Grafana vs Datadog: Open Source Stack or One Vendor for Everything
Prices and facts checked on vendor pages on Nov 8, 2026.
Grafana and Datadog both cover metrics, logs, traces and dashboards, but they are sold differently. Grafana is an open source stack (Grafana, Loki, Mimir, Tempo, Alloy) that you can run yourself or buy as Grafana Cloud. Datadog is a single SaaS product line priced meter by meter. The choice mostly comes down to who you want operating the storage and how much you want to assemble.
The Short Answer
Pick Grafana if you want OpenTelemetry-first collection, a self-hosting option, or per-GB log pricing, and you are happy to compose your own stack. Pick Datadog if you want one vendor with agents, integrations and products for infrastructure, APM, security and incident response already wired together, and you can budget for per-host and per-event pricing.
Grafana vs Datadog at a Glance
How Grafana Charges
Grafana Cloud has a Free plan, a Pro plan from $19 per month plus usage, and an Enterprise plan that starts at a $25,000 per year spend commit. The rates below are list prices from Grafana's pricing page, checked Nov 8, 2026.
- Metrics: 10k active series free, then from $6.50 per 1k series on Pro, with volume tiers down to $5.50.
- Logs and traces: 50 GB ingested free. On Pro the page lists a starting rate of $0.05 per GB processed, $0.40 per GB written and $0.10 per GB retained.
- Hosts: Kubernetes Monitoring is $0.01 per host hour ($7.20 per host) and $0.50 per container. Application Observability is $0.025 per host hour ($18 per host).
- People: Grafana visualization is $8 per active user, or $55 with Enterprise plugins. Incident Response and Management is $20 per active IRM user.
- AI: Grafana Assistant is $20 per active AI user with 40M tokens each, then $2 per 1M tokens.
Grafana also sells Adaptive Metrics and Adaptive Logs, which recommend dropping data you do not query. Pricing is tiered by volume, so use the calculator on the pricing page before you budget.
How Datadog Charges
Datadog's list-price page shows separate rows for each product, checked Nov 8, 2026. On annual billing, Infrastructure Pro is $15 per host per month, APM is $31 per host, and containers are $1 each. Custom metrics are $5 per 100 per month. Month-to-month billing costs more, for example $18 for Infrastructure Pro and $36 for APM.
Logs are metered twice. Ingestion is $0.10 per GB, and each indexed event costs $1.06, $1.27, $1.70 or $2.50 per million for 3, 7, 15 or 30 days of retention. Flex Logs storage is $0.05 per million events. Per-seat rows cover On-Call ($20), Incident Management ($30) and Incident Response ($40). AI Credits, which Bits products draw on, are $500 per 500-credit bundle.
A Worked Log Example
Assume 300 GB of logs per month at about 1 KB per event, so roughly 300 million events. Assume 30-day retention, annual Datadog billing, and no exclusion filters or Flex Logs.
Grafana's page also lists a $0.10 per GB retain rate without spelling out how it is metered. If it applied to all 300 GB, the Grafana total would be $161.50. Datadog's figure drops if you index only part of the stream. Neither figure includes hosts, metrics, traces or users.
Logs: Label Index or Indexed Events
Loki, the engine behind Grafana logs, does not index log contents. It indexes a timestamp and labels, stores chunks in object storage, and you narrow results with a LogQL stream selector before filtering text. Storage stays cheap, but your label scheme decides how easy it is to find things later.
Datadog decouples ingestion from indexing. You send everything, choose which events to index for search and monitors, and archive the rest. Indexed events get full-text search, and you pay per million of them. Datadog's billing docs add that usage above your monthly commitment on indexed events is billed on demand at a 50% premium.
Self-Hosting, OpenTelemetry and AI
Grafana's main differentiator is that you can leave. Grafana Labs' open source projects include Grafana, Loki (AGPLv3), Mimir, Tempo and Alloy, so you can run the same components yourself. Datadog is delivered as SaaS, though BYOC Logs keeps indexed log storage in your object storage while the UI stays in Datadog.
On OpenTelemetry, Grafana Cloud accepts OTLP for metrics, logs and traces, from an OpenTelemetry Collector such as Alloy or directly from an application. Datadog's OpenTelemetry docs describe three routes: the DDOT Collector bundled into the Agent, a standard Collector exporting over OTLP, and direct OTLP ingestion.
On AI, Grafana Assistant can run against self-managed Grafana, but only by connecting to a Grafana Cloud Assistant backend, and investigations need the full Grafana Cloud feature set. Datadog's Bits Investigation starts from monitors, a prompt, or a Slack mention.
When to Pick Grafana
- You already run Prometheus, Loki or Tempo and want a hosted version of the same tools.
- You want the option to self-host, or to bring your own cloud on Enterprise.
- Log volume is high and you would rather pay by GB than by indexed event.
- You standardize on OpenTelemetry and Alloy and want to avoid a proprietary agent.
- You can accept building dashboards and alerts yourself.
When to Pick Datadog
- You want infrastructure, APM, logs, security and incident response from one vendor with one agent.
- Your team prefers ready-made integrations over assembling dashboards.
- You want full-text search over the logs you choose to index, without designing a label scheme.
- Per-host pricing is predictable for your fleet, and you can control indexed volume with exclusion filters.
Where Sazabi Fits
Sazabi is AI-native observability and security that can run beside either tool. If you use Alloy, add an otelcol.exporter.otlphttp exporter and Sazabi receives your logs and traces next to the Grafana pipeline. If you use Datadog, the Agent can add Sazabi as an additional logs endpoint. Its agent investigates problems in Slack and opens issues. 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. For one-on-one detail, see Sazabi vs Grafana and Sazabi vs Datadog, or browse Datadog alternatives and the Grafana integration.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Grafana cheaper than Datadog?
On published list prices, Grafana Cloud Pro charges from $0.05 per GB processed and $0.40 per GB written for logs after 50 GB, while Datadog charges $0.10 per GB ingested plus $1.06 to $2.50 per million indexed events. The worked example on this page shows the arithmetic. Self-hosting Grafana, Loki, Mimir and Tempo removes the license fee but adds the cost of running them.
Can Grafana replace Datadog?
For metrics, logs, traces, dashboards and alerting, Grafana Cloud or the open source stack covers the same signals. If you rely on Datadog products with no obvious Grafana counterpart in your stack, such as its Cloud SIEM or incident tooling, check feature by feature before moving.
Does Loki index log contents like Datadog does?
No. Loki indexes a timestamp and labels and leaves the rest of the log line unindexed, so you select streams by label first and then filter content in LogQL. Datadog lets you choose which ingested logs to index, and indexed events are billed per million.
Can I send the same logs to Grafana, Datadog and Sazabi?
Yes. An OpenTelemetry Collector or Grafana Alloy pipeline can have several exporters, and the Datadog Agent can add an additional logs endpoint, so one pipeline can feed more than one destination. Sazabi accepts logs and traces from Alloy over OTLP and logs from the Datadog Agent.
Sources
- Grafana Cloud Free, Pro and Enterprise plans, the $19 platform fee, logs, metrics, Kubernetes Monitoring, Application Observability, Assistant and user list prices, and retention (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- The open source projects Grafana Labs leads: Grafana, Loki, Mimir, Tempo, Alloy, Pyroscope and k6 (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Loki indexes labels rather than log contents, stores to object storage, and is released under AGPLv3 (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- LogQL stream selectors and pipelines; Loki indexes timestamp and labels, not the rest of the log line (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Grafana Cloud ingests metrics, logs and traces over OTLP, including from an OpenTelemetry Collector such as Grafana Alloy (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Grafana Assistant runs in Grafana Cloud or in self-managed Grafana connected to a Grafana Cloud Assistant backend; investigations need the full Cloud feature set (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Infrastructure Pro, APM, container, custom metric, log ingestion, indexed log, Flex Logs, seat-based and AI Credit list prices (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Free tier of up to five Basic hosts with 1-day metric retention; Log Management lists full-text search (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Datadog Log Management separates ingestion from indexing (Logging without Limits) (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Monthly commitment on indexed log events, with on-demand usage above it charged at a 50% premium (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- BYOC Logs indexes and stores logs in your own object storage and connects to the Datadog UI (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Datadog Agent with the DDOT Collector, OpenTelemetry Collector export over OTLP, and direct OTLP ingestion (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Bits Investigation can start from monitors, a prompt, or Slack (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Sazabi receives logs and traces from Grafana Alloy through an otelcol.exporter.otlphttp component (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- The Datadog Agent can add Sazabi as an additional logs endpoint; only the logs pipeline is forwarded (accessed Nov 8, 2026)