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Foglight for Databases vs SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 1, 2026

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
5.7
Foglight for Databases reduces costs and downtime by enhancing monitoring and analysis, improving operational efficiency and return on investment.
Sentiment score
5.1
SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer simplifies management, swiftly identifies issues, and improves performance, leading to increased customer satisfaction and cost savings.
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
Using Foglight for Databases will drastically reduce the employee size.
Technical Engineer at Hitachi Systems, Ltd.
Instead of evaluating several products, I evaluated within the Quest brand what could help us according to our needs, and Quest as a brand completely fulfilled those needs with Foglight for Databases.
Administración De La at a insurance company with 51-200 employees
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
7.1
Foglight for Databases customer service receives mixed reviews, with Premier Support generally improving response times and resolution effectiveness.
Sentiment score
7.0
SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer support is generally responsive and proactive, though experiences with response times and resolutions vary.
They are very responsive, and they come back with direct and concise directions and answers.
Global Head of Engineering for Cloud Operations at SAI Global Compliance
Even if the issue is not resolved, they often want to get off the call because their time has elapsed, which leads us to go back and forth on the same issue until we eventually get it solved.
Database Administrator at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Foglight for Databases is good for monitoring, and we can fetch problematic issues and queries.
Technical Engineer at Hitachi Systems, Ltd.
Based on my experience, I rate the technical support of SolarWinds a 9.8.
Network Operation Center Engineer at Central Bank of Nigeria
Sometimes I need to chase them for the updates.
Manager - Production Database Administration at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I would rate the technical support by SolarWinds as pretty good—eight out of ten.
Senior Architect at Wissen infotech
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.6
Foglight is scalable and adaptable but faces challenges with complexity, cost, and stability at large scales.
Sentiment score
6.9
SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer offers scalable solutions for diverse organizational needs but may require additional licenses for large setups.
I would not say there are significant limitations or scalability issues with it.
Database Administrator at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
I don't find Foglight for Databases to be very scalable.
Senior Database Administrator at SMC Squared India
Foglight for Databases receives a rating of nine in terms of scalability.
Mssql Database Administrator at HCLSoftware
One installation can support 250 instances to be monitored.
Manager - Production Database Administration at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Users have mixed experiences with Foglight's stability, with improvements seen via system tuning and Auto Maintenance Cartridge benefits.
Sentiment score
8.4
SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is praised for its stability, reliability, and accurate, user-friendly resource monitoring with minimal downtime.
With the latest version, we have had many crashes, sometimes it stops working entirely, and it can take days to restart the service.
Database Administrator at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
I have never seen any lagging or crashing with Foglight for Databases.
Senior Sql Server Database Administrator at TransUnion
Stability-wise, I rate Foglight for Databases around a nine out of ten.
Senior Database Administrator at SMC Squared India
For accuracy, I always try to compare our insight with our data, and whenever we do that comparison, it is always 100 percent accurate.
Network Operation Center Engineer at Central Bank of Nigeria
 

Room For Improvement

Foglight for Databases struggles with customization, performance, support, cost, and scalability, with users desiring better training and communication.
SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer needs enhanced customization, cloud support, monitoring, reporting, scalability, and pricing improvements.
We encountered instances where it was not even monitoring databases at all or giving us false alerts, which impacts our usage of the application.
Database Administrator at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
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.
Technical Engineer at Hitachi Systems, Ltd.
Providing availability or backup information in a report that covers all databases, not necessarily by database, but in a general report.
Administración De La at a insurance company with 51-200 employees
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
SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer does not have an anomaly detection feature.
Senior Architect at Wissen infotech
For example, a bank could have a credit card team, and we should have the ability to create a dashboard only for the credit card team, allowing them to look at only their set of databases and not everybody's.
Founder Director at Techsa Services
 

Setup Cost

Foglight for Databases offers scalable licensing, with additional costs, noted for value and flexibility, especially for large deployments.
SolarWinds offers competitive pricing for its Database Performance Analyzer, with favorable value and transparent licensing through AWS Marketplace.
Pricing is very reasonable.
Global Head of Engineering for Cloud Operations at SAI Global Compliance
I have had a good experience with the licensing costs of Foglight for Databases, as we have a provider who has given us good prices, and so far we have not had any cost problems.
Administración De La at a insurance company with 51-200 employees
The pricing is palatable.
Senior IT Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 1,001-5,000 employees
I will not say it is too expensive, but it is a little more expensive in comparison to a few other products in the market.
Senior Architect at Wissen infotech
Regarding the pricing of SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer, I find it reasonable.
Founder Director at Techsa Services
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been great.
Manager - Production Database Administration at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Foglight for Databases offers versatile monitoring with real-time dashboards, performance insights, and proactive issue resolution for diverse databases.
SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer offers anomaly detection, query tuning, and real-time monitoring with user-friendly, cross-platform, agentless capabilities.
Overall, Foglight for Databases is reliable and helps with generating alerts and monitoring database health and historical data in database operations.
Mssql Database Administrator at HCLSoftware
It enables drilling down to see what's causing issues with features such as workload, IO, CPU, and network indicators.
Senior Sql Server Database Administrator at TransUnion
It also displays error messages regarding what errors have occurred in that particular database, allowing us to fetch and find the error and solve the issue as soon as possible.
Technical Engineer at Hitachi Systems, Ltd.
For a database, real-time monitoring is essential because when a database fails, many applications fail as a result.
Senior Architect at Wissen infotech
We are receiving significant value from them, especially the NetFlow Site Analyzer and NetFlow Analyzer, which analyze inflow and network traffic.
Network Operation Center Engineer at Central Bank of Nigeria
Anomaly detection detects if there are some anomalies in the performance or configurations in the system, or something abnormally comes to the system and is causing performance issues.
Manager - Production Database Administration at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Foglight for Databases
Ranking in Database Development and Management
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
20
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
6.8
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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 SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is 3.5%, down from 9.8% 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%
SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer3.5%
Other93.1%
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.
SufiyanAminu - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Operation Center Engineer at Central Bank of Nigeria
Comprehensive monitoring has delivered accurate insights and supports reliable banking operations
In terms of technical support, there was a time we experienced issues, but that has been resolved. We encountered a downtime and attempted to contact technical support, which was quite challenging, but that has improved after we reported the issue and everything is now fine. Therefore, we do not have any issues with technical support currently. Regarding the AI functionality and observability, we tried to understand how the AI functionality works, and I believe there is a gap in our understanding. I do not know if a session can be organized for our team to gain more insight into the AI module or functionality. For now, the only two aspects that caused me some difficulties are support and AI. Aside from that, everything works flawlessly.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Performing Arts
6%
Healthcare Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
7%
 

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 Business5
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise11
 

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.
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 use it for our production servers, not for non-production environments. Currentl...
What is your primary use case for Quest Foglight for Databases?
My use case for Foglight for Databases is basically to track performance.
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?
SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer does not have an anomaly detection feature. To make SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer closer to a ten, I would like to see additional features. It is...
What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer?
I have experience with SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer, and I implemented it for a few customers. I have 11 years of experience and I work with the center of excellence team. Basically, wh...
 

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: April 2026.
892,943 professionals have used our research since 2012.