shouldiuse.io

VERDICT

Should I use SQLWATCH Cloud - SQL Server & Azure SQL Database Monitoring?

Professional database monitoring and performance management for SQL Server - sqlwatch.io

Depends. Buy if you run many SQL Servers or manage client estates as an MSP — £33/server is cheap for unified blocking, query and job monitoring. Single-server or small shops should use the free open-source version or Azure's native tools instead; evidence is thin, so confidence is low.

Confidence

Low. Based on 9 public sources; no independent product reviews found, hence low confidence.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support qualityNo support evidence found
  • Security posture

Pricing

Business

£33/server/month, less at scale

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
MSPContact sales

Best for

  • SQL Server-heavy businesses
  • MSPs managing client databases
  • Azure SQL shops wanting deep diagnostics
  • DBAs consolidating monitoring tools

Not for

  • Non-Microsoft stacks — no Postgres, MySQL or MongoDB support
  • One-database shops — free OSS version or Azure's Database Watcher suffice
  • Teams wanting all-in-one observability across servers and apps
  • Buyers demanding proven vendors — zero independent reviews found

Gotchas - check before you buy

medium

Per-server pricing compounds on large fleets; 'less as you scale' has no published numbers

medium

MSP tier pricing hidden behind sales contact

medium

Guess: Cloud product is newer than the OSS version; maturity and support unproven

low

Cloud vs free OSS feature gaps unclear without reading their comparison page

Pros and cons

Pros

  • All-in-one view: queries, blocking, wait stats, agent jobs, errors
  • Cheap per-server pricing at £33/month, discounts at scale
  • Real-time alerts catch blocking and failed jobs early
  • Free, established open-source sibling with active GitHub presence
  • Region-pinned data storage: 'Your data. Your region. Always.'

Cons

  • Cloud charges for capabilities the open-source version gives free
  • Microsoft's Database Watcher covers Azure SQL monitoring natively, free
  • MSP and Business tier pricing not fully public; sales contact required
  • SQL Server and Azure SQL only — no other database engines

Sources & method

Analyzed 9/27/2026 - 8 sources - No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

official x6review x1news x1

Key stats

  • Value for money: 4/5

    Rating

  • £33/server/month, less at scale

    Starting price

  • 8

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 4/5. £33/server undercuts Datadog and Sentry rivals
  • Ease of use: 4/5. Drag-and-drop dashboards, single pane of glass
  • Feature depth: 4/5. Queries, blocking, waits, jobs, compliance included
  • Support quality. No support evidence found
  • Security posture: 3/5. Region-pinned data claimed; no audits shown
  • £33/server/month Starting price less as you scale
  • Yes Free trial no free tier advertised
  • Free Open-source version SQLWATCH on GitHub, by Marcin Gminski

Pricing

Business

£33/server/month, less at scale

  • Per-server monitoring
  • Full observability feature set

MSP

Not disclosed

  • Multi-client management
  • Volume pricing

Security

No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

What users say

No independent reviews surfaced; community threads list SQLWATCH among open-source options for monitoring large SQL Server fleets.

Alternatives

Compare SQLWATCH Cloud - SQL Server & Azure SQL Database Monitoring with each alternative.

  • SQL Sentry (SolarWinds)

    Established enterprise SQL Server monitoring with vendor backing

Companies that use it

  • Aareon¹
  • Cegal¹
  • Lee Spring¹
  • Molded Fiber Glass¹
  • Quirch¹
Full analysis

Based on 9 public sources; no independent product reviews found, hence low confidence.

Cheap SQL Server monitoring for fleets; single-server teams should use free OSS or Azure's built-in tools.

Methodology

Based on 9 public sources; no independent product reviews found, hence low confidence.

Sources

  1. SQLWATCH product pagesqlwatch.io
    official
  2. SQLWATCH open source on GitHubgithub.com
    official
  3. Reddit r/SQLServer monitoring discussionreddit.com
    review
  4. Deploy SQLWATCH using GitHub Actions (Kevin Chant)kevinrchant.com
    news
  5. Azure SQL monitoring overview (Microsoft Learn)learn.microsoft.com
    official
  6. Datadog SQL Server monitoring docsdocs.datadoghq.com
    official
  7. SolarWinds SQL Sentry Azure SQL monitoringsolarwinds.com
    official
  8. eG Innovations Azure SQL monitoringeginnovations.com
    official

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