I spent ages combing the web for a decent ERD tool for the Mac, and for some time resigned to using dbwrench, a java binary the provides decent but limited functionality and is free of charge.
The choice of tools for ERD work is much narrower than what’s available on Linux or the PC, where something like DBDesigner 4 is fantastic and can handle pretty much any job you throw at it.
Then finally I stumbled across SQLEditor and I have to say it’s excellent. It has a sharp and clean GUI with the attention to detail you’d expect from a first rate Mac app. However there is a price tag, $79, and after years of being able to depend on high quality apps that are available for free, I have to say paying such a price takes some getting used to. In this case I think it’s totally worth it and would recommend this tool for any Mac-based software developer.
NB: As phpMyAdmin has collapsed in recent versions, you might also be looking for a decent MySQL client. Here are some I’ve had a good experience with:
August 2nd, 2009 at 10:25 pm
Try have a look at Visual Paradigm for UML Community Edition. It has a section for database modeling that allows for ERD models. The community edition is free. The paid version ranges from $70 all the way up to $1670 (ouch!).
I’ve seen some plugins for Eclipse but never looked at them myself.
I’ll have a look at at SQLEditor.
August 2nd, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Cool, thanks, will check it out.
October 28th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
I would certainly agree with your comments about SQL Editor. It was definitely worth the money!
If you’re looking for a MySQL client you should take a look at MySQL’s own MySQL Query Browser. It’s a free download from mysql.com. It also comes with a useful admin package called MySQL Administrator which I find is a great way of doing MySQL backups and restores.
There’s also another package on their site called MySQL Workbench which as far I understand is an ERD tool. It’s Intel only though so I’ve not had a chance to try it out. I’d certainly be interested in any feedback on it!