that would be handy; they could also implement AI agents to help the users instantly.

I have been using Toad Data Point for approximately eight years now.

Toad Data Point is completely stable.

Toad Data Point is quite scalable as we can connect as many databases as we want, and the performance is also good.

Toad Data Point customer support does not have any AI agents or real-time debugging options or help available; however, we have to reach out to Toad Data Point customer support if we have some issues.

We were using Oracle SQL Developer before switching to Toad Data Point because Oracle SQL Developer could only connect to Oracle DBs, but Toad Data Point allows us to connect to all databases.

Toad Data Point was the only option available in the organization I was working in.

We are just users; there is no other business relationship with this vendor.

The benefits we have are that removing the duplicate records eventually improves the KPIs that some of the BI or reporting teams prepare, as duplicate records or null records hamper those reports, if they contain duplicate counts or null records or improper data, those records would not be reliable.

Toad Data Point is a licensed tool, and the company has to pay for it; however, there are similar platforms available for free, which is why I rated it a seven because if there are some free platforms available, people do not go for Toad Data Point, although there are advantages in terms of security that are better with Toad Data Point.

I rate it a seven because I have noticed that there are other similar platforms or applications available that do the job Toad Data Point does in a better way; for example, DBeaver is a similar application that works better at times.

I think Toad Data Point is losing significance as I have not seen many people using it; now people go for DBeaver and use that more frequently because it is not licensed.

My advice for others looking into using Toad Data Point is that if this is the only option, it is good to go; otherwise, I suggest using DBeaver. I rated this review a seven overall.

We primarily use Toad Data Point for end users where SQL Developer does not provide sufficient tooling. Toad Data Point offers better SQL development tools compared to SQL Developer, making it the preferred choice for certain development use cases.

It provides better SQL development tooling than SQL Developer, which is not a sufficient tool for all development use cases. It was brought in to offer power developers the tooling they need.

I am not the end user of this solution. I am not close enough to it because I manage the platform that it runs against. The end users who use the Toad tool come against the database that my team manages, so it is hard for me to provide any area for improvement when it comes to the Toad tool. 

However, in the administration case, cost is a significant issue. The Mac license is incredibly expensive. It is 1,600 dollars each, which is more than the Windows version. Scalability is difficult when it is that costly.

We have been using it for more than ten years.

I have no concerns about stability. There have been no issues related to stability.

Outside of the Mac administration, it is very scalable. It does not scale well when considering the high cost of the Mac license.

I am very pleased with their customer support. They were very prompt and responsive. They resolved my issue within a day which was specifically around licensing. When we signed ELA, there were some issues with some of our SKUs because we licensed multiple products from them. We opened a case with them, and they quickly got back to me and had it resolved within a day.

Positive

SQL Developer acts as an alternative, offering about 80% of what Toad Data Point does. There is a huge overlap between the two. The main advantage of SQL Developer is that it is a free tool, requiring no licensing, so a lot of our developers use it exclusively. They do not use Toad Data Point.

It is very easy. I do not manage the deployment. The end users of Toad Data Point have a wrapper for the installation. They use that when a request comes in for the product. We have an ELA, and it is unlimited on the endpoint side. It is just a package that they deploy. It is a button click.

The Mac licenses are expensive, costing 1,600 dollars each. This is much higher than for the Windows version. I maintain a very limited number of licenses due to this cost.

We love it. Overall, I would rate Toad Data Point a nine out of ten.

Some of my use cases include connecting to multiple databases, such as Teradata, Oracle, and SQL. 

There is a feature in Toad Data Point that securely stores all login information, and once I am connected, it automatically establishes the connection, similar to SQL, where using the same password connects automatically. 

For visualization, I use Tableau and Power BI, which offer multiple connections, however, they do not specifically connect to databases where I can connect to multiple data sources. Toad Data Point is one of the tools that enables connections to multiple data sources.

We started seeing benefits after some time. 

A valuable feature is automation. With Toad Data Point, I can automate most steps automatically. There is a feature called Toad Automation, which is a valuable tool.

Toad Data Point should include more features for utilizing AI, which can automatically perform many tasks. The tool should have a feature where, if I convert my Oracle connection, the code, whether a select statement or anything else, should automatically convert into Oracle format. 

The same with SQL. When connecting to SQL, the code should be in SQL format, and when connecting to Teradata, it should be in Teradata format. Since not everyone knows all languages, there should be a feature that automatically converts code into the desired format.

It's not user-friendly. Once you start using it, you eventually get to know the features. 

I have been using Toad Data Point for the last three and a half years.

I have no issues with lagging or crashing. That said, whenever I try to export data, there might be some lag due to the large volume of data. It's not a challenge, just unusual.

I think Toad Data Point can be scaled, and features can be added. Some aspects, like scalability, could be improved to avoid writing different codes for each database. It should be possible to write in SQL and pull data from Oracle, converting SQL into Oracle. While this can be done, the feature does not currently exist.

I have never experienced any issues with customer service. Everything went smoothly.

Positive

Other products do not support all databases. I have mostly used Alteryx. Alteryx is another ETL tool. Used specifically for querying, Toad Data Point is the best.

The setup is easy, even when the version changes. I can automatically convert my data sources and connections. It's not difficult. Deployment within my company is straightforward, with installation done automatically. 

Once installed, it's self-learning, requiring minimal effort during deployment.

There may be occasional updates that can be handled on the back end. It usually happens automatically overnight. We don't even notice. 

I don't manage the pricing. That's handled by the supply chain management team.

I suggest that users should know all the languages when running queries on Toad Data Point. Follow the sessions offered for Toad learnings, as they provide valuable input and information about new features. 

I rate Toad Data Point nine out of ten.

When I use it, I'm using it for writing SQL or testing SQL code. I used to use it for moving data, loading files into database tables, from tables to other tables.

I saw the benefits immediately when I started to use it. The tool improved over time and got even better. 

The best thing about it is its automation features. You can write an entire load and load cleaning; this full ETL process could be done with one tool. 

One of the greatest features is that you can get data from anywhere to anywhere with Toad Data Point.

I used their report writing a little bit, however, it could improve since it's not a really good report writer and it's a little clunky.

I have been using it in my career for about 14 years.

They have problems every once in a while with new releases, however, they fix them pretty quickly.

The scalability is as good as any other product I've used.

I can call them anytime, and they also have online support with a good user community that helps support you and answer questions.  

You almost always get an answer, and they watch that community board, so you get answers from the people at Toad Data Point. 

The quality of their support is excellent, and the speed is very good, too.

Positive

I have used alternatives such as Microsoft Management Studio and Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services.

The initial setup was fairly easy. Depending on how your security is set up, one person can install it easily.

You pay for annual support, and they provide maintenance. 

The pricing for Toad Data Point is where it gets into trouble. Microsoft is free, so if you get SQL Server, you get all the other stuff with it. You have to use several Microsoft tools that don't all work the same. It's a pain to use Microsoft compared to Toad, however, for a price, most companies are using that one. Even when I moved from the New Mexico market to the California market, the California market doesn't use Toad Data Point, which is why I haven't been really using it these past few months.

Toad Data Point surpasses both Management Studio and SQL Server Integration Services. Integration Services is their load thing where you can design a load package, however, you have to use your SQL Server agent to automate it, whereas Toad Data Point did that all in one, making it a one-stop shop that did it all, which was really nice. 

I'm a Toad customer. It is still being used in my company. 

I would rate Toad Data Point overall as a nine on a scale from one to ten.

We used Toad Data for all of our query development and testing.

Toad Data Point made our query testing a lot faster and more efficient. We saw a lot of time-saving in our development process.

The most valuable features of Toad Data are you could write a parameterized query and it wouldn't error out, it would give you the parameters that you could input. The auto-formatting feature is useful because it was great for keeping your queries neat and understandable. The auto comment, and uncomment toggles that you could do were convenient.

Toad Data could improve by having additional features, such as query prediction. This could help someone who's not the strongest programmer. If the software could help them write queries correctly it would be very helpful, especially for small development teams or teams that lack the input skills necessary to write and program efficiently. 

I have been using Toad Data Point for approximately one and a half years.

Toad Data is a stable solution.

Toad Data is scalable. The cost structure is per-user licensing, as long as you have the budget, it's easy to scale.

We have five people using the solution in our company. We have plans to adopt the solution in the new organization I am working at. It's a powerful development tool that makes your daily operation a lot more efficient.

I have not used the support from Toad Data Point.

I have previously used Snowflake and SQL Server Management Studio.

The initial setup of Toad Data is straightforward. We only needed to download the software and install it.

We did the deployment of Toad Data Point in-house.

We have received an ROI by using Toad Data Point.

The price of Toad Data Point was approximately $500 annually.

We weren't even using close to half of the features in Toad Data Point. We knew it was a really powerful tool, but we had a relatively limited use case at the time, but there was some recognition that we could have been doing a lot more with the solutions.

We did the maintenance of the solution using our own team.

My advice to others is they should compare Data Point against other solutions, be sure that they understand their database connectivity, and be able to connect to their data.

I rate Toad Data an eight out of ten.

We had an unsupported version of Hyperion that needed to be replaced. Toad Data Point allowed us to quickly transition to a similar solution and to easily convert all of our preexisting queries (more than 300) to the new solution with minimum effort. The learning curve was minimal and the business was able to continue with no impact on our customers.

This product allows us to build out a full data governance strategy and continue to run intuitive reports that the business can action.

We have been able to move all of our standard reporting over and continue to support the ongoing needs of the business in this user-friendly tool. We have also been able to automate all of our standard reports using the Toad Intelligence Server, which allows us to spend more time on custom asks from the business and to offer extended services to all functional areas of the business. 

Our business uses this tool on a daily basis along with companion visualization to help key stakeholders make decisions and take action to support our customers. 

It offers an easy learning curve for the team and conversion of pre-existing queries.

The Query Builder is great for novices. It doesn’t take long before a new user can start getting the data they need

The Calculated fields feature is helpful and we had nothing that is even close in Hyperion.

The Connectivity and Connection Manager supports a broad number of connection types, and it is trivial for end-users to set up their own connections to sources. You can flip between different servers, databases, and local sources quite easily. It also allows for cross-connections.

The Automation wizard can get the novice started easily. Using the more advanced automation functions is fairly intuitive for basic users. You drag and drop your logic and steps, and see it diagramed out.

This product would benefit from a better "join" function that is more intuitive.

The "Group By" should be defaulted to "group" when a field is added. When there is a calculated field, the automatic "group by" doesn’t work. Instead, it needs to be done manually for that field.

Occasionally, it has some odd issues after a Windows update, although support is pretty good at offering short-term solutions and fixing them in future releases.

Table joins are not working properly the whole time.

We have experienced query breaking when visualized, after editing in the script.

You can’t use the visual to add two calculations on one field. Rather, it has to be scripted.

On the scheduling server, some scheduled reports just sit there and never execute for the first time. After manually executing the first time, they run with no issues.

We have been using Toad Data Point as a replacement to Hyperion for more than one year.

The solution is very stable, with just some Windows update synchronicity issues.

Toad Data Point is very scalable and the support team listens to feedback and takes action. We use this with our Power BI solution and it meets our current and future growth plans.

They have excellent support and appreciate constructive feedback on the tool and any opportunities to improve. 

Prior to Toad Data Point, we used Hyperion.

Compared to Hyperion, it has much more advanced abilities with subqueries. Some reports that needed multiple queries in Hyperion can be executed with one run in Toad.

The initial setup is straightforward and we easily converted from the Hyperion tool. The Toad Intelligence server was also an easy setup.

We implemented this solution in-house.

The cost of this product is reasonable.

We needed an easy-to-use and train tool that could be used by our BI team to support the business on a long-term basis with minimal effort.

We looked at a few others but this really was our first choice.

In summary, this solution requires minimal effort to set up, the cost is reasonable, and support is excellent.