DbVisualizer Reviews

My main use case for DbVisualizer is data analysis, but also increasingly performance monitoring and tuning of databases due to the broad support for multi vendors in the tool.

A specific example of how I use DbVisualizer for performance monitoring or tuning includes monitoring the condition of indexes on tables, rebuilding them, and profiling data for looking for additional opportunities to index my data. Additionally, the built-in performance measures for query performance, while not necessarily to the degree of a dedicated solution, are often enough to provide troubleshooting of a specific performance issue with a different app interaction with a dataset.

DbVisualizer is invaluable to me because it allows me to work from enterprise database systems like Oracle to more emerging database providers like CockroachDB, and can scale to anything up or down from SQLite or standard PostgreSQL. Everything within my ecosystem that I might be experimenting with or working on for a customer can be accessed with the same tool. I have one user interface that I am familiar with, that I know how to manipulate, that I know how to be productive with, and that will work across a large swath of vendor database systems.

DbVisualizer will do anything that I need to monitor, query, and develop applications around a database system that it supports. It does this in a very unique way so I can get across various databases quickly if I have those connections built, because it has a very intuitive and flexible user interface.

What stands out to me about the user interface is that I can get to multiple active connections across databases quickly. I can also clearly delineate what my production databases are so that I can put extra care when I am interacting with those environments versus my lower dev environments.

DbVisualizer has impacted my organization positively as it replaced a couple of different tools that were database specific for us. This makes our operations folks that are not necessarily data experts more effective when they have to operate within those different data environments. One tool means one set of training and one set of policies. It has also been cross platform. Whether people are using Windows or Mac OS, they have pretty much the same user interface experience across those different platforms. This also cuts down on expenses of us buying other tools, keeping us from falling into the trap of buying specialized tools for each database that we work with.

There is not a lot that I have to complain about with DbVisualizer. Over the years, as I have mentioned, they have continued to enhance the interface and the databases that are supported, but I do not think there is a lot of room for improvement. Most improvements will come from changes in the marketplace, such as new database features that need to be interacted with or perhaps more support for new data types and databases that are going to be supporting AI. Some of that, as we have seen thus far, is not necessarily the game changer that we would have thought. Integrating a co-pilot for SQL queries would be an interesting feature in the future.

I have been using DbVisualizer for 12 years.

DbVisualizer is incredibly stable and reliable.

I have not seen any problems with DbVisualizer's scalability or querying large data sets, and it also has powerful tools to limit row count, both from a display perspective and from the query interface.

I had to use customer support very sparingly, but they were very responsive to my one licensing question. I would rate the customer support a perfect 10.

Positive

We previously used specialized vendor solutions for each of the database vendors that we support, including Toad. We switched for simplicity and having one tool with lower costs.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that it is straightforward. It is a subscription model with lower costs in the out years from initial purchase. Installation is simple and very easy for us to manage, requiring no specialized experience, and the licensing is straightforward to manage with dropping a key file for each licensed user.

We have seen a return on investment as we have simplified our tool ecosystem around data management and database query. It has allowed us to stop installing some other tools, which saves us on the installation footprint and support, and reduces our end user support piece. It has also allowed us to stop paying additional funds for tools like Toad that are more specialized perhaps, but not nearly as versatile.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that it is straightforward. It is a subscription model with lower costs in the out years from initial purchase.

Before choosing DbVisualizer, we evaluated options including DBeaver and some other popular open source solutions but did not find them to be as feature-rich or as easy to use.

DbVisualizer is always adding new features. It is an investment that continues to pay off. New databases are covered, new capabilities are addressed. They never stand still, so DbVisualizer has been a great partner.

My advice for others looking into using DbVisualizer is that if you are in a multi vendor database environment with multiple endpoint operating systems that your client machines are running, there really is not a better choice for a well-supported product that is continuously developed.

DbVisualizer is a great product with great people. I give this review a rating of 9.

I use this mostly for browsing databases and for certain specific monitoring processes. Like monitoring a database restore/recovery where the time SQL executions and real-time graphs are a great help estimating the time left.

One of the features DbVisualizer has is the bookmarks. A bookmark is a file containing SQL that can be shared. Over the years, each consultant gathers a nice set of queries that can help in giving quick insights. Being able to share them helps when getting others up to speed, especially when they are not in their main comfort zone.

The most valuable feature is the timed SQL execution that collects the outputs from each run in the grid. This supports ad-hoc monitoring, be it technical or application-level monitoring, and it can be done if there is an SQL for it.

I like that graphs can be created by using the grid as input. This helps by giving a quick insight and can readily answer questions such as whether we are going quicker or slower. It makes it easier to see using the slope of a graph compared to a series of just numbers. There are a lot of choices in graph types.

This product has built-in SSH tunneling support.

The multi-platform and multi-vendor support are helpful as we run on Macs, Linux, and Windows machines. We support many different databases and applications.

The extensibility is very good. There are things we regularly do that can be built into the tool using local profiles.

For ad-hoc monitoring, you can define bookmarks. If they are there, they collect their data for each execution in the grid. Bookmarks are very helpful, as they act as a memory of all collected and saved queries.

Actions like exporting grids to Excel or other tools is a very easy task. You can copy/paste with or without headers, and it is quick and easy.

The developers understand that not every feature has to be available at all times and they use context-sensitive menus everywhere, giving a clean GUI, instead of a button or menu entry for every feature that really clutters the interface.

One thing I would like to see changed is having the JDBC drivers in a fixed location outside of the application package. The advantage of this is that the drivers are not altered during the application upgrades.

For over 10 years I have been a frequent DbVisualizer user. It is very comfortable and has some features not found in any other SQL tool.

The performance is very good, it feels as good as a native application.

Support is very responsive and most of the time, we have a response within a day. It looks like they work around the clock.

We used and still use many other tools like Toad, PL/SQL Developer, pgAdmin, and SQL*Plus. It is just easier to use one single tool that handles all of the systems well, instead of having to get used to different tools with their different quirks.

The pricing for DbVisualizer is fair. 

Coming up with ideas for new features is something that gets harder with every release. The developers of DbVisualizer listen carefully to their users and add features on request. It is also quite easy to add custom features using local profiles.

Also, for support, they make it easy to share logs and traces with their development team. All of these are automatically generated and it means that we don't have to dig for all kinds of files. This is a great solution.

My advice for anybody using this solution is that it helps when everyone sharing bookmarks uses the same encoding. Otherwise, there will be errors. Most of the time it works automatically, although, in earlier versions, this could be a small problem.

I use DbVisualizer to run complex queries in many databases, including about every vendor with a relational database.

Timed SQL execution and real-time graphs are the killer features. It is a multiple-platform tool, based on Java but with a native look and feel. Most colleagues initially don't believe it is entirely written in Java.

For Oracle, I use it to analyze AWR data.

During database restores, I use this to monitor the progression and to estimate the remaining time.

The limits to its use are by imagination only.

There is no need to have a separate client for every vendor, allowing it to have sets of SQLs in the bookmarks so that we can share them easily. There is good help available for connecting to the various databases and a lot of drivers are included.

If a database vendor is not included yet, it is fairly easy to create a custom profile for that. Initially, a simple object tree with tables and indexes, adding more objects as the need arises. The profile is written in XML and a smart editor could make life a bit easier here.

Timed queries that add their result to the result grid for every execution are helpful.

Real-time graphs of data in the result grid.

Bookmarks are a way to store SQL and organize them in folders.

The built-in SSH tunneling is a valuable feature.

Customizations allow us to add elements in the object trees that can be made database/application-specific.

Sharing bookmarks, which are stored SQL queries/scripts, is straightforward.

I can easily adjust graph types, although I mostly use line graphs.

Markings that highlight the environment where you are in (prod/acceptance etc.) helps to keep production alive.

Sometimes, I feel that the startup time takes a bit more time than needed.

I have been using DbVisualizer for more than 10 years.

The tool is working fine, although sometimes a bit slow on startup. Next to that, it tries very hard not to lose your work. Sometimes when shutting down, this leads to a series of 'are you sure' dialogs.

With big data sets, the memory settings need some adjustment, which is understandable.

The technical support is very good. The tool also includes an automated way to provide the needed logs and traces to their development and their responses are quick. Most of the time, within a day.

Just a simple email will do in most of the cases and currently, they have a feature included that simply collects all kinds of logging and tracing that they use to debug the issue. In earlier releases, this was all to be done manually and is now fully automatic, almost like magic.

Like most people working with databases, we initially used the vendors' tools. These included applications like SQL Plus, PL/pgSQL, etc. They all are a bit limited and all respond differently to edits.

Tools like Toad, PL/pgSQL developer, pgAdmin, and DBeaver have been in use but no tool could win here. Maybe some other tool has more options in a specific database but a lot of people have trouble finding them because of the cluttered interface. There are buttons for every feature.

Here, DbVisualizer, shows strong and smart use of context menus, making the GUI a lot cleaner than most similar tools.

The initial setup is simple. Download, install and GO.

We have quick access to our saved reports/queries that have been evaluated over the years. This is a big win that is hard to quantify but imagine someone having to reinvent that report or query over and over again. The tool has a fair price and quickly earns itself back if you are using many databases.

A license with a few years of support is a good and valuable option. In that, period upgrades are included and support is simple.

Mostly, vendor-specific tools are used. They still are used in scripting on the servers but for client access, DbVisualizer is used. Next to that, we have evaluated Toad, PL/pgSQL developer, pgAdmin, and DBeaver.

Suggesting new features keeps getting harder and harder since they already added an awful lot. The support is quick and they add new features or fix bugs, most of the time in the next release.