Perforce P4 vs. Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Perforce P4
Score 7.7 out of 10
N/A
Perforce P4 (formerly Helix Core) is the company's version control and peer code review solution. Perforce offers add-on products for code review for free, and Git support products.N/A
Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Redgate's SQL Toolbelt Essentials includes industry-standard tools for SQL Server development & deployment, enabling users to include SQL Server databases in agile processes and enabilng developers to embed robust and scalable development practices.N/A
Pricing
Perforce P4Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Perforce P4Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Perforce P4Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials
Features
Perforce P4Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials
Version Control Software Features
Comparison of Version Control Software Features features of Product A and Product B
Perforce P4
7.9
Ratings
4% below category average
Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials
-
Ratings
Branching and Merging8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Version History8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Version Control Collaboration Tools8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Pull Requests8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Code Review Tools8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Project Access Control8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated Testing Integration8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Issue Tracking Integration7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Branch Protection8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
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User Ratings
Perforce P4Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials
Likelihood to Recommend
6.5
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
6.6
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.0
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
6.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.6
(0 ratings)
8.6
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Perforce P4Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials
Likelihood to Recommend
For large-scale codebases with fixed and regular releases that do not follow a continuous delivery paradigm, Perforce is certainly well suited. In projects that are small and distinctly separated from other discrete (though potentially dependent) units, the benefits of the Perforce tool may not be as clear of a victor over other systems.
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We use SQL Compare to troubleshoot performance problems quite a bit since our data model is more like a template and not everything is 100% in sync and customization occurs between different client databases. We continually get pulled into performance issues and the developers will say Client A is performing different than Client B, why? Using SQL Compare, we usually find that one client was tuned and had indexes altered or added that weren't deployed to all clients or other objects weren't deployed correctly during the release. On the other hand, since our data model practices allow client databases to drift I tried to create a new golden image by trying to compare multiple databases based on the same data model and found it to be a very difficult process to complete using SQL Compare. SQL Compare gave me too much information and doesn't allow enough filtering to eliminate a lot of the noise.
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Pros
  • Merge algorithm is smart and utilizing the visual interface to do merges makes them easier to digest.
  • Easy to set up on multiple platforms and architectures and is well supported on all of them.
  • Visual interface has many tools and customization options that help to optimize and personalize workflow.
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  • Simple and easy comparison of database schemas and data. Differences can be copied or synced from one database to another with a click of a button.
  • You can save "projects" so that you can easily rerun a previous comparison whenever you need to.
  • It has a very simple, easy to learn interface. I've never needed to read any documentation or watch any tutorials in order to figure out how to do something.
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Cons
  • I was having a hard time learning it. Even if you are an experienced developer, there is some learning curve.
  • Can be slow when working with large data sets at once.
  • When working on multiple workspaces on the same machine, Perforce can make it difficult not to mess up the code.
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  • Pricing.... I wish there was an inexpensive developer version I could buy for myself.
  • Portability.... I would like to use it from a flash drive so I can use it where ever I am asked to work.
  • Unbundled.... This may be available already but I dont' recall I can buy it cheaply as a stand-alone product. Its only part of the bundle - cost effectively.
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Likelihood to Renew
We have a need to consolidate into a single package, and have such a large variety of technical proficiency among our users that Perforce seems less suitable. Many would like to remain using it, however, even those who use Perforce are the minority, and are often limited to our development teams.
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No answers on this topic
Usability
With Perforce Helix, you can use it via the command line, via P4V, or any of the other APIs included with the product. It is extremely easy for new users to get up and running. Users of Perforce Helix only have to pull in the files of interest to them. Also, Perforce is very easy to script and integrate into your CI/CD pipeline. Streams allows you to have pinpoint control of your workflow, and P4Search is the absolute best--I wish Perforce (the company) would talk more about this. It is absolutely fabulous!
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It's a good tool to have, but becomes expensive to buy a user license for each developer.
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Reliability and Availability
In our large environment, Perforce is rarely "down". We have regular maintenance windows and from time to time Perforce can feel a little slow, but its always available. Tech support has always worked with our engineers and IT department to make sure that any real performance or stability issues are addressed quickly.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
I had two representatives from Perforce contact me after downloading it but never responded when I had questions. I also had a difficult time finding good training material for getting started. There is a lot of available support material when running into issues, though, because of how many large companies use it.
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They have a great community website where you can search for answers but are also very responsive when it comes to direct support.
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Implementation Rating
This rating is related to setting up an environment from an existing Perforce repository. Initial setup of Perforce as the repository for the company was done by a separate team long prior to my inception.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
New users of Perforce Helix can be up and running in less than thirty minutes. It is easy to use, but also very powerful. Bitbucket is slow, prone to outages, and (for large teams) requires a team of dedicated administrators. I've had request for information from Bitbucket that requires hours to pull together that would take me less than 30 seconds in Perforce Helix. Large file storage in Bitbucket is clunky and requires you to jump through too many hoops. It's not even something you have to think about with Perforce Helix, as you are only limited by your OS. Perforce Helix is very easy to use even for non-developers. I wouldn't dare ask a non-developer to store their documentation in Bitbucket.
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I've used Visual Studio Database Projects for this type of work in the past with some success, but Redgate SQL Compare is faster, more transparent, and simply easier to use. Faster is self explanatory. More transparent, means that it's much easier to set up your desired options for schema change deployment scripts. Easier to use, It's really dead simple. Start a project, connect your source, connect destination, click compare.
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Return on Investment
  • Locking assets make us have no merge problems which are harder to manage on other versions control without locking
  • Almost no need to give support to artists or non-tech folks because the operations are very straightforward
  • There's no way to do interim checkins without going to the process of creating a stream
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  • Makes deployment fairly simple. Cutting our deployment time down.
  • With the SDK, we can customize our deployment process very quickly and easily.
  • History is not great, it does create scripts you can go back and see but it would be nice to have a quicker version view by object to save time.
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ScreenShots