Toad Vs PL/SQL Developer - Urgent

Check this out.  It has a lot of info on many tools (links to details about each product)

http://www.orafaq.com/tools/

I have used both the tools. Though TOAD seems to have a better GUI and is the most popular tool among the PL/SQL developers, I personally preffer PL/SQL developer because  if your computer hangs or there is a server crash and you haven't saved your programs yet, the pl/sql developer recovers these unsaved programs when you start up again. This feature has saved me hours of work on several occasions. The PL/SQL Developer allows you to run the programs in commandline mode where you can run your programs as you would do in SQL * PLUS. There's a huge price difference as well. While TOAD costs you arround $900, the PL/SQL developer only costs arround $ 180.

HTH

Hi,

im also an avid PL/SQL Developer user.  Apart from the advantage listed by Jazzyline, there is also a HUGE advantage in that you can have PL/SQL Developer set in multi session mode.  Each window is a single session.  From what i can see of Toad, each connection is a session and the program "hangs" until whatever is being executed is finished. ( Also can hang your box too ).  Not so with PL/SQL Developer.

Another big plus is that the makers ( www.AllroundAutomations.com ) listen to their userbase.  I have made a few suggestions to them about things they can do to make the program better and within 1, sometimes 2 releases, there those suggestions are, implemented and looking good.

There is also a busy forum that you can ask questions, make suggestions about the product etc ( http://www.allroundautomations.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi? ).

Admittedly, it does not do some of the things that toad does ( doesnt make any sounds that i have found ), but if your focus is development of pl/sql code, then this is defintely the product to use.  The difference in functionality is part way compensated for by the ability to create "plugins" that can do just about anything you can think of - extend the menus just about EVERYWHERE, ER Diagramming, Java class generation, automatic syntax checking etc..  if you can think of it, then using the PL/SQL Developer API, you can develop it and share it with the world via the Addons page ( http://www.allroundautomations.com/bodyplsqldevaddons.html )

Please note :  the version that is reviewed in http://www.orafaq.com/tools/ is version 4.0.2, its now up to version 7.0.2 ( see the new features page at http://www.allroundautomations.com/plsqldev7.html )

Good luck making the choice.

You may also find the following links useful:
http://www.allroundautomations.nl/plsqldev.html
http://www.orafaq.com/tools/allround/plsql_developer
http://www.btsoftware.com/products/plsql.htm

Have you tried SQL Developer - from ORACLE, supported and completely FREE.


Cheers
JJ

Thanks a  bunch!