Comparison of Navicat with PhpMyAdmin

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Comparison of Navicat with PhpMyAdmin

By kevin cheung

Introduction

While more and more businesses and organizations use MySQL database server as their repository, seeking of a good and reliable MySQL administration GUI becomes essential. In this review, I will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of Navicat and phpMyAdmin in different aspects including Interface, Speed, System Requirements, Functionalities, Performance and Cost.

Navicat and phpMyAdmin: Comparing their strengths and weaknesses
http://www.navicat.com
http://www.phpmyadmin.net

What is Navicat?

Navicat [1] is a client based standalone program which connect users to local / remote MySQL server. With the connection established, users can do administration of MySQL including setting up a connection, create/drop database, create/drop/alter tables, create/delete/design/drop fields, building/executing a query, designing reports, data transfer, backup, setting a schedule, as well as import and export to various formats.

Navicat is developed by PremiumSoft CyberTech Limited [1] in 2002, as of the day which I write the review, its latest version is Navicat version 6.0.7. The development of Navicat is motivated by the lack of the GUI tools that make Open Source Database as an easy component in LAMP solution in the market.

What is phpMyAdmin?

phpMyAdmin [2] is a web-based tool written in PHP intended to handle the administration of MySQL over the Web. It can create/drop databases, create/drop/alter tables, delete/edit/add fields, execute any SQL statement, manage keys on fields, manage privileges, export data into various formats. It is under the GPL license agreement and currently available in 47 languages.

phpMyAdmin was firstly developed by Peter Kuppelwieser. After Peter no longer work on the project, Tobias Ratschiller decided to develop phpMyAdmin. Although some of the concepts have been borrowed, the source code for phpMyAdmin was completely written by Tobias. As with most open source software phpMyAdmin has had many contributors[3].

As of the day I write this review, the latest version of phpMyAdmin is 2.6.0-rc3

Comparing Navicat and phpMyAdmin

In this section, I will compare the strengths and weaknesses of Navicat and phpMyAdmin with respects to their Interface, Speed, System Requirements, Functionalities, Performance and Cost.

Interface

Interfaces of the two programmers are of big differences as Navicat is a standalone program on Windows, Mac OS X or Linux, while phpMyAdmin is a web based program independent of OS platform. Since phpMyAdmin is written for a web environment, you will find little graphics in it as to prevent long loading time, when compared with Navicat, Navicat will have a more attractive user interface.

So, you will ask about "How a User Interface can be regarded as Good?".

A good interface makes it easy for users to tell the computer what they want to do, for the computer to request information from the users, and for the computer to present understandable information. Clear communication between the user and the computer is the working premise of good UI design. [4]

A good user interface design comprises of the following measures:

Clarity

A clear interface helps to prevent user errors, makes important information obvious and contributes to the ease of learning and usage. An interface should be clear enough to guide the user throughout the whole browsing process without feeling lost and troublesome.



Both Navicat and phpMyAdmin has a clear interface, the structure of them are very similiar with Function View on the top menu bar, and Connection/Database Structure on the justify. Users can easily figure out where they are in the programme.
Consistency

A consistent interface allows users to apply previously learned knowledge to new tasks. Navicat's interface exhibits an execeptionaly consistency in its interface layout, which I personally think this is really good. For each view, you can see all related files in the main window, and the related functions can be found in the menubar. For phpMyAdmin, the layout for each view is totally different and is dependent on its functions.

Simplicity

A good interface designs should be simple. Simple designed web pages are easier to learn and to use. Both the Navicat and phpMyAdmin' interfaces are very simple and intrusive.

Forgiving

Users may make mistakes. Actions made by the users should be reversible.

When trying to drop a table in both Navicat and phpMyAdmin, both applications will prompt for user confirmation on his action.

Provide Feedback

Keep the user informed and provide immediate feedback after each action they have performed. This is important as user is able to know that the functions they have performed is being entertained by the system.

phpMyAdmin did very well in providing feedback to users, for example, when you edit a table, it will show users the query statement of the previously added field. But for Navicat, it will not show the query statement, it will only show the users that the data is in the table.

Speed

When comparing speed between the two applications, Navicat will definitely beats phpMyAdmin down. This is easy to understand as phpMyAdmin is a web based application and it requires page-to-page loading whenever an operation is done, a loading time is required for the web server, although phpMyAdmin operates relatively faster than other web based system, when compared to Navicat, it is still a loser.

System Requirements

Navicat is a client programme, with Navicat's installer, Navicat will be installed to your computer within a minute. Nothing much has to be set in the configuration. Its system requirement is also simple, requires Windows 95 or above (if you are installing the Navicat Window version, there is also Mac OS X and Linux version available), 32 MB Ram or above and 10MB disk space.
For phpMyAdmin, installation is made in the server side. To install it, your server has to be php-enabled. You also have to edit some of the php scripts in the config file.
In a nutshell, Navicat can be installed by user with non-technical background, while phpMyAdmin should be installed by someone with technical background.

Functionalities

(1) Connection Properties
Connection Properties can be viewed in Connection view of Navicat, while in phpMyAdmin, connection information is not shown to the user through the interface, user has to view the config file in order to see the connection properties.

(2) Connecting Multiple Servers
Both Navicat and phpMyAdmin support multiple server administration. For phpMyAdmin, to add a server to the list, the user has to add the information to the config file, while in Navicat, adding the a server connection can be done with the GUI.
phpMyAdmin does not display the hierarchy of the server and database well, but Navicat did a very nice job here.

(3) Database Management
Database management in Navicat and phpMyAdmin is similar, both of them display database available in a side window. One of the good things I like with phpMyAdmin is that it will display the number of table in the database, this is a good feature when I need to keep track on the number of tables I had with the database.

Another good features of phpMyAdmin is that it supports dropping of multiple databases, while Navicat not. This feature is good when I want to drop few databases at the same time.

(4) Table Management
Creation of Table in phpMyAdmin and Navicat is a totally reversed process. In phpMyAdmin, the application will ask for the table name and the number of fields in the first step, it will then generate the requested number of text fields for the user to fill in the fieldnames and column types.

However, in Navicat, it will show you the table with the blank fields and use can add fields into the table according to his needs. The users can add whatever number of fields he likes and then save the table with a name.

Navicat's approach in table creation is good for those who do have a very clear picture on how his database schema, because he need not to decide how many fields to be created before starting the operations. The user can add a field whenever they like and stop when they think it's enough.

5) Field Management
In field management, Navicat and phpMyAdmin comes with a very big difference. For Navicat, you can insert a field or add a field like what you did with MS Excel, just move the mouse to the row you like, then you can insert a field.

But for phpMyAdmin, you have to indicate a series of options before inserting a field. We can surely understand this as phpMyAdmin is a web-based application and every web-based applications need to gather information before directing you to the next page. From the screen shot below, you can see that you have to fill in the number of fields and the locations of the fields before starting to add the fields. This may be a time comsuming process if the user has many fields to insert in different rows.

(6) Queries
To build query in Navicat is easier than in phpMyAdmin. There are 2 options available for users to create query in Navicat, by Query Editor and by Query Builder. With Query Builder, you need not to remember any of the sql statement to make your query workable. This feature is nice that when you have forgotten some of the query syntax, and you can drag and drop in the query builder and check the query generated in the Query Editor.

If you would like to write your own Query like what you have with phpMyAdmin, you can do so with Query Editor. It's nice that you will have the keywords highlighted in Navicat, to make sure you didn't spell it wrongly.

Import Files

Navicat has a very powerful import features, it now supports import from 8 different file formats as well as ODBC source. In phpMyAdmin, user can only import textfile with size no more than 2,048KB.

Both of the application allows import of SQL file, in Navicat, there is a function called "Execute Batch File", while in phpMyAdmin, you can find it in the SQL tab. However, phpMyAdmin does not allow user to import SQL file with file size more than 2,048KB, this is pretty sad as it is really not difficult to get such a file size, especially for some data volumetric business. In Navicat, I am sure that it allows importing of SQL file of size larger than 2,048KB, but I am not sure on the upper limit of it.

Export Files

For exporting files, Navicat supports to export files into 19 file formats, while phpMyAdmin supports to export into 5 different formats. However, phpMyAdmin provides a better customization on the export, user can choose which rows to start exporting. Due to the nature of web-based application, the results from the export of table in phpMyAdmin is text-based. Users has to create the file for himself. But for navicat, the file exported is saved at the target location.

User Management

User management in both applications are similar, but I would say the user managment in phpMyAdmin is easier to use than the one in Navicat.

Print Database Structure

In Navicat, the data dictionary of a table/database can be printed out with the function "Print Database". For phpMyAdmin, user can choose "Print View" to see the table associated with the databases and choose "Data Dictionary" to view the fields and field types in a table.

Searching Functions

In phpMyAdmin, user can search the content of the tables in MySQL server with the Search function. User can type the word(s) to be searched throughout the databases. Navicat does not have such kind of version.

Data Transfer

Both Navicat and phpMyAdmin has the functions of Data Transfer, i.e transfering the data from one table to another. However, phpMyAdmin cannot transfer one table to the database of another connections, but Navicat does. phpMyAdmin can only transfer the table from database to another database of the same connection. Navicat can transfer multiple tables from one database to a database of other connection.

Other Features in Navicat:
Report Builder
Data Synchronization
Structure Synchronization
Build in SQL Console

View Builder
Scheduling
Backup
Stored Procedure
Connection made with SSH Tunnel and SSL

Cost

phpMyAdmin is a freeware, while Navicat is now costing US$99 for Standard version and US$75 for Educational version.

Which one to choose?

Which one to choose between Navicat and phpMyAdmin, solely depends on your own needs.

Get phpMyAdmin if...
-you dont want to spend money on it
-you didnt make so many changes to your data so frequently
-you can tolerate the lower speed of web-based application
-you dont need to import data from other file formats
-you dont make multiple connections so often
Get Navicat if...
-you do not mind to pay for a software
-you want speed
-you want a professional and nice interface
-you would like to perform sophisticated features like backup, scheduling and reporting.

Other Alternatives

Besides Navicat and phpMyAdmin, there are also others alternatives for MySQL Administration GUI like EMS, MySQL administrator, and DBCentral.

Appendix
[1] PremiumSoft CyberTech Ltd Navicat - http://www.navicat.com
[2] phpMyAdmin - http://www.phpmyadmin.net
[3]Contributors of phpMyAdmin - http://phpmyadmin.sourceforge.net/documentation/#credits
[4] User Interface: http://ou800doc.caldera.com/SDK_vtcl/vtclgN.style_goodui.html

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