Centralized monitoring has improved risk mitigation and proactively prevents database outages
What is our primary use case?
Redgate Monitor serves as my main multi-platform database observability tool for an entire estate. I use it to optimize performance, ensure security, and mitigate potential risks with fast deep dive analysis and intelligent alerting. It enables me to monitor an entire server estate from a single pane of glass, managing SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Oracle, MySQL, and MongoDB on-premises, in the cloud, or in hybrid environments.
Day-to-day, I rely on Redgate Monitor to create database observability that proactively mitigates potential risks with instant problem diagnosis and customizable alerting. It accelerates daily database maintenance by automating time-consuming manual tasks such as identifying long-running queries or tracking blocked processes, which helps to free up time to proactively improve the performance and security of our servers. Built-in tips and guidance ensure our users get the most out of the information provided, and it minimizes downtime.
What is most valuable?
Redgate Monitor offers detailed resource monitoring, instant alerts, and easy customization as its best features. Missing index, RAM usage, and CPU usage are also valuable features.
I find myself relying on the combination of these features more than any individual feature, as it truly makes a difference for us. The tool is easy to use and provides very good reporting on the SQL Servers being monitored, and these reports are used in our monthly customer reports.
Redgate Monitor has impacted our organization positively by helping us simplify day-to-day tasks and realize a feeling of security. A pre-formatted analysis graph would be beneficial. Redgate Monitor has minimized downtime of critical systems due to proactive alerts as resource usage hits critical customizable thresholds. The cost is justified by alerting IT staff to an emerging issue prior to it reaching a crash state. Preventing a single SQL outage has a tangible benefit for our SQL-reliant team.
What needs improvement?
I wish Redgate Monitor would provide a dedicated section of code for missing index, and the automation layer could be improved.
Redgate Monitor needs improvement to make it easy to install in a default mode so that I am not forced to use Tomcat. I hope to see options for ASP.NET Core self-hosting.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Redgate Monitor for five years and eight months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Redgate Monitor is very stable and reliable, and I have noticed no downtime.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Redgate Monitor's scalability fits our organization's needs perfectly and handles growth well.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support for Redgate Monitor has been fast and responsive. I have reached out to them, and my experience has been very satisfactory.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, I used Microsoft Visual Studio Team System. I switched to Redgate Monitor because it beats Microsoft Visual Studio Team System since it can access SQL Server kernel and internals very easily, and it also has very fast support responses from Redgate.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a return on investment since Redgate Monitor has reduced cost by alerting IT staff to an emerging issue prior to it reaching crash states, and it has minimized downtime of critical systems due to proactive alerts as resource usage hits critical customizable thresholds.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Regarding pricing, setup cost, and licensing, I must say I don't favor the subscription model, and the price is somewhat higher. They should work on improving this aspect.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Redgate Monitor, I evaluated other options such as Dynatrace and System Center Operations Manager.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others looking into using Redgate Monitor is that it is a great tool because it identifies underperforming stored procedures, and from that, we can leverage any missing index or SQL performance information caught by SQL Server easily. The subscription model is not my preference, but that is the standard approach in the industry. I would rate this product an 8 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Great Visibility into Performance Metrics, Blocking, and Long-Running Queries
What do you like best about the product?
Visibility. I am not a DBA, but I am able to use the tool and easily find performance metrics, blocking, and long running queries.
What do you dislike about the product?
I wish I had training to better understand and get more from the tool.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We have reports of slowness in our applications. Redgate allows us to look at performance of the database and if its high see what is causing this slowness. Most times our slowness are self inflicted by developers. We're able to find these problems and see exactly who is running it and go to them directly.
Centralized monitoring has reduced outages and enables faster diagnosis across all database servers
What is our primary use case?
With SQL Server instances at multiple physical locations and in the cloud, my main use case for Redgate Monitor is to know immediately when there are performance issues or outages. Redgate Monitor allows for detailed monitoring with easily customized alerts and reporting thresholds. It is simple to set up and performs exactly as needed.
With mission-critical SQL Server instances at multiple physical locations and in the cloud, I can give a quick specific example of how I use Redgate Monitor in my daily work. It is critical for us to know immediately when there are performance issues or outages. Redgate Monitor provides an intuitive dashboard that allows for detailed resource monitoring. Redgate offers an indication of your server, perhaps when it is under attack and where from. A simple extension would allow further action to be drawn from this, such as looking up the IP in an IP blacklist, which could advise you to block further access from that IP address.
I also use Redgate Monitor to raise performance issues of stored procedures and resource processes. It identifies the underperforming stored procedures, and from that, I can leverage any missing index or SQL performance information caught by SQL Server. I also use Redgate Monitor for aggregating performance metrics and troubleshooting performance issues using wait statistics.
What is most valuable?
The best features Redgate Monitor offers include detailed resource monitoring, instant alerts, and easy customization. A user can quickly see how your server is performing and which queries are taking the longest.
The instant alerts and customizable options help since it is a multiple-platform database observability for the entire estate. I use this to optimize performance, ensure security, and mitigate potential risks with fast, deep-dive analysis and intelligent alerting.
I love Redgate Monitor because it helps manage an entire database estate from a single pane of glass.
Redgate Monitor has positively impacted my organization by creating database observability to proactively mitigate potential risks with instant problem diagnosis and customizable alerting. It accelerates daily database maintenance by automating time-consuming manual tasks, such as identifying long-running queries or tracking blocked processes, which frees up time to proactively improve the performance and security of servers. I have seen time savings from twenty percent to forty-five percent. It also helps to minimize downtime.
What needs improvement?
One of the areas that Redgate Monitor needs to improve includes providing a dedicated section of code for missing indexes. I do not think the custom metric alerting is as flexible as SQL Sentry.
It is a bit expensive for MSPs to use for their day-to-day monitoring.
The automation layer could also be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Redgate Monitor for the past eight years, even in my previous organizations.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
According to my experience, Redgate Monitor is stable. I have not experienced lagging or downtime. It is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Redgate Monitor is highly scalable. It can be used by any size of organization, and it can handle the needs of an organization.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support is very proactive, supportive, and available twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used SQL Sentry Performance Advisor.
I switched from SQL Sentry Performance Advisor to Redgate Monitor because Redgate Monitor offers flexibility in the custom metric monitoring compared to SQL Sentry Performance Advisor.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a return on investment because it has enabled our clients to review all their estate in one place, far easier and better than what SCOM was providing them with. It has been a great tool because it helps our team. It allows us to proactively fix issues before they happen. It allows us to quickly react to issues without having to wait for someone else to notice. It cuts down on the amount of time spent doing daily checks.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The experience with pricing and licensing is that the licensing cost per license is affordable. The cost could be a little bit lower, especially for small and medium enterprises to use this tool.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Redgate Monitor, I evaluated other options such as Dell Spotlight.
What other advice do I have?
Redgate Monitor is a great tool for getting a feel of the general health across all instances and for aggregating performance metrics to trend over time. It is not the best tool when you are trying to drill into specific performance issues or for specific performance tuning. I would rate this review nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Efficient monitoring to professionally oversee database operations.
What do you like best about the product?
What I appreciate most about Redgate Monitor is the good structuring, menu navigation, and functionality of the tool. The updates of the tool are very, very easy and quickly clicked through and done. The system does exactly what it is designed for, without unnecessary additional information or features.
What do you dislike about the product?
I find that the suspension of alerts during maintenance in RedGate Monitor is a bit hidden. Considering that it is actually a main feature during maintenance that one needs to use regularly, the positioning within the tool is not optimal. But with the current implementation, one can manage.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I use Redgate Monitor to monitor changes in production databases. It helps us to get a handle on issues that don't appear in normal system logs, and it now supports more than just MSSQL, which makes monitoring additional databases easier.
Reliable Server Monitoring with User-Friendly Interface
What do you like best about the product?
I find Redgate Monitor easy to use, which makes managing our production servers and SSIS smoother. The alerts are reliable, providing a trustworthy way to stay informed about any issues. The user interface is straightforward, allowing for an intuitive experience. Managing alerts is very easy, which adds to the overall usability of the software.
What do you dislike about the product?
The only thing is the email alert for when an alert is cleared could be better - it’s not immediately obvious that it’s a clear event rather than a new alert.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I use Redgate Monitor to monitor production servers and SSIS, helping me understand issues like locks and performance bottlenecks. It's great for tracking SQL job failures and slow runs.
Essential Tool for SQL Server Performance Management
What do you like best about the product?
What I like best about Red-gate Monitor is its depth of visibility combined with ease of use. It provides clear, actionable insights across SQL Server environments without requiring heavy configuration or constant tuning. The performance analysis, alerting, and historical data views make it easy to quickly identify root causes rather than just symptoms.
The UI is intuitive and clean, which makes it simple to navigate between servers, drill into specific metrics, and understand trends over time. I also appreciate how it centralises monitoring across multiple instances, giving a consolidated view of estate health while still allowing detailed investigation when needed.
Overall, it strikes a strong balance between powerful monitoring capabilities and operational simplicity.
What do you dislike about the product?
While Redgate Monitor is very capable, there are areas where it could improve. Customization of alerts can sometimes feel limited, especially when trying to fine-tune thresholds for more complex or dynamic environments. In larger estates, alert noise can become a factor without careful configuration.
Reporting and dashboard customization could also be more flexible. While the built-in views are strong, creating highly tailored executive or operational reports sometimes requires additional effort.
Additionally, pricing can be a consideration, particularly for organizations monitoring a large number of servers, as costs scale with environment size.
Overall, none of these are deal-breakers, but they are areas where further flexibility and scalability enhancements would add value.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Redgate Monitor solves the challenge of proactively managing SQL Server performance and availability across multiple instances. Instead of reacting to user-reported issues, we’re able to identify bottlenecks, blocking, long-running queries, and resource pressure before they significantly impact the business.
It centralizes monitoring into a single pane of glass, eliminating the need to manually check individual servers or rely on fragmented tooling. The historical performance data is especially valuable for troubleshooting intermittent issues and supporting capacity planning decisions.
As a result, we’ve reduced mean time to resolution (MTTR), improved uptime, and gained better visibility into trends that help with long-term infrastructure planning. It allows us to move from reactive firefighting to proactive performance management, which ultimately improves reliability and user confidence in our systems.
Intuitive UI, Keeps Our Platform Running Smoothly
What do you like best about the product?
I like the overall intuitive UI of Redgate Monitor and the way I can drag and drop the sliders to a specific time, then get the completed deals running back into history. It works great for us.
What do you dislike about the product?
nothing
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I use Redgate Monitor to identify waiting, slow-running queries, and system performance issues on my SQL servers, helping keep my SaaS platform healthy and running smoothly.
Super Easy to Use
What do you like best about the product?
Ease of use for monitoring. Can maintain the user activity logs for audit purpose
What do you dislike about the product?
May be License cost and additional features the password management pro
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Performance trouble shoot
Finding blocking session
Finding usage of resources
Customizable Monitoring with Easy Setup and Excellent Training Materials
What do you like best about the product?
I really appreciate the ability to customize monitoring, along with how easy the installation process is. The training materials are excellent, and the help system is clear and genuinely useful when I need support.
What do you dislike about the product?
One issue is that it isn’t easy to automate system updates. Over the last few versions, we’ve also experienced some instability. That said, the current version has been stable so far.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
This product gives us early warning of database issues such as deadlocks, problematic queries, and SQL job overruns, which provides valuable feedback for our development team as we work on system improvements. It also helps us catch more serious SQL system issues early, before they escalate.
Instant Environment Visibility with Helpful System Issue Suggestions
What do you like best about the product?
It provides an instant view of our environment and offers suggestions on what to check whenever there are system issues.
What do you dislike about the product?
I’m still running into a few issues during setup. The forum answers help somewhat, but clearer step-by-step guides would be more helpful and make the process easier to get through.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Instant access to live data, with the ability to monitor traffic flow in real time.
