Comparison · vs SolarWinds DPA
SolarWinds DPA — sans l'UX de 2010.
Même profondeur de wait time sur SQL Server, plus une UI moderne, des bandes de prévision apprises et un déploiement SaaS ou BYOC.
01. Why teams move
What teams say in the first call.
- DPA's UI is a Java-era artifact — slow page loads, dated tables, no mobile.
- Per-instance licensing on Standard/Custom Edition gets expensive past ~30 instances.
- Anomaly detection is threshold-based; no forecast bands.
- No BYOC or sovereign deployment options.
- Cross-DB unified pane is limited — Postgres/MySQL/Mongo each feel like separate products.
02. Honest take
What SolarWinds DPA is genuinely good at.
We’re not interested in trash-talk. Here’s where SolarWinds DPA is the right call — useful even if you end up choosing Obsfly, because keeping SolarWinds DPA for some workloads can make sense.
- + The historical wait-event analysis tradition — DPA invented this category.
- + Strong Oracle and SQL Server depth for mature enterprise stacks.
- + Mature alert routing and stable for shops that have run it for a decade.
- + Acquired VividCortex (now folded in) brings solid query-digest tracking.
03. Side by side
Obsfly vs SolarWinds DPA, line by line.
04. The math
Pricing snapshot.
Public list pricing where known; “contact sales” where not. Real bills are usually within 20% of these figures.
05. Switching
How teams actually switch.
Wait-event semantics preserved
Obsfly rolls Postgres / MySQL / Oracle / SQL Server wait events into the same class taxonomy DPA pioneered — operators don't relearn.
Run side-by-side
Both can scrape the same DB. Run a 30-day pilot to compare resolution and alert quality directly.
Export your DPA threshold set
Send us your DPA alert config; we rebuild as Obsfly alert rules grounded in forecast bands instead.
06. FAQ
Common questions.
Does Obsfly support Oracle and SQL Server like DPA does?+
Yes. Oracle via v$ views (no Tuning/Diagnostics packs required) and SQL Server via Query Store + DMVs. See /oracle-monitoring and /sql-server-monitoring.
What about wait-event categories I rely on in DPA?+
Same taxonomy. We ship wait classes (CPU, IO, Lock, Network, Concurrency) per DB with the same definitions DPA uses, plus per-signature flame graphs.
We have DPA on-prem. Can we go BYOC?+
Yes — BYOC is the natural transition. Data plane runs in your VPC like DPA does, but the control plane (UI, alerting, AI) is Obsfly-managed. SOC2 path included.
Where it shows up
Obsfly for the databases you run.
People also compare
Other tools teams evaluate alongside SolarWinds DPA.
vs Datadog DBM
Obsfly vs Datadog DBM
The Datadog DBM alternative for teams that watched the bill triple. Same data model, more databases, AI-native anomaly detection, BYOC and Sovereign deployment, ~1/3 the price.
vs Redgate SQL Monitor
Obsfly vs Redgate SQL Monitor
Redgate SQL Monitor is excellent for SQL Server. Obsfly matches it on SQL Server and extends to Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB, Oracle, and more — at flat per-DB pricing.
vs pganalyze
Obsfly vs pganalyze
Pganalyze is excellent at Postgres. Obsfly matches it on Postgres and adds MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, ClickHouse, Oracle, and SQL Server in the same pane — with BYOC, AI insights, and modern pricing.
Deep dives
Reading you might want before the call.
Postgres
Postgres slow queries: 12 causes and how to find each one
A field-tested playbook for diagnosing a slow Postgres query in production — from missing indexes to plan flips to bloated tables — with the SQL to find each cause and the fix.
Postgres
Postgres lock chains: how to find the session blocking yours
A practical walkthrough of pg_locks, pg_blocking_pids, and the recursive CTE that gives you the full chain — including the AccessExclusiveLocks that quietly take your DB down.
AI
Anomaly detection on database metrics: why thresholds fail and what works
A walk through forecast bands, change-point detection, multi-variate anomaly, and the seasonality math that makes 'p99 over 200ms' the wrong alert by default — with the Postgres example that broke our last threshold.
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See it on your stack.
20-min comparison demo. Bring real queries from your SolarWinds DPA setup; we'll reproduce them in Obsfly live.