erwin Data Modeler vs. Toad Database Developer Tools

If you have a database environment that gets frequent schema object change requests. erwin Data Modeler is a great tool for version control and release control. Also, it's very useful to communicate between database and application teams.

Incentivized

Well suited for development of stored procedures, packages, running scripts, and each and every DBA operation. Not very well suited for quick and simple querying. Toad seems to be overkill for simple things. Also, it's not very well suited for non-Oracle developers, who might be scared of by the endless amounts of options, tools and windows that Toad offers.

Incentivized

• Creation of logical data models
• Reverse engineering
• Excellent communication tool in conversations with Developers and BAs
• As a company, Erwin provides lots of tutorials and how-tos.

Incentivized

• I appreciate the library feature that enables me to label and store previously created statements. These are saved off to a network share for future use.
• I also really like the describe function that lists all fields in a table. This helps as I build new queries.
• I wish I was better at using the tuning function. I have seen others use it and am very impressed with the graphical depiction of query costing.

Incentivized

• erwin Data Modeler allows only 25 entities in a trial version. It really limits you when you want to try out the product before actually deciding to pay for licensing cost. It would be rather helpful if they limit the trial period by days instead.
• The UI is pretty good but sometimes the large diagrams are hard to manage. A little improvement in that area would be helpful.

Incentivized

• The date/time settings in Toad are kind of difficult to figure out. I have to use an ALTER SESSION command to format the dates so I can actually query date/time fields.
• It seems to be updated too often. I get notifications very frequently about new versions being available.
• The export function is difficult to use.

Incentivized

It is the preferred tool for our organization.

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The product is well designed and intuitive to use. The number of buttons and options can look a bit overwhelming initially but they come very handy when you get used to product.

Incentivized

I give is an 8 because nothing is a 10 and there is always room for improvement. I believe the user who is not as technologically inclined would be better suited with an easier way to identify the options for setting the layout up for Toad's GUI. To some it is very cumbersome and confusing.

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CA customer support and our account manager have been able to support us with any issues that we have had, from managing our serial keys to issues we logged tickets to resolve. There are aspects of key management that have made it difficult over the years but support usually has worked with us.

Incentivized

I give the overall support for Toad for Oracle a 10/10. This is because whenever there has been an issue with this software, our team has got an immediate response. The same can not be said for similar software. The most recent example of this is when we needed to renew our licenses. Some employees were unable to log in to code with the given license key. Support was able to resolve the issue quickly.

Incentivized

I have used few other data modeling tools like Toad Data Modeler and SQL Developer Data Modeler. erwin Data Modeler is easy to use and has additional features that make overall data modeling productive and easy to manage.

Incentivized

We didn't make a decision of choosing one and dropping the other. Our database guys have their own preference of tools. Since SQL Developer is a free-to-use tool and light weighted tool, we used it for education materials. For those who need advanced functions, database administrators for example, we bought an enterprise license of Toad and distributed them to developers. For enterprise level of analytics running Oracle based databases, I believe SQL Developer and Toad are two basics and safe choice to start with, unless one has very particular need (or preference).

Incentivized

• Reduced rework from when models were maintained individually.
• Reduced the amount of time to generate and compare models during development.
• Massively reduced the amount of time to reverse engineer 3rd party data models for analysis.

Incentivized

• Quick and easy query development helps reduce man-hours in a project which converts to real dollars.
• Query analysis and tuning result in low database overhead and low latency, thus translating into real dollars because a system can thus handle more requests from customers.
• Ease of use makes it easy to deploy greenhorns in projects with minimal training, thus helping save money. Otherwise menial and simple jobs would have required experienced DBAs.

Incentivized