Never having used a schema diff tool before, I was very wary about the potential for messing up my deployment database. So I dedicated a lot of time evaluating various tools, and it came down to a choice between RedGate and AdeptSQL. Both had the features I needed, but RedGate was not particularly stable on my machine, so I went with AdeptSQL.

Since then, I've been using it almost daily for a few months and the tool works very well. I definitely would class it among my core software tools.

Spend some time looking at all SQL diff tools on the net for MSSQL server. Tried a bunch, but AdeptSQL kept coming up as the most convenient.

Comparison engine is by far the fastest available. Re-compare databases in seconds after making a change.

UI is intuitive - no need to read a manual. Nice and thin, simple, fast.

Only reasons not to give it a rating of 5:

SQL code generated is quite simple. No support for creating large update scripts will rollbacks and error checking.

No support for dependancies when generating sql statements

Can't insert new fields in the middle of tables.

But all that is fine because I use it to generate individual SQL statements for each view/table/sp I want to update on a live server, then put them together in my own batch script file, which is good because then I have to read them and arrange them myself.

Great tool, well worth it.

Look for update that improves the sql comparison and sql generation engine in September.