EXPLAIN PLAN is used before the query is executed to provide an execution plan for how Oracle intends to run the SQL statement.
It helps identify potential inefficiencies and optimize the query before execution.
DBMS_PROFILER is used after the execution of PL/SQL code to collect performance data like the time spent on each line of code and number of times each statement was executed.
It helps identify bottlenecks and performance issues in PL/SQL logic and optimize the code.