Datadog vs Sumo Logic: Host Pricing or Pay-Per-Search Logs
Prices and facts checked on vendor pages on Nov 8, 2026.
Datadog and Sumo Logic both centralize logs, but they price and package them in opposite ways. Datadog charges per host for infrastructure and APM, then meters logs by ingestion and indexing. Sumo Logic started as a log analytics service and now adds a SIEM and AI agents, with credit-based and pay-per-search plans quoted by sales.
The Short Answer
Pick Datadog when you want infrastructure, APM, logs, and user monitoring under one hosted bill with list prices you can read today. Pick Sumo Logic when logs and security analytics are the center of your work, you want to ingest everything without per-GB indexing fees, and you can live with quotes in place of a public price list.
Datadog vs Sumo Logic at a Glance
How Datadog Charges
These are list prices from Datadog's price list, checked on November 8, 2026, at the annual rate.
- Log ingestion: $0.10 per ingested GB per month.
- Indexed log events: $1.06 per million at 3-day retention, $1.27 at 7 days, $1.70 at 15 days, and $2.50 at 30 days.
- Flex Logs Starter: $0.60 per million events stored per month, with retention of 6, 12, or 15 months on the list.
- Observability Pipelines: $0.095 per ingested GB. Sensitive Data Scanner: $0.30 per scanned GB.
- Infrastructure Pro: $15 per host. APM: $31 per APM host.
Datadog's log billing docs say you set a monthly commitment on indexed events. Go over it and the extra is charged on demand at a 50% premium. Its Flex Logs docs split storage into three choices: standard indexing for frequent queries, Flex Logs for long-term retention you sometimes need to search urgently, and archiving for logs you rarely touch.
How Sumo Logic Charges
Sumo Logic's pricing page shows two packages and an AI add-on, with no price on any of them.
- Essentials: for small and mid-sized DevOps and SecOps teams. Continuous tier only, up to 50,000 metrics a day, up to 5 GB a day of traces, retention up to 365 days, and standard 8x5 support.
- Enterprise Suite: adds cloud-native SIEM and Cloud SOAR, and offers credit tiers (Continuous, Frequent, Infrequent) or Flex. Metrics and traces are unlimited, retention is customer defined, and P1 support is 24/7.
- DojoAI: a separate add-on with Mobot and agents.
Both packages list unlimited users. On the Flex plan, Sumo Logic's docs say there is no cost to ingest and index logs, and you pay for analytics and search instead. In the credit model, its data tier docs say the Frequent tier includes search in the ingestion price, while the Infrequent tier has a very low ingest cost and charges per search. Flex is the default for new customers. You can buy credits by card up to $25,000 from self-serve checkout during a trial, and sales handles larger deals.
A Worked Example
Only Datadog's side can be computed from published rates. Assume 100 GB of logs a day for a 30-day month, 3,000 GB, at an average event size of 1 KB, which is about 3,000 million events.
Indexing 10% instead of 100% moves the Datadog total from $4,110 down to $681 here. For Sumo Logic, the $3.14 per TB scanned in its estimator moves with your usage profile and region, so ask for a quote against the same 100 GB a day and your real search volume.
Key Differences
Where the meter sits. Datadog bills when you ingest and again when you index, so cost control means deciding what to index. Sumo Logic's Flex plan moves the meter to search, so cost control means partitioning data so queries scan less. Its Flex FAQ suggests splitting data into partitions per service or per log type.
Security depth. Sumo Logic's pricing page lists an insight rules engine with 900+ out-of-the-box rules, UEBA models, entity timelines, and a MITRE ATT&CK coverage explorer. Datadog describes Cloud SIEM as a correlation system that ingests cloud and on-premises telemetry through its Agent and integrations.
Breadth beyond logs. Datadog sells infrastructure, container, database, synthetic, RUM, and APM products with a line on the price list for each. Sumo Logic lists application observability, Kubernetes, tracing, RUM, and SLOs too, but they sit inside packages and capacity limits rather than on a price list.
AI. Sumo Logic's AI docs describe DojoAI as a multi-agent platform with a human in the loop, and its pricing page includes 10 prompts per user per day and adds pooled DojoAI Credits for more. Datadog's AI Credits are $500 for 500 credits at the annual rate, and its pricing page estimates about 0.5 credits per Bits Chat message and about 4 per autonomous investigation.
When to Pick Datadog
- You want infrastructure, APM, logs, and user monitoring from one vendor, with prices you can model without a call.
- You like deciding per log stream whether to index, store in Flex, or archive.
- You want an on-demand fallback when a month runs over commitment.
- You are weighing other vendors too. See Datadog alternatives.
When to Pick Sumo Logic
- Logs and security analytics are the main job, and you want to ingest broad sets of data without paying an index fee on each GB.
- You want a SIEM and SOAR in the same product as log search, with an insight rules engine and playbooks.
- You want data residency in one of six AWS regions.
- Your team has predictable search habits that make pay-per-search pricing a fit. More background is in Sumo Logic alternatives.
Where Sazabi Fits
Sazabi is AI-native observability and security that can run beside either tool. If you ship logs through an OpenTelemetry Collector or another existing shipper, add Sazabi as one more destination and keep Datadog or Sumo Logic as they are. The agent investigates in Slack and opens issues, and it can query Datadog through the Datadog integration. Sazabi ingests OpenTelemetry metrics (Prometheus metrics through an OpenTelemetry Collector) and OTLP traces through the same intake as your logs. It stores each metric data point and each span as a log record that its agent queries alongside your logs, so there is no separate metrics store to run. Plans start at $50 per 30 days with 200 GB of logs included, per the pricing page. The one-on-one pages are Sazabi vs Datadog and Sazabi vs Sumo Logic.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Sumo Logic cheaper than Datadog for logs?
Not on a published number we can compare. Datadog lists $0.10 per ingested GB plus indexed or Flex Logs storage rates. Sumo Logic quotes by credits, and its Flex plan charges nothing to ingest and bills for scanned data instead. Your cost depends on how often you search, so ask both vendors to price the same daily volume and query load.
What is Sumo Logic Flex pricing?
Flex is the default plan for new Sumo Logic customers. There is no charge to ingest and index logs, and you pay for analytics and search. Its pricing page shows an estimator in price per TB scanned and notes that figures change by usage profile and region.
Do both tools have a SIEM?
Yes. Datadog has Cloud SIEM, tied to its Log Management retention options. Sumo Logic lists cloud-native SIEM and Cloud SOAR in its Enterprise Suite, with an insight rules engine and MITRE ATT&CK coverage view. Sumo Logic marks both as requiring activation, so check what your contract turns on.
Which one supports OpenTelemetry?
Both. Datadog documents several ways to send OpenTelemetry metrics, traces, and logs. Sumo Logic ships its own OpenTelemetry Collector for logs, metrics, traces, and metadata, and its pricing page lists OTel onboarding for Kubernetes logs and events.
Which one has agentic AI for investigations?
Both sell it as a metered add-on. Datadog offers Bits Investigation, paid in AI Credits. Sumo Logic offers DojoAI with a Mobot assistant that includes 10 prompts per user per day, and lists its Root Cause Agent as in development. Ask each vendor for a trial on your own data.
Sources
- Datadog list prices for log ingestion, indexed logs by retention, Flex Logs, Observability Pipelines, Sensitive Data Scanner, infrastructure and APM hosts, AI Credits (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Datadog Free tier, Flex Logs Starter retention options, AI Credits bundle and per-feature credit estimates (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Monthly indexed log commitment and on-demand overage at a 50% premium (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Standard indexing, Flex Logs and archiving as the three log storage options (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Datadog Cloud SIEM and its tie to Log Management retention choices (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Datadog accepts OpenTelemetry metrics, traces and logs (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Bits Investigation autonomous investigation of production issues (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Essentials and Enterprise Suite packages, credits and Flex licensing, capacity and retention limits, DojoAI add-on, Flex estimator, credit card purchase limit (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Flex pricing charges for analytics and search, not ingestion, and is the default plan for new customers (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Continuous, Frequent and Infrequent data tiers and how each is priced (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Sumo Logic OpenTelemetry Collector for logs, metrics, traces and metadata (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- DojoAI, Mobot and the agents it connects to (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Sazabi plan prices, included usage and overage rates (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Adding a Sazabi OTLP exporter to an existing Collector (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Datadog MCP connector for the Sazabi agent (accessed Nov 8, 2026)