Software Review: HeidiSQL, you can get rid of phpMyAdmin now

I found HeidiSQL today which blows away all other products in the category. It is a third party GUI management tool for MySQL, 100% free, 1.5MB download size for windows and takes only 2.4MB on hard drive, when installed.

I found HeidiSQL on www.osalt.com. Somebody commented that, “Better functionality than phpmyadmin”. I wasn’t too optimistic before I used it. And now I agree with him big time. I was looking for something like this for months. I use phpMyAdmin, wanted to switch to a faster alternative, but could not find a good one.

• I tried MySQL Control Center (mysqlcc), which I feel has freaky MDI.
• Tried trial version of MySQLyog, which was kind of OK, but not free.
• Tried MySQL Toad. Many people I know uses that, But I found it cumbersome to use.
• Tried MySQL Administrator, which is not a product in the same domain. It helps you manage the server rather than managing tables and data on it quick and fast.

So I had to fall back to phpMyAdmin which is complete but slow because of web interface and can never beat a native windows software. But now HeidiSQL proves itself as good in usability, simplicity and feature set. And As a bonus think of how light it is. I ready to use a 5 to 10 times heavier application as smart as this. I tested first of all it’s large SQL file import ability. It imports 20MB SQL without any problem. Has csv, html and xml export feature. On the spot editing in tables, like MS Access. Can import files as blob directly. And the help file is another excellent feature quoth smart SQL references with examples. It will make you refer to it for most day to day MySQL activities. Features quick filters which is great to use.Only feature I can ask for is, ability to remove some columns from the views, which mysqlcc has.

Feature list from their site:

* generate nice SQL-exports
* synchronize tables between two databases
* manage user-privileges
* import text-files
* export table-data as CSV, HTML and XML
* browse and edit table-data using a comfortable grid
* batch-insert ascii or binary files into tables
* write queries with syntax-highlighting (next version will have also code-completion)
* monitor and kill client-processes
* and much more

I am looking forward to see more intuitive improvements in the future versions. Lets wrap up with some screen shots.

Please feel free to drop your suggestions to help me improve my reviews.

technorati tags:MySQL, Software, Review, HeidiSQL, review, article, download, recommendation, free, phpMyadmin, mysqlcc, mysqlyog, mysql-toad

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