are there any Query Optimization Tools for SQL Server? [closed]

Question

Are there any tools that do Query Optimizations for SQL Server 2005 and above?

I've searched & didn't find anything.

What do you recommend?

If this Question was repeated before you can close it but I didn't see anything similar

Answer 1

The best tool I've ever used for optimizing queries in MS SQL Server, by far, is the "Include Actual Execution Plan" option in Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio. It displays detailed information about the execution path taken by the server when running your query. (Note that this works best when there's data in the tables. Of course, without a good bit of test data, any optimization is purely theoretical anyway.)

It basically gives you three very important things:

1. It tells you which steps take the most processing time and what they're doing at that step.
2. It tells you which steps carry the most data to the next step, including how many records, which helps identify places where you can be more specific about the data you want and exclude unnecessary records.
3. It gives you a ton of insight into the inner workings of SQL Server and what it does with your queries. This knowledge will help you optimize things a lot over time.

Answer 2

One very good tool and now free for use is Plan Explorer from SentryOne: https://sentryone.com/plan-explorer

(they also have many other optimization software, like Azure specific software etc.)