No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

BMC AMI DevX vs Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 15, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

BMC AMI DevX
Ranking in Database Development and Management
16th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
Software Configuration Management (1st), Debugging (6th), Mainframe Application Development (1st), Test Data Management (5th), Mainframe Testing Tools (1st), Data Masking (4th), AI Software Development (217th)
Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essent...
Ranking in Database Development and Management
10th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Database Development and Management category, the mindshare of BMC AMI DevX is 1.8%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials is 4.2%, down from 6.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database Development and Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials4.2%
BMC AMI DevX1.8%
Other94.0%
Database Development and Management
 

Featured Reviews

FI
Devops Engineer / Ispw Admin at a insurance company with 201-500 employees
Tight deployment controls have secured production and simplified complex release rollbacks
The best feature of BMC AMI DevX Code Pipeline that impresses me is the fallback functionality. The fallback functionality impresses me because when developers deploy large releases involving multiple components, such as COBOL programs, underlying copy books, and CICS modules, backing out changes would typically become a nightmare. With ISPW, developers can back out the entire release or entire package. If they deployed 100 components and want to back out everything, they can do so with one function and back out all components without worrying about backing out each individual component. They can back out the entire deployment set, which handles everything and brings them back to the previous versions. Developers can also selectively back out a subset of the deployed components. They also have the ability to revert to not just the most previous version but can go back several versions if they choose to do so. This gives them a lot of flexibility.
CS
Director, Enterprise Data Management at Glatfelter Insurance Group
SQL Search and change automation functionality help us manage our code repository and databases
The biggest problem with the Redgate SQL Toolbelt is just how heavy it is; it seems to take a lot of resources. It takes a lot of memory and a lot of processing power to run, and that tends to slow things down a bit. Making it a little more lightweight while still doing the same thing, as much as possible, is what we would like to see in the future. I've noticed that Microsoft SSMS runs much quicker without RedGate installed than it does with it installed. From bootup of the app to opening query windows and connections, SSMS is quicker without Redgate than with, by a significant margin. The other area for improvement is regarding licensing. Every month or two my SSMS loses it's redgate license key and I need to re-enter the key to continue using Red Gate, even though the license is annual.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We can develop in parallel today on ISPF, but it's giving us the advantage of the newer interface into the mainframe programming languages that younger programmers can use and are familiar with, rather than using the ISPF green screen."
"It helps our staff work by speeding up their documentation process."
"ISPW is an excellent product; it does everything the developers need it to do, we were able to build it and customize it very simply as we became more familiar with how the system works during installation, and it doesn't need a lot of care and feeding once it's up and running."
"From a user perspective, the GUIs make it easier for people to see and interact with files on the mainframe."
"One of the features that the developers like is that they can retrieve what they need with the tool. They don't have to go through some process or request something be done by another team. They can get the programs they need, compile them, retrieve the JCL and alter the JCL if they need to, and put these programs wherever they need to go for their testing."
"Once we got the configurations and deployment rolled out, it was very stable. I haven't had any major issues with Eclipse or the Topaz Workbench plugins."
"It speeds up processes, makes things easier, more efficient, and from a mainframe perspective, the way the mainframe is utilized has become that much easier."
"I think the most valuable features are code management, code deployment, and code generation. The fact that those three features are included makes BMC Compuware ISPW a robust product. If one of those features was missing, it would be less robust and less interesting. But because it has those three features, it is a very good solution for code development and management."
"The most valuable feature is SQL Search."
"It is easy to track the reports, this is what is most valuable for me."
"It is easy to track the reports, this is what is most valuable for me."
"I've had really good luck with this product and I've been happy with it."
 

Cons

"The ISPW plugin could be improved to add some functionality which is already in ISPF panels and not in the plugin."
"One area for improvement with this product could be in providing clearer guidance and tools for disaster recovery planning and execution."
"DB2 is a hard tool to grasp. It's hard for users to learn how to use it."
"Topaz Workbench often doesn't play well with other plugins in the environment."
"I'm always looking for improvement in things like the documentation, to make things a little bit easier and simpler to understand, a place where people can go to troubleshoot issues."
"I'm waiting to see what 19.2 for Topaz looks like, but I have a problem with the JES Explorer right now. It limits you to a certain prefix for job names and there are some groups that have multiple prefixes that they'd like to see all at once in their job names, because of how they work in a group. And they can't see that in the JES Explorer."
"It often doesn't play well with other plugins in the environment."
"DB2 is a hard tool to grasp. It's hard for users to learn how to use it. It's not easy to see how it works."
"Redgate SQL Toolbelt is a reliable solution, but it occasionally hangs when I generate a report with more than two gigabytes of data."
"The biggest problem with the Redgate SQL Toolbelt is just how heavy it is; it seems to take a lot of resources."
"The biggest problem with the Redgate SQL Toolbelt is just how heavy it is; it seems to take a lot of resources."
"I would like to see the bandwidth increase allowing me to easily analyze more data."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The only thing I would mention related to the licensing and/or the pricing, is that they have some visualization features in there that are licensed by concurrent users. We're starting to trip up on that. We're looking to probably increase the number of concurrent licenses that we have. But those types of licensing strategies, where they license by concurrent users or the number of seats is confusing for some people. They don't understand why it works sometimes and doesn't work other times."
"In general, Compuware tools are very competitive."
"The price point is great."
"In terms of pricing, there isn't an extra charge for the parts of it we use. It comes with the licenses we purchased for other products, so no complaints there. The licensing is built in with the other products that you purchase from Compuware."
"It has saved our developers time and effort when working on documentation, which is now more readable and fluent."
"I like the seat-based licensing much more than MSU-based licensing, and that the cost has been competitive."
"Our fees are paid on an annual basis."
"The cost is about $3,500 USD per individual to buy, and then it's about 20% per year for renewal."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Database Development and Management solutions are best for your needs.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
33%
Insurance Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
9%
Insurance Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise16
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with BMC Compuware Topaz Enterprise Data?
It's a very complicated tool. Sometimes the customer wants better, faster transaction times. They want the solution to move as fast as possible. We're trying to scale and grow our application with ...
What is your primary use case for BMC Compuware Topaz Enterprise Data?
We do development for our customers and we use Topaz to do backend systems for some Latin American banks. It's for enterprise data. It runs on AWS. I'm working on performance testing to do batch pe...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

File-AID, Data for Db2, Code Debug, Data Studio, Workbench for Eclipse, Code Pipeline
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Helvetia, The IMT Group, Hapag-Lloyd, Royal Bank of Canada, Chunghwa Telecom
Thinger.fi, Churchill College Univeristy of Cambridge, Margin Business Solutions Ltd., 4Penny.net, Sportinginsider.net, Lockheed Martin, Phillip Securities Pte Ltd, Nmbrs
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC AMI DevX vs. Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.