Paessler PRTG Database Monitoring vs PoWA

Paessler PRTG Database Monitoring tracks database availability, errors, and query performance across Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, Azure SQL Database, AWS RDS, and ODBC/ADO-compatible databases. Its sensors measure complete-request time and query execution time separately in milliseconds. You can run custom SQL queries on a schedule and map results to monitoring channels. PRTG can flag connection timeouts, authentication failures, service interruptions, and query-validated errors; threshold alerts can go by email, SMS, push notification, syslog, or webhook.

Azure SQL Database and AWS RDS sensors collect metrics through Azure Monitor and AWS CloudWatch APIs without an agent on the database host. Scan intervals are configurable, with Paessler recommending five minutes for production monitoring. Backup checks use custom queries against backup history tables or file timestamps and require query-level setup. PRTG is offered as a Windows download or cloud-hosted service. Platforms listed include web, Windows, Android, iOS, and self-hosted deployment. A free plan covers up to 100 sensors; paid plans start at $200/mo (annual), and the free trial lasts 30 days.

PoWA is a free, self-hosted tool for monitoring and tuning PostgreSQL. It collects and aggregates performance metrics from database instances and presents them in charts. Local mode handles one instance; remote mode gathers metrics from multiple instances into a repository server and can include read-only standbys without restarting PostgreSQL when adding them. The project combines the powa-archivist extension and powa-web interface, with an optional powa-collector daemon for remote deployments. Supported statistics extensions include pg_stat_statements, pg_qualstats, pg_stat_kcache, pg_wait_sampling, and pg_track_settings; pg_stat_statements is mandatory, and the current version targets PostgreSQL 9.4 and newer. HypoPG support enables testing hypothetical indexes without creating real ones. PoWA 5 adds datasource views for replication, background writer, checkpointer, SLRU, WAL, and PostgreSQL 16 or newer I/O statistics, plus per-database snapshots. Metrics can be enabled or disabled, and custom extensions added without modifying PoWA.