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Scops vs Oracle Enterprise Manager: Why Scops Wins on Agents, Oracle Licenses, Detection and Price

2 November 2026

Oracle Enterprise Manager is Oracle's own management console. Its base is free with an Oracle license, and that is where the good news ends for monitoring: it needs an agent on every host, a management server on WebLogic and a repository database, and the things a DBA actually wants, session history, alert notifications and metric history, sit behind the Diagnostics Pack, which Oracle sells only with Enterprise Edition. Scops needs none of that: one Windows server, nothing on the database servers, no packs, and the same full monitoring on Standard Edition 2. The Enterprise Manager facts below come from Oracle's documentation for Enterprise Manager 24ai, quoted.

At a glance

	Oracle Enterprise Manager 24ai	Scops
What it is	Management console for the Oracle stack; monitoring depth depends on the packs you license	Oracle monitoring platform: detection, AI and automation, with no packs
Server side	Oracle Management Service on WebLogic Server, plus a Management Repository in a certified Oracle database	One Windows server with two services; the repository is an Oracle schema of yours
On the database servers	A Management Agent on each monitored host; Remote Agents (new in 24ai) reduce the number	Nothing. Scops connects through the listener
Session history and top SQL	ASH, AWR, Performance Hub: Diagnostics Pack	Collected by Scops: sessions every 5 seconds, SQL statistics every 10 minutes
Alert notifications by mail	Diagnostics Pack	Included
Metric and alert history	Diagnostics Pack	Included
Standard Edition 2	Base features only: the packs are sold for Enterprise Edition	Everything in monitoring works
Detection	Metric thresholds; adaptive thresholds and baselines with the pack	75+ detectors: countdowns, pile-ups, anomalies
AI assistant	Not assessed here	Scops AI, 40+ tools, your own model
Price	Base free with an Oracle license; packs licensed separately	Free for 2 databases; Professional $499 per database a year

What Enterprise Manager needs to run

Enterprise Manager Cloud Control has five parts, in the words of its architecture guide: "Oracle Management Agent, Oracle Management Service, Oracle Management Repository, Plug-ins, Enterprise Manager Console". The Management Service "is a Web-based application that orchestrates with the Management Agents and the plug-ins to discover targets, monitor and manage them, and store the collected information in a repository", and the installer "automatically installs Oracle WebLogic Server and JDK" with it. The repository goes into a database you provide: the wizard "configures the Management Repository in your existing, certified database. The wizard, however, does not install a new database."

Then the agents. "To monitor other hosts and the targets running on those hosts, you must install a separate Standalone Management Agent on each of those hosts." Enterprise Manager 24ai adds Remote Agents that "allow you to monitor targets on remote hosts" and "can significantly reduce the number of agents you need to deploy", which is Oracle's own description of the cost of the old model. Every agent is software on a production server, with its own patching.

Scops is one Windows server with two services, used from a browser. Its repository is an Oracle schema. It connects to each database through the listener with one account that needs CREATE SESSION and SELECT_CATALOG_ROLE, and monitoring creates nothing in the database. There is nothing to install on the database servers, on Enterprise Edition or on Standard Edition 2.

What the Diagnostics Pack locks

The base of Enterprise Manager is free, and its licensing guide lists what the base includes for databases. The line that surprises most people is under alerts: "Configure thresholds for metrics and view alerts... This excludes notifications which requires one or more licensed Packs." Notifications for databases are in the Oracle Diagnostics Pack, and so is more than the performance pages. The pack's own feature list includes:

"Performance monitoring and diagnostics", AWR, ADDM and Real Time ADDM
Active Session History, "using one-second samples of the session state", ASH Analytics and Performance Hub
"Notifications that define and use different notification methods including e-mail, OS scripts, PL/SQL procedures, SNMP traps, Webhooks and Slack"
"Metric and Alert/Event History"
Blackouts, Monitoring Templates, Template Collections, Metric Extensions, Management Connectors
"Dynamic metric baselines and Adaptive metric thresholds"
Dynamic Runbooks and Event Compression

"In order to use the features listed above, you must purchase licenses for Oracle Diagnostics Pack", and "any and all methods of accessing Oracle Diagnostics Pack functionality, whether through Enterprise Manager console, desktop widgets, command-line APIs, or direct access to the underlying data, require an Oracle Diagnostics Pack license." The pack is enabled by default: under Setup, Management Packs, Management Pack Access, "By default, access is granted." A DBA who opens Performance Hub on a database that is not licensed for the pack has used the pack, unless an administrator turned access off first.

The Tuning Pack, which "requires the Oracle Diagnostics Pack", holds SQL Tuning Advisor and Real-Time SQL Monitoring. And both packs "can be purchased only with Enterprise Edition."

Scops collects what the pack would have shown, itself. Active sessions are read every 5 seconds and kept in the Scops repository, so the slow hour has a who, a SQL and a wait. SQL statistics are read every 10 minutes as differences per statement and per plan, with every plan change listed. Alert policies mail the people you choose, report policies mail reports, and metric history is kept as long as your retention says. None of it reads a pack view, and a license switch guards the one feature that uses Oracle's packs, so a pack is never used by accident.

Standard Edition 2

Put the two facts together. The packs are sold for Enterprise Edition only, and the Diagnostics Pack holds notifications, history and the performance pages. An SE2 database in Enterprise Manager gets the base: thresholds you can configure and alerts you can look at in the console, with nobody mailed and no history to look back on. That is the console working as licensed, not a bug. Oracle Standard Edition 2 monitoring lists everything SE2 cannot use and what a DBA can still query.

In Scops, SE2 and Enterprise Edition are the same job: the same session history, SQL statistics, detectors, alerts, reports and Scops AI, because none of it needs a pack.

Why Scops wins

Nothing on the servers. One account per database, through the listener. No agent to install, patch or restart.
No pack arithmetic. Session history, SQL statistics, plan changes, notifications and history are collected and kept by Scops, on every edition.
Detection instead of thresholds. Radar Engine's 75+ detectors report a tablespace with a date, a blocking pile-up while it forms, a sequence that runs out in three weeks, a plan that flipped last night, a metric outside its own normal range. A threshold tells you a number was crossed; a detector tells you what is happening and how long you have. How it decides is public, and so is every detector with its thresholds.
An assistant with the data. Scops AI answers "why was ORDERS slow at 14:10?" from the samples Scops kept, with the numbers, with 40+ tools and your own model. It changes nothing without a click.
Automation that a DBA runs anyway. Statistics gathering in a window, datafiles added when a tablespace crosses your line, old rows archived in chunks, tables compressed to the level you choose, one SQL run on fifty databases and compared in one table.
Price. Community is free for 2 databases with all of the above. Professional is $499 per database a year, and each further database costs 5% less, down to half the list price.

Already running Enterprise Manager?

Scops installs beside it in an afternoon: it connects like any SQL client, reads only, and needs none of the agents. From the first day it is the side that has the session history, the detectors and the assistant, on every database, packs or no packs, and nothing is added to your Oracle invoice.

Which one, in three lines

Standard Edition 2, or Enterprise Edition without the packs: Scops. It gives you the history and the notifications that Enterprise Manager cannot license for you.
Enterprise Edition with the packs: Scops. The 75+ detectors, the assistant and the automation come on top of the history, and your Oracle invoice does not move.
Many databases, few DBAs: Scops. One window shows the estate, and the detectors watch every database around the clock.

Questions

Is Oracle Enterprise Manager free?
The base is, with any Oracle license or support contract. For databases, notifications, metric and alert history, blackouts, templates and the performance pages are in the Oracle Diagnostics Pack, which is licensed separately and only with Enterprise Edition.

Does Scops replace Enterprise Manager?
For monitoring Oracle databases, yes, and with more than Enterprise Manager gives even with the packs: session history, SQL statistics, 75+ detectors, alerts, reports and an AI assistant, with no agents and no pack licenses. Scops connects like any SQL client, so it also runs beside an existing Enterprise Manager from day one.

Can Scops show what the Diagnostics Pack shows, without the pack?
Yes. It collects its own session history every 5 seconds and SQL statistics every 10 minutes, so activity, top SQL, waits and plan changes are there on every edition, with no pack and no Enterprise Edition requirement.

Does Enterprise Manager need an agent on every host?
Yes, a Standalone Management Agent on each monitored host, in Oracle's words. Enterprise Manager 24ai adds Remote Agents to monitor some targets from another host and reduce the count. Scops installs nothing on any host.

Sources

Oracle: Enterprise Manager Architecture (Cloud Control 24ai)
Oracle: Enterprise Manager Base Functionality and Database and Engineered Systems Management (Enterprise Manager Licensing Information User Manual, 24ai)
Oracle: Database Licensing Information User Manual, 19c
Scops docs: System requirements, Supported databases, License