Navicat Review

I do a good amount of work in MySQL so that I need a good database admin tool.  I come from a Microsoft Enterprise Manager/Management Studio background so much of this review compares to that as a benchmark.

The Good

• Import/Export Data feature rocks.  Much easier to use then DTS for simple imports & exports & supports multiple formats (db, dbf, txt, html, xls, wk1, wq1, xml, mdb, ODBC)
• Dump as SQL.  Will write out your table to .sql file with the full inserts.  Microsoft so needs this.
• Maintain Tables.  Easily able to
• Backups.  Straight forward step by step.
• Saved Queries.  Navicat saves then within the application at the database level not a sql file, this makes finding queries much faster.
• Scheduled Job.  Again straight forward step by step
• Manage Users.  They make it as simple as MySQL can be (which isn’t that simple sense you have to create a user multiple times to have access from localhost and from anywhere)
• Data Transfers.  Their version of DTS, not as robust but gets the job done.

The Bad

• Query Windows.  This is my biggest complaint of Navicat and almost a show stopper for me. Tabbed windows are great BUT having multiple tabs within tabs causes my eye to lose focus of which tab I need.  Not good for quick tabbing, I have to think before clicking which slows me down. I much prefer how Management Studio has tabs for queries but shows results at the bottom of that window.

• Query Builder.  I do most of my SQL by hand so this doesn’t effect me to much but Navicat’s query builder uses the dreaded Grave `instead of the Quote ‘.  So if you use their query builder to get a sql statement started, maintaining it could be a nightmare.
• Designer. Seems clunky and implemented as a second thought.  Big improvements here.

Overall Navicat is the most feature rich MySQL tool on the market (I’ve tried ~4 so far). Pricing is at $139, well within reason. Besides a reworking of the query window, Navicat is a finely tuned.  2 TechToolBlog thumbs up.

Written by Tim on April 26th, 2007 with 6 comments.
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