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Database design is the most important part of any database project, and choosing the best tools for your database project is crucial to its success. In this article, we’ll explore the features of the best design tools for your PostgreSQL database.
As we all know, database design or data modeling is the first step in building a database. Data modeling is the methodical process of identifying, classifying, and graphically presenting all the relevant data in an information system.
The data modeling process is broken into three stages – conceptual, logical, and physical. This simplifies the design process. Database designers present high-level descriptions of data at the conceptual level. In logical data modeling, the data entities are extended to show their properties, such as data types and characteristics. In physical data modeling, we build a comprehensive data model that can be converted into a physical database. You can learn more about conceptual, logical, and physical data models in our blog.
PostgreSQL (a.k.a. Postgres) is one of the most popular and powerful open-source database management systems (DBMSs). Database specialists like this DBMS for its performance, reliability, and robust features.
This article will discuss the best PostgreSQL database design tools and their features.
7 Database Design Tools for PostgreSQL Data Modeling
1. Vertabelo
Vertabelo is one of the top online PostgreSQL database design tools. This tool comes with many modern features essential to database developers. You can design your PostgreSQL database on any platform with this visual data modeler. In addition to PostgreSQL, Vertabelo supports many popular DBMSs, including MySQL, Oracle, and SQL Server.
You can model your database at the conceptual, logical, and physical data modeling stages with Vertabelo. Although it supports manual data modeling for all the above stages, it also provides an automated feature to create a physical data model from a logical data model.
Vertabelo makes your job easy with its beautiful, clean, and straightforward user interface, which supports various entity-relationship diagram (ERD) notations like Crow's Foot, IDEF1X, and UML.
Moreover, this data modeling tool offers automated features that save time and money. Reverse engineering and SQL generation are two examples. SQL Generation automates SQL code generation to create or remove elements in your physical database, while reverse engineering creates a data model from an existing database.
Collaboration is a crucial component of working on large projects. Collaborative data modeling is easier when you have Vertabelo, as these features show.
Also, Vertabelo offers Model validation, built-in version control, and version control with GIT.
2. ER Studio
ER Studio is another ER diagram editor that supports PostgreSQL and many other database systems. Although it’s a Windows-based offline tool, ER Studio supports Cloud services like Google Database Service, Amazon RDS & S3, Oracle MySQL Cloud Service, etc.
This visual database design tool also supports users in creating all levels of data models with its unique environment. You can also check your model’s normalization and compliance with the target database. ER Studio also automates the creation of physical data models from logical models – a great time-saving feature.
Like other top data modeling software, ER Studio also offers automated DDL script generation (to create the physical database from the physical model) and reverse engineering (to convert an existing database to a physical data model for further modifications). Plus, the ER Studio Enterprise Team Edition supports collaboration between business and data teams.
3. Visual Paradigm
Visual Paradigm (VP) is a multi-diagramming tool that supports creating ERDs for PostgreSQL and other popular databases. Users can collaboratively work on the online version of VP using the most common notations to take ER diagrams from the conceptual to physical stages.
This ERD software provides a unique "table record editor" feature that lets you enter test data and see the type of data entered into the physical database. Its "model transitor" feature automates the creation of physical and logical data models from their previous levels. This lets you maintain traceability, too.
Like many other top PostgreSQL database design tools, VP also has automated features to create DDL files from the physical data model. Plus, this tool can compare a physical database with its corresponding data model and produce SQL script patches. It also supports reverse engineering.
4. Navicat
Navicat is an offline ERD tool for PostgreSQL; it runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS and supports all the major DBMSs, including SQL Server, MySQL, MariaDB, and (of course) PostgreSQL.
This database modeling tool provides a user-friendly environment to model your data with all popular notations. You can use it to visually modify an existing database by converting it back to its corresponding data model with the reverse engineering feature. Also, you can write SQL scripts for each element of the physical data model with its Export SQL functionality.
It’s worth noting that Navicat has improved its collaboration features with Navicat Cloud.
5. GenMyModel
GenMyModel is an online multi-diagramming program that supports data modeling, UML, flowcharting, etc. Its data modeling tool supports designing data models for many databases, including PostgreSQL.
This tool provides data architects with the standard data modeling notations and enables them keep current data models under control as well as design new models. You can use GenMyModel to reverse engineer data models and link them with other related IT and business models, like UML and ArchiMate.
This easy-to-use tool has many other features to streamline your diagramming process, such as easy login, easy diagramming, search, documentation, customization, and more.
6. pgModeler
pgModeler is an easy-to-use PostgreSQL database design tool. Its simple and intuitive interface enables you to create and edit database models easily. This is an open-source and multi-platform tool that was built on top of the Qt framework. pgModeler can be compiled, and the build scripts are easily configurable to resolve specific dependencies on Windows, Linux, and macOS.
With its dynamic code generation, you can design once and export the models to different versions of PostgreSQL. Using the plug-in development interface, you can add any missing functionalities to the modeler.
To produce an error-free database model, the tool validates and fixes any incompatibilities or errors automatically in your data model. Also, pgModeler’s diff feature can generate SQL scripts to synchronize the model and the database.
7. pgAdmin
pgAdmin is one of the most popular and feature-rich PostgreSQL administration and development platforms. It comes with a built-in ERD creation tool to design and document database schemas. You can use pgAdmin on Windows, macOS, Linux, and Unix to design, build, and manage PostgreSQL databases. It enables database designers to design and visualize the database tables and their relationships.
In addition to its ERD tool for PostgreSQL, this platform comes with many other features to manage PostgreSQL databases. These include color syntax highlighting, graphical query plan display, and a schema diff tool to manage schema differences.
The ER diagram editor provides additional features, like adding notes to the diagram, auto-aligning the tables and links, drag and drop, etc.
Like the other major PostgreSQL database design tools we discussed in the article, pgAdmin can create a ready-to-run SQL script from the database design and reverse engineer an existing database to generate its database diagram.
Choose Your PostgreSQL Database Design Tool
Data modeling is the first and most essential step in a database development project. The success of your project may depend on the database design tools you choose.
As PostgreSQL is one of the most popular DBMSs today among database developers, there are many PostgreSQL data modeling tools available. This article listed 7 visual database design tools for PostgreSQL; your best choice depends on your project requirements.
