I’ve known of Red Gate’s SQL tools for a long time, after having used them at an employer’s site many years ago. As useful as they were, I’ve never been able to justify the $400 USD price tag for a tool which I don’t think I’d use that often, no matter how useful it feels like it would be when I do actually need it.
I thought I’d found the answer in SQL Delta – it’s a great product, and does exactly what I need, except I felt a bit let down when I realised I’d misread the price on their website. It turns out that what I thought said “$30 USD” actually read “$330 USD”. Ugh.
I’m not debating the value of these products, I just can’t justify their purchase for myself personally. Schema and data (which SQL Delta does inside the $330 product – with Red Gate it’s an additional product purchase required to handle data) comparison / syncing operations are something I don’t do very often, and certainly not on an overly complex level.
So what I’m looking for is something cheaper (which isn’t Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals), but still functional. Any suggestions?
On a side note, SQL Delta has a couple of great looking features for geographically dispersed development teams. Being able to take a snapshot of your database to xml format and throw it in your repository is something that would be incredibly useful.
About me
My name is Ross Hawkins and I'm a developer, consultant, business owner and writer based in Auckland,
New Zealand (pictured below!). My current work revolves around ASP.NET, C#, jQuery, Ajax,
SQL Server, and a mix of other Microsoft development technologies.
I also have about 15 years of experience with IBM Lotus Notes/Domino and associated technologies. While Notes/Domino
is no longer my primary focus I still like to dabble and keep my skills up to date.
I own and run 2 businesses - Hawkins Consulting Services,
and Ignition Development.
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