Datadog vs Grafana: Pricing Comparison (2026)
Datadog starts at $18/mo. Grafana starts at $19/mo. Datadog is $1/mo cheaper on the entry tier than Grafana.
The dominant cloud observability platform (metrics, logs, traces, APM), publicly traded (DDOG), ~$45B market cap. Positioned as the alternative to New Relic + Splunk + PagerDuty stitched together. Distinctive for its notorious usage-based pricing that has surprised engineering teams with 6-figure monthly bills (Coinbase's leaked contract was ~$65M/year in 2022). Priced by seat + host + volume across 20+ meters. Popular with engineering teams; feared by finance teams.
Grafana Cloud packages open-source observability (Prometheus, Loki, Tempo, Pyroscope, k6) as a managed platform with unified metrics, logs, traces, profiles, and load testing. Free tier includes 14-day retention across all data types plus community support. Pro from $19/mo adds 13-month metrics retention + 30-day logs/traces/profiles + email support + pay-as-you-go usage above generous free allowances. Enterprise starts at $25K/year commit with premium support and Federal/BYO Cloud deployment.
All plans compared
| # | Plan | Datadog monthly | Datadog annual | Grafana monthly | Grafana annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Free | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Infrastructure Pro / Pro | 18 | 15 | 19 | 19 |
| 3 | Infrastructure Enterprise / Enterprise | 27 | 23 | custom | custom |
What each is best for
The dominant cloud observability platform (metrics, logs, traces, APM), publicly traded (DDOG), ~$45B market cap. Positioned as the alternative to New Relic + Splunk + PagerDuty stitched together. Distinctive for its notorious usage-based pricing that has surprised engineering teams with 6-figure monthly bills (Coinbase's leaked contract was ~$65M/year in 2022). Priced by seat + host + volume across 20+ meters. Popular with engineering teams; feared by finance teams.
Grafana Cloud packages open-source observability (Prometheus, Loki, Tempo, Pyroscope, k6) as a managed platform with unified metrics, logs, traces, profiles, and load testing. Free tier includes 14-day retention across all data types plus community support. Pro from $19/mo adds 13-month metrics retention + 30-day logs/traces/profiles + email support + pay-as-you-go usage above generous free allowances. Enterprise starts at $25K/year commit with premium support and Federal/BYO Cloud deployment.
At a glance
| Datadog | Grafana | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Entry price | $18/mo | $19/mo |
| Enterprise available | Yes | Yes |
| Pricing model | Per Usage | Per Usage |
| Last verified | August 26, 2026 | August 27, 2026 |
| Full pricing | View full pricing | View full pricing |
Pricing last verified August 27, 2026. Tracked daily.