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I am about to design a database which is going to run with PostgreSQL. I am used to the magnificent tool called MySQL Workbench for MySQL database. It is useful and it looks good which I kind of expect from a database designing software.

If I am about to learn a new database designing tool, I want it to be the most popular one. Therefore, my question is: what are the most popular tools for designing the database in PostgreSQL?

Cleankod
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  • Possible duplicate http://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/1283/are-there-any-good-and-free-tools-for-managing-a-postgresql-database – David LeBauer Oct 29 '11 at 20:04
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    @David I don't think this is a duplicate though it is a related question - tools for managing a database are not necessarily the same as those for designing and modelling – Jack Douglas Oct 30 '11 at 17:37

4 Answers4

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There are several options in the PostgreSQL world, most of them are listed in the PostgreSQL wiki:

http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/GUI_Database_Design_Tools

The next version of pgAdmin will include a ER designer as well as far as I know.

PowerArchitect works with PostgreSQL, though in the free version it is somewhat limited. In general it does not support DBMS specific features (or only a very limited set).

In the commercial world, nearly all of the "big names" support PostgreSQL as far as I know (including Sybase PowerDesigner and ERwin).

dbWrench is a not too expensive and seems to be quite nice.

TOAD data modeler is a bit more expensive but has an impressive feature list.

You might also want to check the options listed on this page: http://www.databaseanswers.org/modelling_tools.htm

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A similar question was asked on SO and my answer is still the same:

I use the Community Edition of MySQL Workbench for creating pretty pictures of my schema - but I'd rather create the DDL that actually runs on my database by hand.

Community
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Jack Douglas
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    You have a very good point there (creating the DDL by hand). That's why I prefer tools that write the model as XML because that gives me the chance to generate the DDL via XSLT and still have a single source for everything. –  Oct 30 '11 at 11:58
  • That's a great idea, I might copy it :) – Jack Douglas Oct 30 '11 at 17:33
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I suspect you will have a hard time transitioning to something given the limited options in Postgres land, but probably the most popular ERD is the AquaData Studio tool. There was actually a write up on this topic recently, check out http://www.postgresonline.com/journal/index.php?/archives/133-Database-Administration,-Reporting,-and-Light-application-development.html

(note, I'm not affiliated with either aqua data studios or the blog)

xzilla
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I recommend Vertabelo. Vertabelo is an online database designer working under Chrome developed by company I work for.

The most important feature of this tool is that it allow to share database models across the team and collaborate on them via web browser.

Others Vertabelo features include:

  • Model versioning
  • Support for PosgreSql, MySQL, Oracle, MS SQL Server, DB2, SQLite, HSQLDB
  • Dynamic/Visual search
  • Live database model validation
  • Reverse engineering

Vertabelo is free to use for smaller projects (up to 3 models and 20 tables within each model) and have commercial versions for larger database projects.

Jarosław Błąd
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