pgDash
In-depth PostgreSQL monitoring and diagnostics
About pgDash
pgDash is a comprehensive diagnostic and monitoring solution built specifically for PostgreSQL. It collects and visualizes deep engine internals like query plans, locks, replication lag, table and index bloat, and backend activity, then surfaces them through dashboards, time-series graphs, detailed reports, and alerting. Available as SaaS or self-hosted, it works with AWS RDS and Aurora and is built by RapidLoop, the makers of the open-source pgmetrics tool.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Purpose-built for PostgreSQL with deep visibility into query plans, locks, replication, and bloat that generic APM tools miss
- Single dashboard for performance, capacity planning, and resourcing across an entire Postgres fleet
- Works with AWS RDS and Aurora and integrates with CloudWatch metrics
- Both SaaS and self-hosted / on-premise deployment options available
- Built on the open-source pgmetrics collector, so data collection is transparent and agent-light
Cons
- No permanent free plan, only a 14-day trial
- Pricing scales per database server, which can get expensive for large fleets
- PostgreSQL-only, so it will not consolidate monitoring for teams running mixed database engines
- Requires running the pgmetrics and pgdash command-line tools to push data rather than a fully hands-off agent
- Self-hosted version is limited to Pro and Enterprise and billed annually
Key Features
Query Diagnostics & Plans
Extensive per-query information including time-series graphs, EXPLAIN execution plans with visualizations, and suggestions to improve query performance.
Diagnostics
Automatically scans your PostgreSQL server and databases for potential issues that could impact health and performance.
Replication Monitoring
Tracks primary and standby lag, physical and logical replication slot information, and standby recovery progress.
Tables & Indexes
Shows size, bloat, activity, vacuum and analyze information, and cache efficiency for every table and index, plus identifies unused indexes.
Locks & Backends
See which queries are waiting on which others, track backends waiting on locks, long-running transactions, and idle-in-transaction sessions.
Inspector Dashboards
Pull up dashboards for key subsystem health and performance indicators across your entire fleet of Postgres servers and databases.
Alerting
Basic alerting on all plans, with change alerting available on Pro and Enterprise to catch configuration and schema drift.
Teams
Share all data for a server with team members who can view metrics and graphs but cannot delete server data (Pro and Enterprise).
Integrations
Collects metrics from associated systems such as AWS CloudWatch and CloudWatch Logs for AWS RDS instances and Aurora Replicas.
Self-Hosted Option
On-premise deployment available for Pro and Enterprise, licensed annually, for teams that cannot use SaaS.
Pricing
- 2 database servers
- Integrations
- Basic alerting
- 30 days data retention
- 5 database servers included ($50 per additional server)
- Integrations
- Basic alerting + change alerting
- 90 days data retention
- AI-enhanced chat
- Teams
- Self-hosted option available
- 20+ database servers
- Integrations
- Basic alerting + change alerting
- 90 days data retention
- AI-enhanced chat
- Teams
- Self-hosted / on-premise option
Best For
PostgreSQL performance tuning
DBAs use per-query time-series and visualized execution plans to find and fix slow queries and inefficient plans.
Replication health monitoring
Teams running primary/standby setups track replication lag and slot health to avoid failover surprises.
Capacity planning
Bloat, table/index size, and tablespace growth metrics help teams plan storage and vacuum strategies proactively.
Managed cloud database observability
Teams on AWS RDS or Aurora combine pgDash metrics with CloudWatch data for a full picture of managed Postgres instances.
Fleet-wide diagnostics
Ops teams pull up inspector dashboards across many Postgres servers to spot locks, idle transactions, and health issues at a glance.
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