SQL SERVER – Difference Between Azure Data Studio and SQL Server Management Stud...

Earlier I blogged about SQL SERVER – Getting Started with Azure Data Studio . After reading the blog post, I receive an email from a reader asking about the primary difference between Azure Data Studio (ADS) and SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). Well, before we start the conversation let us see the following image.

You can clearly see that in Azure Data Studio we have three components of SQL Server 1) Databases, 2) Security and 3) Server Objects. Whereas if you look at the SQL Server Management Studio, there are quite a lots of components 1) Databases, 2) Security 3) Server Objects, 4) Replication, 5) PolyBase, 6) Always On High Availability, 7) Management, 8) Integration services Catalogs, 9) SQL Server Agent and 10) XEvent Profiler.

Difference

Well, there you go, if you are the hardcore developer who is just writing the queries, executing them and more visual result sets person, Azure Data Studio is for you. However, if you are hardcore DBA who is primarily focused on the advanced administrative configurations, manage high availability, run SQL Agent jobs and query store consumer – SQL Server Management Studio is the right tool for you.

I have been using ADS and SSMS for a while and at this point in time, I can tell you both of them are here to stay. If you are an SSMS fan, there is no need to worry about the product going away immediately as I do not think ADS is anyway replacement of SSMS. Similarly, there is no reason to ignore ADS as well as it also has some cool feature, I really wish SSMS always provided.

Here are the top 5 features from my experience in using both the products. Remember, these are not the feature promoted by Microsoft or anyone but the list is built from my own experience.

5 Top Features of Azure Data Studio

• Extensions
• Source Code Control
• Task Pane
• Dashboard
• Dark Mode (I love this)

5 Top Features of SQL Server Management Studio

• Live Query Stats
• Spatial Viewer
• Query Store
• XEvent Management
• Always On

Well, now that you have read my top 5 features, I would love to know what is your opinion and what are your top 5 features. Please leave a comment as everyone would love to learn from it.

Reference:  Pinal Dave ( https://blog.sqlauthority.com )