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I am about to design my first database which is going to run with PostgreSQL. I am used to the magnificant tool called MySQL Workbench. 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?

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Possible duplicate dba.stackexchange.com/questions/1283/… – David Oct 29 '11 at 20:04
@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

3 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

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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up vote 1 down vote

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.

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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 XSTL and still have a single source for everything. – a_horse_with_no_name Oct 30 '11 at 11:58
That's a great idea, I might copy it :) – Jack Douglas♦ Oct 30 '11 at 17:33
up vote 0 down vote

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)

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