NetBeans vs Oracle SQL Developer comparison

Apache and Oracle are both solutions in the IDE category. Apache is ranked #8, while Oracle is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.8. Apache holds a 4.6% mindshare in IDE, compared to Oracle’s 6.0% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Apache users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Oracle users who would recommend it.

NetBeans

Read 8 NetBeans reviews

739 Views
732 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Oracle SQL Developer

Read 36 Oracle SQL Developer reviews

1,539 Views
1,293 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

NetBeans

Oracle SQL Developer

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between NetBeans and Oracle SQL Developer based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two IDE solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed NetBeans vs. Oracle SQL Developer Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

NetBeans vs. Oracle SQL Developer

April 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 887,041 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

NetBeans

Ranking in IDE

8th

Average Rating

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Oracle SQL Developer

Ranking in IDE

3rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the IDE category, the mindshare of NetBeans is 4.6%, up from 4.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle SQL Developer is 6.0%, up from 3.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IDE Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Oracle SQL Developer	6.0%
NetBeans	4.6%
Other	89.4%

IDE

Featured Reviews

Dragan Bjedov

Java Developer at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees

Some of the valuable features are Java development, RCP support and support for various other languages.

* Java development support. (The Java editor is one of the best Java IMHO editors. Java projects support Ant and Maven.) * RCP support * GUI editor for Java windows * RCP support: An easy way to create your own app using NetBeans base. There is a lot of documentation for RCP creation. * Plugins can be easy created. Also there is support for other languages as C/C++, HTLM5, Javascript, Groovy, PHP... There is a lot of plugins that can be easily installed.

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Vikram_Kumar

Data Architect at Ontario Power Generation

Has improved development efficiency through reusable components and intuitive programming features

When errors occur while programming, they are very generic. Even when searching the internet, the errors remain generic and it takes considerable time to understand the fix. This was predominantly felt because we were mostly working on writing code and developing features. Error handling needs to be improved. The patches and upgrade process is very long. In the last year and a half, I haven't upgraded, so we don't know if latest features have arrived. Another issue is with sessions. If we were working on code and then switch off our laptop for two to three days, the session would keep running. This consumes many resources and flags to the team that a user has been continuously using Oracle SQL Developer. There should be a timeout period for inactive sessions.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"It comes out of package fully-loaded with a lot of great features for web development."

"NetBeans Platform can be freely used as a desktop application base, where all the functionality is prepared for me and I make only the business modules."

"Large scale of projects, templates, and coding support."

"Use it and you will not regret your decision."

"The learning curve is easy and fast because the interface is simple and intuitive, enabling us to easily train developers who are not expert in metrics."

"It is easy to deploy, manage servers, and ORMS resources."

"Setup is very simple and short, and integrating existing code and projects is also very simple."

"It comes out of package fully-loaded with a lot of great features for web development."

More NetBeans pros

"When we migrated to Oracle SQL Developer, we found it very user friendly and easy to work with."

"In my work in BI development I find that Oracle SQL Developer is the main tool in my tool box."

"The speed with which you can build SQL statements and PL/SQL code has been very valuable."

"Customer Service: Good. Technical Support: Good."

"Using execution plan, I am able to do lots of query tuning."

"It allows us to implement a form of test driven development (TDD) for database-resident code."

"The most valuable features of Oracle SQL Developer that I use. However, I do not use all of them"

"Oracle SQL Developer is scalable; it can perform the same when more people use it, and most of the people in my organization are using it, with approximately 100 people in the organization."

More Oracle SQL Developer pros

Cons

"Debugging: Watches, Evaluate Expression, and data inspection are limited."

"It is a very heavy load on the computer, especially when you compare with Sublime Text Limited plugins and themes."

"The debugging mechanize could be improved compared to IntelliJ, for example."

"There are always rooms for improvement for any product. The good thing with NetBeans is that since it is Open Source, you can just go ahead and contribute whatever you want to change yourself."

"t is a very heavy load on the computer, especially when you compare with Sublime Text Limited plugins and themes."

"The background scanning of projects should be optimized after starting NetBeans."

"The debugging mechanize could be improved compared to IntelliJ, for example."

"Background scanning of sources on demand, disallowed by Options (processor usage, build cannot be deleted by the old version build)."

More NetBeans cons

"There are always areas of improvement as it relates to the tool's ability, the process that you need to go through in order to connect to some of the non-Oracle databases."

"Could be made to load faster."

"I would like it to support background processes better."

"It's not so stable. Sometimes it crashes, and the connection to the databases is bad."

"There are occasional run time issues."

"They were not supportive. I didn't get a solution."

"The GUI ‘navigator’ screen uses different icons for partitioned, indexed organised tables, temporary and of course conventional tables, but this is not the case with indexes in the viewer - they all look the same so you can’t tell if it is a bitmap index, a unique index, a partitioned index or what."

"The areas of Oracle SQL Developer that need improvement are in cloud."

More Oracle SQL Developer cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is an open source and free tool, with no changes, and the licensing allows me even to change source code, if I need."

"I am sad that CLion is not free. Currently, it has no support for Linux makefiles, only cmake, and this is a big mess."

"NetBeans is free and open source."

"It is basically free."

"It's a no-cost license and it offers outstanding functionality on that basis."

"It has the advantage that it's free. The next best competitor would cost several thousand dollars."

"It's a free tool."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

13%

Insurance Company

Comms Service Provider

Wholesaler/Distributor

Financial Services Firm

20%

Marketing Services Firm

14%

Comms Service Provider

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	1
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	2

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	14
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	20

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle SQL Developer?

The pricing of Oracle SQL Developer depends on the size of the company and the project. I cannot use Oracle or other solutions if I am just starting. If I start with MySQL, it depends on the size o...

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What needs improvement with Oracle SQL Developer?

The downsides of Oracle SQL Developer include hard typing. It is not similar to another relational database such as MySQL. I need to define the object that I will receive even when I create a store...

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What is your primary use case for Oracle SQL Developer?

I have been using it for about five years, but it has not been continuous. Sometimes I have projects that are developed in SQL Server, MySQL, and even more relational databases such as MongoDB. It ...

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IDE

April 2026

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Buyer's Guide

Oracle SQL Developer

April 2026

Download Oracle SQL Developer product report

Overview

NetBeans IDE. The Smarter and Faster Way to Code. Quickly and easily develop desktop, mobile and web applications with Java, PHP, C/C++ and more. NetBeans IDE is FREE, open source, and has a worldwide community of users and developers.

Apache

Oracle SQL Developer is a free integrated development environment that simplifies the development and management of Oracle Database in both traditional and Cloud deployments. SQL Developer offers complete end-to-end development of your PL/SQL applications, a worksheet for running queries and scripts, a DBA console for managing the database, a reports interface, a complete data modeling solution, and a migration platform for moving your 3rd party databases to Oracle.

For more information on Oracle SQL Developer, visit Oracle.com

Oracle

Sample Customers

Weyco Group Inc.

Prinova

Buyer's Guide

NetBeans vs. Oracle SQL Developer

April 2026

Free Report: NetBeans vs. Oracle SQL Developer

Find out what your peers are saying about NetBeans vs. Oracle SQL Developer and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.

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