PromptSQL to SQL Prompt3

lkalman

Hope many people are PromptSQL Customers.
Red-gate is charging us to upgrade. Just wanted to get people thoughts on this

MikeGuerrieri

I was a PromptSQL customer and am now a SQLPrompt customer. Red Gate has made enormous improvements to this product in the form of bug fixes and useability enhancements. This is a major upgrade to the PromptSQL product and as such I think that Red Gate is right in asking PromptSQL users for an upgrade fee.

Off the top of my head I can't think of any software company that doesn't charge for major upgrades. Usually upgrades are "free" when you have a maintenance/service contract with the software company. We have to pay for such contracts and are therefore, in essence, paying for our upgrades.

This is my position on the topic.

Mike G.

paschott

I was a PromptSQL customer as well and I have mixed feelings about the Red-Gate upgrades. I used SQL Prompt 2 in between versions and it had lost some of the functionality of PromptSQL while fixing some of the bugs. SQL Prompt 3 has lost a little of the functionality of SQL Prompt 2 (while admittedly adding other functionality).

There are times I've been tempted to load up that old version of PromptSQL with all of the little bugs just because it did some things better. Other times, I remember some of the more annoying bugs and will just stick with what I have. I am considering rolling back to SQL Prompt 2 until the next dot release of 3 because of the missing cross-database support. I do a lot of those queries and now do a lot of typing.

Also, while I don't have a major issue with being charged for upgrades, the price difference between PromptSQL and SQL Prompt 3 is pretty big. I paid for PromptSQL out of my pocket - didn't even hesitate after using it for about one hour. If I were evaulating SQL Prompt 3 and paying out of my own pocket, it would just be uninstalled. It's useful, but not $200 worth of useful at this point.

I see a lot of potential for the product line and appreciate the developers' work, but I think the product is priced a little too high for what it offers. Besides, I think if it were in the $50 range, it would probably sell more copies just because the average DBA could justify an out-of-pocket expense of that type. Having to go through corporate purchasing for tools can be a royal pain at times and justifying this to most of my bosses would be kind of hard.

Anyway, my $.015 on the matter.

-Pete