Datadog vs Grafana

Offers open-source dashboards and metric visualisation, but does not include managed log or security services.

DatadogMonitoring and security platform for cloud apps

GrafanaOpen-source dashboards and observability

Which to pick

Pick Datadog if you want…

Unified observability and security for cloud apps
Integrated monitoring & security
Integrations with Amazon Web Services, GitHub or GitLab (on Datadog's list, not Grafana's)

Pick Grafana if you want…

Open-standard full-stack observability
Dashboarding and metric visualisation
Open-source code (grafana/grafana on GitHub, AGPL-3.0 license)
Integrations with Prometheus or Slack (on Grafana's list, not Datadog's)

Datadog is a commercial monitoring platform with built-in security features, whereas Grafana focuses on open-source standards and extensible plugins.

Side by side

What it is: Datadog:Datadog is a cloud monitoring and security platform that provides observability across infrastructure, applications, logs, and security.; Grafana:Grafana Cloud is an open-source-based observability platform that unifies metrics, logs, traces, profiles and business data.
Best for: Datadog:Unified observability and security for cloud apps; Grafana:Open-standard full-stack observability
Who it’s for: Datadog:Developers, IT ops, and security teams managing cloud-native workloads.; Grafana:Developers, SREs and teams needing full-stack observability and cost-optimized telemetry.
Pricing: Datadog:Freemium; Grafana:Freemium
Plans: Datadog:AI Credits $500 per 500 credits per month · Code Coverage $8 per committer per month · Log Management $0.10 per GB ingested per month; Grafana:Free $0 · Pro $19 per month + usage · Enterprise $25,000 per year spend commit
Open source: Datadog:—; Grafana:Yes, 77,033 GitHub stars
Works with: Datadog:Amazon Web Services, Kubernetes, OpenTelemetry, GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps; Grafana:OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Kubernetes, Slack

Datadog features

Infrastructure Monitoring. Collects metrics, custom metrics, and alerts from servers, containers, and cloud services.
Application Performance Monitoring. Tracks request latency, traces, and provides continuous profiling.
Log Management. Ingests, parses, enriches and stores logs with flexible retention and alerting.
Security Suite. Offers code security, vulnerability management, cloud security posture and SIEM.
Synthetic & Real User Monitoring. Proactively tests user journeys and captures real-user performance data.
AI-powered Bits Suite. AI agents for chat, investigation, code fixes, and custom workflow automation.

Grafana features

AI Assistant. Ask natural-language questions, build dashboards and run investigations directly from Grafana, Slack or the terminal.
Adaptive Telemetry. Automatically identifies low-value data and aggregates it, cutting telemetry spend by up to 80%.
Full-stack observability. Unified view of metrics, logs, traces, profiles and synthetic monitoring on a single map.
OpenTelemetry-native. Native support for OpenTelemetry and Prometheus with hundreds of plugins and integrations.
Cost Management. Pay-as-you-go pricing with volume-based discounts and a free tier that includes all services.
Compliance & Security. FedRAMP, NIST-100, PCI-DSS, GDPR and SOC-2 certifications for enterprise use.

Datadog vs Grafana FAQ

Is Datadog or Grafana free?+

Datadog has a free plan and paid plans. Grafana has a free plan and paid plans.

Is Datadog or Grafana open source?+

Grafana is open source (grafana/grafana on GitHub, AGPL-3.0 license). DevHunt has no public source repository on record for Datadog.

Do Datadog and Grafana integrate with the same tools?+

Partly. Both list Kubernetes and OpenTelemetry. Datadog also lists Amazon Web Services, GitHub, GitLab and Azure DevOps; Grafana also lists Prometheus and Slack.

On DevHunt

Datadog

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Datadog on DevHunt →Datadog alternatives

Grafana