I’ve been a phpMyAdmin user for a very long time now. Always found it very user-friendly, and also noob-friendly when I still was one (it’s been a great help to learn the MySQL syntax from the scratch to me). However, lately I’ve been a bit disappointed with it.
First there was this new “AJAXized” version, where for instance the database creation dialog would have huge fonts and waste tons of screen space. At the same time came the new, space-wasting skin. Took me a bloody while to figure out how to revert to the previous one. And still, my UI settings do revert to the new skin every now and then, and I have to reconfigure it.
And to this list, I have to add a general feeling of slowness: this piece of software really turned out pretty heavy and sluggish. Every single page load is a waste of time. Big time.
Last but not least, for some reason phpMyAdmin is buggy on the server where I use it. Although it has the very same configuration as my localhost development install, it won’t display table indexes, which is a major PITA because it means I can’t check if I do properly mirror all database properties between my local development version and the remote pre-production version.
Long story short: although I still have a use for this program, I needed to find a better and swifter replacement.
“Duckduckgoing” (why, can’t I make it a verb too? :p) for phpMyAdmin alternatives gave some easy results. Somewhere at the top was this 3 years old “10 great alternatives to phpMyAdmin” post. Personally, when looking for alternatives I love stumbling upon fairly ancient posts, because then when I do visit the alternatives and I see they’re still maintained, I know they’ve been going on for years already, so they can be expected to be stable enough. I didn’t try them all, I just picked 2, and they turned out to be great choices, in my opinion (NB: both are open source/FLOSS):
1. Adminer. I actually had heard about it before. In fact this was the alternative I was looking for but the name of which I had forgotten. To my surprise, it was made of only one reasonably small (~300KB) PHP file. And to my surprise again, it felt pretty complete: notably, it manages indexes properly and is very responsive compared to phpMyAdmin. But this interface is a little rough, and some functions aren’t too easily accessible IMO. Still, I’m keeping it for emergencies or quick and small actions, but for daily use I wanted something with a richer interface.
2. HeidiSQL. For some reason (possibly because the first one I tried was very awful), I had always been avoiding non-web-based database managers. But I was so desperate I thought I’d give it a try anyway. That turned out to be a good idea. It seems to have all features of phpMyAdmin, plus some more (FINALLY a program that’s able to deal with stored procedures!), it’s very responsive, and defaults table display to structure and not data (most often I want to mess with the structure, not with the data). The only minor problem is that precisely the stored procedures are a bit too visible, mixed up with the tables in the database display… Not a big deal, but could be improved (although maybe I just missed a setting). Anyway, I think I’ll mainly use that now, while keeping the other 2 (phpMyAdmin and Adminer) for more occasional uses.
Take a look on free tool Valentina Studio, is the best way to transform your data into meaningful information; create, administer, query and explore Valentina DB, MySQL, Postgre and SQLite databases for free on 32/64 bit Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. http://www.valentina-db.com/en/valentina-studio-overview
There is also another great alternative to mentioned here tools – it is dbForge Studio for MySQL. This great mysql manager is very fast, confortable and has superior functionality! Try Free 30-days Trial Version! Read more here: http://www.devart.com/dbforge/mysql/studio/
The screenshots give me a headache similar to the one I got when trying out http://mysqlworkbench.org/ I think all those tools are not just alternatives to phpMyAdmin, they are much more advanced tools, with sure a lot of functions but maybe not very convenient for someone looking for a _simple_ tool to manage a non-huge database 😉
You are absoultely right! If you need only to export or import db – simple phpmyadmin will suit you. dbForge Studio can be used in two reasons.
1) You really need a professional software with great functional
2) You deal with MySQL every day and need a user friendly GUI Tool for comfortable managing
3) Both of them 🙂
p.s. dbForge Studio has very intuitive interface!
Not sure that desktop solutions should be compared with web-based solutions.
There are a lot of desktop clients to choose from. Web based solutions are not so many,.
We were looking also for a phpmyadmin replacement and we decided for Webdbadmin.
http://www.webdbadmin.com. It’s a nice product. It should be on your list.
I wasn’t exactly trying to build an exhaustive list, mainly I reported what I found when I had to look for a satisfying alternative, when desktop or web-based wasn’t really a criterion. Also I wanted to use free software, as in free speech not as in free beer – i.e., FLOSS.
But of course I’m sure there are plenty of alternatives, some of which have been mentioned in other comments – looks like somehow this post turned into an interesting advertising hub…
On a side note, now, over a year later, phpMyAdmin did improve a bit IMO. It’s still not as comfortable and definitely not as fast as HeidiSQL, but it’s not as terrible as it had become at some point.