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Foglight for Databases vs IDERA ER/Studio vs SQL Sentry comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Database Development and Management category, the mindshare of Foglight for Databases is 3.4%, down from 8.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IDERA ER/Studio is 3.0%, up from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SQL Sentry is 2.4%, down from 5.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database Development and Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Foglight for Databases3.4%
IDERA ER/Studio3.0%
SQL Sentry2.4%
Other91.2%
Database Development and Management
 

Featured Reviews

Vijay Ram - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Engineer at Hitachi Systems, Ltd.
Centralized monitoring has simplified multi-database oversight and improved query analysis
Foglight for Databases is very useful; however, the negative side we face is that customer care support is not frequent. If any issues related to Foglight arise, we cannot reach customer care support as soon as possible. It takes much longer compared to other third-party tools, and that is a major issue we are facing with Foglight for Databases. Foglight for Databases is good for monitoring, and we can fetch problematic issues and queries. However, the only main drawback is the customer care support. It is available only during the general shift, so if any issue occurs after 6:00 p.m. or before 9:00 a.m., there is usually no one to handle it. I think there are only two or three people handling customer care for Foglight for Databases.
reviewer2796111 - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Improved data modeling has reduced system footprint and strengthened finance workflows
I assess the benefits of IDERA ER_Studio's metadata management for my organization as not as good as Erwin's. Erwin's metadata management is better in how it handles data. There is a lot more user involvement in managing the metadata, primarily because in IDERA ER_Studio, the logical and physical models are separately defined in the same file, so you have to map them every single time. In Erwin, it has a unified structure, so if you make a change in the logical model, it automatically shows up in the physical model. You have to go through a couple of steps in the IDERA model to make sure everything has moved over. While that is not that inconvenient when you are actually doing development, as far as metadata management, that is prone to things getting dropped and missed. The collaboration tools in IDERA ER_Studio are adequate, but I think with Erwin, there is more of an opportunity for things to crash. Changes can be merged in IDERA more fluidly; however, the locking and sharing are a little bit more defined in Erwin. I think the learning curve for Erwin might be easier than IDERA ER_Studio, especially with connecting to different models and systems.
SM
Sql Db Administrator at a non-tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Lets you know when your jobs are taking longer than average and allows you to go back in history and find out what was happening at certain times
To be able to go back in history and find out what was happening at certain times is the most valuable feature of the product. Another thing that's good about the product is that it will let you know when your jobs are taking longer than average so that you can foretell that there's going to be an issue coming up. Your SQL agent job is taking longer.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Foglight for Databases provides real-time data that is invaluable for analyzing ongoing issues with database servers."
"Its reporting capabilities are immense."
"If you used to work without it, once you've used it, I'm not sure you'd want to do your job without it anymore."
"It enables you to pin down troubleshooting within 30 minutes to an hour, whereas before, you'd be pouring over reports or data from queries for days."
"For me, one of the most useful components has been Performance Investigator, because it completely helps with bottlenecks or performance problems quickly, evaluating whether the root is at the server level, at the development level, or at the database level."
"Its reporting capabilities are immense."
"Foglight offers a lot of out-of-the-box, database-related metrics, which the DB teams here are looking for."
"My impressions of Foglight for Databases' ability to help me monitor a variety of aspects such as the OS, hybrid clouds, hardware, and databases across different platforms have been great so far."
"It has a wealth of time-savers and features that are extremely useful."
"We use it either to help an organization understand what data it has got or to design a database."
"When validating the model, the ability to provide sub-models to developers, and generate a physical model from the logical, makes it easier to review a logical model with stakeholders."
"One example is the use of the product to make extracts and split databases, and we were selling parts of the company to other regions of other companies, and it made the process more efficient and faster and less costly."
"I would 100% recommend the product."
"Straightforward setup."
"When validating the model, the ability to provide sub-models to developers, and generate a physical model from the logical, makes it easier to review a logical model with stakeholders."
"This has helped the new application development team in cross-verifying, and understanding, the current setup, proposing and architecting new solutions for the organisation."
"To be able to go back in history and find out what was happening at certain times is the most valuable feature of the product."
"The blocking and deadlock report feature is very convenient to use in pinpointing which query is causing something and what other queries are waiting for it."
"This solution has identified blocking, deadlock, memory pressure, and high CPU consumption issues."
"To be able to go back in history and find out what was happening at certain times is the most valuable feature of the product."
 

Cons

"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."
"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."
"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."
"Foglight for Databases is very useful; however, the negative side we face is that customer care support is not frequent."
"The system is not that stable; we started having a lot of stability issues once the environment crossed 150 or 160 Db2 servers, with the Agent Manager restarting every five minutes and generating a lot of alerts."
"When we decided to go with Foglight, a lot of people stopped using the diagnostics part because it was very intimidating... They still won't use it because they feel it's too intimidating. They will open something up and not know what to do. It's not very user-friendly. You have to click on a lot of stuff to find the information."
"The version that I'm using is not the latest version, so there might have been some improvement, but the OS monitoring is a bit lacking, and the high-availability option is a bit complicated to set up and it doesn't work all the time."
"This version does not properly generate SQL Server computed columns; future versions do this."
"I assess the benefits of IDERA ER_Studio's metadata management for my organization as not as good as Erwin's."
"This solution needs more precise documentation."
"They allow functionalities to be released before the full tests for catching and correcting errors are completed."
"The only thing I had an issue with was licensing, and the support was very good."
"I'd like the ability to debug the errors ourselves instead of having to call them. There are certain types of errors that, I wouldn't say they come up regularly, but when you have an error it is very often the same type of error. Knowing that it's a Type III or Type I, it would be nice to have some kind of debugging facility for us to use to find out where the problem that threw that error occurs. That would be a really cool feature."
"The solution could be sped up, as it is a little slow (e.g., when it's doing its database compare)."
"The visual presentation is a little too colorful and seems that it is dumbed down."
"There could be some more metrics on the high availability to let us know when there are issues synchronizing between the hosts."
"If we can get details on wait types from system views, it will help identify a more detailed root cause."
"There could be some more metrics on the high availability to let us know when there are issues synchronizing between the hosts."
"If we can get details on wait types from system views, it will help identify a more detailed root cause."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"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 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."
"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."
"The price is worth it, if you have the time to go through the information."
"Pricing is expensive and on the higher-end."
"The price of this product is okay."
"It is priced fairly. It's around the same as erwin and other competitors' costs."
"At my previous company using ER/Studio, a database compare took four hours before using the product and 15 minutes after using the product."
"I am currently using the trial version, but this solution is definitely worth considering for the price point."
"Pricing is on point, but do your due diligence - not every developer needs the tool."
"The process of licensing could be much simpler, from our experience."
"The setup cost may have been around $1500 to $2000."
"It's fairly expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Performing Arts
6%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Energy/Utilities Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise25
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Quest Foglight for Databases?
I am not aware of the pricing and licensing details for Foglight for Databases. I have set up Foglight monitoring for...
What needs improvement with Quest Foglight for Databases?
The room for improvement for Foglight for Databases is primarily related to its cost. We pay a hefty amount and only ...
What is your primary use case for Quest Foglight for Databases?
My use case for Foglight for Databases is basically to track performance.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IDERA ER Studio?
In terms of pricing, ER/Studio is slightly more expensive compared to Erwin, by about five to ten percent.
What is your primary use case for IDERA ER Studio?
I work in the finance industry, and the use cases for this product are very similar to what I mentioned previously wh...
What advice do you have for others considering IDERA ER Studio?
I have not used IDERA ER_Studio's impact analysis tools, so I really could not judge that regarding mitigating databa...
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Also Known As

No data available
IDERA ER Studio, ER/Studio, ER/Studio Enterprise Team Edition
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CommitDBA
Newmont Mining, Entrust, Accolade, TalkTalk, Catalina, Protective Life, NTT Data, dir systèmes, Microsoft; American Express, Astellas Pharma, AstraZeneca, Coriant, Fedex, GlaxoSmithKline, PepsiCo, Prudential, Wells Fargo
Coeo, Stack Overflow, GreatAmerica Financial Services Corporation, Hawaiian Airlines, Hennepin County Medical Center, Racing Victoria, Citrix, Insight, Shi, Woodforest National Bank, Telular
Find out what your peers are saying about Nutanix, Quest Software, Oracle and others in Database Development and Management. Updated: April 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.