ApexSQL Generate vs Snowfakery
ApexSQL Generate
apexsql.comSnowfakery
snowfakery.readthedocs.ioSide by side
| Figure | ApexSQL Generate | Snowfakery |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 1 |
| Spec score · Test Data Generation Tools | 8.0 (#5) | 7.9 (#8) |
| Database support | The listed requirements include SQL Server 2005 and higher, Azure SQL Database, and Amazon RDS for SQL Server. | Snowfakery builds on SQLAlchemy connectors, but its documentation says only SQLite is included in its test suite for SQL dataset URLs. |
| Output formats | The toolkit page lists SQL, XML, CSV, JSON, and Excel as test data export formats. | File-based output includes JSON, TXT, CSV, SQL, DOT, SVG, SVGZ, JPEG, and PostScript formats, with some diagram formats requiring Graphviz. |
| Purpose | ApexSQL Generate populates SQL databases with test data using multiple generators for each column. | Snowfakery generates unique, random fake data with relationships between tables from YAML recipe files. |
Plans
In their own words
ApexSQL Generate
ApexSQL Generate has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
Snowfakery
Snowfakery generates synthetic data from YAML recipe files, including records linked across tables. Recipes can create names, addresses, text, URLs, random numbers and other values using Faker-based functions, and specify how many related objects to generate. Output can go to files in JSON, TXT, CSV, SQL, DOT, SVG, SVGZ, JPEG and PostScript formats; some diagram formats require Graphviz. Snowfakery can also write to databases accessible through SQLAlchemy, including SQLite, and generate records in Salesforce when used through CumulusCI. Python applications can embed it with its generate_data function, and Python plugins and providers can extend its functions and Faker capabilities. Strict mode checks a recipe before generation, while validate-only mode checks it without generating data. It is free, open source and self-hosted. The documentation says database output creates new tables, with generated columns as text, and that SQLite is the only database included in its SQL dataset URL test suite. The repository was archived on September 18, 2026, and is read-only.