# SQL Index Manager turns index fragmentation into a maintenance plan > SQL Index Manager is a Windows GUI and command line tool that scans SQL Server and Azure databases for index fragmentation, advises whether to rebuild or reorganize, and can perform the maintenance or emit a T-SQL script for SSMS. It suits a DBA doing periodic index upkeep, and it is a single maintainer project whose last release predates its recent commits. **sergiisyrovatchenko/SQLIndexManager** — Free GUI Tool for Index Maintenance on SQL Server and Azure - Repository: https://github.com/sergiisyrovatchenko/SQLIndexManager - Stars: 593 · Forks: 120 - Language: C# - License: GPL-3.0 - Published: 2026-10-22 · Updated: 2026-10-22 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/sergiisyrovatchenko-sqlindexmanager ## It reports fragmentation and then offers to act on it The tool lets you quickly find out the status of your indexes and discover which databases need maintenance, and the key design choice is that you have two ways to do the work. You can do maintenance through the UI, or generate a T-SQL script to run in SSMS. That second path is what makes the tool usable in a serious environment. A DBA reviewing index work in production wants to read the statements before they execute, and a script can be pasted into a change window, checked by a peer, and stored with the release. A purely graphical tool would force you to trust the GUI, and the screenshots in the repository are of the interface rather than of the scripts. The feature list also includes an incredibly fast describe engine, multiple databases scanning, analysis of fragmentation results, configurable fragmentation thresholds, and one-click maintenance for the cases where you do want the fast path. ## The feature list covers the whole index lifecycle, not just rebuilds The listed capabilities are broader than a defragmentation utility, and the entries are worth reading as a checklist of index work. Advice on rebuilding or reorganizing is the core, but alongside it there is collecting missing indexes, detecting duplicate indexes, and dropping or disabling unused indexes. There is columnstore maintenance support and statistics maintenance. There is index rebuild with compression options, which matters on large tables where the compressed rebuild can be run online. Command-line automation and automatic T-SQL script generation are listed as separate features, so the tool is designed to be driven from a scheduler as well as by a person. The last line of the list is a cheerful and a lot of other improvements, which is a fair summary of the project. Support is stated for any editions of SQL Server 2008+ and Azure, and the topics list names ms-sql-server, columnstore, defragmentation, fragmentation and performance. ## A console program alongside the forms, which is the shape of the codebase The repository layout explains the architecture. There is a Forms/ directory, an Images/ directory of resources, a Common/ directory, a Console/ directory, a Libs/ directory, a Server/ directory, a Settings/ directory and a Types/ directory, with Program.cs at the root, plus the SQLIndexManager.csproj and SQLIndexManager.sln. The presence of both Forms and Console is the interesting part, because it matches the two ways of working the tool offers, a Windows Forms user interface and a command line mode for automation, sharing the same Common, Server and Types code underneath. The Settings directory is where the configurable thresholds live, which matches the feature list entry about configurable fragmentation thresholds, so the rebuild-or-reorganize advice is driven by numbers you can set rather than by fixed constants. The primary language is C#, and the project uses a Visual Studio solution with a .vssettings file, so it is a Windows desktop application in the traditional sense. ## Downloads come from the releases page as a zip The distribution story is short. You can download the .zip file with the latest build of the master branch from the Releases page of the repository. There is no package manager entry, no installer described in the readme, and no documented command line invocation, so the practical onboarding is a download and an unzip. That simplicity is a double-edged thing. It means there is nothing to configure before you can look at your indexes, which is genuinely quick, and it also means there is no supported update channel, so keeping the copy in front of you current is a manual step. The wiki page linked from the readme is where the fuller documentation is expected to live, and the readme itself is essentially a feature list, a download pointer and screenshots. ## The release history and the commit history tell different stories The version record is where a careful reader should slow down. The only listed release is 1.0.0.71 dated 2021-11-20, which means the published build is several years older than the code. The repository itself is not archived, and the last push was on 2026-09-13, so the tree has moved considerably since that build. The practical consequence is the same one that appears in any desktop tool distributed as a zip: if you install the release, you are running 2021 code, and the fixes made since are only in the master branch. The topic list includes hacktoberfest, so the project has taken community contributions, and the licence is GPL-3.0 with the text in the LICENSE file. A GPL licence for a database administration tool is unusual, since most of this category ships under a proprietary or MIT licence, and it is worth confirming that it suits your organisation before you deploy it against production instances. ## Where SQL Index Manager is the wrong choice Three situations argue against it. The first is a team that needs continuous monitoring rather than a periodic sweep. This is a maintenance console, so it tells you the state of fragmentation when you run it, and there is no mention of a history, a schedule with alerting, or a trend line. A DBA who needs to know that fragmentation started at three in the morning needs a monitoring system, and this is not one. The second is a very large estate with many instances, because the scanning is a GUI-driven operation and the automation story is a command line that the readme does not document, so the effort of running it across hundreds of databases at scale is left to the reader. The third is an environment where the DBA already has a well-oiled index maintenance routine, since the tool is aimed at the case where fragmentation has been allowed to accumulate and someone needs to find and fix the worst offenders. The realistic alternative for a mature shop is the maintenance plan built into SQL Server itself, or a dedicated commercial fragmentation tool with scheduling and reporting, and the difference in approach is exactly that those keep running while you look at the results. ## Conclusion Adopt SQL Index Manager if you have SQL Server or Azure databases with index fragmentation problems and you want a desktop tool that reports and can act, rather than a monitoring platform. Skip it if you need change capture, alerting or a scheduled service with a history, since this is a maintenance console rather than a monitoring product. Verify first which SQL Server versions and editions your estate includes, since the stated support starts at SQL Server 2008, and check the T-SQL output before running it in production. ## FAQ ### What does SQL Index Manager do? It is a free GUI tool for index maintenance on SQL Server and Azure that finds the status of your indexes and discovers which databases need maintenance. You can perform the maintenance through the UI, or generate a T-SQL script to run in SSMS. ### How do I get SQL Index Manager? Download the .zip file with the latest build of the master branch from the Releases page of the repository. The project also links a wiki page with further documentation. ### Which kinds of index work does SQL Index Manager cover? The feature list covers advice on rebuilding or reorganizing, collecting missing indexes, detecting duplicate indexes, dropping or disabling unused indexes, columnstore maintenance, statistics maintenance, and index rebuild with compression options. Command-line automation and automatic T-SQL script generation are also included. ### Which SQL Server versions does SQL Index Manager support? The README states support for any editions of SQL Server 2008+ and Azure. The project topics also list columnstore, defragmentation and fragmentation alongside ms-sql-server. ### Is SQL Index Manager still maintained? The repository is not archived and the last push was on 2026-09-13, but the only listed release is 1.0.0.71 from 2021-11-20, so the published build is older than the current code. The licence is GPL-3.0, the primary language is C#, and the project ships as a Windows Forms application with a console component. ## Sources - [Issues](https://github.com/sergiisyrovatchenko/SQLIndexManager/issues) - [License: GPL-3.0](https://github.com/sergiisyrovatchenko/SQLIndexManager/blob/master/LICENSE) - [README](https://github.com/sergiisyrovatchenko/SQLIndexManager/blob/master/README.md) - [Releases](https://github.com/sergiisyrovatchenko/SQLIndexManager/releases) - [sergiisyrovatchenko/SQLIndexManager on GitHub](https://github.com/sergiisyrovatchenko/SQLIndexManager) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/sergiisyrovatchenko-sqlindexmanager