Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Datadog VS Netdata

Compare Datadog VS Netdata and see what are their differences

Datadog logo Datadog

See metrics from all of your apps, tools & services in one place with Datadog's cloud monitoring as a service solution. Try it for free.

Netdata logo Netdata

Monitor your servers, containers, and applications, in high-resolution and in real-time.
  • Datadog Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-05

Datadog is a monitoring and analytics platform for cloud-scale application infrastructure. Combining metrics from servers, databases, and applications, Datadog delivers sophisticated, actionable alerts, and provides real-time visibility of your entire infrastructure. Datadog includes 100+ vendor-supported, prebuilt integrations and monitors hundreds of thousands of hosts.

  • Netdata Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-02-16

Netdata collects metrics per second & presents them in low-latency dashboards. It is designed to run on all physical & virtual servers, cloud deployments, Kubernetes clusters, and edge/IoT devices, to monitor your systems, containers & applications.

Scales nicely from a single server to thousands of servers, even in complex multi/mixed/hybrid cloud environments & given enough disk space it can keep your metrics for years.

KEY FEATURES:

๐Ÿ’ฅ Collects metrics from 800+ integrations OS metrics, container metrics, VMs, hardware sensors, apps metrics, OpenMetrics exporters, StatsD & logs.

๐Ÿ’ช Real-Time, Low-Latency, High-Resolution All metrics are collected per second & are on the dashboard immediately after data collection. Netdata is fast.

๐Ÿ˜ถโ€๐ŸŒซ๏ธ Unsupervised Anomaly Detection Trains multiple ML models for each metric collected & detects anomalies based on the past behavior of each metric individually.

๐Ÿ”ฅ Powerful Visualization Clear & precise visualization that allows you to quickly understand any dataset, but also to filter, slice & dice the data directly on the dashboard, without the need to learn any query language.

๐Ÿ”” Out of box Alerts Hundreds of alerts out of the box to detect common issues & pitfalls, revealing issues that can easily go unnoticed. It supports several notification methods to let you know when your attention is needed.

๐Ÿ“– systemd Journal Logs Explorer (BETA - nightly release channel) Provides a systemd journal logs explorer, to view, filter & analyze system & apps logs by directly accessing systemd journal files on individual hosts & infrastructure-wide logs centralization servers.

๐Ÿ˜Ž Low Maintenance Fully automated in every aspect: automated dashboards, out-of-the-box alerts, auto-detection & discovery of metrics, zero-touch ML, easy scalability, high availability &CI/CD friendly.

โญ Open & Extensible Netdata is a modular platform that can be extended in all possible ways and it also integrates nicely with other monitoring solutions.

Datadog

$ Details
freemium $15.0 / Monthly (per host)
Platforms
Browser REST API
Release Date
-
Startup details
Country
United States

Netdata

$ Details
freemium $3.0 / Monthly (Netdata Pro, $3 /Node /mo - Netdata Business, $4 /Node /mo )
Platforms
Linux Docker AWS Azure Mac OSX Cloud Windows Edge NGINX Oracle
Release Date
2018 June

Datadog features and specs

  • Comprehensive Monitoring
    Datadog offers a wide range of monitoring capabilities including infrastructure, application performance, log management, and user experience monitoring. This provides a unified view across the entire tech stack.
  • Integration Ecosystem
    With over 400 integrations available, Datadog can easily connect with virtually any service, application, and technology stack, making it highly versatile.
  • Scalability
    Datadog is designed to scale from small startups to large enterprises, providing functionalities that cater to varied sizes and complexities of operations.
  • Real-Time Data
    The platform provides real-time data and analytics, which is crucial for diagnosing and troubleshooting issues as they arise.
  • Alerting and Notifications
    Advanced alerting and notification features allow users to set up custom alerts based on metrics, enabling proactive problem resolution.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    The user interface is intuitive and easy to navigate, even for those who are not particularly technical, making it accessible to a broader range of users.
  • Security Features
    Datadog includes various security features such as compliance tracking, threat detection, and anomaly detection, enhancing overall security posture.

Possible disadvantages of Datadog

  • Cost
    Datadog can become quite expensive, especially as the volume of monitored data and the number of integrations increases. This can be a limiting factor for smaller businesses.
  • Complexity
    With its extensive feature set, Datadog can be overwhelming for new users, requiring a steep learning curve to master all functionalities.
  • Data Retention
    The default data retention period is often shorter than what some organizations require, leading to additional costs for longer retention.
  • Performance Overhead
    The extensive data collection and monitoring capabilities can add performance overhead to the monitored systems, potentially impacting their performance.
  • Customization Limitations
    While Datadog provides extensive dashboards and visualizations, some users find the customization options to be limited compared to other monitoring solutions.
  • Support
    Some users have reported that the customer support can be slow or insufficient at times, which could be a downside when facing critical issues.

Netdata features and specs

  • Dashboards & visualizations
    Digestible, intuitive, and visually appealing charts for troubleshooting.
  • Configurable
    Zero configuration. Zero maintenance. No preparations. Sane defaults. Auto-detection for all metrics. Immediately usable.
  • Metrics
    Netdata collects, stores and visualizes all the metrics available. We almost never filter out metrics. The more metrics, the better.
  • Real time monitoring
    Netdata is real-time. It collects all metrics every second and it has a data collection to visualization latency of less than a millisecond.
  • Analytics and Reporting
    Detailed analysis on how applications and systems are performing

Analysis of Datadog

Overall verdict

  • Datadog is generally considered a good choice for organizations needing a comprehensive monitoring solution that provides deep insights across various aspects of their technology stack. Its scalability and integration capabilities make it appealing for businesses of all sizes, especially those leveraging cloud services.

Why this product is good

  • Datadog is a powerful monitoring and analytics platform that provides comprehensive visibility into cloud-scale applications. It's known for its robust set of features, including infrastructure monitoring, application performance management, log management, and security monitoring. Datadog's ability to integrate with a vast array of services and technologies makes it a versatile tool for organizations looking to monitor complex systems. Furthermore, its real-time dashboards and alerting capabilities help teams quickly identify and address performance issues, improving reliability and efficiency.

Recommended for

  • Organizations using multiple cloud services and wanting unified monitoring.
  • IT teams looking for a detailed application performance management solution.
  • Businesses that require scalable monitoring for dynamic environments.
  • Companies seeking robust alerting and automation capabilities for infrastructure and application management.

Analysis of Netdata

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Netdata is generally regarded as a valuable tool for system monitoring and troubleshooting. It is praised for its speed, ease of use, and detailed insights, making it an effective solution for diverse monitoring needs.

Why this product is good

  • Netdata is considered good because it provides real-time monitoring and troubleshooting of systems. It offers detailed insights with minimal resource consumption, and features a user-friendly interface, making it accessible for both technical and non-technical users. Its open-source nature allows for customization and integration with other data sources, enhancing its capabilities.

Recommended for

  • IT professionals who need real-time system diagnostics
  • DevOps teams seeking efficient monitoring tools
  • Small to medium enterprises looking for cost-effective monitoring solutions
  • Open-source enthusiasts who prefer customizable software
  • Organizations that require scalable monitoring solutions across different environments

Datadog videos

Datadog Review & Walkthrough

More videos:

  • Review - DataDog: What it is and where its going
  • Review - Datadog: 2-Minute Tour

Netdata videos

Install Netdata on Linux in two minutes

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Netdata's standard dashboard

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Datadog and Netdata)
Monitoring Tools
92 92%
8% 8
Log Management
94 94%
6% 6
Performance Monitoring
87 87%
13% 13
Developer Tools
93 93%
7% 7

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Datadog and Netdata

Datadog Reviews

The Best Cloud Cost Management Tool: An Expert Guide (2026)
If observability is covered by Datadog: Datadog answers *why* costs are high (e.g., a memory leak), but a FinOps tool answers *what* to do about it (e.g., resize the instance). If your primary need is correlating performance to cost, Datadog is excellent. If you need to automate the remediation of idle, oversized, or poorly scheduled resources, the gap is significant and a...
Source: nuvelia.fr
Smart Cloud Cost Optimization FinOps 2026: AWS, Datadog, Thalaxo Cloud Compared
If observability is already covered by Datadog: Datadogโ€™s Cloud Cost Management is powerful for correlating performance with cost. Itโ€™s enough if your primary need is deep analytical insight into why costs are what they are, and you have the internal resources to translate those insights into manual actions or custom automation. However, if you need automated actions like...
Source: thalaxo.com
CloudHealth vs Vantage vs Thalaxo Cloud: Multi-Cloud FinOps Compared (2026)
If observability is already covered by Datadog or another APM: Datadog excels at performance monitoring and can attribute application costs based on resource consumption metrics. However, it primarily focuses on observing and attributing performance-related costs. A dedicated FinOps tool like Thalaxo Cloud complements this by providing deeper infrastructure cost optimization...
Source: thalaxo.com
Top Datadog Competitors and Alternatives in 2025
Datadog is a fantastic platform that provides Monitoring and analytics services to businesses and organizations. However, some users have reported encountering pain points while using the platform. For instance, the cost of Datadog can be a concern for some businesses. Datadog can be relatively expensive, especially for large-scale deployments or organizations with a high...
Source: www.atatus.com
The 10 Best Nagios Alternatives in 2024 (Paid and Open-source)
10 Best Datadog Alternatives to Consider in 2023 Datadog is one of the most potent and versatile players on the market, but they have their fair share of downsides. The monitoring and observability space is quite competitive, so we will discuss 10 of the best Datadog alternatives and compare their pros and cons to determine which is better suited for your needs.
Source: betterstack.com

Netdata Reviews

The Best Cacti Monitoring Alternatives
Netdata gives you access to sublime real-time health and performance monitoring for all your systems. The Netdata GitHub community has made its growth abundantly clear throughout its last six years of active development.
10 Best Open Source Monitoring Software for IT Infrastructure
Netdata provides unparalleled real-time health monitoring and performance troubleshooting for systems and applications. Over the past six years of development, Netdataโ€™s GitHub community has been essential to its growth.
Source: geekflare.com
4 Best Open Source Dashboard Monitoring Tools In 2019
โ€œPullโ€ method : you can set Netdata to run on individual nodes and plug your dashboards directly to it. This way, you can scale your node to your needs and you are not concerned about the scaling of different nodes. Also, storage is scoped to whatโ€™s really needed by a particular node thus more efficient;

Social recommendations and mentions

Netdata might be a bit more popular than Datadog. We know about 6 links to it since March 2021 and only 5 links to Datadog. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Datadog mentions (5)

  • Send the logs of your Shuttle-powered backend to Datadog
    Ideally, if we had access to the underlying infrastructure, we could probably install the Datadog Agent and configure it to send our logs directly to Datadog, or even use AWS Lambda functions or Azure Event Hub + Azure Functions in case we were facing some specific cloud scenarios. - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • I wanted a self hosted alternative to Atlassian status page so I build my own application !
    Currently supported : Datadog, Jenkins, DNS, HTTP. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Datadog on Kubernetes: Avoiding Common Pitfalls
    Datadog is a powerful monitoring and security platform that gives you visibility into end-to-end traces, application metrics, logs, and infrastructure. While Datadog has great documentation on their Kubernetes integration, we've observed that there's some missed nuance that leads to common pitfalls. - Source: dev.to / about 5 years ago
  • Post-DockerCon spam
    .. Is to see you email address being silently distributed to every single company that I've watched a talk from. And now suddenly get several promotional spam emails per day from some 4-5 different domains like instana.com, datadoghq.com, snyk.io, cockroachlabs.com (some of them send even multiple emails per day!). Source: about 5 years ago
  • Never write a UserService again
    We're commonly doing this with logging, using services such as Loggly or DataDog. We're using managed databases, be it on AWS, Heroku or database-vendor-specific solutions. We're storing binaries on S3. Externalising user authentication and authorization might be a good candidate as well. - Source: dev.to / over 5 years ago

Netdata mentions (6)

  • From Netdata Inspiration to SaaS MVP: Server Monitoring with Bun + Claude Code Opus 4.6
    If you've ever set up Netdata, you know that feeling โ€” hundreds of real-time charts, per-second granularity, metrics you didn't even know your kernel exposed. It's a wonderful piece of software, genuinely one of the best open-source monitoring tools out there. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Trying to decide best practices for production environment
    Pros are instant HA and Migration. Cons are huge bandwidth hits. With your 4x1gbe you would be maxed out on replicating those 25 VMs. You wouldn't have anything for users. I have a test lab with 4 nodes, 22cpu 100gbram and 30tb space, using low end stuff, 12hdds. Proxmox, ceph dashboard, (the native ceph dashboard you can turn on), and a netdata.cloud account. So I watch it like a hawk and like to load test. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Ask HN: Reducing the maintenance surface area of hosting a small internal app
    Docker-compose, not k8s. Set up a script to update the OS, pull all your containers and reboot after hours once a week or once a day. Make sure the script specifies non interactive. Set up alerting for low disk space, see https://netdata.cloud or use your own tool. - Source: Hacker News / over 4 years ago
  • Whatโ€™s your preferred stack?
    There can be some issues if you mix and match elastic versions, wazuh versions, logstash versions. But the documentation guides you very well with matrix of what is and is not compatible. You will want a beefy VM to run it in, I started smaller than I should of, and after running a while it kind of puked on itself, certain things would randomly stop working. After giving it 32GB RAM, plenty of disk 4TB, and 8... Source: almost 5 years ago
  • Netdata on MacOS
    $ brew info netdata Netdata: stable 1.29.3 (bottled) Diagnose infrastructure problems with metrics, visualizations & alarms Https://netdata.cloud/ Not installed From: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/HEAD/Formula/netdata.rb License: GPL-3.0-or-later ==> Dependencies Build: autoconf โœ˜, automake โœ˜, pkg-config โœ” Required: json-c โœ˜, libuv โœ˜, lz4 โœ˜, openssl@1.1 โœ” ==> Caveats To start netdata: brew... Source: almost 5 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Datadog and Netdata, you can also consider the following products

Zabbix - Track, record, alert and visualize performance and availability of IT resources

NewRelic - New Relic is a Software Analytics company that makes sense of billions of metrics across millions of apps. We help the people who build modern software understand the stories their data is trying to tell them.

Nagios - Complete monitoring and alerting for servers, switches, applications, and services

Dynatrace - Cloud-based quality testing, performance monitoring and analytics for mobile apps and websites. Get started with Keynote today!

Grafana - Data visualization & Monitoring with support for Graphite, InfluxDB, Prometheus, Elasticsearch and many more databases

Microsoft System Center - Microsoft System Center provides solutions to simplify the deployment, configuration, management, and monitoring of the infrastructure.