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IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server vs Toad Data Modeler 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

IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manage...
Ranking in Database Development and Management
12th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Event Monitoring (14th)
Toad Data Modeler
Ranking in Database Development and Management
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Database Development and Management category, the mindshare of IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server is 3.1%, down from 4.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Toad Data Modeler is 3.1%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database Development and Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Toad Data Modeler3.1%
IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server3.1%
Other93.8%
Database Development and Management
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2317098 - PeerSpot reviewer
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,…
KQ
Senior engineer at a government with 201-500 employees
Creates intuitive diagrams with comprehensive control over relationships
1) When updating a model after generating a schema, if only a few tables are imported, the tool assumes you want to delete the rest. If you have a large model, you repeatedly have to clarify that you don't want to delete each one. 2) If one could view the same model on physical, logical, and conceptual levels while retaining all information specific to each level (including layout), that would be excellent.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Memory and CPU utilization features are good."
"One of the things that it is used for is to detect anything that could possibly cause our systems not to function well, and it has helped us to determine that before anything has actually happened."
"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."
"Baselining our SQL Servers has made a huge impact."
"Monitors and alerts on our mission critical instances in real-time on a 24/7 basis."
"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 ability to go back and look at historical data is the most valuable feature."
"SQL DM made troubleshooting much easier and allowed multiple people to look into an issue with confidence."
"It was immensely helpful in collecting SQL database data, especially as I am not a database admin/engineer."
"I don't know the financials, but I wouldn’t be able to do my job (build applications/databases) without it."
"Ability to save my custom queries and Macros"
"It is a very good option for creating and editing SQL scripts, especially large ones that I have run in support of government billing applications."
"This product is fast to learn and a user-friendly tool."
"The feature I really like is the graphical part, especially the control of the relationships, because you can move them around any way you want, which makes it easy to create a comprehensive and easy-to-understand diagram."
"The most valuable features are the database architecture, the good functionality, and the user interface."
"Auto-complete is the best feature of the solution."
 

Cons

"It would helpful if SQL DM could mark when changes are made within the program."
"Some more granularity in alerting."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"Tech support has been okay, not that great, but they made sure that we got what we were looking for."
"Reporting and overall analysis of data gathered from SQL Server."
"Scalability is what I mentioned earlier, regarding room for improvement. It doesn't seem to scale out to an environment as large as ours, with just a single monitoring server."
"When updating a model after generating a schema, if only a few tables are imported, the tool assumes you want to delete the rest, which is cumbersome."
"Reverse engineering the physical schema is complex and can be made easier."
"Currently, with Windows 10, it sometimes would get stuck and stop responding."
"It's quite stable but takes a bit of a time to run SQL queries if the database is huge."
"What could be improved in Toad Data Modeler is stability and the complex setup."
"The one thing about it is that there are almost too many features and options; some we don’t even use."
"Toad crashes sometimes and it will lose all the saved database information."
"There were issues due to the databases connectivity."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 pricing is reasonable, it's comparable with the competitors."
"Price-wise, the lesser it is, the better it is for me, especially in Egypt. I think that the licensing cost ranges from 1,000 to 9,000. Also, it includes maintenance and support for a year."
"Though I'm not involved in the licensing for Toad Data Modeler, I believe it's per user and not cheap."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
Energy/Utilities Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise9
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Toad Data Modeler?
Considering its functionality, I would rate its pricing as a seven out of ten. It could be cheaper yet is still pretty good.
What needs improvement with Toad Data Modeler?
1) When updating a model after generating a schema, if only a few tables are imported, the tool assumes you want to delete the rest. If you have a large model, you repeatedly have to clarify that y...
What is your primary use case for Toad Data Modeler?
There are two main use cases. One is reengineering an existing model and making changes from a database. The other is making a new model from scratch. These use cases involve all kinds of systems, ...
 

Also Known As

IDERA SQL DM, IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager
Toad
 

Overview

 

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
Zions Bancorporation
Find out what your peers are saying about IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server vs. Toad Data Modeler and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.