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Foglight for Databases vs SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 23, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.3
Users describe Foglight for Databases as invaluable for reducing downtime, saving time, and ensuring proactive database management.
Sentiment score
7.5
Organizations saw a 90% reduction in database management effort, boosting efficiency and customer satisfaction with SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer.
For root cause analysis, it definitely provides us additional capabilities of getting down to where the core issue is.
Global Head of Engineering for Cloud Operations at SAI Global Compliance
I have seen a return on investment with SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer as I mentioned that when we start using SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer, my MTTA and MTTR reduced and my customer satisfaction goes up.
Manager - Production Database Administration at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.7
Foglight for Databases support is praised for prompt, knowledgeable service, though occasional delays are noted by some users.
Sentiment score
6.5
SolarWinds provides generally satisfactory technical support, though some customers report delays and suggest improvements for Level 1 support.
Generally, whenever we send something to them, we get a response within a few hours, and it is pretty straight to the point.
Global Head of Engineering for Cloud Operations at SAI Global Compliance
We use support when we come across issues, and they are very responsive.
Senior IT Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 1,001-5,000 employees
They have resolved queries easily for our teams.
Program Manager at Zensar Technologies
Sometimes I need to chase them for the updates.
Manager - Production Database Administration at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
Foglight for Databases scales well for growing needs, enhancing reports and extending adaptability beyond SQL Server.
Sentiment score
7.5
SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is scalable for mid-to-large enterprises, supporting up to 250 instances per setup.
One installation can support 250 instances to be monitored.
Manager - Production Database Administration at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It can definitely scale up and down as per our needs.
Program Manager at Zensar Technologies
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Foglight for Databases generally performs well with stable support, though some users face issues with updates and larger loads.
Sentiment score
8.6
Users rate SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer stable (8-10/10), outperforming the Orion platform, with satisfaction over extended use.
 

Room For Improvement

Users seek better performance, customization, interface simplicity, real-time monitoring, communication, language support, and integration of feedback in Foglight.
Users seek improvements in SolarWinds Database Analyzer's customization, scalability, integration, and support for additional databases, especially for cloud instances.
It would be amazing if they could enable the 'Performance Investigator' functionality across all database platforms.
Senior IT Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 1,001-5,000 employees
The monitoring capabilities for Postgres should be at par with SQL Server.
Global Head of Engineering for Cloud Operations at SAI Global Compliance
It is currently limited in automation and manual tuning advice is needed.
Program Manager at Zensar Technologies
SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is very strong when we come to SQL Server, but it is still lagging when it comes to PostgreSQL.
Manager - Production Database Administration at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Foglight for Databases offers flexible licensing and pricing, considered reasonable yet expensive, with helpful discounts and contract negotiations.
Enterprise users appreciate SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer's affordability, transparency, and cost-effectiveness, particularly for larger instance volumes.
Pricing is very reasonable.
Global Head of Engineering for Cloud Operations at SAI Global Compliance
The pricing is palatable.
Senior IT Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 1,001-5,000 employees
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been great.
Manager - Production Database Administration at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The pricing, setup cost, and licensing have been managed by the AWS Marketplace, which provides a really transparent experience.
Program Manager at Zensar Technologies
 

Valuable Features

Foglight for Databases provides comprehensive monitoring, detailed query analysis, multi-platform support, and customizable dashboards for efficient troubleshooting.
SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer offers real-time analytics, performance visibility, query optimization, and proactive SQL server monitoring capabilities.
The profiler allows us to look at the profiles of the database queries that are being run over time.
Global Head of Engineering for Cloud Operations at SAI Global Compliance
I find it extremely helpful to use Foglight to triage any database issues, specifically performance issues using what Foglight calls PI investigator.
Senior IT Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 1,001-5,000 employees
The MTTA and MTTR actually reduced a lot because it gives you a smart tool, a DBA smart tool to deep down and drill down the issues quickly.
Manager - Production Database Administration at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Using those real-time analytics and query tuning recommendations has helped us with a good feature and intuitive dashboard that provides visual wait time analysis and color-coded bottleneck identification.
Program Manager at Zensar Technologies
 

Categories and Ranking

Foglight for Databases
Ranking in Database Development and Management
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SolarWinds Database Perform...
Ranking in Database Development and Management
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Database Development and Management category, the mindshare of Foglight for Databases is 3.8%, down from 7.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is 4.1%, down from 9.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database Development and Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Foglight for Databases3.8%
SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer4.1%
Other92.1%
Database Development and Management
 

Featured Reviews

Stuart Dairiki - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior IT Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 1,001-5,000 employees
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.
reviewer2787105 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager - Production Database Administration at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Deep query analysis has reduced MTTA and MTTR and now safeguards critical customer workloads
In addition to the features SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer offers, I wish it had more robust performance monitoring and analyzing features for PostgreSQL databases. SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is very strong when we come to SQL Server, but it is still lagging when it comes to PostgreSQL. PostgreSQL is an upcoming enterprise-level database technology in the market. SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is still struggling to have a solid monitoring and performance analyzer in comparison to SQL Server. This is one of the features I am looking to SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer to develop as soon as possible. SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer can be improved in two areas. One is more and robust performance monitoring and analyzing features for PostgreSQL databases. Second, SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is still lagging for monitoring the cloud instances of databases including Aurora DB and Cloud SQL DB. These two areas are where SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer needs to work extensively to make this monitoring and performance analyzing robust. From an operational perspective, SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer still has a limitation of 250 licenses per instance. This is really a problem for someone with larger server sizes available and more instances running on the same SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer URL. SolarWinds should look at how they can increase that threshold because there should not be a limit of 250 instances.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
University
6%
Healthcare Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Insurance Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise8
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Quest Foglight for Databases?
The pricing is palatable. We've already done one renewal and we are in our second contract. We're happy thus far.
What needs improvement with Quest Foglight for Databases?
It would be amazing if they could enable the "Performance Investigator" functionality across all database platforms. I've been talking to their product development team about enhancements that I wo...
What is your primary use case for Quest Foglight for Databases?
I primarily use the solution for database monitoring, specifically for Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Postgres, SAP HANA, and AWS Redshift.
What do you like most about SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer?
In IT, problems often occur in areas such as applications, web interfaces, or databases. The tool allows users to easily determine the root cause of these issues, whether they stem from the network...
What needs improvement with SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer?
In addition to the features SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer offers, I wish it had more robust performance monitoring and analyzing features for PostgreSQL databases. SolarWinds Database Pe...
What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer?
My main use case for SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is as a database performance monitoring tool. My day-to-day purpose of utilizing SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is for monito...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Confio, SolarWinds DPA, Ignite8
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CommitDBA
GSI Commerce, Liquid Digital Media, ProLogis, Indiana University
Find out what your peers are saying about Foglight for Databases vs. SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,036 professionals have used our research since 2012.