Oracle SQL Developer Reviews

I was in the retail industry, and currently, for the last seven, eight years, I'm in the finance industry working with this product.

Oracle SQL Developer is an IDE that also provides a lot of tools for creating ad hoc reports and organizing your objects; those are the main use cases I would say.

It's very stable, very intuitive, and it integrates very well with other Oracle products, which are the best features.

It integrates with third-party tools as well.

I occasionally have some difficulties with the import of data from other sources, so it sometimes aborts or is not very stable in those areas that still could be improved with Oracle SQL Developer.

At the moment, there isn't anything else that I can think of that could possibly be improved or added to this product.

I would say I have been dealing with this solution for at least 10, 12 years.

Oracle support has been excellent, actually. There are very few occasions where you need support, but the couple of times that I came across issues, support was readily available. I would rate their support an eight or nine out of ten.

Positive

My project actually advises me to use Toad, which is a third-party product, but even though that is a heavier product with more options, use-wise, I think Oracle SQL Developer is better. It's more intuitive, and the features are similar - whatever you want to explore. When you learn one feature, you can work on other features as well.

I used Toad before, and that's a very good tool as well, but it comes at a significant price and is very heavy.

Oracle SQL Developer comes free with the database, so there is no charge.

The database is one of the most expensive; it depends on the number of processors, and the pricing model is something that concerns many customers. I am working in a very big company, so they can afford it, but I know mid-sized companies where I worked earlier had to consider decreasing the cost or consider alternates which were cheaper.

With Oracle products, I have extensive experience, particularly with the database.

I am familiar with DB2, which is IBM, and also I'm familiar with Postgres and other database products.

I am using Exadata, which is a hardware and software platform. That's the back-end hardware platform.

I'm basically using PL/SQL, which is the main product that I'm using all the time.

I am using Oracle SQL Developer very extensively.

With version control, you're basically working on multiple products, and the integration is good for sharing code, and it provides good facilities for team collaboration.

I am not using the automated SQL tuning features, but I have extensively used the explain plan tool which is available in Oracle SQL Developer for performance enhancement.

Oracle SQL Developer is a wonderful tool for ad hoc reports. You can quickly develop underlying code, run it, and create a report that you can format as well, outputting in Excel or any other format, in text or CSV format, which you can push to other tools for further processing or transmit it.

We are end users, not partners or resellers with the product.

I rate Oracle SQL Developer a 9 out of 10.

One of the things we are doing is we have our code in the existing database which is IBM DB2. We have to transform all this to native Oracle as well as migrate the data. It was more of a migration that we have been doing from IBM DB2 to Oracle 19c. Most of the code that was written, we re-engineered and re-written into Oracle to make our business functional.

Our reports were created through store procedures and functions where we provided parameters based on the requirements from business users. It creates reports mostly in CSV and Excel format and then pushes them to our unique server locations. These server locations are scheduled with jobs outside the SQL framework, which pushes to NFS, network file share drive from where the business users download the reports.

In our organization, we were mostly using object-oriented programming for developing store procedures, functions, and table creation. Oracle SQL Developer provided good suggestions and has very helpful documentation pages. If you are not fully sure of anything or your program is failing, they provide proper guidelines and proper documentation. The syntax was very easy with helpful suggestions. It was a very user-friendly tool. The testing was straightforward. We were easily able to write the code, debug the code, and share the code with our colleagues and peers.

It provides a wide range of technical capabilities with extensive features. The programming language has been simplified as it generates syntax and provides suggestions. It indicates which part of code should be changed and highlights the usage and how it will be helpful in terms of the things you are writing.

Positive

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.

Positive

I have worked with Oracle SQL Developer for four to five years and I am still using it currently.

Positive

Oracle SQL Developer was very reliable and good. I have not experienced any crashes during our development work. It was very stable, reliable, and any needed support was quickly provided. There were blogs available for most cases, which indicates many people are using this product and it has a very broad user base.

Positive

It was very efficient based on our workload. We were having close to thousand components and initially the core limit for our database was limited. As we progressed and the product kept increasing, the components kept increasing, it was very easy to increase the memory. It was very efficient in terms of auto-scaling.

Positive

We had our dedicated database team and product team. For any issues, we raised tickets at the enterprise level with our product team explaining the issue. They would then contact the support team and provide us necessary suggestions. We were not directly contacting them but working through our internal support team who would contact the Oracle team.

They were very good in terms of support, but the response was somewhat slow. That is the only parameter that needs highlighting. Otherwise, they were very efficient and able to provide suggestions.

Positive

We predominantly used IBM DB2, but it was not efficient and was very difficult to use. When we migrated to Oracle SQL Developer, we found it very user friendly and easy to work with.

I was able to manage considerable time in terms of the experience developed. We developed many reusable components which were helpful not only for my project but for other projects as well. When we completed this project, we developed and shared numerous reusable products with the organization and prepared use cases. If anyone within the organization has similar use cases, they can use our components so they don't have to build and design everything from scratch.

Oracle SQL Developer was expensive, though managed by our organizations. Any request needed to be approved by our delivery manager to ensure only appropriate people had access to this tool. If a license is assigned to one resource, it cannot be reassigned to another resource. For instance, if I was working in a project for only three months but took a license for one year, even after cancelling, you must pay the entire amount for the whole year. In recent times, I have seen some Microsoft products where if you use it for three months and you are not part of the organization, the same license can be assigned to other people to avoid paying extra.

Since we were migrating the code to Oracle 19c, this was one of the tools we found useful. There were one or two tools that we evaluated from the marketplace, but I don't recall their names.

I would rate Oracle SQL Developer 8 out of 10.

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 restaurant client where we have sales data from the previous day which will be running as T minus one day, and Oracle SQL Developer is a target table which is used as a source table to load the data into free form. On Oracle SQL Developer, I query and check metrics to determine whether the data is loaded completely or if there are any missing sites, helping us back-trace which sites are missing and the reasons behind it. It also helps me write SQL queries and run PL/SQL code, which is the main use case.

The SQL worksheet allows me to write queries, and PL/SQL debugging provides opportunities for data modeling, importing and exporting data, and viewing database objects such as tables, views, and indexes. Additionally, it correctly provides error outputs for the queries I am running.

The most used feature for me is the SQL worksheet, which I use to query and back-trace the missing data or check if the threshold is reached for each date.

For example, along with Oracle SQL Developer, we are also using Redshift and Microsoft SQL Server. When I measure the amount of time for the same query to run on three different tools, Oracle SQL Developer leads the charts. 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.

The user-friendly UI and the speed of parallel processing are two aspects I can recommend to new users.

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 crashes compared to other tools such as DBeaver or Microsoft SQL Server.

The interface is fine, but as I mentioned, sometimes it crashes or freezes, so that is the improvement I think is needed.

I have been using Oracle SQL Developer for the past one year.

I have not seen any technical issues, but the crashes and freezing that I mentioned are somewhat relevant.

The scalability is fine; the process of scalability is user-friendly, but the cost is high.

The customer support is fine, and I particularly appreciate the documentation part, which is easily readable for any new users.

I can easily rate customer support an eight, even though I have not used it till now as the documentation is sufficient for me to solve issues.

I haven't used other tools previously, but alongside Oracle SQL Developer, I am also using DBeaver, Amazon Redshift, and Microsoft SQL Server.

I'm not sure about the money saved, but regarding time saved, I already mentioned that it easily saves us around thirty minutes to one hour each day.

There are other ways such as a separate Oracle team that uses Oracle SQL Developer to monitor sessions and import or export data. I have provided all my thoughts regarding this review. My overall rating for this product is seven.

I have been using it for about five years, but it has not been continuous. Sometimes I have projects that are developed in SQL Server, MySQL, and even more relational databases such as MongoDB. It depends on the project.

Basically, it is very strange that when a new project comes and I decide which technology to use, most of the time it is already there as a legacy system that was developed perhaps 15 years ago. There is already functionality, so it depends on the requirements and user stories that product management requires or asks. Based on that, or even there are other kinds of projects I have been working on, such as supporting some existing platforms. As I mentioned, it depends on the type of project, but basically, it is a legacy system. There is no documentation most of the time, and I can say it is very challenging because I need to do research. Also, I have been working with other teams on the back-end side. When there is C# code there, they call a stored procedure, then they give me the name of the object, and then I can start my research.

Working with Oracle SQL Developer is similar to being a detective because I have some clues about something, and then I need to go deep. Aside from that, another aspect involves performance issues. Most of the time it is something related to indexing, but I need to do a lot of research sometimes.

I see the benefits of Oracle SQL Developer after some time because when I start, I struggle with the sentence syntaxes. For example, theory says I need to create a structure in a certain way, but in the real world, I am a human being and I think in different ways. So I create a different solution and that is the important thing to understand. Once I have the basis, I can see the benefits after solving some problems.

The downsides of Oracle SQL Developer include hard typing. It is not similar to another relational database such as MySQL. I need to define the object that I will receive even when I create a stored procedure function. I need to specify the structure that I will retrieve. For example, in SQL Server, I can do a query select as many times. For Oracle SQL Developer, I need to create the object that I will retrieve. As I mentioned, it is hard typing, and I think it is important and very similar to some programming languages such as Java or any programming language that can use object-oriented programming.

I have been using it for about five years, but it has not been continuous.

I do not see any lagging, crashing, or similar issues with Oracle SQL Developer because I work directly with the database, not with a solution such as CRM. I have not experienced any kind of issues in that way.

I do not know much about the scalability of Oracle SQL Developer, but I know there might be a method for replication. If I have on-premise, and if I need more power for my database, I need to know the parameters to change. However, in cloud, it is more straightforward with just a few clicks.

I do not have any experience contacting Oracle technical support.

Negative

I cannot say I have used any alternatives to Oracle SQL Developer, but I will provide some background. I worked with a project that had telemetry where we monitored cars, speed, and many other things that digital objects or systems provided us. They sent that to a relational database and then to a data warehouse, and at the end of the day, we created reports. They used SQL Server because they used the whole Microsoft system. As I remember, they used C# and the complete stack was Microsoft. I was not involved in the decision, but that was what I found.

The initial learning experience of Oracle SQL Developer is challenging because if I do not have the theoretical part, I need to do something and then face the issues. When I execute something and try to create a function, and then see an error, at first I do not realize what the error is. So I need to face the types of errors that trigger. In that way, I can identify issues such as assigning different data types with variables. The documentation provides the basics, but if I want to add more complexity, it comes with experience.

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 of the company. In bank systems, they mostly prefer Oracle over other solutions because the transactional functionality works very well. Additionally, cloud services such as Amazon and Oracle have their own services, and I can experiment with the free tiers to see the advantages.

Most of the time, database administration provides me access to these databases, so from my side, I do not need to worry about how many users are connected or if a transaction is still running. I have some experience with this from working as a consultant at a company. I prefer to use Docker because it avoids complicated installation issues with Oracle SQL Developer. For development purposes, Docker technology is very useful because I can have more than one version of Oracle SQL Developer.

As mentioned, it is a development environment, not a production environment. That is the advantage, but I have some experience providing grants and doing backups, but not using RMAN. Only DBMS, which is the binary file. It is very complex, and I want to mention this kind of database administration task.

On a scale of 1-10, I rate Oracle SQL Developer a 9.

I have been working with Oracle SQL Developer for different database entities, such as scheduling jobs that run on data and send mail notifications using an SMTP server. Additionally, we handle various storage for application-related information and manage handshaking with SAP through staging tables. While we don't directly integrate with SAP, we utilize those staging tables for non-SAP applications to fetch SAP-related details. That's primarily how we utilize the database.

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. We also utilize triggers to push data into audit tables for tracking changes, ensuring compliance when data is updated either legitimately or due to human errors. Maintaining data consistency is also critical to ensure data integrity and security aspects.

Oracle SQL Developer provides ease in analyzing queries regarding efficiency and cost. When we run a query, we can optimize it, checking how many milliseconds or seconds it takes to fetch the information. The breakdown is clearly visible in SQL, allowing us to compare the output of two queries, see the differences in execution time, and pinpoint areas for optimization. The indentation and line numbering help trace errors when they occur.

Oracle SQL Developer has disadvantages, such as the inability to execute or debug a query in a stored procedure, which is something we had in TOAD, a licensed tool with a richer feature set. So, we're dealing with the limitations of Oracle SQL Developer.

Other than the debugging feature, I wish Oracle SQL Developer had better connectivity similar to TOAD, where we could simply input the DNS name without repeatedly entering passwords. Although there is a save option in Oracle SQL Developer, TOAD had a more developer-friendly interface, which I miss. The debugging functionality was much more convenient and smooth in TOAD compared to Oracle SQL Developer.

I find Oracle SQL Developer less interactive and less developer-friendly, particularly when it comes to debugging, which was easier in TOAD.

I have been working with Oracle SQL Developer for two years now.

TOAD provides a better interface, but due to licensing costs, we shifted to Oracle SQL Developer. I have worked on TOAD for about six years, so my total experience in Oracle PL/SQL is around eight years.

I recommend users looking to implement Oracle SQL Developer to consider using cloud solutions instead of relying solely on Oracle DB, as the cloud offers better scalability and reduces maintenance downtime. I believe that while initial costs of cloud solutions may be higher, they provide more sustainable benefits for long-term growth.

We are using a free version of Oracle SQL Developer, not a paid version. While Visual Studio has a licensed version, there aren't any specific licensing requirements for installing Oracle SQL Developer. We are using the basic, freeware version for connectivity. There may be a paid version with enhanced features, but that is not implemented due to cost-effectiveness at the project level.

Data modeling capabilities exist in Oracle SQL Developer, but they are mainly used by DBA teams. They work on data modeling, including entity framework-related tasks. However, we typically refrain from doing those tasks ourselves because DBAs are the best suited for that work.

We have integrated version control, specifically TFS, to maintain our database-related aspects. When the table structure changes, we keep track of those changes with unique numbering in TFS, allowing us to monitor who made changes to any database objects. We also append work items in TFS, which maps to the Azure DevOps board, enabling tracking of work item numbers related to changes.

We utilize automated SQL tuning features. For instance, we request tuning for some queries, but the initial query is usually written by us. We advise our junior developers to use tuning, especially when they create unnecessarily lengthy and complex queries that could be simplified through straightforward joins. On a scale of 1-10, I rate Oracle SQL Developer an 8 out of 10.

A main use case for Oracle SQL Developer is that I work in transactional systems, such as credit card systems and bank or financial systems.

The best features of Oracle SQL Developer include the possibility to work with objects in Oracle, and memory arrays, as well as the possibility to work with a block processor.

The capabilities of Oracle SQL Developer's data modeling have helped manage my database environments because the world is changing and we need to work with data models that were created in business parts, such as object-oriented systems. We don't have all the division of the environment, but rather little pieces that can work together in different architectures, not a monolithic architecture, but services or microservices, and the vision is changing.

The areas of Oracle SQL Developer that need improvement are in cloud. I know that Oracle is increasing the work in this area, but I wait for more cloud works or cloud jobs with Oracle.

I am familiar with Oracle SQL Developer.

Oracle SQL Developer's integration with version control has helped with team collaboration because it is very easy to integrate between different teams. Oracle has a need for easy integration with different teams.

I would rate their support as a 10 on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the best.

Positive

The initial setup is very easy with Oracle SQL Developer because with artificial intelligence it is very easy, and the type of setup that Oracle gives us is very straightforward.

I see cost savings as a very important ROI with Oracle SQL Developer, and the ease of utilization is significant. It is easy to study Oracle, and Oracle has many books and materials for self-study.

I have not used the automated SQL tuning features, only from commercial tools such as SQL Navigator.

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. I work with DB2, work with SQL Server, and Oracle has a consistency that not all relational databases have. The possibility to work not only with relational, but in objective tables, is amazing.

I don't have experience with the pricing and licensing of this product.

There are no other products that I would be willing to provide a review for.

On a scale of one to ten, I rate Oracle SQL Developer a 10.

I am using Oracle SQL Developer for formulas to find results in the databases.

The most valuable features of Oracle SQL Developer that I use. However, I do not use all of them

Oracle SQL Developer could improve the speed, it is a bit slow.

I have used Oracle SQL Developer for approximately six months.

The stability of Oracle SQL Developer is okay.

Oracle SQL Developer is scalable. It can perform the same when more people use it.

Most of the people in my organization are using Oracle SQL Developer. We have approximately 100 people in the organization.

I have not used the support from Oracle SQL Developer.

The initial setup of Oracle SQL Developer is straightforward.

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.

I usually use SQL Developer for tuning and analyzing databases, to visualise results, create simple reports and to simplify work by using simple scripts. 

It makes life easier because I don't need to install something onsite when I am with a customer. And, since it's free, it helps me to unify and streamline my approach over multiple projects so I don't have to have a different approach for different customers.

The new version 18 is really helpful, with a more flexible GUI and more reliable connectors.

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. 

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. 

The stability of SQL Developer has greatly improved. In the latest versions, it has been getting better and better. Nowadays, you can use it without thinking about it.

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.

There is no technical support but the community supports it and the product manager is especially helpful if it comes down to problems.

I had to decide which solution we would use for a generic approach; and it was SQL Developer, in our case. At first, we worked with non-graphical utilities, command-line utilities and, but it was beneficial to have something that makes displaying data simpler.

When selecting a vendor it's important to me that the vendor has a reputation for a product; the vendor has to be reliable and predictable as well.

It's easy to deploy, I can copy it onto the system and run it without having to install it and this makes it a very good solution for quick use.

In house

License is free, setup is simple and scriptable.

There are many capable vendors in this category, but since we usually work with Oracle, a product from Oracle was the first choice. In this case, it has the advantage that it's free. The next best competitor would cost several thousand dollars.

I think you should make yourself familiar with this product and get into the core functionality first, before making a decision.

I would rate it a nine out of 10 because I like its features, how well it is integrated into the core Oracle Database, and it's the first choice when you have to do stuff within the database.

I use the product, and the many aspects of it, because it covers everything from querying a database to monitoring to making a conceptual model to getting the model from the database and producing diagrams. It has many uses.

If you make it the tool you use, everyone can talk the same "language" in terms of the tool and the use cases. Once you know it, how to use it, you can tell the whole organization how a given task will be done.

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.

There is room for improvement in the Real Time SQL Monitoring.

It's more stable sometimes and less stable other times. I have used it on Windows, Mac, and Linux. It's variable, it's not the same stability. I think that can be improved on.

It can be used by many because it's mainly a client-server.

When I have had a problem I have gone to blogs or developers' sites for answers. I have not submitted a formal case to Oracle Support.

Developer is centered on Oracle. I have the need now to monitor a much larger diversity of things. We are talking about monitoring cloud infrastructure where you have machines, where you have many other things, apart from the development. Also, SQL Developer is backed by Oracle, it's free, and it accomplishes what we need to be done.

My most important criteria when selecting a vendor are, first, the vendor's reputation, and then the feedback I see from other users.

It's very simple to set up.

It's free.

In terms of advice, I would first ask you what you are expecting from the tool and, if it is in the scope of Oracle SQL Developer, I would recommend it.

I rate this solution at nine out of 10. It accomplishes what I expect. It's a nine and not a 10 because, it needs better real-time monitoring of development.

Right now I am using SQL Developer to install a database, and I use it as a client tool.

Oracle is tremendous. I have always said to everybody, without knowing other databases, that Oracle is the best database that can exist in this world. That's for sure. Everybody is considering cost, mainly, so I've heard many stories recently of migrating to PostgreSQL, for example, because it's open-source and many small customers don't need all the super advanced features of Oracle, which costs a lot of money.

But on the other side, a great feature of Oracle, I think, is that it allows me to download the database and use it at home. Not a demo database or something restricted but the full version. That's fantastic.

I tried using SQL Developer once, when I was still working as an employee, using one of the older versions. It worked nicely, and I liked that I didn't need an installation, it was very convenient. But after many years, when I tried to use it again, against the more advanced Oracle Database, it did not work. Something in the Java was not compatible. I would have had to install it again, and I didn't do so. 

But now I am properly studying the issue of installing a database of my own, versus installing a virtual box with an Oracle appliance inside. I will have to see which one works best for me because each one has pros and cons. I am not a DBA. So if I get involved in an installation problem, I don't know how to get out of it.

Personally, I always prefer to use a product from Oracle. First of all, this one is free. And second, it is not so complicated. In another company, for example, the strategic development tool was Toad. And they have even joined Toad with a version manager, the specific version manager, and everybody had to work with Toad. I did not like Toad. So I occasionally worked with SQL Developer, but mostly I worked without any development tool, just writing in an editor, in Notepad. So I developed my entire career, practically, in Notepad.

I think it's a good product in the sense that it does not overwhelm you with many features. So I would give it a 10 out of 10.

I would recommend it.