PoWA

6.9easy start · #9 of 35
in Database Monitoring

Free to practise onyes
Free trialnot on record
Well documentedyes
Runs where you worknot on record

Runs on Linux, self-hosted, Web.

PoWA is ranked #9 of 35 in database monitoring on The Geeks Club. It runs on Linux, Self-hosted, Web. There is a free plan.

PoWA plans and pricing

All plans

PoWA Free Open project; requires PostgreSQL and pg_stat_statements powa.readthedocs.io · 7 Oct 2026

Compared on database monitoring

Free plan: Yes
Query profiling: Yes
Wait and lock analysis: Yes
Supported databases: PostgreSQL
Deployment model: self-hosted

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The record

Purpose: PoWA collects and aggregates performance metrics from PostgreSQL instances and presents them in charts to help monitor and tune servers.
Deployment modes: PoWA offers local mode for a single instance and remote mode that collects metrics from multiple instances into a repository server.
Core components: The project includes the powa-archivist PostgreSQL extension, the powa-web interface, and an optional powa-collector daemon for remote mode.
Supported metrics: Supported statistics extensions include pg_stat_statements, pg_qualstats, pg_stat_kcache, pg_wait_sampling, and pg_track_settings.
Index analysis: PoWA supports HypoPG, which lets users test hypothetical indexes without creating real indexes.
PostgreSQL requirement: The current version is designed for PostgreSQL 9.4 and newer, and pg_stat_statements is mandatory.
Remote monitoring: Remote mode can collect metrics from multiple instances, including read-only standby servers, without requiring a PostgreSQL restart to add a monitored instance.
Configuration flexibility: Metrics can be selected and enabled or disabled, and users can add custom statistics extensions without modifying PoWA.
Version 5 features: PoWA 5 adds datasource views for replication, background writer, checkpointer, SLRU, WAL, and PostgreSQL 16 or newer I/O statistics, along with per-database metric snapshots.
Security: The documentation says the UI uses prepared statements and recommends HTTPS, SSL for UI-to-PostgreSQL connections, and restricting Internet access to PoWA and PostgreSQL.
Security limitation: In remote mode, the documentation warns that saved remote-server passwords are stored as plain text and recommends using other libpq authentication methods.
Performance impact: PoWA can add performance overhead and disk usage; the documentation says local mode can have more overhead and remote mode should run few queries against target databases.
Notable query limit: The UI only displays queries observed in at least two distinct snapshots, which takes at least 10 minutes with the default snapshot frequency.
Support: The documentation directs users to community IRC and GitHub issue trackers for component-specific support.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on The Geeks Club

Best Database Monitoring in 2026#9 of 35

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Sources

powa.readthedocs.io/en/latest/architecture.html· checked 7 Oct 2026
powa.readthedocs.io/en/latest/· checked 7 Oct 2026
powa.readthedocs.io/en/latest/quickstart.html· checked 7 Oct 2026
powa.readthedocs.io/en/latest/components/introduction.html· checked 7 Oct 2026
postgresql.org/about/news/powa-5-is-out-2951/· checked 7 Oct 2026
powa.readthedocs.io/en/latest/security.html· checked 7 Oct 2026
powa.readthedocs.io/en/latest/impact_on_perf.html· checked 7 Oct 2026
powa.readthedocs.io/en/latest/FAQ.html· checked 7 Oct 2026
powa.readthedocs.io/en/latest/support.html· checked 7 Oct 2026