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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Clear Analytics

    Score8.8 out of 10
    Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
    Clear Analytics is a business intelligence solution that enables non technical end users to perform analytics by leveraging existing knowledge of Excel coupled with a built in query builder. Some key features include: Dynamic Data Refresh, Data Share and In-Excel Collaboration.

    $29

    Per Seat per Month

    SolarWinds SQL Sentry

    Score10 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds SQL Sentry is designed to help data professionals optimize SQL Server database performance in physical, virtual, and cloud environments. SQL Sentry delivers metrics to help users find and fix database performance problems and provides scalability, boasting demonstrated success monitoring 800+ SQL Server instances with one monitoring database. With SQL Sentry, the user can monitor: SQL Server Azure SQL Database SQL Server Analysis…

    $0

    Free

    Pricing
    Clear AnalyticsSolarWinds SQL Sentry
    Editions & Modules
    Personal
    $29
    Per Seat per Month
    Team
    $165
    upto 10 Seat per Month
    Department
    $265
    upto 25 Seat per month
    Organization
    $565
    Upto 100 per seat per month
    Plan Explorer (SQL Server Query Tuning)
    $0
    Free
    SQL Sentry for Azure SQL Database
    $161
    Per year per database (annual subscription)
    SQL Sentry
    1,450
    Per year per instance (annual subscription)
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Clear AnalyticsSolarWinds SQL Sentry
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup Fee$800 Initial OnBoardingNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsCertain Enterprise level features can be made available to Small Business edition at additional cost. Such services include Scheduler and OLAP connectivity. Custom adapters can also be created to connect to SaaS services.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Clear AnalyticsSolarWinds SQL Sentry
    Considered Both Products
    Clear Analytics
    No answer on this topic
    SolarWinds
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    8 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    8 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    8 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    7 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    8 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    6 Answers
    Features
    Clear AnalyticsSolarWinds SQL Sentry
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Clear Analytics and SolarWinds SQL Sentry
    Feature
    Clear Analytics
    9.0
    8 Ratings
    10% above category average
    SolarWinds SQL Sentry
    -
    Ratings
    Pixel Perfect reports9.08 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards9.18 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates8.78 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Clear Analytics and SolarWinds SQL Sentry
    Feature
    Clear Analytics
    8.9
    8 Ratings
    11% above category average
    SolarWinds SQL Sentry
    -
    Ratings
    Drill-down analysis9.28 Ratings00 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities8.78 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration8.98 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Clear Analytics and SolarWinds SQL Sentry
    Feature
    Clear Analytics
    9.0
    8 Ratings
    9% above category average
    SolarWinds SQL Sentry
    -
    Ratings
    Publish to Web9.08 Ratings00 Ratings
    Publish to PDF9.17 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Versioning8.98 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling8.87 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Clear Analytics and SolarWinds SQL Sentry
    Feature
    Clear Analytics
    9.0
    8 Ratings
    12% above category average
    SolarWinds SQL Sentry
    -
    Ratings
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)8.98 Ratings00 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization9.18 Ratings00 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Clear Analytics and SolarWinds SQL Sentry
    Feature
    Clear Analytics
    9.3
    8 Ratings
    9% above category average
    SolarWinds SQL Sentry
    -
    Ratings
    Multi-User Support (named login)9.48 Ratings00 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model9.08 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)9.48 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Clear Analytics and SolarWinds SQL Sentry
    Feature
    Clear Analytics
    8.6
    6 Ratings
    10% above category average
    SolarWinds SQL Sentry
    -
    Ratings
    Mobile Application8.54 Ratings00 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile8.76 Ratings00 Ratings
    SQL Performance Monitoring
    Comparison of SQL Performance Monitoring features of Clear Analytics and SolarWinds SQL Sentry
    Feature
    Clear Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    SolarWinds SQL Sentry
    8.4
    102 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Performance dashboard00 Ratings9.1102 Ratings
    Intelligent alerting00 Ratings7.996 Ratings
    Top SQL00 Ratings8.6102 Ratings
    Historical trend data00 Ratings8.6100 Ratings
    Virtualization support00 Ratings8.764 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Clear AnalyticsSolarWinds SQL Sentry
    Small Businesses
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.1 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Enterprises
    Sisense
    Score6.9 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Clear AnalyticsSolarWinds SQL Sentry
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (8 ratings)
    8.6
    (102 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.8
    (16 ratings)
    Usability
    9.1
    (8 ratings)
    9.0
    (12 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.1
    (2 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.1
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.5
    (8 ratings)
    7.5
    (14 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.8
    (8 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.9
    (2 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.5
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.5
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Clear AnalyticsSolarWinds SQL Sentry
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Clear Analytics
    Clear Analytics has almost all the features which are mostly required by the organizations for their data analytics and transformation activities. Clear Analytics is built on the support of a parallel query engine which makes it handle large volume requests and also provides optimized results. However, every solution has some limitations, Clear Analytics lacks advanced features such as Predictive Analytics which is a very demanding feature in the market as most organizations are adopting AI/ML automation for their businesses. Also, it needs to add a lot of advanced visualizations so that the user has the choice of selection. Overall a good solution to be recommended.
    Incentivized
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    SolarWinds
    This solution is perfect for a team with a large server count and, at least, moderate experience supporting a SQL Server environment. If the environment is smaller or the team has less experience working with SQL Server performance tuning methodologies, then the tool may be overwhelming for the users.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Clear Analytics
    • Quick management of the data through Excel thanks to the tools Clear Analytics provides such as filtering different information for an easier view.
    • Ability to add new KPIs to measure different areas of our business.
    • Drag and drop tool which makes an easier usage of Excel.
    • Cost-effective. I find Clear Analytics to be affordable considering the number of features added and the unlimited sharing and editing it provides.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • The Top SQL functionality has been extremely useful for identifying poorly performing queries by resource consumption.
    • The flexibility of creating your own Advisory Conditions has allowed us to integrate our custom internal alerts into a centralized dashboard and alerting platform.
    • Being able to highlight any chart on the dashboard and then tool-matching that window across all the other charts makes it much easier to correlate the different performance metrics against each other.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Clear Analytics
    • For Charts and Graphs , getting the Power Point Deck would be helpful. As of now we use the data from Excel Reports
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • Tuning advice: With all the graphs and data available, it's not always easy to determine the best thing to do. I'd like to see SentryOne provide some best practice analysis based on the historical information collected for the server being looked at.
    • They could add help tips or links to help documents, when you select a graph on the dashboard. Inexperienced users tend to put blinders on and focus on one thing when they see a high counter or something out of the ordinary. It would be very useful to include a link that provides underlying help. The link would provide an explanation of the counter in detail and offer possible explanations as to why the counter is off.
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Clear Analytics
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Absolutely. SQL Sentry is an absolute must have for any company with a SQL Server estate. It provides a force multiplier to effectively manage SQL Server, and the feature sets are second to none. The support and expertise at SentryOne is incredible. They are very supportive of both the platform users and helping your business with the product
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Clear Analytics
    I have really enjoyed working with Clear Analytics. This platform has contributed to increased production and reliable data control processes. It has flexible user interface that can be operated by any organization member. Reports are shared on simple and transparent way in the dashboard for easy access. Data analytics from all departments have created manageable working environment that have increased production.
    Incentivized
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    SolarWinds
    I accept that the flexibility of the alerting comes at a price. Other than the alerting SQL Sentry's interface is intuitive. Connecting to a new SQL instance, given that all the needed ports are open in your firewalls is straight forward. Reviewing the performance and queries for an instance is available in with a right click. As you dig in new tabs are created to present the detailed data. I find the ability to filter and rollup metrics on a query very helpful in dealing with the "it's running slow". You can easily compare the metrics of run times for the same query to let the user know, it's probably data your doing a billion reads instead of the usual 100 thousand.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    Clear Analytics
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    The system is working perfectly in capturing data, but we do experience issues with SQL Timeout when viewing results in the remote clients. This may be due to the fact that our monitoring service is consuming most of the CPU, and it is the same server that is hosting the SQL Repository. We could probably fix the issue by separating the SQL instance from the monitoring service.
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    Clear Analytics
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    In most cases the pages load very quickly. In our particular case, we need to do some movement of services to separate our monitoring service to separate infrastructure from the repository. When we first started with SQL Sentry on 5 licenses, we did not have any issues. Since we have now grown that to 25, we are experiencing some challenges. We do not believe this to be a tool problem
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Clear Analytics
    I have had multiple scenarios where I had to reach out to the support team of Clear Analytics, be it access-related, general queries, during initial implementation, etc. My overall experience has always been good. I got the needed support every time without any delay. I can definitely recommend Clear Analytics simply on the basis of its excellent support team.
    Incentivized
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    SolarWinds
    From their infancy as a smaller company to now as a global player they have always kept focus on prioritising he customer. They know their product and the technology it supports and are easily accessible for both resolving problems with the product all the way to adding value through additional training and assisting with getting return on investment through utilisation of the many features the product provides.
    Incentivized
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    In-Person Training
    Clear Analytics
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    sql sentry expert came onsight to review the performance of installation and gave us a good insight to using the tool
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Clear Analytics
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Was suggested that we install the process monitors on a dev or qa database server, but we found it more useful to create an IT db server and put it there (along with a few other apps that we use for monitoring).
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Clear Analytics
    There are other great tools that are out there but Clear Analytics is reasonable for our business and provides a lot of features that we specifically needed
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    SQL Sentry offers more features and is customize-able to fit our business needs. It has more centralized management and support. The company's technical support is also top notch. It is also worth mentioning that SentryOne Team Blog is an excellent source. One can find lots of valuable troubleshooting skills on the blog site - very educational and informational.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Clear Analytics
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    We are running 25 instances through a single monitoring service and it is able to keep up. We are finding that this many instances in our environment is about as many as can be handled. We will need to deploy additional monitoring services. Luckily, there is no additional licensing costs to deploy additional monitoring services. For us, it's just an additional Azure VM.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Clear Analytics
    • Super useful to get started immediately
    • Didn't have to rely on migrating data
    • Easy to add members
    • Easy to learn and build charts
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • Better customer service as it alerts me automatically to loss of service issues so I can react and either get things fixed before it impacts the customers or to let my management know as soon as possible
    • It helps me find expensive SQL so our customers get better performance and we make better use of our resources
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Clear Analytics Screenshots

    Screenshot of Clear Analytics integrated Excel panel essentially transforms standalone Excel into an enterprise strength, fully auditable, collaborative and centralized business intelligence platform.Screenshot of Users have the ability to dynamically query systems and render that data in any way they like.  No more waiting on IT to create reports.Screenshot of Your firms existing knowledge of Excel enables the firm to be product from day 1. Use the skills already present in your organization and don't pay for outside reporting consultants to create reports for you.Screenshot of Leverage the integration capability of Microsoft's Power BI to extend the reach of your data to web and mobile devices.Screenshot of Leverage all of Excels capabilities, from it's slicers to miniature spark-line charts to create incredibly informative and responsive dashboards.

    SolarWinds SQL Sentry Screenshots

    Screenshot of SQL Sentry DeadlocksScreenshot of SQL Sentry Top SQL