While migrating a SQL-Database from stage to live I searched for an easy way to identify all changes I made. Of course I wrote them all down in my update log, but it should not be too complicated for a tool to automatically compare 2 databases. And yes, there is at least one tool, and best of all: It’s free!! (Ah no, best of all is that it’s working fine, but it’s also great that it’s free….)

Starinix Corporation has released a tool called ‘Starinix Database Compare’. Current version is 2.0.14. The tool supports lots of different sources, like MySQL, MS SQL and MS Access. I’ve only tested it with MS SQL 2000 and MS SQL 2005 and this works fine. If any modifications found the tool uses ExamDiff to show the difference in details. Additionally you could also create a snapshot. And if you like the tool don’t forget to donate.
Make sure you also check out DbDiff from Codeplex.
And I just noticed that there is also a Wikipedia Article about SQL Comparison tools.