Alternatives
Best Datadog alternatives in 2026
Data compiled by Toolradar Updated How we rate
Cite this list: Toolradar, best Datadog alternatives 2026, toolradar.com/alternatives/datadog
13 direct alternatives to Datadog, compared on pricing, features, and best-for use cases. Pick the right replacement without the marketing fluff.
Quick answer
- New Relic is the top alternative to Datadog on our list, followed by Dynatrace and Splunk.
- 6 of the 13 alternatives have a free plan, starting with New Relic.
- Highest rated: Sentry, 4.6 out of 5 from 297 ratings, Sep 2026.
- 13 alternatives
- 6 with a free plan
Top 3 alternatives to Datadog
New Relic
#1 Top pickFull-stack observability with 50+ monitoring capabilities
Starting price
From $10 /mo
Cheapest paid plan, monthly, as of October 2026
4.4 /5 across G2 and Capterra · 783 ratings, Sep 2026
Our take
Best overall
Dynatrace
#2Full-stack observability and AIOps platform
Starting price
From $7 /mo
Cheapest paid plan, monthly, as of October 2026
4.5 /5 across G2 and Capterra · 1,455 ratings, Sep 2026
Splunk
#3Data platform for security and observability
Pricing
Not published
4.4 /5 across G2 and Capterra · 697 ratings, Sep 2026
Datadog vs 13 alternatives
| Tool | Starting price (Oct 2026) | Free plan | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Price: $18/mo | Free plan: Yes | 4.4 out of 5, from 726 ratings on G2 (726) |
| Price: $10/mo | Free plan: Yes | 4.4 out of 5, from 783 ratings across G2 and Capterra (783) |
| Price: $7/mo | Free plan: No | 4.5 out of 5, from 1,455 ratings across G2 and Capterra (1,455) |
| Price: Not published | Free plan: No | 4.4 out of 5, from 697 ratings across G2 and Capterra (697) |
 | Price: Contact sales | Free plan: No | 4.4 out of 5, from 441 ratings across G2 and Capterra (441) |
 | Price: $26/mo | Free plan: Yes | 4.6 out of 5, from 297 ratings across G2 and Capterra (297) |
 | Price: $19/mo | Free plan: Yes | 4.5 out of 5, from 275 ratings across G2 and Capterra (275) |
 | Price: Not published | Free plan: No | 4.4 out of 5, from 83 ratings on G2 (83) |
 | Price: $7/mo | Free plan: Yes | 4.4 out of 5, from 51 ratings on G2 (51) |
 | Price: Usage-based | Free plan: No | 4.5 out of 5, from 20 ratings on G2 (20) |
 | Price: $6/mo | Free plan: No | n/a |
 | Price: Free | Free plan: Yes | n/a |
| Price: Not published | Free plan: No | n/a | |
 | Price: $1.5/mo | Free plan: Yes | n/a |
Why people consider alternatives to Datadog
Datadog is a cloud monitoring and security platform providing infrastructure monitoring, APM, log management, and AI-powered investigations for DevOps and security teams.
Here are the real cost and limitation gotchas that push teams to look elsewhere:
- APM requires Infrastructure Monitoring on the SAME hosts: you cannot buy APM alone.
- Custom metrics are billed separately: the first 100 custom metrics per host are included, then $0.05/metric/month.
- High-water mark billing: Datadog measures host count hourly and bills based on the highest usage (minus top 1%). Auto-scaling environments that spike to 200 hosts for 2 hours but normally run 50 will be billed at ~200 hosts for the entire month
- Container monitoring adds per-container costs: $0.002/container/hour on top of host pricing.
The 13 alternatives below cover the same core job (monitoring) with different trade-offs.
Datadog by the numbers
Toolradar data: It is listed as an alternative to 129 other tools on Toolradar, ranking #1 of 59 in Log Management. As of Oct 2026.
- #1 most-listed alternative in Security, out of 728 tools in Security. Source: Toolradar data, Oct 2026.
- #1 most-listed alternative in Cloud & Infrastructure, out of 516 tools in Cloud & Infrastructure. Source: Toolradar data, Oct 2026.
- #1 most-listed alternative in Monitoring, out of 213 tools in Monitoring. Source: Toolradar data, Oct 2026.
| Metric | Datadog | Peer median | Position (1 is best) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | 61% have one | n/a |
| Listed as an alternative to | 129 tools | 3 | #1 of 59 |
| Integrations listed | 2 | 2 | #4 of 16 (joint) tools with at least one integration recorded |
| User rating | 4.4/5 (across the web, 726 ratings) | 4.5/5 | #21 of 31 (joint) tools with 20+ reviews |
| Compare-page visits, last 30 days | 253 visits | 35 | #1 of 18 tools with 20+ compare-page visits |
Visitors most often compare Datadog with Dynatrace (last 30 days, Oct 2026).
Each position is counted among the tools that have data for that row, as noted under it. All Log Management data · How we compute this. Advertising and placement fees are not inputs to any position. Visit counts include visits from every source.
Cite this: Toolradar, “Datadog by the numbers”, Oct 2026.
Monitoring leaderboards from Toolradar data
Toolradar ranks Monitoring tools on one measure at a time, only where at least 8 tools have data. As of Oct 2026.
Lowest entry price, plans with no stated unit
Cheapest standard paid plan per month (annual prices divided by 12), read on vendor pages and compared only with tools priced on the same basis.
Counted among 76 tools with no stated price unit, verified price.
| # | Tool | Entry plan |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Coroot | $1/mo, billed monthly |
| 2 | LogDNA | $1.50/mo, billed monthly |
| 3 | PeakHour 6 | $1.67/mo, billed yearly |
| 4 | Sematext | $1.68/mo, billed monthly |
| 5 | Level | $2/mo, billed monthly |
Lowest entry price, per-user plans
Cheapest standard paid plan per month (annual prices divided by 12), read on vendor pages and compared only with tools priced on the same basis.
Counted among 12 tools priced per user, verified price.
| # | Tool | Entry plan |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | traceAI | $4/user/mo, billed monthly |
| 2 | VictorOps | $5/user/mo, billed monthly |
| 3 | Spiceworks | $6/user/mo, billed monthly |
| 4 | Spike.sh | $8/user/mo, billed monthly |
| 5 | Opsgenie | $9.45/user/mo, billed monthly |
Most media coverage, last 30 days
Number of distinct articles published in the last 30 days by independent press, blogs and newsletters that mention the tool. A story carried by several outlets counts once; the vendor's own blog, review sites, forums and republishing sites do not count.
Counted among 8 tools mentioned in the last 30 days.
| # | Tool | Articles |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | SolarWinds | 5 articles |
| 2 | OpenTelemetry | 4 articles |
| 3 | Elementary Data | 3 articles |
| 3 | Monte Carlo | 3 articles |
| 5 | Dash0 | 1 article |
A position exists only when at least 8 tools have data for that metric. 88 of 213 Monitoring tools have a verified price; the others publish none we could read (often "contact sales"). Advertising and placement fees are not inputs to any position. Visit counts include visits from every source. How we compute this. Cite this: Toolradar, “Monitoring leaderboards”, Oct 2026. Data licensed CC BY 4.0. All Monitoring statistics.
13 alternatives to Datadog
Ranked by G2 and Capterra ratings, media mentions, and editor review, plus how directly they replace Datadog.
- 1
New Relic
Free planFull-stack observability with 50+ monitoring capabilities
4.4 /5 across G2 and Capterra · 783 ratings, Sep 2026
From $10/mo; free plan available
- 2
Dynatrace
Paid Battle-tested at scaleFull-stack observability and AIOps platform
4.5 /5 across G2 and Capterra · 1,455 ratings, Sep 2026
From $7/mo
- 3
Splunk
PaidData platform for security and observability
4.4 /5 across G2 and Capterra · 697 ratings, Sep 2026
Price not published
- 4
Sumo Logic
PaidCloud-native machine data analytics
4.4 /5 across G2 and Capterra · 441 ratings, Sep 2026
Price not published
- 5
Sentry
Free planApplication monitoring & error tracking
4.6 /5 across G2 and Capterra · 297 ratings, Sep 2026
From $26/mo, billed yearly; free plan available
- 6
Grafana
Free planObservability and visualization platform
4.5 /5 across G2 and Capterra · 275 ratings, Sep 2026
From $19/mo, billed monthly; free plan available
- 7
Sterling
PaidA global solutions integrator for complex technology challenges
4.4 /5 on G2 · 83 ratings, Aug 2026
Price not published
- 8
Papertrail
Free planReal-time log aggregation and analysis for DevOps
4.4 /5 on G2 · 51 ratings, Sep 2026
From $7/mo, billed monthly; free plan available
- 9
Chronosphere
CustomObservability platform purpose-built for Kubernetes, microservices, and containers with AI-guided troubleshooting.
4.5 /5 on G2 · 20 ratings, Sep 2026
Price not published
- 10
AppDynamics
PaidApplication performance monitoring for enterprises
From $6/mo, billed monthly
- 11
SecAIQ Watch
100% freeMonitor local AI activity and network connections privately
Free
- 12
Judgement Labs
PaidContinuously improve AI agents and resolve misbehavior
Price not published
- 13
LogDNA
Free planCloud-native log management platform
From $1.50/mo, billed monthly; free plan available
Frequently asked questions
What is the best alternative to Datadog?
Based on real-signal scoring (G2 and Capterra ratings, media mentions, and editorial review), the top alternatives to Datadog are New Relic, Dynatrace, Splunk. Each solves the same core job with different trade-offs on pricing, features, and integrations.
Is there a free alternative to Datadog?
Yes. SecAIQ Watch is 100% free (no paid upgrade path) (Monitor local AI activity and network connections privately). Freemium tools on this list offer a free tier with paid upgrades; they are not the same as fully free.
Why do people look for Datadog alternatives?
Common reasons teams switch away from Datadog: pricing that scales aggressively, missing integrations with the rest of their stack, performance or scale limits, or a specific feature gap in monitoring. The alternatives on this page solve the same core problem with different trade-offs.
Side-by-side comparisons
In-depth comparison pages for Datadog versus each alternative.
Review Datadog, get a free AI guide
Share your experience and we will send you Improve Your Thinking Patterns Using ChatGPT, free.
Still considering Datadog?
See the full review, pricing breakdown, and community feedback before you decide.