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Quest Foglight for Databases vs Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 23, 2025

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

Quest Foglight for Databases
Ranking in Database Development and Management
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essent...
Ranking in Database Development and Management
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Database Development and Management category, the mindshare of Quest Foglight for Databases is 7.8%, up from 7.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials is 5.4%, down from 5.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database Development and Management
 

Featured Reviews

Stuart Dairiki - PeerSpot reviewer
Empowers efficient database monitoring and performance troubleshooting with powerful workload analysis
I find it extremely helpful to use Foglight to triage any database issues, specifically performance issues using what Foglight calls PI investigator. It is a very powerful workload analysis tool that helps me understand where bottlenecks are. It allows me to see performance issues as end users report them. It can save time and effort when doing root cause analysis. It enables me to obtain information quicker and easier compared to manually compiling it. Foglight provides us with a near-real-time activity database. It's not 100% real-time. It has less than a minute latency. It allows us to see performance issues as end-users report them. We started seeing benefits pretty much immediately. We use Foglight to display intensive databases. However, it's not something we monitor regularly. It's only something we kind of dig into as we troubleshoot and triage issues. It does help us determine potential IT help issues. When we use Foglight, we find it helps drill down holistically into potential bottlenecks. It helps us to see what is going on in the database. Foglight allows us to monitor multiple database platforms. We use, for example, Oracle, SQL Server, Postgres, Amazon Redshift, and SAP HANA. It gives us insight into our entire landscape of production workloads in near real-time. The solution saves costs when performing root cause analysis. It can save time and effort when doing root cause analysis. It allows us to obtain information quicker and easier than by manually compiling information.
CS
SQL Search and change automation functionality help us manage our code repository and databases
The biggest problem with the Redgate SQL Toolbelt is just how heavy it is; it seems to take a lot of resources. It takes a lot of memory and a lot of processing power to run, and that tends to slow things down a bit. Making it a little more lightweight while still doing the same thing, as much as possible, is what we would like to see in the future. I've noticed that Microsoft SSMS runs much quicker without RedGate installed than it does with it installed. From bootup of the app to opening query windows and connections, SSMS is quicker without Redgate than with, by a significant margin. The other area for improvement is regarding licensing. Every month or two my SSMS loses it's redgate license key and I need to re-enter the key to continue using Red Gate, even though the license is annual.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature is the in-depth capability SQL Performance Investigator provides. It allows you to drill down to the smallest detail that occurs on our platform. It does a highly detailed and atomic follow-up of what one wants to look for in relation to time and our different instances."
"One of the hardest things to do in database management is to evaluate performance deviation across time. The adaptive baseline that Quest is using is by far the most helpful. That doesn't necessarily mean I use it on a daily basis, but it is something that I have not been able to find in any other tool, at the same level."
"We can visualize all the different types of DB servers that we are monitoring in a single pane of glass. It uses a 360-degree overview of the database, for each of those databases that we are monitoring. That includes what kind of resource utilization is happening and what kind of DB parameters are getting monitored, as well as the different types of DB parameters that are being offered for each database type."
"The alarms alert proactively if there are any potential or ongoing issues with the databases that we support. That means we can take preventive or corrective action before the issue becomes a big issue. And the SQL PI features enable us to drill down into performance issues in our databases so that we can improve performance, which is important."
"The profiler allows us to look at the profiles of the database queries that are being run over time. It allows us to go back to our customers and say that these are some of the queries causing them some headaches. It gives us the opportunity to provide suggestions on how to improve their experience."
"The ability to monitor multiple database platforms streamlines our database operations. The single pane of glass is what we were really after when we picked Foglight. We knew we wanted something that could monitor cross-platform because it does save a lot of time to use the same tool. The one thing that I like with Foglight is that we don't have to install anything locally, like agents, directly on the database servers. That was also a big seller because it simplifies things."
"Foglight's Change Tracking capabilities are another huge feature. It is wonderful to be able to do that. People don't realize the amount of information that Foglight gathers from a given server or instance. It gets down to the version of SQL, the disk array, everything that's there. Any change that's made, any upgrade to SQL, shows up on the dashboard almost immediately. You don't know how much time you save just having a tool in your back pocket that does that for you."
"We went from basically 30% coverage of our production environment to 100% coverage."
"The most valuable feature is SQL Search."
"It is easy to track the reports, this is what is most valuable for me."
 

Cons

"The monitoring capabilities for Postgres should be at par with SQL Server. This is the area where we push back on our Quest representative."
"Better communication and alerts regarding the transaction logs getting full would also be beneficial. What I have noticed is that if the log files on the SQL server are full, we cannot log in and have to do some cleanup on the Foglight DB. It would be good if they could monitor that and alert us when it is getting too full."
"When holding data for two years for 20 SQL Servers, the reporting becomes sluggish and unresponsive."
"One thing that I would like, and it's probably something that I could set up internally, is something other than a dashboard which I have to look at to know that a server is down. I'd like bells and whistles to go off... If I look at the dashboard I know there's a server down. But if I'm not looking at it, if I'm looking at some other problem, I want to know about it. You can do that, you can use SMSs and alerts to your phone, and I could set it up to handle that, but it would be nice if, out-of-the-box, Foglight did that."
"The data model needs improvement when it comes to creating custom reports. That is an area where it needs a bit of improvement. Foglight gathers a lot of information around our databases as part of its monitoring. While I know all this information is in there, trying to pull the metric we want out for custom reports is sometimes hard to find. One nice thing about Foglight is that you can create custom dashboards, which you can easily convert to reports. We would be doing a lot more of that if it weren't for the challenging data model."
"Quest must release a Spanish version. That's critical because not everyone speaks English in Latin America. It's an excellent product, so it's super important that they offer the application and customer service in Spanish."
"It would be amazing if they could enable the "Performance Investigator" functionality across all database platforms."
"Foglight does have a component that allows you to look at things in real time, but it's not as friendly or as efficient in terms of responsiveness as Quest Spotlight is. Foglight might be lacking in this department."
"The biggest problem with the Redgate SQL Toolbelt is just how heavy it is; it seems to take a lot of resources."
"I would like to see the bandwidth increase allowing me to easily analyze more data."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Foglight could be a little more competitive in Chile, and it should be lowered for long-time customers— at least by 20 percent. Sometimes the price is a limitation. We have seven instances and nearly 5 million users. If Quest Foglight could reduce its prices for the clients that have been with it for a long time, we would be able to have more instances."
"It is cost-effective. With our EA, it is really based on the scale of our database environment. We found the Quest team to be reasonable and flexible when it comes to pricing and scaling of licenses."
"Pricing is very reasonable. We were able to construct a pretty easy contract with Quest, who were very easy to work with and very amenable to what we are trying to do. It worked out well for us."
"This is like the "Cadillac" of performance monitoring software. It's not cheap... I am currently with a company that I was able to convince that the product is worth the cost."
"Compared to the other tools on the market, Foglight is okay in terms of pricing and licensing."
"The price is worth it, if you have the time to go through the information."
"Our fees are paid on an annual basis."
"The cost is about $3,500 USD per individual to buy, and then it's about 20% per year for renewal."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
10%
Insurance Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Quest Foglight for Databases?
Pricing is very reasonable. We were able to construct a pretty easy contract with Quest, who were very easy to work with and very amenable to what we are trying to do. It worked out well for us.
What needs improvement with Quest Foglight for Databases?
The monitoring capabilities for Postgres should be at par with SQL Server. This is the area where we push back on our Quest representative. We want more insights into Postgres.
What is your primary use case for Quest Foglight for Databases?
We use Quest Foglight for Databases for production monitoring of our databases, including Postgres, Microsoft SQL Server, and MySQL. We proactively manage our customer databases that support our Sa...
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

CommitDBA
Thinger.fi, Churchill College Univeristy of Cambridge, Margin Business Solutions Ltd., 4Penny.net, Sportinginsider.net, Lockheed Martin, Phillip Securities Pte Ltd, Nmbrs
Find out what your peers are saying about Quest Foglight for Databases vs. Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
838,533 professionals have used our research since 2012.