Redgate SQL Data Compare vs. SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer

If you plan to use Redgate Data Compare to automate data change between tables or SCD or similar, this is not the software that is right for you, Data Compare is a software that performs simply (but in an optimal manner) the comparison of data between tables of different databases on different environments or clone or mirror databases even on the same environment or server. Once the data is compared, you can select or deselect each line you want to update and then have the data alignment script prepared for it.

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

• Simple and easy comparison of database data. Differences can be copied or synced from one database to another with a click of a button.
• You can save "projects" so that you can easily rerun a previous comparison whenever you need to.
• It has a very simple, easy to learn interface. I've never needed to read any documentation or watch any tutorials in order to figure out how to do something.

Incentivized

• 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

• Better License Management would be an improvement. Currently no way to manage your licenses without contacting your representative.
• Possibly better testing of backups would an improvement. Ability to restore files in a Sandbox would be a great feature.

Incentivized

• 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 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

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

Redgate is always fast to respond to any tickets I submit and provide fixes for any issues rapidly.

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

In the same way as the "twin" software (Redgate SQL Compare), this software has always proved to be perfectly functional, simple, fast and intuitive and it is for this reason that no other alternative software has been evaluated at Redgate Data Compare. I agree that looking for other software is always useful and is probably a best practice in some cases, but I am also of the idea that if a software does what it really says, it makes no sense to change it.

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

• It's reduced errors and bugs associated with deploying new application features and forgetting to apply required database changes (or incorrectly applying them).
• It's made deploying new features a quicker task, eliminating the often laborious task of synchronizing data across databases.
• These sometimes complex queries and operations can easily be performed by any developer and don't require the involvement of a database administrator to perform.

Incentivized

• 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