Comparison Guide

Percona PMM vs MonPG for PostgreSQL

PMM is a serious, free, open-source monitoring platform: agent-based collection, Grafana dashboards, and Query Analytics built on pg_stat_statements (or pg_stat_monitor). It also monitors MySQL and MongoDB, which tells you its design center - a database fleet platform you host and operate. MonPG trades that breadth and self-hosted control for PostgreSQL-only depth and a managed operating model.

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Strongest fit

  • You want monitoring you do not have to operate - PMM means running and upgrading a PMM server plus agents on every host.
  • Your fleet is PostgreSQL-only and generic multi-database dashboards leave you translating signals into Postgres-specific action.
  • You want opinionated next steps (index rollout risk, plan-level triage), not dashboards that assume the viewer already knows what to do.
  • Engineers without deep Grafana or PromQL skills need to self-serve during incidents.

Not ideal when

  • You run MySQL or MongoDB alongside PostgreSQL and want one tool for all of them - PMM covers the whole fleet, MonPG does not.
  • Policy requires fully self-hosted, open-source tooling - PMM is free software you can run entirely inside your network, full stop.
  • You have a platform team that already operates Prometheus/Grafana well; PMM slots into that competence naturally.

Decision signals to evaluate

Operating model: PMM is a self-hosted server + per-host agents you maintain; MonPG is a managed service with an in-network collector.
Database scope: PMM covers MySQL, MongoDB, and PostgreSQL; MonPG is PostgreSQL-only and goes deeper for it.
Query analytics: both build on pg_stat_statements; compare what happens next - PMM gives you drill-down dashboards, MonPG ranks regressions and carries you into plan and lock context.
License cost vs labor cost: PMM is free to license but you pay in upgrade, storage, and dashboard upkeep hours; MonPG is the inverse.
Onboarding: count the steps from zero to first useful signal on one production instance - agent install + server setup vs collector connect.
Index and schema workflow: PMM observes; MonPG also evaluates rollout risk before DDL ships.

Related PostgreSQL pages

Self-Hosted PostgreSQL Monitoring

If self-hosting is the requirement, read this first.

PostgreSQL Monitoring

MonPG production coverage overview.

PostgreSQL Plan Autopsy

Incident-grade EXPLAIN analysis.

FAQ

PMM is free - what am I actually comparing?

Labor. PMM's license costs nothing, but someone runs the PMM server, upgrades it, sizes its storage, and maintains dashboards. If that ownership exists and is funded, PMM is excellent value. If 'free' means 'the on-call engineer maintains it when it breaks', it is not free.

Is PMM's PostgreSQL support as good as its MySQL support?

PMM began MySQL-first and its PostgreSQL coverage has matured substantially - Query Analytics works well with pg_stat_statements or pg_stat_monitor. The honest gap is not data collection; it is that a multi-database platform gives you Postgres data where a Postgres-native tool gives you Postgres decisions.

Can MonPG and PMM coexist?

Yes. Both read statistics views without conflict. A reasonable evaluation is to keep PMM for fleet-wide dashboards and run MonPG on your most incident-prone PostgreSQL instance, then compare triage speed on the next real incident.

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