11 Best Database Management Software

What is the best database management software?

Here are my picks for the best database management software to use this year:

1. Knack.

Knack was founded in 2010 and is the easiest online database tool I have come across.

It is a SaaS tool that allows its users to easily structure, connect, and modify your data without having to code.

Knack has an impressive customer base, including Intel, Capital One, HP, Spotify, Panasonic, Zendesk, Honda, Harvard University, and more.

To use Knack, you can start by structuring your data with the main columns you need, including name, email, address, phone number, and a number of custom categories.

Then, you connect your data by integrating it with different systems. The company has a powerful API that integrates with a large number of popular tools, like Zapier, in order to extend its functionality:

Finally, you extend your data and make it more useful with custom formulas and equations. And all of this is done in a simple web interface, without requiring extensive coding knowledge.

Knack also offers 39 pre-created database templates to choose from based on organization type or characteristics.

For example, if you are an agency, you have a model of CRM personalized that allows you to manage customers and assign tasks and meetings to generate sales.

If you're a big business, there are database templates to do everything from project management to manage purchase orders, inventory, payroll, and even to add job listings to your website.

With so many features in one simple piece of software, you are able to save a lot of money between cross-departmental teams that can use 4 to 5 different tools to do all of this.

Pricing

Knack offers 3 main rates ranging from $39/month to $179/month.

• Their $39/month STARTER plan gives you up to 20,000 records, 2GB of storage, and 3 app connections.
• The $79/month PRO plan provides 50,000 records, 10GB of storage, and 8 application connections.
• The CORPORATE plan is very popular and gives you 125,000 records, 50GB of storage, 25 application connections, and top-notch support.
• They also offer customized business plans called Plus 1, Plus 2, and Plus 3 that greatly increase the database. For example, with the $999/month Plus 3 plan, you get 1.5 million records.

The best strategy is to simply choose your plan based on the number of records you need in your database.

Overall, Knack is a fantastic online tool that is changing the way online database management is thought of.

Try Knack for free for 14 days ->

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2. Improvado.

Improvado is a popular database management software that can help you bring together all marketing data from small and large businesses in real time. It is a flexible and scalable marketing middleware solution.

Features

• Integration : It offers integration with numerous tools such as Google Adwords, Excel, Facebook, Tableau, Twitter, Salesforce, MailChimp, BigQuery, among others.
• Reports : It has a robust reporting mechanism and reduces manual reporting by over 90%.
• Data visualization : Easily extract and send all data sets to dataviz tools, including Google Data Studio, Looker, Tableau, and Google Sheets, among others. It also has an intuitive dashboard.
• Profitable : With Improvado, you don't need SQL experts to understand its functionalities, so there's no need to hire a developer or database administrator.

Benefits

• Possibility to migrate your data and instantly duplicate the online database
• Side by side comparison of measurements for faster decision-making.
• Real-time integration of data models through a live connection to a dedicated database server.
• Solid customer support provided by a team of highly qualified and experienced engineers.
• Clean user interface and navigation control
• Permanent access to statuses and regular updates on several projects
• Error-free and insightful data analytics
• Backup software and data recovery option for users
• Well planned and clean database documentation

Disadvantages

• The database often excludes the latest entries during the analytical comparison.

Pricing

You need to request the price by completing the form above.

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3. Microsoft SQL Server.

Microsoft SQL Server is one of the most effective and sought-after database management software.

This relational DBMS server is perfect for storing and retrieving multiple requests at the same time.

Features

• Great performances : Transforms raw data into actionable information that can be delivered on any platform or device.
• Free trial : The developer and express versions of Microsoft SQL Server are available for free.
• Improving request processing : It now uses adaptive query processing functions to improve query performance in SQL databases and the SQL server.
• Automatic correction : Corrects SQL performance issues by identifying query execution issues.

Benefits

• Possibility to create multiple tables, architectures and visualize data without syntax
• Leverage developer features to create advanced queries
• Handles complex queries and integrates with other programs.
• Identifies numerous names in the database system using Template Explorer
• Combines scripts and views of related objects or groups.
• Advanced querying and easy management of distributed databases
• More advanced software than Microsoft Access

Disadvantages

• Complex queries often take longer than the calculated time expected to execute
• Data maintenance is tedious with a selective schema

Pricing

The “Express” and “Developer” versions are available for free. Paid plans start at $931 and go up to $14,256 (one-time cost).

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4. MySQL.

MySQL is an open-source relational database system (RDBMS). The majority of web hosting providers incorporate MySQL into their core offerings. It is therefore popular among amateur and professional web designers.

Features

• Scalability : It increases database scalability and security.
• Oriented for professionals : E-commerce sites can take advantage of advanced, business-oriented applications.
• Technical assistance : Offers robust technical support and fights against potential cyberattacks.
• Easily applicable : Reduction of risks and costs. Less complexity in developing, deploying, and managing applications.

Benefits

• Offers better data recovery capacity
• People who don't have programming skills can quickly learn basic system functions.
• Since it is an open-source tool, it offers total flexibility in customizing data.
• The low-cost structure makes it a more feasible option for smaller businesses and entrepreneurs.
• The process of developing adjustable data for small and large applications
• Easy integration with the Apache web engine

Disadvantages

• Requests do not respond after the software is restarted or refreshed.
• Over-dependence on third party plugins
• The Linux operating system makes data processing more complex

Pricing

Its pricing plan starts at $2,000, $5,000, and $10,000 for MySQL Standard, Enterprise, and Cluster Carrier Grade editions, respectively.

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5. Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS).

Amazon RDS is a stable, high-performance relational database as a service (DBaaS) that is on par with other competent Amazon Web Services (AWS) offerings. It's a good option for experienced data scientists, users, and digital businesses.

Features

• Data backup and security : Offers a dedicated secure connection and automatically backs up data thanks to its integrated function.
• Flexible : It offers the possibility of evolving IT resources or increasing the storage capacity of the database by a simple call to the API.
• Scalable : You can increase the deployment capacity of the single database for intensive workloads.
• Easy to use : Amazon RDS offers access to the capabilities of a more familiar MySQL, Oracle, or Microsoft SQL Server database engine.

Benefits

• Handles heavy workloads in a single database system
• You only need to pay for the number of resources you use at any given time.
• Easily access Oracle, MySQL, Microsoft SQL databases, and more.
• Flexibility and increased storage capacity through a simple API request make it a favorable option for programmers.
• Offers stable and robust performance
• Extensive controls and features for users
• Responsive and competent customer support
• Use big data tools transparently through its DME service

Disadvantages

• Offers limited self-assessment capabilities
• The absence of physical servers prevents users from checking server logs.
• Relatively more expensive than other DBMS available on the market.

Pricing

Amazon RDS is a “free to try” tool. Users can only pay for the resources they use. You can use an on-demand or reserved instance to pay for its services.

Paying for the resources used may seem excessive, but you can easily estimate your monthly bill using the simple AWS monthly calculator.

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6. Oracle RDBMS.

Oracle DBMS is one of the most widely used object-relational DBMS tools, which introduced crucial features in its latest version. It allows businesses to have enterprise-wide database technology that can be stored on-premises or in the cloud.

Features

• Databases : It reduces the risk of data consolidation and also decreases resource consumption. It also allows independent backup and recovery of the pluggable database.
• Performance : It allows the simultaneous execution of union branches in order to reduce query execution time and wait time, while improving SQL execution time.
• Efficient : The latest version offers a larger database, takes up less space, offers higher security features, and processes your online database quickly.
• Flexible : The Oracle RDBMS can be run on a personal computer or an advanced “supercomputer” with the same efficiency. Its active design uses a highly compatible reference system

Benefits

• Users can create partitions to gain greater administrative control over the data.
• Offers greater data security and a smooth transaction process
• Efficient optimization of complex queries
• Dynamic support is provided for seamless integration with various platforms to facilitate application development with different technologies.
• Its intelligent suggestions help developers work more accurately and more efficiently.
• Offers robust and stable performance

Disadvantages

• Not affordable rates for startups and small businesses.
• Client applications are automatically connected
• The design is a bit outdated
• Consumes a lot of resources and lags behind in processing important stored procedures.

Pricing

The cost of an Oracle DBMS varies depending on the size and type of your business, as well as the existing software solutions used in your IT infrastructure.

Therefore, you will need to contact the customer support manager to get the exact pricing information for your business.

7. SQL Developer.

SQL Developer offers secure connection options with a wide range of database technologies.

It offers great flexibility and a wide variety of tools that can be used for any purpose.

In addition, it helps to simplify the management and development of the Oracle database in traditional or cloud deployments.

Features

• Integrations : It offers easy integration with other database types and other products.
• Reusability : It allows users to reuse queries to create report definitions in different layouts and/or formats (PDF or HTML).
• Rich in features : it offers free access to all other company features and similar databases. Some of the most exciting features include SQL worksheets, database utilities, object development and management, DBA controls, modeling, and more.
• Efficient : It takes less time to execute multiple queries and also allows users to generate queries in multiple formats, including XML, HTML, PDF, or Excel.

Benefits

• Users can simplify data management
• It offers access to several database technologies
• Its user interface is intuitive for its basic functionalities.
• Provides excellent support to resolve any type of malfunction or bug.
• There is no need to install the software. All you have to do is copy your folder to the operating system

Disadvantages

• Automated operating systems often change database queries.
• Utilities, including the storage and resource manager, are not intuitive.
• No SQL developer integration with Enterprise Manager

Pricing

SQL Developer is completely free.

8. IBM Informix.

IBM Informix reliably manages and secures critical business data.

It offers unlimited scalability and broad features to harness the power of data.

It is known for its cutting-edge OLTP (Online Transactional Processing) performance at great prices.

Features

• Real-time analysis : helps businesses take advantage of actionable insights from analytics while staying close to data sources to improve local decision-making.
• Elimination of downtime : Ability to maintain, upgrade, and configure the network without any downtime while meeting service level agreements
• Greater development flexibility : offers support for structured and unstructured data through a hybrid database management system to ensure more natural development and flexibility.
• Fewer worries : offers simpler deployment features, including intelligent triggers for database push notifications and event-based data processing. It also enables automation and frees up resources to focus on core business activities.

Benefits

• Offers cutting-edge data warehouse performance with the Warehouse Accelerator Base Engine and Module
• Can be integrated more effectively compared to other RDBMS systems.
• Offers high scalability and compatibility, from Raspberry PI to the cutting-edge multi-layer distributed node computing system
• Ability to merge relational data from a time series with geospatial data, JSON data, and other unconventional data types.
• Perfect for businesses that want to take advantage of parallel, multi-threaded data processing.
• Intuitive dashboard to monitor server performance
• Pluggable authentication modules allow you to configure the user authentication mechanism.
• The ability to compress data speeds up I/O, replication, and backup operations.

Disadvantages

• The replication function needs to be improved
• It's hard to find resources with hands-on Informix experience.

Pricing

You'll need to contact IBM Informix for more information about their pricing.

11. IBM DB2.

IBM Db2 provides solutions for operational database, data lake, data warehouse, and fast data. Without a doubt, it is one of the ideal database management software for the most demanding workloads.

Features

• XML support : It allows businesses to minimize the time and resources needed to maintain and use their XML data. It significantly reduces development expenses and improves business agility.
• Task Scheduler : Its task planner takes care of collecting statistics and reorganizing indexes and tables without user intervention. It also allows the task to be run under other tasks.
• High availability : It relies on ASYNC, NEAR SYNC, and SYNC HADR models to maintain multiple options and ensure a high availability rate.
• Software support : It meets the requirement to support legacy Java tools by relying on robust mainframe technology.

Benefits

• Splitting data is facilitated by easy partitioning thanks to the automatic use of storage and table space.
• Smoother administration through commands, including CLI (Command Line Interface) or via Control Center/Data Studio (DB2 10.x+)
• Supports private and cloud environments
• Equipped with dedicated AI capabilities that can structure and manage complex data.
• Can be easily deployed and integrated with multiple platforms, workloads, and languages.
• Extremely stable and requiring light maintenance
• Robust security
• Distributes and remembers the exact location of each piece of data

Disadvantages

• Non-developers might find the functional features of the DBMS too complex.
• You need to get support from IBM for quick assistance.
• Data download is too cumbersome and has a lot of superfluous software.
• License fees keep increasing every year

Pricing

The community version is free to download and use in the production environment. The IBM DB2 Standard Edition costs $1,850, and the Advanced Edition costs $7,800 per virtual processor core (VPC) for 90 days.

13. Solarwinds

With Database Performance Analyzer, the guessing game about database performance is over.

Database performance analysis is now easy to do, and you can get results without leaving your desk.

Features

• The Database Performance Monitor is capable of analyzing thousands of SQL statements in minutes to determine how changes are affecting the performance of your databases.
• You can instantly see the overall performance of your entire database, or zoom in to visualize specific sections and tables.
• You can break up your data in a variety of ways, for example by SQL statements, connections, durations, execution plans, etc.
• Monitoring and improving multiple DBMS platforms has never been easier.

Benefits

• Database connectivity across a variety of platforms for data and schema exploration
• Tracing transactions to assess when declarations start, locks are applied and released, and commits/rollbacks occur.
• Machine learning-based anomaly detection means you no longer need to schedule regular database “health checks” - the database performance analyzer will automatically detect when things are not right.
• Real-time and historical data are available to the nearest second.

Disadvantages

• Optimization focuses more on indexing strategies, rather than on more advanced topics like query optimization and locking issues.

Pricing

• Subscription: From 955 euros
• Perpetual: from 1,835 euros

Other honorable mentions include Filemaker, Redis, MariaDB, MongoDB, SQLite, and SAP.

What is database management software?

Database management software is a utility or software program developed to create, modify, store, search, retrieve, automate, and maintain databases.

The database management system (DBMS) helps users manage data in the form of structured fields, columns, and tables.

Simply put, database management software stores data in an organized manner for web applications.

Additionally, relational database management systems (RDBMS) are another key: they allow database administrators to identify and access data. In connection with dother data in the database.

Ultimately, databases store data in tables. Tables can get quite large and have a lot of records in columns and rows. RDBMSs use SQL to manage all of this complex data in a way that's easier to use.

How does database management software work?

Modern database management software works according to relational principles. This means that the data is stored in a structured form using columns and rows.

A relational database management system makes it possible to find information more quickly by quickly locating specific values in the database.

We call it relational because all the values in a table are related to each other.

Depending on requirements, tables can be linked to other tables.

The relational structure allows queries to be run on several tables at the same time.

The majority of DBMSs use Structured Query Language (SQL) to implement a method for establishing a connection and interacting with the database.

Modern database applications offer graphical data interpretation to make data consumption easy and intuitive.

SQL works in the background to transform raw data into graphical reports.

How do you use database management software?

Databases are an effective way to organize large amounts of regularly generated data more quickly and accurately.

Here are the main ways you can use database management software.

1. Data analysis.

An effective DBMS can help separate high-quality, relevant, and non-redundant data to obtain actionable information for business development and customer support.

A powerful DBMS allows businesses to use advanced analysis methods and helps you visualize data effectively.

Take for example Improvado's data visualization and reporting tool :

It offers flexibility in terms of data provision, processing, and preparation.

Most systems also support an organization's artificial intelligence, machine learning, and predictive analytics capabilities.

2. Presentation of the data.

These tools are essential for the safe, secure, and effective presentation and communication of data between relevant stakeholders. It also offers the possibility of making data reports visually appealing and engaging thanks to its graphics rendering capabilities.

Graphical reports help better understand data and encourage greater interaction and discussion.

3. Multi-user access control.

DBMSs offer the possibility of providing secure access to multiple users in order to improve collaboration and data accessibility.

It is implemented through competition control strategies to ensure that the integrity of the data is maintained and the accuracy of the data consulted is maintained.

4. Data security.

Modern DBMSs offer multiple layers of data security to keep business information secure.

It limits unauthorized access, regular load or capacity tests are performed to avoid database crashes, and regular corrections are made to known (and unknown) vulnerabilities.

Additionally, databases and cloud computing have made data breaches even more difficult because the servers are not physically accessible.

Whether you need a NoSQL database solution for Android or a distributed database like Oracle, data security is paramount.

5. Data storage.

Data storage has been the subject of much debate, with data being created faster than ever.

A database management system is a set of software that provides services for creating, storing, and accessing data files.

A DBMS also gives the possibility to create several users and to control their access privileges.

6. Data sharing.

Sharing data with the right person is one of the hardest tasks.

There are several factors to consider when sharing data, for example:

1. What is shared?
2. With whom?
3. When was the data shared?
4. How much data has been shared?

7. System and data administration.

This domain is divided into 2 parts:

1. System administration and
2. Data administration.

System administration consists of installing, maintaining, configuring, and upgrading computer systems: servers, networks, etc.

In the field of data administration, it involves developing databases to store different types of data, calculating structures to store data in memory, managing files stored on disks, etc.

Summary.

Databases have become new gold mines for businesses.

The constant development of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities has made data processing more accessible and efficient.

Businesses benefit from analysis, including Big data to get better business results faster.

Whether it's producing actionable insights or staying ahead of the market by offering highly customizable services to their customers, data has opened up a multitude of possibilities for businesses.

But the possibilities mentioned above are only possible in the presence of a robust database management system (DBMS) that can create and manage heaps of data in a consistent manner.

An effective DBMS allows you to retrieve or update data in a few clicks.

Businesses should choose the DBMS that meets their specific needs while remaining productive and profitable.

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Further reading: To check out my other software reviews, read my article on best marketing automation software or project management tools.