SQL Pretty Printer vs sqlfmt
SQL Pretty Printer
dpriver.comsqlfmt
github.comSide by side
| Figure | SQL Pretty Printer | sqlfmt |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · SQL Linters and Formatters | 7.6 (#15) | 8.5 (#3) |
| Compatibility limits | The download page lists desktop support for Windows XP, 2000, Vista, and Windows 7–10, and add-ins for specific Visual Studio and SSMS versions. | Deeply nested subqueries and exotic upsert or DDL forms remain best-effort formatting areas. |
Plans
In their own words
SQL Pretty Printer
SQL Pretty Printer has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
sqlfmt
sqlfmt is a free formatter for PostgreSQL SQL, available as a command-line tool and as a browser formatter running through WebAssembly. Its river-aligned style pads clause keywords so they share a column. The CLI reads SQL from files or stdin and writes formatted SQL to stdout; it can also rewrite files in place, list files needing changes, and show unified diffs. Its explain subcommand formats PostgreSQL plan text and can provide advice, canonicalized output, or structural comparisons. Plan advice describes join order, join and access methods, and parallelism, without costs, row estimates, or timing. The explain diff operation returns exit code 0 for structurally identical plans and 1 when structures differ, so it can be used in scripts and CI. A Go subpackage provides formatting for Go programs, and the project includes Emacs and Vim integrations. The browser build exposes formatting and version functions to JavaScript. Deeply nested subqueries and less common upsert or DDL forms remain best-effort areas. sqlfmt is intended for standalone formatting and SQL used in The Art of PostgreSQL book and courses.