Oracle Essbase vs Toad for Oracle comparison

Oracle and Quest Software are both solutions in the Database Development and Management category. Oracle is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.0, while Quest Software is ranked #6 with an average rating of 9.5. Oracle holds a 0.8% mindshare in DDM, compared to Quest Software’s 3.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Oracle users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Quest Software users who would recommend it.

Oracle Essbase

Read 18 Oracle Essbase reviews

1,702 Views
170 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Toad for Oracle

Read 16 Toad for Oracle reviews

1,026 Views
995 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Oracle Essbase

Toad for Oracle

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 23, 2025

Oracle Essbase and Toad for Oracle operate within the data management arena, each specialized in distinct functionalities. Oracle Essbase is more adept at offering advanced analytics through multidimensional data analysis, whereas Toad for Oracle has superior capabilities in database management and query execution, making it preferable for database administrators.

Features: Oracle Essbase delivers powerful multidimensional analysis, detailed forecasting, and flexibility for various analytical models beyond finance, including mathematics and statistics, with a scalable solution that effectively manages significant data volumes. Toad for Oracle stands out for its UI navigation, session management, and PL/SQL debugging capabilities. It provides excellent query tools including session browsers, schema browsers, and performance tuning, all packed into a single software package.

Room for Improvement: Oracle Essbase could enhance its user experience by simplifying setup processes and reducing initial learning curves. Users might benefit from more flexible licensing options. Its complex interface can also be streamlined for easier navigation. Toad for Oracle may improve by offering more intuitive user interfaces and better visualization tools. Enhancements in real-time collaboration features could also be beneficial. Pricing transparency and more extensive documentation might address some user frustrations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Oracle Essbase requires considerable setup and training, which extends deployment time. However, it compensates with comprehensive support options post-deployment. Toad for Oracle, in contrast, boasts a straightforward deployment, benefiting from developer-friendly features and strong support services that facilitate continuous integration and ease initial setup.

Pricing and ROI: Oracle Essbase involves higher initial costs due to its complex implementation but provides substantial long-term analytics value, justifying its higher price by delivering data insights. Toad for Oracle is cost-effective in initial deployments, with a focus on efficient database operations that enhance ROI in maintenance and querying tasks, offering better value in database management scenarios.

To learn more, read our detailed Oracle Essbase vs. Toad for Oracle Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Oracle Essbase vs. Toad for Oracle

September 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Oracle Essbase

Ranking in Database Development and Management

9th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

4.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Toad for Oracle

Ranking in Database Development and Management

6th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Database Development and Management category, the mindshare of Oracle Essbase is 0.8%, down from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Toad for Oracle is 3.4%, down from 5.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Database Development and Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Toad for Oracle	3.4%
Oracle Essbase	0.8%
Other	95.8%

Database Development and Management

Featured Reviews

Bhavya N

Senior System Engineer at Infosys

Ensuring efficient data analysis and reporting while identifying areas for calculation and export improvements

The features of Oracle Essbase are valuable, such as its multi-dimensional database used for dynamic calculations and reporting purposes. These features are valuable because they support multi-dimensional data views, allowing users to analyze relationships across various data categories and establish a comprehensive perspective on business operations. Moreover, dynamic calculations allow real-time data analysis, significantly improving the accuracy and depth of financial insights. I have utilized Essbase's data aggregation capabilities. The Oracle Essbase interface provides a good user experience, allowing users to easily navigate and analyze data with fast query performance, effective data visualization tools such as charts, graphs, and tables, and flexibility for customizable analysis and reporting, including the ability to create ad hoc reports. The benefits of the interface include improving productivity and enhancing decision-making.

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Bikramjeet Singh

Senior Reg Reporting Consultant at Bank of America

Advanced query optimization and tuning features

Sometimes when I write a query, it gives an unusual error code. Toad for Oracle does not have a particular resolution within the application. Then, I have to search for the code and find a solution. I would like Oracle to implement error codes so that we don't have to search for solutions on Google. It would be more convenient if the error codes were included within the application.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"It is very fast compared to other normal databases, like SQL and MySQL."

"I have found the most valuable aspect is the user-friendly environment and current features."

"The solution is stable and reliable."

"Unlike relational, where you're linking together multiple tables, with Essbase, you basically define what the dimensions are beforehand, and you define the hierarchy, and then load the data. This allows you to do a pretty sophisticated analysis so that you can drill into it and slice and dice the data."

"The Oracle Essbase interface provides a good user experience, allowing users to easily navigate and analyze data with fast query performance, effective data visualization tools such as charts, graphs, and tables, and flexibility for customizable analysis and reporting, including the ability to create ad hoc reports."

"It is highly efficient and easily scalable, particularly for handling large databases."

"The solution can handle a large volume of data."

"It's a very powerful analytical engine with Essbase as the back end. We can analyze, transform, or utilize a big chunk of data for our calculations."

More Oracle Essbase pros

"Simply the best GUI software for administration is the most valuable aspect for me."

"The schema browser is the most valuable feature. The way it presents the objects in our database."

"I haven't seen any issues with scalability. We have about 1000 people on our IT team who use the solution."

"Oracle has advanced query optimization and tuning features that help improve the performance of SQL queries."

"The most valuable feature of Toad for Oracle is the fashion browser and the Schema browser. It is very complete."

"Toad has a lot of features that are very useful, fast, and well developed."

"Toad for Oracle has proven to be better than other tools since we have never experienced any crashes."

"The product's most valuable features are UI and monitoring."

More Toad for Oracle pros

Cons

"A significant area for improvement in Oracle Essbase is that financial statement analysis, CAPEX and OPEX analysis, and financial consolidation must be done manually, as Oracle Essbase doesn't include the financial consolidation module that is available in EPM."

"Essbase has a programming language, and it has a couple of functions to do forecasting, however, their feature set for that is not that good."

"The consolidation engine, which is HFM or FCCS, needs some room for improvement."

"The solution could enhance business analytics. I delved into the data using Oracle Essbase to create a new support tool."

"The main concern is that Oracle is ending on-premises server support, so it would be better if there was a cloud platform available for Oracle Essbase."

"The reporting tool of Essbase needs improvement."

"There is room for improvement in terms of cost-effectiveness."

"I would like to see an integration with application performance management and a version control management tool."

More Oracle Essbase cons

"The way the dialog boxes appear can be improved."

"It would be better if they had an online option allowing me to connect from anywhere on any device. Sometimes I face some errors, depending on the network and setup. It's not a big issue."

"Sometimes it works in some areas, but in others, it doesn't. Like when you copy, you find that it's blank and doesn't copy anything. So, there are some objects that do copy, and sometimes they don't."

"In future releases, the product can be more intuitive. It has to be lighter than what it is because sometimes it is not responding quickly. If I do some features at the same time, it's not supporting. I have to wait sometimes to get the action. It's dependent on the resources of the workstation, but it has to be improved in this area. The faster processing is needed."

"Toad for Oracle could improve code completion, it is very slow."

"Toad for Oracle does not have a particular resolution within the application."

"Once in a while, I may encounter a memory exception and have to abort the application. On a few occasions, the file that stores the saved connections for the New Connection window will become corrupt and I will lose all of my saved connections. I am not sure if that is a Windows or TOAD issue, but it has happened to all of my developers at some point or another."

"I'd like reporting to be more available. If it was a feature that was already installed, more people would take advantage of it."

More Toad for Oracle cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Essbase is competitively priced."

"The solution is expensive."

"It is a costly solution."

"I believe the licensing is on a monthly base."

"I would rate it six, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."

"Toad for Oracle has a relatively high cost compared to other similar tools."

"My advice is to try to use the three-year maintenance agreement if possible."

"The product's pricing is just right because if it were slightly higher, it would not have been as widely adopted as it currently is in our organization."

"The professional edition is about $1,000 AUD ($700 USD) and the developer version is about twice that much."

"The pricing is okay, it's reasonable."

"There are paid and free-for-use versions of the product."

"In my opinion, this solution is a little expensive, but I understand that good programs cost more money."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

Insurance Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

19%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

11%

Performing Arts

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	14

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	9

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Essbase?

It's not that expensive, but also not cheap. I'm not sure because it's a private license.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Oracle Essbase?

A significant area for improvement in Oracle Essbase is that financial statement analysis, CAPEX and OPEX analysis, and financial consolidation must be done manually, as Oracle Essbase doesn't incl...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Oracle Essbase?

The initial setup of Oracle Essbase is dependent on whether you select BSO or ASO cubes. First, you need to set up the type of information and once the type of cubes is defined, you need to define ...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Toad for Oracle?

The licensing cost for Toad for Oracle is relatively high, with their license and DPA suite totaling around five thousand dollars.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Toad for Oracle?

It would be beneficial if Toad for Oracle could incorporate OEM features, as having monitoring capabilities in the same interface would simplify workload and management tasks.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Toad for Oracle?

We use Toad for Oracle for various database management tasks, including CRUD operations such as create, replace, update, and delete, and for DDL and DML tasks. We rely on Toad for managing the data...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 23% of the time

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Compared 12% of the time

IBM Cognos vs Oracle Essbase

Compared 9% of the time

IBM Planning Analytics vs Oracle Essbase

Compared 9% of the time

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform vs Oracle Essbase

Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 18% of the time

Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials vs Toad for Oracle

Compared 17% of the time

Toad Data Modeler vs Toad for Oracle

Compared 13% of the time

DbVisualizer vs Toad for Oracle

Compared 13% of the time

Foglight for Databases vs Toad for Oracle

Compared 9% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Oracle Essbase

October 2025

Download Oracle Essbase product report

Buyer's Guide

Toad for Oracle

September 2025

Download Toad for Oracle product report

Also Known As

Essbase

No data available

Overview

Oracle Essbase is an OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) Server that provides an environment for deploying pre-packaged applications or developing custom analytic and enterprise performance management applications.

Oracle

With Toad for Oracle, you'll reduce costs and risks by easily ensuring the health and performance of your Oracle Cloud Platform and on-premises databases. ... On the operations side, you can automate administration tasks and proactively manage your databases while embracing performance optimization and risk mitigation.

Quest Software

Sample Customers

CHU de Rennes, Bellco Credit Union, Akindo Sushiro Co. Ltd, Deutsche Telekom AG, Samarco MineraÊo S.A., PCCW Ltd., QDQ media S.A.U., Boiron Italia, Specialized Bicycle Components Inc., Akindo Sushiro Co. Ltd., Air Canada, Daelim Industrial Co. Ltd.

intel, ebay, uber, mars, microsoft

Buyer's Guide

Oracle Essbase vs. Toad for Oracle

September 2025

Free Report: Oracle Essbase vs. Toad for Oracle

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