Best DataDog Competitors [2024 Comparison]
DataDog is a powerful monitoring and analytics platform, but for many organisations it can be quite expensive and complex. If you are looking for an alternative, there are several competitors that offer similar functionality with a simpler interface and lower cost.
Here are the top DataDog competitors that can offer similar functionality with a simpler user interface and smaller costs. But first, let's dive deep into DataDog to understand its competitors.
DataDog
DataDog is a cloud-based monitoring and analytics platform that helps organizations understand and optimize their technology stack.
DataDog provides real-time visibility into the health and performance of IT systems, allowing organizations to detect and resolve performance issues before they impact business operations.
DataDog Cons
Like any technology, DataDog has both advantages and disadvantages.
Cost. While DataDog offers a wide range of features, its pricing can be a bit steep for smaller organizations.
The pricing is based on the number of hosts or cloud instances being monitored, as well as the selected features and add-ons. It's important to carefully consider the pricing structure and compare it with your budget and requirements.
Complex Setup. Getting the most out of DataDog requires a certain level of technical expertise, and the setup process can be complex and time-consuming.
The configuration and setup process may require some technical expertise, and understanding the full range of features and functionalities may take time.
Learning Curve. There is a steep learning curve associated with using DataDog, especially for users who are new to monitoring and analytics.
Datadog's robust feature set is designed to handle complex monitoring needs, which can sometimes be overkill for smaller environments or simpler applications. If you have relatively straightforward monitoring requirements, you may find that Datadog's extensive capabilities are not fully utilized or may be more complex than necessary.
Who are DataDog Competitors?
Datadog faces intense competition in the market. Though the following tools have similarities, it's important to understand their distinctions and compare them to find the best solution for your needs.
Here are just a few examples of the many competitors in the monitoring and observability space. Each of these platforms has its own strengths and may be better suited for specific use cases or environments. It's important to evaluate the features, integrations, pricing, and support offered by each competitor to determine the best fit for your organization's needs.
Uptrace
Uptrace is a distributed tracing tool that helps developers pinpoint failures and find performance bottlenecks. Uptrace can process billions of spans on a single server and allows you to monitor your software at 10x lower cost.
Uptrace allows you to track, visualize, and pinpoint failures in the distributed microservices. You can visualize and correlate the events flowing through complex distributed systems.
Features
- Distributed tracing
- Metrics
- Infrastructure monitoring
- Log management
- Alerting with anomaly detection
Pricing
- Starts from $30 for 200 gigabytes, then $0.13 per gigabyte
- Each span is around 500 bytes
- Unlimited users, services, and hosts
Pros
- Public playground to play with the product
- Simple and clean UI (in comparison to others)
- Overview dashboards
- Flexible query builder
- Pre-built metrics dashboards
- Open Source version
Cons
- Low number of pre-built metrics dashboards
- Dashboards only support basic chart types
- No support for profiling or real user monitoring
Instana
Instana is a cloud-based observability and application performance management (APM) platform. It provides real-time visibility into the performance and behavior of applications, services, and infrastructure, and helps organizations quickly identify and resolve issues.
Instana allows you to identify the root cause and resolve system failures with ease by tracking every operation in complex distributed microservices. Instana uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to automatically detect and analyze performance anomalies, and provides insights into application performance, service behavior, and infrastructure health.
Features
- Distributed tracing
- Infrastructure monitoring
- Log management
Monthly Pricing
- Starts from $750
- $75 per host (minimum order quantity of 10 hosts)
Pros
- Public playground to play with the product
- Simple and clean UI (in comparison to others)
- Overview dashboards
- Flexible query builder
- Infrastructure monitoring
Cons
- No custom metrics dashboards
- No support for profiling or real user monitoring
LightStep
LightStep is the cloud-native reliability platform. It provides full-context root cause analysis with traces, logs, and metrics.
LightStep provides real-time dashboards with a visual representation of the collected data. Whenever there is an anomaly, you get immediately alerted via your preferred notification channels.
LightStep uses distributed tracing to track requests and transactions as they flow through microservices and other components, and provides a visual representation of how these components interact.
Features
- Distributed tracing
- Metrics
- Infrastructure monitoring
- Log management
- Alerts
Monthly Pricing
- $100 per service
- Each service gets 1TB and 10k timeseries
- Each span is around 500 bytes
Pros
- Public playground with really helpful instructions and hints
- Latency can be compared to 1 hour / day / week prior using a histogram
- Correlations can help find the root cause of latency regressions
- Stream-based alerts
- OpenTelemetry contributor
Cons
- Limited query builder capabilities
- Playground API is often slow and unresponsive even though the number of spans in the public dataset is low
- No profiling and real user monitoring
NewRelic
New Relic One is the leading observability platform where Dev and Ops teams come together to solve problems with data. It provides a thorough microservices monitoring system that is based on distributed tracing.
NewRelic provides real-time insights into the performance of applications, infrastructure, and browser experiences, and enables organizations to quickly identify and resolve issues.
New Relic is designed to help organizations deliver better digital experiences to their customers, and to improve the efficiency and reliability of their technology infrastructure.
Features
- Distributed tracing
- Log management
- Metrics
- Infrastructure monitoring
- Real users monitoring
- Alerting with anomaly detection
Monthly Pricing
- $0.25 per GB
- $99 per full platform user
- $49 per core User
Pros
- Large number of features and integrations
- Support for multiple datasets
Cons
- No public playground
- Complicated UI
- Lack of a single pricing page for all features. Tends to be more expensive than DataDog.
Honeycomb
Honeycomb is a fast analysis tool that reveals the truth about how users experience your code in complex and unpredictable environments. It provides complete visibility into distributed microservices and multi-cloud environment.
Honeycomb allows organizations to collect, store, and analyze performance data from their applications and infrastructure, and to quickly identify and resolve issues.
Features
- Distributed tracing
- Log management
- Metrics
- Infrastructure monitoring
- Integrated alerting
Monthly Pricing
- $100 for up to 100 million events
- $400 for up to 450 million events
- $1200 for up to 1500 million events
Pros
- Public playground with some hints
- Flexible query builder
- Focuses on working with custom datasets
- BubbleUp can help find the root cause of latency regressions
Cons
- Minimalistic "build it yourself" UI
- Requires writing queries to get any results
Splunk
Splunk is a powerful platform for collecting, analyzing, and visualizing machine data, including logs, events, and metrics. It offers a range of capabilities, including application monitoring, infrastructure monitoring, and security monitoring.
One of the key advantages of Splunk is its ability to handle massive volumes of data from a wide range of sources. It can ingest and analyze data in real-time, providing real-time insights into the behavior and performance of complex, distributed systems.
Splunk also offers a comprehensive set of analytics and visualization tools, including dashboards and alerts, which make it easy for users to identify patterns and anomalies in their data. It can also integrate with a wide range of third-party tools and platforms, allowing for a seamless and integrated monitoring and analytics workflow.
However, one potential downside of Splunk is its cost, which can be significant for some organizations, especially small businesses and startups. Additionally, the platform can be complex and require a steep learning curve for new users.
Features
- Distributed tracing
- Metrics
- Infrastructure monitoring
- Log management
- Integrated alerting
Pricing
- Starts from $1,800/year
Pros
- Extensive log management capabilities
- High level of customizability
- Strong data visualization and analysis tools
Cons
- Higher cost compared to other tools
- Steep learning curve
- Complex setup and maintenance
DynaTrace
DynaTrace is a commercial application performance monitoring (APM) tool that provides real-time insights into the behavior and performance of complex, distributed systems. It offers a comprehensive set of features, including full-stack monitoring, automated root cause analysis, distributed tracing, and real-time analytics.
One of the key advantages of DynaTrace is its ability to provide end-to-end visibility into application performance, from user experience to infrastructure performance. It also offers automatic instrumentation, which simplifies the process of monitoring and tracing applications.
Another advantage of DynaTrace is its scalability, which allows it to monitor and trace large, complex distributed systems with ease. It is also highly customizable, allowing developers to fine-tune the monitoring and tracing of their applications to meet their specific needs.
However, like other commercial APM tools, DynaTrace can be expensive and resource-intensive, requiring significant CPU, memory, and storage resources to handle large volumes of data. It may also have a steeper learning curve compared to open source APM tools.
Features
- Full-stack monitoring
- Automated root cause analysis
- Distributed tracing
- Real-time analytics
Pricing
- Full-Stack Monitoring: Starts at $69 per 8 GB host per month. More details can be found on the official pricing page.
- Application Security: $12 per 16 GB host per month.
- Digital Experience Monitoring: Starts at $11 per 10,000 sessions per month.
Pros
- End-to-end visibility into application performance
- Automatic instrumentation
- Highly scalable and customizable
Cons
- Higher cost compared to other tools
- Steep learning curve
- Resource-intensive
Sematext
Sematext is an all-in-one observability solution that provides real-time insights into the performance and behavior of applications, services, and infrastructure. It offers a range of capabilities, including application monitoring, infrastructure monitoring, and log management.
Sematext allows organizations to collect, store, and analyze performance data from their applications and infrastructure, and to quickly identify and resolve issues. It also offers advanced analytics and visualization tools, including dashboards and alerts, which make it easy for users to identify patterns and anomalies in their data.
Features
- Log management
- Metrics
- Infrastructure monitoring
- Uptime checks (Synthetics)
- Alerts
Pricing
- Logs: Starts at $50/month for 1 GB daily ingestion. $1.56/GB if you ingest 1 GB/day, less if you ingest more. More details can be found on the official pricing page.
- Monitoring: $5/month per agent.
- Uptime Checks (Synthetics): $5/month for each monitor.
Pros
- Powerful dashboards with Grafana-like UI
- Elasticsearch API and Kibana integration
- Scalable and easy to set up
Cons
- Logs can be expensive for high ingestion rates
- Limited support for distributed tracing
- No support for distributed tracing
AppDynamics
AppDynamics is a leading application performance monitoring (APM) solution that provides real-time insights into the performance and behavior of applications, services, and infrastructure. It uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to automatically detect and analyze performance issues, and provides detailed, actionable insights into the root cause of these issues.
AppDynamics provides a comprehensive set of monitoring and observability capabilities, including application performance monitoring (APM), infrastructure monitoring, and digital experience monitoring. It also offers advanced analytics and visualization tools, including dashboards and alerts, which make it easy for users to identify patterns and anomalies in their data.
Features
- Distributed tracing
- Log management
- Metrics
- Infrastructure monitoring
- Real users monitoring
- Alerting with anomaly detection
Pricing
- Infrastructure Monitoring Edition: $6/month per CPU Core (billed annually)
- Premium Edition: $33/month per CPU Core (billed annually)
- Enterprise Edition: $50/month per CPU Core (billed annually)
- Enterprise Edition for SAP: $95/month per CPU Core (billed annually)
- Real User Monitoring: $0.06/month per 1,000 tokens (billed annually)
- Cisco Secure Application: $13.75/month per CPU Core (billed annually)
For more details, refer to the AppDynamics Pricing.
Pros
- AI-powered root cause analysis
- Real-time visibility into application performance
- Comprehensive set of monitoring and observability capabilities
Cons
- Higher cost compared to other tools
- Steep learning curve
- Complex setup and maintenance
Conclusion
Choosing the right DataDog competitor depends on your organization's specific needs and budget. Each of these competitors offers a unique set of features and capabilities, so it's important to evaluate them based on your requirements.
If you're looking for a high-quality, cost-effective alternative to DataDog, consider giving Uptrace a try. With its user-friendly interface, powerful features, and competitive pricing, Uptrace is a great choice for organizations of all sizes.
For more information on how Uptrace compares to other popular tools, check out these comparisons: