SOLARWINDS ALTERNATIVE
The SolarWinds alternative for SQL Server
Everything you watch SolarWinds DPA and SQL Sentry for, from performance to blocking to waits, plus the one thing they don’t show: the dollar cost of every query. Agentless, cost-aware, and priced without the big-vendor trap.
WHY TEAMS SWITCH
The big-vendor trap
SolarWinds tools monitor well. But teams leave for the same three reasons.
// cost
Lock-in and price hikes
A price you can’t see without a sales call, multi-year contracts, and a renewal that only goes one direction.
// blind spot
Monitoring, but no dollars
They tell you a query is slow. They never tell you what it costs to run, so you can’t take a number to finance.
// support
Tier-1, not experts
You reach a queue, not someone who knows SQL Server. Fortified gives you US-based experts.
NO TRAPS
No three-year lock-in.
No surprise renewal hike.
Cancel anytime.
One published price per monitored server/host (unlimited instances per host), billed annually, everything included, no setup fees. The opposite of the multi-year contract you’re trying to escape.
SIDE BY SIDE
WISdom vs SolarWinds DPA vs SQL Sentry
The same monitoring depth, plus the cost layer neither SolarWinds tool has.
| Capability | WISdom | SolarWinds DPA | SQL Sentry |
|---|---|---|---|
| Real-time performance monitoring | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Blocking & deadlock analysis | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Wait stats and Top SQL, unified - the best of DPA + SQL Sentry | ✓ | wait stats | top SQL |
| Query cost attribution (in dollars) | ✓ | — | — |
| FinOps / cost optimization | ✓ | — | — |
| Capacity planning & right-sizing | ✓ | partial | partial |
| Pre / post-migration analysis | ✓ | — | partial |
| Price published on the website | ✓ | by quote | by quote |
| Month-to-month, no multi-year lock-in | ✓ | multi-year | multi-year |
| Simple, modern alerting | ✓ | basic | complex |
| Schema analysis | ✓ | — | — |
| Modern platform, built in the 2020s | ✓ | legacy | legacy |
| US-based SQL Server experts | ✓ | tier-1 | tier-1 |
WHY WISDOM WINS
The best of both, plus what neither has
DPA and SQL Sentry each do one thing well. WISdom does both, on a modern platform, with the enterprise depth they were never built for.
// modern
Built in the last four years
On current technology, not a decade-old codebase, so it gives clearer answers and better visibility into your environment.
// top-down
See everything, drill in fast
Start with the whole estate at a glance, then drop to the exact instance, query, or session in a click. Top-down, not needle-in-a-haystack.
// best of both
Wait stats + Top SQL, together
DPA is strong on wait-time analysis. SQL Sentry is strong on top SQL. WISdom merges both into one view, so you don’t have to choose.
// alerting
Alerting that's actually simple
Set up and tune alerts without the complexity teams wrestle with in SQL Sentry. Signal, not noise.
// depth
Enterprise features neither has
Capacity planning, query cost optimization, and schema analysis, all built in and absent from both DPA and SQL Sentry.
THE SUPPORT YOU REMEMBER
Miss the old SQL Sentry support?
The team known for a 95%+ customer satisfaction rating is here. WISdom is backed by US-based SQL Server experts from the original SQL Sentry support team, not a tier-1 queue.
FIND IT · FIX IT · PROVE IT
Monitoring tells you it's slow.
WISdom tells you what to do.
FIND IT
The expensive query, ranked
Every query ranked by cost, duration, reads, and waits, so you fix what matters, not what’s loudest.
FIX IT
The fix, in the code
See the costly query, the missing index, the regression, and stop expensive code before production.
PROVE IT
The dollars saved
Before and after, converted to dollars: the number SolarWinds never gave you.
“My renewal jumped to $13,000 per year for fewer licenses—and required a three-year commitment,” said Courtney. “When I added up the true annual cost, it came out to nearly $24,000 for the same 11 licenses I now have with Fortified.”
Courtney Woolum, Senior SQL Database Administrator (DBA)
Matrix Pointe Software
FAQ
Switching from SolarWinds, answered
Is WISdom a good SolarWinds DPA alternative?
Yes – WISdom covers the same performance, blocking, and wait-stat monitoring DPA is used for, then adds query-level cost attribution, capacity planning, and migration analysis. It’s monitoring with cost optimization built in, not just another dashboard.
How is WISdom different from SQL Sentry?
SQL Sentry monitors performance. WISdom monitors performance and puts a dollar on every query, stored proc, and workload – so you can prove the savings of a fix, not just spot a slow query. WISdom also publishes one price per monitored instance with every feature included, and no multi-year lock-in.
What does WISdom cost compared with SolarWinds?
At $995/year per monitored server/host, WISdom is one price: unlimited instances per host, every feature included, and no multi-year lock-in. SolarWinds prices by quote, so compare against your own agreement and invoice.
How hard is it to switch?
WISdom is agentless, with nothing to install on your instances, and connects read-only, so standing it up alongside your current tool is low-risk. Most estates are up and running fast.
See what SolarWinds never showed you
No credit card · 30-day free trial · Cancel anytime