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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Paessler PRTG

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/APRTG Network Monitor is the flagship offering from German software company Paessler, for monitoring local and wide area networks (LANs & WANs), servers, websites, apps, and more.

    $2,149

    per year

    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
    Paessler PRTGSolarWinds SQL Sentry
    Editions & Modules
    PRTG 500
    $2,149
    per year
    Hosted 500
    $2,149
    per year
    PRTG 1,000
    $3,899
    per year
    Hosted 1000
    $3,899
    per year
    PRTG 2,500
    $8,099
    per year
    Hosted 2500
    $8,099
    per year
    PRTG 5,000
    $14,199
    per year
    Hosted 5000
    $14,199
    per year
    PRTG 10000
    $17,899
    per year
    PRTG Enterprise
    Custom Pricing
    subscription license
    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
    Paessler PRTGSolarWinds SQL Sentry
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Paessler PRTGSolarWinds SQL Sentry
    Considered Both Products
    Paessler
    No answer on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Chose SolarWinds SQL Sentry
    [SolarWinds] SQL Sentry was tested against multiple monitoring systems, but [it] topped them all as [it] was a monitoring tool that was created to pinpoint SQL Server and nothing else. It has features that a lot of other monitoring systems don't have and are not even developing …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds SQL Sentry
    SQL Sentry provided 24/7 indepth visibility and on a feature to feature comparison, simply outweighted other options available. The expertise at SentryOne is incredible, and it is reflected in their passion for the product, and the development and constant engagement with the …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    98%
    Would buy again
    41 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    40 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    42 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    28 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    38 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    6 Answers
    Features
    Paessler PRTGSolarWinds SQL Sentry
    Network Performance Monitoring
    Comparison of Network Performance Monitoring features of Paessler PRTG and SolarWinds SQL Sentry
    Feature
    Paessler PRTG
    7.3
    67 Ratings
    8% below category average
    SolarWinds SQL Sentry
    -
    Ratings
    Automated network device discovery7.260 Ratings00 Ratings
    Network monitoring9.666 Ratings00 Ratings
    Baseline threshold calculation8.557 Ratings00 Ratings
    Alerts8.867 Ratings00 Ratings
    Network capacity planning6.448 Ratings00 Ratings
    Packet capture analysis6.234 Ratings00 Ratings
    Network mapping5.447 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable reports5.857 Ratings00 Ratings
    Wireless infrastructure monitoring6.249 Ratings00 Ratings
    Hardware health monitoring9.264 Ratings00 Ratings
    SQL Performance Monitoring
    Comparison of SQL Performance Monitoring features of Paessler PRTG and SolarWinds SQL Sentry
    Feature
    Paessler PRTG
    -
    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
    Paessler PRTGSolarWinds SQL Sentry
    Small Businesses
    Auvik
    Score8.8 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    PingPlotter
    Score9 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Enterprises
    Nmap
    Score8.7 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Paessler PRTGSolarWinds SQL Sentry
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.8
    (68 ratings)
    8.6
    (102 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.9
    (5 ratings)
    8.8
    (16 ratings)
    Usability
    8.3
    (7 ratings)
    9.0
    (12 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.1
    (2 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.1
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.0
    (19 ratings)
    7.5
    (14 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (2 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
    Paessler PRTGSolarWinds SQL Sentry
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Paessler
    integrates seamlessly with Windows servers via WMI and PowerShell, providing deep insights into resource usage, performance metrics, and system health. It's excellent at tracking CPU, memory, disk space, and event logs, enabling rapid troubleshooting and proactive maintenance. PRTG Network Monitor also effectively monitors Fortigate devices, providing detailed data on firewall health, traffic patterns, bandwidth utilization, VPN status, and security alerts. This visibility helps detect and resolve network security issues promptly.
    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
    Paessler
    • Switch monitoring and finding out if there are communication issues or throughput alerts are reached
    • Big picture view of the whole infrastructure and what is functioning and what is not
    • Uptime tracking is great and lets us know for how long a device is down or overall uptime
    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
    Paessler
    • Licensing on a per entity basis can be cumbersome for devices which have a ton of monitoring points like network switches\routers. Each sensor may count against a license, which could be a lot of you were monitoring every TX\RX of an SFP for example
    • A better method to easily template\copy monitors across devices
    • The navigation in the web GUI could be a little more straightforward in terms of the hierarchy
    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
    Paessler
    I would renew it because the platform has brought us many technical and economic benefits that make the cost-benefit ratio very good. Additionally, to do so does not require large investments in training, licensing or infrastructure, and at the administration level, extensive knowledge is not required to be able to bear it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Paessler
    The tool is very intuitive to use and it is Windows-based (everybody knows how to use Windows) so it's easy to get into. Every time is setup in a hierarchy so if you have a good initial hierarchy design, it will really reduce administrative effort down the road.
    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
    Paessler
    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
    Read full review
    Performance
    Paessler
    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
    Paessler
    PRTG does everything we need it to do and more. Ease of use, ease of management and maintenance and clarity of monitoring of hundreds of different types of device and service gives this a large advantage over other products on the market that I have tried. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who needs a network monitoring product in their environment and even to people who don't know they need a solution yet!
    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
    Paessler
    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
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    Implementation Rating
    Paessler
    It's very important that de project's teams have different member of the TI. We have learned too late the importa of Security Analyst at the design architecture moment. We have to rebuild part of the implementation for made this big mistake.
    Incentivized
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    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
    Paessler
    PRTG offers more versatility in monitoring when compared to the other solutions we tested. The other solutions were also limited as far as customization options, which made them less adaptable to our networks. When compared to Auvik, for instance, we prefer PRTG as it offers immediate notifications through the desktop client - not limited to email notifications as with Auvik. We also appreciate the fact that PRTG can be self/on-prem hosted vs Auvik's cloud model. This makes for an easier deployment and less firewall adjustments to allow traffic to cloud-hosted solutions.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Scalability
    Paessler
    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
    Paessler
    • The ability to analyze multiple pieces of information in one place, especially with historical data, has saved our IT department time and headaches. It would be so much more difficult to trace an issue without PRTG, just relying on event logs and an open task manager window.
    • The cost is not cheap, so it's an expense that hits the bottom line like everything else. Figure in hardware costs as well, ideally a server outside of your main environment.
    • I keep saying this, but the historical data piece is worth so much. There's really no good way to collect all of that information in one place without something like PRTG. And that definitely saves time and money in the long run.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    ScreenShots

    SolarWinds SQL Sentry Screenshots

    Screenshot of SQL Sentry DeadlocksScreenshot of SQL Sentry Top SQL