Today, I want to focus on a free tool that everyone can use when benchmarking queries or performance tuning their queries. This tool is Plan Explorer by SentryOne (I think I will still always know them as SQLSentry).

Most people use Management Studio (SSMS) when they are benchmarking queries and improving the performance of their queries. It makes sense because this is the same tool most people use to develop their queries. I have found it to be priceless to have a history log of all my changes. Therefore, I can quickly see how each change impacts the logical reads, duration, CPU, and the execution plan during all of my code changes for the query.

If you are new to benchmarking and improving queries, go ahead and start the video from the beginning. I show you how you can get the actual execution plan, duration, CPU, and reads in SSMS. If you want to see how I track changes via history feature of Plan Explorer, go ahead and skip to 3:36 part in the eight-minute video.

Quickly track the performance changes of your code tuning with Plan Explorer’s history tracking feature.

If you enjoyed this tip go ahead and join our newsletter for free tips and videos.