Honest comparison
dbexpertAI vs Percona PMM
Percona PMM is free, open-source monitoring for MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MongoDB — dashboards, query analytics, and advisors you host yourself, backed by the deep expertise of Percona. dbexpertAI is a different category: autonomous diagnosis, where expert-curated detection paths run every 90 seconds and deliver root cause with resolution steps. PMM gives skilled operators superb visibility for free; dbexpertAI does the operator's investigation for you, across five SQL systems.
Respect first: Percona's engineers have probably fixed more production MySQL databases than any group on earth, and PMM being free and open source is a real gift to the community. The comparison here is about what each hands you when something breaks.
Percona — founded by Peter Zaitsev and Vadim Tkachenko, two of the most respected names in MySQL performance — backs PMM (Percona Monitoring and Management) as its open-source monitoring offering.
Where Percona PMM is the better choice
- Free and open source — unbeatable cost of entry, no vendor lock-in, self-hosted by design
- Query Analytics (QAN) is genuinely strong for MySQL and PostgreSQL workloads
- Backed by Percona: if you also buy their support or managed services, the humans behind it are world-class
- Full control: your monitoring stack, your infrastructure, your rules
Where dbexpertAI differs
- Deliverable: PMM renders dashboards and advisor warnings a human interprets; dbexpertAI delivers concluded diagnoses — root cause, evidence, resolution steps
- Operating cost is not zero: PMM is free software you run, patch, scale, and staff; the investigation hours are the real line item
- Coverage: PMM focuses on MySQL/PostgreSQL/MongoDB; dbexpertAI adds Oracle, SQL Server, and MariaDB to the Postgres/MySQL world PMM knows
- Autonomy: detection paths conclude investigations every 90 seconds; advisors flag known misconfigurations but do not investigate incidents
Side by side
The comparison table
| Dimension | Percona PMM | dbexpertAI |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free (self-hosted, self-operated) | $50/database/month self-serve; first database free for life |
| Core deliverable | Dashboards, query analytics, advisor checks | Root cause + evidence + resolution steps, autonomously |
| Systems | MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB (+ proxies, OS) | Five SQL systems (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server) |
| Who investigates | Your engineers, using PMM's visibility | The detection-path engine; your engineers read the conclusion |
| Operating model | You host and maintain the monitoring stack | Read-only on-prem agent; we maintain the diagnostic engine |
| Best fit | Teams with strong DBAs who want free, deep visibility | Teams that want investigation time deleted, or lack a dedicated DBA |
Based on public documentation at the time of writing. Spotted something out of date? Tell us — we'll fix it.
The honest verdict
If you have strong database engineers and budget pressure, PMM is the best free visibility you can get — run it. The cost it does not remove is the investigation itself: every incident still consumes senior hours between symptom and root cause. That is the specific cost dbexpertAI removes. Plenty of estates run PMM dashboards next to dbexpertAI diagnoses.
Compare against your own database.
The fairest benchmark is your production system: connect it read-only, wait 90 seconds, judge the diagnosis yourself. First database free, for life.
First database free. For life.
Runs on Windows, macOS and Ubuntu — inside your network, read-only. Enterprise fleet or want humans in the loop? Talk to us.