Percona Monitoring and Management vs SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer

Percona Monitoring and Management (PMM) is a free, open source tool for monitoring, managing, and observing databases and the servers they use. It covers MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and deployments across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments. Dashboards, configuration insight, and Query Analytics support monitoring; Query Analytics ranks queries by load and provides anomaly investigation, explain plans, and customizable dashboards. Percona Advisors scan MySQL, MongoDB, and PostgreSQL databases for security gaps, misconfigurations, and performance problems, then offer recommendations. PMM includes backup and restore for MongoDB and MySQL, with scheduled or on-demand backups and point-in-time recovery. Percona Alerting is described as supporting more than 15 notification channels. Deployment options include Docker, Podman, a virtual appliance, Kubernetes or OpenShift via Helm, and an AWS Marketplace instance. PMM Server has a browser-accessible interface; its documented Docker setup recommends at least 2 CPU cores, 4 GB RAM, and 100 GB disk, and requires x86-64-v2 CPU support. PMM Client connections to the server use TLS over HTTPS.

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer monitors and optimizes databases deployed in cloud and on-premises environments. It examines database activity, wait times, SQL statements, execution plans, and locks to help teams locate performance issues. Monitoring runs continuously with down-to-the-second views for both current and historical analysis, while machine learning supports database anomaly detection. Supported targets include Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, IBM Db2, SAP ASE, SAP HANA, Amazon Aurora, Google Cloud SQL, and Percona. Databases on Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud are covered, and VMware vSphere performance can be correlated with guest operating-system and infrastructure metrics. DPA is agentless, with stated resource use below 1% of total. It runs through API, Linux, self-hosted, and Windows environments with hybrid deployment. Integrations include RESTful API, SolarWinds Platform, PerfStack, AppStack, and CyberArk Vault. Pricing starts at $142/mo (annual), with a 14-day fully functional trial and no credit card requirement.