IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server vs Quest Spotlight vs SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer comparison

IDERA and Quest Software are both solutions in the Database Development and Management category. IDERA is ranked #13 with an average rating of 7.0, while Quest Software is ranked #5 with an average rating of 9.0. IDERA holds a 4.2% mindshare in DDM, compared to Quest Software’s 6.8% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of IDERA users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Quest Software users who would recommend it.

IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manage...

Read 9 IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server reviews

608 Views
382 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Quest Spotlight

Read 5 Quest Spotlight reviews

1,227 Views
752 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SolarWinds Database Perform...

Read 12 SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer reviews

1,294 Views
876 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manage...

Quest Spotlight

SolarWinds Database Perform...

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server, Quest Spotlight, and SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Oracle, Quest Software, Nutanix and others in Database Development and Management.

To learn more, read our detailed Database Development and Management Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Database Development and Management

June 2025

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Helped 859,545 peers since 2012

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 June 2025, in the Database Development and Management category, the mindshare of IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server is 4.2%, up from 3.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Quest Spotlight is 6.8%, down from 8.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is 10.0%, up from 8.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Database Development and Management

Featured Reviews

reviewer2317098

Assistant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Offers effective monitoring of resources but lacks the ability to connect to an AWS instance and write custom queries.

We use it mainly for monitoring, including CPU, memory, and disk space, and for troubleshooting purposes We've set up alerts to notify us when performance deviates from the baseline we've configured for each resource. So, whenever that happens, we get an alert and can investigate immediately. So,…

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Seha R

Group Product Manager at Uop Ipl

Good tool for the design and development of public APIs

The software does not support webhooks. It doesn't support advanced versions of APIs. The tool also doesn't support advanced versions of specifications. The change that we do in one part of the model is not reflected throughout the specification. There are also some mutations in the clones. I am not able to do a local source control with the product as well.

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Ravi Khanchandani

Founder Director at Techsa Services

Excels in identifying various database performance issues, including long-running queries, wait times, deadlocks, and other performance-related issues.

There's room for improvement on the dashboarding side. Specifically, the health dashboard of the database instances. Some of my customers deal with a large number of monitored database instances. It would be beneficial if they could have a single dashboard for instances, for example, from number one to thirty. This way, I could monitor all these 30 instances and quickly identify any performance issues on any of them. The dashboarding capability definitely needs improvement. In future releases, there should be custom reports and dashboards are crucial. Not everyone needs to see the same page every time. For example, if I'm interested in MYSQL databases, I should have a view that focuses only on MYSQL databases. Customization like this, where users can tailor their dashboards to specific needs, is essential for improving the product.

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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

"The ability to go back and look at historical data is the most valuable feature."

"The best part of SQL DM is the ability to customize alerts and counters. This allows our team to find an issue then alert on the issue at a granular level."

"We're able to diagnose issues prior to their actually becoming issues. Without the alerting, we wouldn't have a clue as to what was going to happen. With the alerting, it gives us a heads-up that a specific threshold has been met, and we need to take specific action."

"The most valuable features are disk space projections for planning, and also the Snapshotting ability, to look back in time, to see what was going on the server at a particular time. It's basically the output of an sp_who2."

"Monitors and alerts on our mission critical instances in real-time on a 24/7 basis."

"SQL DM made troubleshooting much easier and allowed multiple people to look into an issue with confidence."

"Memory and CPU utilization features are good."

"Spotlight provides valuable features such as the ability to get alerted and drill down to a very granular level to find out where actual problems are coming from."

"The tool is a SaaS product where I just need to type a URL and start with the design process. I can integrate all elements of source control like GitHub, GitLab, etc. The tool also supports authentication-related provisions like SSH."

"Its dashboards are most valuable. The drill-down of the dashboards is useful."

"I consider the solution very scalable."

"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 layer, database layer, or elsewhere."

"SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer's most valuable features include the notification of consuming the SQL queries, collecting data, and notifying about managing space and tables."

"The platform solves and prevents delays in receiving answers from databases."

"SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer can help us identify issues we cannot see manually."

"Monitoring is most valuable, and being able to know that there is an issue or problem and I need to go look is also valuable. So, monitoring and learning are the most important features."

"SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer helped us locate the performance issues quickly."

"The initial setup is pretty straightforward."

"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is anomaly detection. It alerts you when things outside the norm are happening, and the feature that analyzes your indexes informs you if you have wide or overlapping indexes. It also helps identify SQL query bottlenecks, letting you know if something is taking longer than usual, if a query plan has changed, and if you need to update statistics. In terms of usage, it is straightforward to use, learn and understand. The patching process is smooth and explains each feature, including links to external resources for further reading."

More SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer pros

Cons

"One thing I'd like to see is the ability to view the execution plan and have the system automatically recommend potential query optimizations, especially at the query level."

"I'm going to do an upgrade which may resolve my issues, but one area for improvement is its ability to handle the amount of data that we collect with it. We're likely one of the largest installations, with over 300 servers being collected with this product, and sometimes there are gaps. That would really be my only concern, in terms of how the data is collected and stored, for consistency."

"It would helpful if SQL DM could mark when changes are made within the program."

"I would absolutely love to create customized dashboards but, unfortunately, they don't provide me the information that I need to create the report. The report I need is the detail or the transaction detail that's happening on those Snapshots. I'd like to be able to go back through time and search for things. I don't have that functionality, which is very disappointing. That's pretty bad and frustrating because I could query it and find out so much information about what's hitting my environment and when, but instead, they want control over it and to not give me that information. So it's encrypted. I can't pull it out and that is really bothersome."

"We don't find that it helps us with performance monitoring and diagnostics. We find that SentryOne does that better. Also, in terms of alerts, we had to customize them dramatically so that we didn't get alerted on every little thing."

"The initial setup gives too many user rights to the server, so you have to put a user that is part administrator's group - that's the preferred way - on each server, which is kind of a risk. You want to do least privilege and you're not doing that."

"They can improve checking the status of the CPU, memory, and IO utilization from each task."

"One improvement could be the inclusion of suggestions for missing indexes or better analysis of how indexes are utilized and how execution plans are used, similar to what other products offer."

"The software does not support webhooks. It doesn't support advanced versions of APIs. The tool also doesn't support advanced versions of specifications. The change that we do in one part of the model is not reflected throughout the specification. There are also some mutations in the clones. I am not able to do a local source control with the product as well."

"Some customizations of the dashboard, such as having backup reports, would be useful."

"There's no reporting with this tool, and there really should be. They should add that into future releases."

"It is capable, but I don't believe it has the right value matrix. It also depends on the budget of the company."

"One area where the tool could improve is by adding support for additional databases. For instance, supporting newer databases like Couchbase or MongoDB would be beneficial."

"There is room for improvement with the pricing of the platform."

"The areas where it currently lags are in reporting and dashboarding. The reports and dashboards are somewhat static, and we cannot create custom dashboards for specific customer needs."

"Technical support for this solution needs to be improved."

"The solution should add little details on the server so that an independent team could easily do the implementation."

"SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer should provide customization options allowing users to add different columns."

"SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer should be easy to implement and it should have more facilities to make it better."

More SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is reasonable, it's comparable with the competitors."

"We were upgraded to Premium Support without their actually asking us, when we were quoted. Then I asked for Standard Support and that they had to re-quote us that. But they don't do that by default. They upcharge you by default, which I didn't think was very nice, without even asking."

"The tool is cloud-based. It is priced well."

"Its cost was somewhere in the middle."

"There are no extra costs for maintenance or using the solution's support."

"Customers need to pay for the subscription-based license annually."

"SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is a little bit expensive."

"The pricing is fairly reasonable, and it becomes more cost-effective with larger volumes of instances."

"I don't remember the exact licensing cost for SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer, but it's within the range of $2,000 to $3,000 a year."

"It could be less expensive."

"The pricing of the solution is average."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

15%

Healthcare Company

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Healthcare Company

12%

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server?

The ability to go back and look at historical data is the most valuable feature.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server?

One thing I'd like to see is the ability to view the execution plan and have the system automatically recommend poten...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server?

We use it mainly for monitoring, including CPU, memory, and disk space, and for troubleshooting purposes.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Quest Spotlight?

One improvement could be the inclusion of suggestions for missing indexes or better analysis of how indexes are utili...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Quest Spotlight?

I primarily use Spotlight for on-the-spot troubleshooting and alerting to see if there are any issues. The drill-down...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Quest Spotlight?

I would rate Spotlight probably an nine out of ten. My advice would be to consider its cost-effectiveness and ease of...

See all answers

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 eas...

See all answers

What needs improvement with SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer?

One area where the tool could improve is by adding support for additional databases. For instance, supporting newer d...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer?

We use SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer for performance monitoring, tuning, and troubleshooting performance i...

See all answers

Comparisons

Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials vs IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server

Compared 26% of the time

SCOM vs IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server

Compared 15% of the time

SQL Sentry vs IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server

Compared 14% of the time

More IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server Competitors

Quest Foglight for Databases vs Quest Spotlight

Compared 40% of the time

Oracle Enterprise Manager vs Quest Spotlight

Compared 8% of the time

Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials vs Quest Spotlight

Compared 8% of the time

SQL Sentry vs Quest Spotlight

Compared 8% of the time

SolarWinds Database Performance Monitor vs Quest Spotlight

Compared 5% of the time

More Quest Spotlight Competitors

SQL Sentry vs SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer

Compared 37% of the time

Quest Foglight for Databases vs SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer

Compared 22% of the time

Oracle Enterprise Manager vs SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer

Compared 9% of the time

Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials vs SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer

Compared 5% of the time

More SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server

June 2025

IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server report

Download IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server product report

Buyer's Guide

Database Development and Management

June 2025

Download Quest Spotlight product report

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer

June 2025

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer report

Download SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer product report

Also Known As

IDERA SQL DM, IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager

Dell Spotlight

Confio, SolarWinds DPA, Ignite8

Overview

SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server helps database administrators to find and fix SQL Server performance problems in physical, virtual, and cloud environments. Unlike its competition, it provides effective scalability, advanced SQL query analysis and optimization, prescriptive analysis with corrective SQL scripts, powerful automated alert responses, broad PowerShell integration, complete customization, and extensive support for current and legacy SQL Server and Windows.

IDERA

Quest Spotlight ensures peak performance around the clock with unmatched monitoring, diagnosis and optimization of SQL Server environments. Spotlight provides access to the details you need for optimal fitness of your SQL Server databases. Get overviews of health and performance, automated alerts and actions, and mobile device support.

Quest Software

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is a powerful monitoring service that allows customers to monitor their databases. It offers system metrics such as RAM consumption, IO, network traffic, etc. The service is available for both on-prem and cloud deployments, making it a versatile solution for businesses of all sizes.

The most valuable feature is its ability to monitor and learn from the data it collects, helping identify issues and problems before they become major problems, and saving businesses time and money. The service also provides supporting information for performance advising, which helps optimize database performance.

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

Padnos, University of Notre Dame, D4, Infeon Technologies, Chevron, LC Waikiki, Sisters of Saint Francis Health Services, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, CVE, Colorado State University, St. Charles, Chaucer PLC, 1-800-Flowers, Ancoris, Money Management, National Opinion Research Center, California Department of Health, Plexus; Aviva, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, CBS, Comcast, Google, Merck, Regions Financial, Schneider Electric, Tata Consultancy Services, Verizon Communications, Zurich Financial Services

Jenkon

GSI Commerce, Liquid Digital Media, ProLogis, Indiana University

Buyer's Guide

Database Development and Management

June 2025

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