DbVisualizer vs. SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer

Seamlessly querying PostgreSQL/PostGIS, Oracle, SQL Server, and SQLite from one interface without switching tools. The intelligent autocomplete and schema browsing make it ideal for writing queries and understanding unfamiliar databases. Complex performance tuning, deep monitoring, and automated backup/recovery require specialized DBA tools. Performance degrades with tens or hundreds of thousands of rows; command-line tools or ETL solutions are better suited to bulk data processing.

Incentivized

This is an easy 10 because I actually have recommended this product to multiple clients and colleagues! Any shop that writes its own SQL queries will benefit from the insight provided by SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer, so they know which of their queries is causing a bottleneck. Small shops or databases with only a few tables likely will see far fewer opportunities for optimization.

Incentivized

• Out-of-the-box support for many different databases.
• Intuitive UI for interacting with data.
• Flexibility of SQL Commander for writing scripts.
• Great support for working with JSON data in recent updates.
• Database connections over SSH.
• Table relationship visualization is very helpful.
• The tree view is well organized in how it splits out schemas.

• Maintains historical SQL execution data, enabling forensic analysis
• Has the ability to slice and dice the data so that you can drill down to the execution of a single SQL statement being executed by a stored procedure
• Alerts to when the consumption pattern changes
• Shows historical average run times against the current, illustrating problems when they arise
• Provides tuning advice based on best practices

Incentivized

• Small, but noticeable: it would be nice to be able to highlight just one column of a data output for copy/paste by clicking on the column header (a feature some of us are accustomed to from SQL Server Management Studio)
• Is there an ability to bulk import an excel file to a table in a connected SQL Server in DbVis? If so, I haven't figured that out yet. I still largely use Microsoft SSMS to import data to our team's personal SQL Server, but can easily query that server via DbVis)
• (I really don't have any major complaints - our company has tried to steer users toward DBeaver for YEARS, which I cannot stand. DbVis knocks the beaver out of the water)

• Alerts seem to be lacking in DPA compared to competitor's tools. They can be setup but are not quite as easy or as helpful as some other tools I have used.
• Grooming/pruning the repository database isn't very easy. We don't manage a lot of instances but our repo DB has grown pretty significantly.
• At times when I am drilled-down to a chart, it can be difficult to navigate around from that point to another time range/query/metric.

Incentivized

We never had problems with it. It is able to connect to all data sources (Oracle, Informix, DB2, SQL Server) that we currently use.

Incentivized

We have relied on this product for a very long time and it continues to exceed expectations. The product is a vital part of our organization at this point, it would not be very ideal for us to abandon it. We use it almost every day and depend on its alerts for critical parts of our business

Incentivized

It does what we need it for, which is manipulate data, check connections, visualize database structures, check on user rights, or even just version checks on the used databases. The 'type to get to table name' feature is often irrational in behaviour, which leads to frustration. The start-up time could be much better, and the UI changes between versions are sometimes a hassle for us when buttons are suddenly moved or their appearance changes. We use a wide variety of DBVis versions on customer installations (which use the once-bought version), and differences in the look and feel between versions sometimes slow us down.

I don't want to think about managing clusters of SQL servers in the future without this tool. We have demoed other tools and SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is the gold standard for usability and insight into what your servers are doing. The UI is a bit dated, but everything is laid out in a logical manner and drilling down into queries or timeslices is extremely intuitive.

Incentivized

Never used

Incentivized

I have had to use their support on a few occasions, for reasons that I am not clear about until recently I have always had problems upgrading the software (although the last 2 updates have gone without issue which I am very pleased to say). On those unfortunate occasions, the support has been brilliant with either excellently documented guides on how to resolve the issue by myself or have been hands-on with calls and screen sharing to remotely fix the issue. Every time the problem was sorted and more importantly, nothing was lost (apart from a bit of time). And as I stated above whatever the problem was that was causing my upgrade issues appears to have been resolved in the last 2 updates.

Incentivized

Follow the guidelines for the capacity of the servers. We found that the DPA databases were getting rather large and also that there are ways to reduce their size built into some of the options.

Incentivized

[DbVisualizer] is pretty easy to use compared to IntelliJ because of it's simplicity. The performance is very good, it feels as good as a native application compared to the other two softwares I used for the same purpose. It's very cheaper compared to the other two tools and that's a big selling point.

Incentivized

At the time, we found SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer to be easier to setup and to have a richer feature set than Redgate SQL Monitor, plus, from what I remember, the DPA pricing worked better for us over the course of a year. We're very happy with all the features DPA has to offer.

Incentivized

• Positive: Real time saver when working across multiple databases. At least 30-40 mins a day are saved
• Positive: Helpful for the 'quick DBA' tasks without switching to the native tools: approx 1-2 hours saved weekly
• Positive: Easy switch between environments / schemas / etc without hassle: saved at least an hour daily

• It has allowed us to progress as an organization with much less reliance on a direct DBA than would traditionally be required
• Allowed us to be much more proactive in our performance monitoring and responding to issues that would affect users.

Incentivized