There are a number of decent and *free* database management programs out there but I found Navicat to be well worth the money. (You might think it seems like a lot but if you're spending even a few hours/week managing a DB I think Navicat is good value.)

Unfortunately I'm stuck on version 8 because while the interface on 9 is much nicer, I find it crashes pretty much every time I use it. Sometimes it's because of a timeout on the server, sometimes it's just seems random.

There seem to be a few buggy interface elements that pop up from time to time as well (the enum default-value menu comes to mind -- it often chooses the values of the previously selected enum field).

So I'll stick with 8 for now. Hopefully 9.2 brings some stability.

This is THE product to own if you're doing MySQL work. No more myPHPAdmin crap. The power to not only create the database, but to managed it with micro edits right in the GUI is unmatched. Heavily recommend for those of you who know that time does equal money. ;-)

Version 9 is the update for Navicat I have been waiting for. I've used Navicat for 6+ years on both Windose and Mac. It has always had the same problem on both OS. Would randomly crash. At least 1 or 2 times a day. But with Version 9 on my Mac I have never had a crash. Definitely worth the $50 upgrade just to get rid of the random crashes. Buy it!

Have been using Navicat for over two years. As far as I'm concerned, it's the best MySQL editor on the Mac.

If you do heavy editing, you'll appreciate its versatility compared to web-based solutions. Download and check out the 30-day trial. Or grab the free version off their website if you are going to use it non-commercially.

Some minor quibs:

SSH tunneling is buggy. It regularly crashes whenever I use SSH tunneling on the road.

Related to the above: You lose all your unsaved queries when it crashes. Very frustrating if you have several or more query tabs open!

The GUI for editing triggers and stored procedures is non-intuitive. I frequently find myself typing up the SQL in a text editor like TextMate and pasting it into Navicat.

When in table design, you can't duplicate rows. Also, there is something unintuitive about the whole process because I find myself having to resort to the mouse when adding stuff: Tabbing will not get you to all editable fields.

The Mac version, for some reason, trails one point behind the Windows/Linux version. Not sure what you lose, but probably implies they devote less resources to the Mac side of their business.

The query tool does process multiple SQL commands but will return results for only the last. Also, older results will disappear as soon as you edit the SQL or want to type in something new. So, whenever I need to compare results of two or more queries, I find myself opening multiple tabs and going back and forth between them. Would be nice if I could see the results on the same window somehow.

Expensive, but worth the price because of the time it has saved me over using phpMyAdmin.

Could someone point me to to right direction on where to find the menu for opening a new Main window. I sometimes accidentally close the main window and cannot bring it up without restarting the entire application. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.