Foglight for Databases vs Oracle Essbase comparison

Quest Software and Oracle are both solutions in the Database Development and Management category. Quest Software is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.0, while Oracle is ranked #11 with an average rating of 7.9. Quest Software holds a 3.9% mindshare in DDM, compared to Oracle’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Quest Software users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Oracle users who would recommend it.

Foglight for Databases

Read 18 Foglight for Databases reviews

2,436 Views
2,387 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Oracle Essbase

Read 18 Oracle Essbase reviews

1,823 Views
365 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Foglight for Databases

Oracle Essbase

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 1, 2026

Oracle Essbase and Foglight for Databases are top contenders in the data management and analysis sector. Oracle Essbase is often favored for its comprehensive analytical capabilities and scalability, whereas Foglight is seen as better for those prioritizing database performance due to its robust feature set and deployment model.

Features: Oracle Essbase is known for multidimensional data analysis, intricate data modeling, and forecasting abilities, making it an excellent choice for financial analytics. It also provides seamless integration for complex data environments, enhancing reporting and analytics capabilities. Moreover, Oracle Essbase is highly scalable and supports fast query performance, making it suitable for large data volumes. Foglight for Databases excels with superior database monitoring, resource optimization, and predictive analytics, enabling proactive issue resolution and improved performance management. Its SQL PI feature and real-time activity screens provide visibility into database queries and performance.

Room for Improvement: Oracle Essbase could enhance its user interface for better usability and make the setup process less complex. Additionally, improved support for newer database environments and cloud integrations could expand its applicability. Foglight could benefit from a more streamlined setup process, along with enhanced customization options to cater to specific business needs. Further improvement in the simplicity of its user interface would make it more accessible for non-technical users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Oracle Essbase is known for its comprehensive customer support and smooth integration in enterprise environments, allowing for swift deployment. It offers excellent support resources to aid customer onboarding and troubleshooting. Conversely, Foglight requires a more intricate setup but provides extensive support materials and resources, which aids in its deployment process. The deployment is complemented by its strong support services, although it may take longer than Essbase to integrate fully.

Pricing and ROI: Oracle Essbase often provides a competitive pricing model with substantial ROI, especially for organizations focused on financial data analytics. It offers cost-effectiveness through scalable analytical capabilities. Foglight, on the other hand, may come with higher initial costs but justifies this with enhanced database performance and reduced downtime, leading to a compelling ROI. Its pricing might be higher, but it is aligned with its advanced feature set, enhancing overall value proposition for database management.

To learn more, read our detailed Foglight for Databases vs. Oracle Essbase Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Foglight for Databases vs. Oracle Essbase

March 2026

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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

Foglight for Databases

Ranking in Database Development and Management

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Oracle Essbase

Ranking in Database Development and Management

11th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

4.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Database Development and Management category, the mindshare of Foglight for Databases is 3.9%, down from 8.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Essbase is 1.2%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Database Development and Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Foglight for Databases	3.9%
Oracle Essbase	1.2%
Other	94.9%

Database Development and Management

Featured Reviews

Vijay Ram

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.

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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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Its reporting capabilities are immense."

"Foglight definitely saves us time when it comes to root cause analysis."

"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."

"Foglight is also able to help the DBAs proactively fix problems before they become an issue. It provides them with real-time activity screens that help in this regard. The DBAs are able to go to these screens and look at what's happening in real time, and that buys them time. It helps them see problems ahead of time and find solutions to them."

"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."

"Foglight has the effect of improving our overall productivity, reducing downtime, and increasing profits."

"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 real-time activity screens are also helpful... if there is something that is running slowly, we can eliminate the database as being an issue and perhaps look at the server, network activity, or something outside of the realm of the database as being the issue."

More Foglight for Databases pros

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

"It is my opinion, it is more comfortable in Oracle rather than a SQL server."

"Essbase is a kind of backbone, or back end, for systems like Hyperion Planning."

"Its multidimensional analysis is great; 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, allowing you to do sophisticated analysis so that you can drill into it and slice and dice the data."

"Oracle Essbase is a web integration system that integrates with other data systems."

"Oracle Essbase enables organizations to take their strategic decisions, which helps them make the right decisions at the right time."

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

"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."

More Oracle Essbase pros

Cons

"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."

"It would be amazing if they could enable the "Performance Investigator" functionality across all database platforms."

"With the latest version, we have had many crashes, sometimes it stops working entirely, and it can take days to restart the service."

"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 get a lot of alerts that, while important, are not critical. Then I have to dig in and figure out how to turn alerts off, but not the logging. I want to be able to go back, once we get the other big issues out of the way, and start fine-tuning some of those other areas, but I don't necessarily want to receive an email for all of them."

"The system is not that stable. We have been facing a lot of issues. We built a new store environment of Foglight, an environment for monitoring the Lowe's store servers, which are all Db2 servers. The objective is to monitor 800 Db2 servers in each Foglight instance. Up to 150 Db2 servers, the environment was working fine. The moment it crossed 150 or 160, we started having a lot of stability issues."

"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 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."

More Foglight for Databases cons

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

"It's an expensive product to use."

"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."

"The solution could be cheaper. It is costly, and the initial setup could be simplified."

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

"The reporting tool of Essbase needs improvement."

"The initial setup is pretty complex."

"Sometimes, the current program is slow. They may have to consider the storage and the RAM, increasing the speed and performing the queries at a faster speed."

More Oracle Essbase cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is worth it, if you have the time to go through the information."

"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."

"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 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."

"Compared to the other tools on the market, Foglight is okay in terms of pricing and licensing."

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

"Essbase is competitively priced."

"The solution is expensive."

"It is a costly solution."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

Performing Arts

Financial Services Firm

20%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	14

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

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 servers, but I am uncertain about the licensing aspect.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Quest Foglight for Databases?

An improvement was observed in Foglight for Databases regarding the automatic closure of alerts or incidents once the issue is resolved. Previously, incidents were not automatically closed, but thi...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Quest Foglight for Databases?

Foglight for Databases is used for database monitoring across all SQL servers and Oracle databases. The monitoring covers database health, deadlocks, long-running queries, disk space usage, histori...

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

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Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

IBM Planning Analytics vs Oracle Essbase

Compared 7% of the time

IBM Cognos vs Oracle Essbase

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Foglight for Databases

March 2026

Download Foglight for Databases product report

Buyer's Guide

Oracle Essbase

March 2026

Download Oracle Essbase product report

Also Known As

No data available

Essbase

Overview

Foglight for Databases offers comprehensive monitoring with real-time activity screens and adaptive baselines. It provides a 360-degree overview and efficient UI, requiring no custom scripts, aiding in proactive issue identification and resolution before impacting end users.

Foglight for Databases is a robust tool for monitoring across multiple platforms, including SQL and Oracle. It provides features like the "Morning Coffee" dashboard and SQL Performance Investigator, enabling effective workload analysis and historical investigation. Despite some challenges with sluggish performance on large data volumes and excessive non-critical alerts, it remains a preferred choice for its ability to support proactive management and resource planning. Users appreciate its centralized view of extensive database systems, enabling swift detection and resolution of issues in real-time.

What are the key features?

Comprehensive Monitoring: Provides cross-platform real-time monitoring, ensuring effective database management.
Adaptive Baselines: Adjusts to various workloads, enhancing monitoring accuracy.
SQL Performance Investigator: Offers detailed workload analysis without server impact.
Proactive Alerts: Delivers timely notifications, aiding in immediate issue resolution.
Efficient UI: Streamlines user interaction, minimizing the need for custom scripts.

What benefits and ROI should be considered?

Time Saving: Reduces time in root cause analysis, enhancing productivity.
Proactive Management: Detects issues before they affect end users, minimizing downtime.
Resource Planning: Aids in effective allocation planning for enterprise and cloud platforms.

Foglight is extensively implemented in industries managing extensive database systems, handling numerous servers to ensure availability and performance. It assists businesses in resolving blocking and locking deadlocks, crucial for maintaining smooth operations in production and development environments.

Quest Software

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

Sample Customers

CommitDBA

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.

Buyer's Guide

Foglight for Databases vs. Oracle Essbase

March 2026

Free Report: Foglight for Databases vs. Oracle Essbase

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