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IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server vs Toad Data Modeler comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 23, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manage...
Ranking in Database Development and Management
12th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Event Monitoring (14th)
Toad Data Modeler
Ranking in Database Development and Management
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Database Development and Management category, the mindshare of IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server is 3.1%, down from 4.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Toad Data Modeler is 3.1%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database Development and Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Toad Data Modeler3.1%
IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server3.1%
Other93.8%
Database Development and Management
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2317098 - PeerSpot reviewer
Assistant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Offers effective monitoring of resources but lacks the ability to connect to an AWS instance and write custom queries.
We use it mainly for monitoring, including CPU, memory, and disk space, and for troubleshooting purposes We've set up alerts to notify us when performance deviates from the baseline we've configured for each resource. So, whenever that happens, we get an alert and can investigate immediately. So,…
KQ
Senior engineer at a government with 201-500 employees
Creates intuitive diagrams with comprehensive control over relationships
1) When updating a model after generating a schema, if only a few tables are imported, the tool assumes you want to delete the rest. If you have a large model, you repeatedly have to clarify that you don't want to delete each one. 2) If one could view the same model on physical, logical, and conceptual levels while retaining all information specific to each level (including layout), that would be excellent.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The best part of SQL DM is the ability to customize alerts and counters. This allows our team to find an issue then alert on the issue at a granular level."
"Memory and CPU utilization features are good."
"Baselining our SQL Servers has made a huge impact."
"Ability to identify bottlenecks, deadlocks and slow running queries and run monthly and daily reports."
"We're able to diagnose issues prior to their actually becoming issues. Without the alerting, we wouldn't have a clue as to what was going to happen. With the alerting, it gives us a heads-up that a specific threshold has been met, and we need to take specific action."
"SQL DM made troubleshooting much easier and allowed multiple people to look into an issue with confidence."
"There are several monitoring tools, but IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager is actually better than other competitors."
"The most valuable features are disk space projections for planning, and also the Snapshotting ability, to look back in time, to see what was going on the server at a particular time. It's basically the output of an sp_who2."
"I found all features valuable and necessary in Toad Data Modeler, particularly how good the solution is for modeling, database schema generation, and database re-engineering. I also found Toad Data Modeler straightforward to use."
"Toad is 100% value for money product."
"Auto-complete is the best feature of the solution."
"It's a must-buy, and both pricing and licensing is well in the range of every organization."
"It is a very good option for creating and editing SQL scripts, especially large ones that I have run in support of government billing applications."
"Toad allowed us to run the query on the cloud DB and return data from the query, making things much faster."
"I have used it for over six years."
"This product is fast to learn and a user-friendly tool."
 

Cons

"We don't find that it helps us with performance monitoring and diagnostics. We find that SentryOne does that better. Also, in terms of alerts, we had to customize them dramatically so that we didn't get alerted on every little thing."
"One thing I'd like to see is the ability to view the execution plan and have the system automatically recommend potential query optimizations, especially at the query level."
"It would helpful if SQL DM could mark when changes are made within the program."
"The initial setup gives too many user rights to the server, so you have to put a user that is part administrator's group - that's the preferred way - on each server, which is kind of a risk. You want to do least privilege and you're not doing that."
"I'm going to do an upgrade which may resolve my issues, but one area for improvement is its ability to handle the amount of data that we collect with it. We're likely one of the largest installations, with over 300 servers being collected with this product, and sometimes there are gaps. That would really be my only concern, in terms of how the data is collected and stored, for consistency."
"Reporting and overall analysis of data gathered from SQL Server."
"They can improve checking the status of the CPU, memory, and IO utilization from each task."
"Some more granularity in alerting."
"Better documentation would be a benefit."
"We sometimes have issues with multiple nested queries. They take a long time to run, and it would be nice to have them run faster."
"Sometimes, Toad crashes without a clue as to why, and it needs an immediate restart."
"The product should provide better debugging features."
"Reverse engineering the physical schema is complex and can be made easier."
"It is not feasible for small businesses. It is not used in a small company."
"What could be improved in Toad Data Modeler is stability and the complex setup."
"Although a lot of people get deceived by the name “Data Analysis”, it has capacity of any enterprise tool, but not to the point of creating multiple pipes in one integrated work-flow, batching the work-flows and running them parallel for data loads."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We were upgraded to Premium Support without their actually asking us, when we were quoted. Then I asked for Standard Support and that they had to re-quote us that. But they don't do that by default. They upcharge you by default, which I didn't think was very nice, without even asking."
"The pricing is reasonable, it's comparable with the competitors."
"Price-wise, the lesser it is, the better it is for me, especially in Egypt. I think that the licensing cost ranges from 1,000 to 9,000. Also, it includes maintenance and support for a year."
"Though I'm not involved in the licensing for Toad Data Modeler, I believe it's per user and not cheap."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
Energy/Utilities Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise9
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Toad Data Modeler?
Considering its functionality, I would rate its pricing as a seven out of ten. It could be cheaper yet is still pretty good.
What needs improvement with Toad Data Modeler?
1) When updating a model after generating a schema, if only a few tables are imported, the tool assumes you want to delete the rest. If you have a large model, you repeatedly have to clarify that y...
What is your primary use case for Toad Data Modeler?
There are two main use cases. One is reengineering an existing model and making changes from a database. The other is making a new model from scratch. These use cases involve all kinds of systems, ...
 

Also Known As

IDERA SQL DM, IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager
Toad
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Padnos, University of Notre Dame, D4, Infeon Technologies, Chevron, LC Waikiki, Sisters of Saint Francis Health Services, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, CVE, Colorado State University, St. Charles, Chaucer PLC, 1-800-Flowers, Ancoris, Money Management, National Opinion Research Center, California Department of Health, Plexus; Aviva, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, CBS, Comcast, Google, Merck, Regions Financial, Schneider Electric, Tata Consultancy Services, Verizon Communications, Zurich Financial Services
Zions Bancorporation
Find out what your peers are saying about IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server vs. Toad Data Modeler and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.