Datadog vs Grafana Cloud
Default scenario: At 3,000 GB log ingest / month, 50 monitored hosts, estimated bills are $22,248/yr for Grafana Cloud and $102,600/yr for Datadog. That’s a $80,352 difference before accounting for different features or operating costs.
The services may differ in features, performance, support and the work you need to do yourself. Read the notes and test what matters to your setup.
Your selected usage
3,000 GB log ingest / month, 50 monitored hosts
- Datadog: $102,600/yr estimated
- Grafana Cloud: $22,248/yr estimated
Estimated costs at different usage levels
| Usage | Datadog | Grafana Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Startup100 GB log ingest / month, 5 monitored hosts | $4,020/yrPro (annual) · $260 logs + $75 hosts | $960/yrPro · $25 logs + $36 hosts |
| Mid-size3,000 GB log ingest / month, 50 monitored hosts | $102,600/yrPro (annual) · $7,800 logs + $750 hosts | $22,248/yrPro · $1,475 logs + $360 hosts |
| Large50,000 GB log ingest / month, 500 monitored hosts | $1,650,000/yrPro (annual) · $130,000 logs + $7,500 hosts | $343,128/yrPro · $24,975 logs + $3,600 hosts |
About 30 days of searchable log retention. Vendors billing per event assume ~1 KB per event; custom metrics, traces and users are extra. Try your own numbers against all logs & monitoring providers.
Side by side
| Datadog | Grafana Cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Broad SaaS monitoring platform (infrastructure, APM, logs) priced per host plus per-GB log ingest and per-million-event log indexing. | Managed Grafana, Loki, Mimir and Tempo with a generous free tier and usage-based Pro plan; open-source stack can also be self-hosted. |
| Headquarters | 🇺🇸 United States | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Parent jurisdiction | 🇺🇸 United States | 🇺🇸 United States |
| EU self-serve plan | Available; check eligible plans and regions | Available; check eligible plans and regions |
| GDPR DPA | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | subscription | payg |
| Free tier | Free plan for up to 5 hosts with 1-day metric retention; no log management. | 50 GB logs, 10k metric series, 2,232 host hours per month (14-day retention). |
| Open source | No | Yes · self-hostable |
| Source last checked | 2026-10-06 | 2026-10-06 |
| Pricing evidence | Modeled rates | Modeled rates |
Which should you choose?
Grafana Cloud has the lower estimated bill at every usage level we tested, from 300 GB log ingest / month, 5 monitored hosts to 300,000 GB log ingest / month, 5,000 monitored hosts.
Choose Datadog if…
Our data shows no advantage on price, residency, jurisdiction or licensing. Compare features in the notes below.
Choose Grafana Cloud if…
- it has the lower estimated bill at Startup, Mid-size and Large usage
- you want open-source software you can run yourself
Based on estimated list-price bills and the facts above. Features, performance and support aren’t scored.
Datadog pricing
Published rates converted using workload assumptions. Read the notes. Assumes 1 KB per indexed event and indexes all ingested logs for 30 days. APM and custom metrics are extra.
| Plan | Log ingestion + retention / GB | Monitored host / month |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 |
| Pro (annual) | $2.6 | $15 |
Infrastructure Pro is $15/host/month billed annually ($18 month-to-month or on-demand); Enterprise $23 ($27). APM starts at $31/host annually. Logs are billed twice: ingestion $0.10/GB plus indexing per million events, $2.50/M with 30-day retention annually ($3.00 monthly, $3.75 on-demand; 15-day is $1.70/M). At ~1 KB per event, 1M events is ~1 GB, so per_gb = $0.10 + $2.50 = $2.60. Flex Logs storage is $0.05/M events (annual) for cheaper, slower search. EU1 site (Germany) is selectable at signup on all plans. Custom metrics, APM, RUM and synthetics are extra.
Datadog plan limits, full rates and cheaper alternatives · official pricing page
Grafana Cloud pricing
Published rates converted using workload assumptions. Read the notes. Host cost uses Kubernetes Monitoring, not plain VM metric series. APM and the included host-hour deduction are excluded.
| Plan | Base fee / month | Log ingestion + retention / GB | Monitored host / month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Pro | $19 | $0.5 | $7.2 |
Pro is $19/month platform fee plus usage, with the free-tier allowances included. Logs are $0.50/GB ($0.05 ingest + $0.40 write + $0.10 retention) with 30-day retention. Host price uses Kubernetes Monitoring at $0.01/host-hour (~$7.20/host/month); Application Observability (APM) is $0.025/host-hour (~$18). Plain VM host metrics are instead billed as metric series ($6.50 per 1k series). The free 2,232 host hours (~3 hosts) also apply on Pro but aren't deducted here. EU stack regions are selectable on Free and Pro. Enterprise has a $25,000/yr minimum.
Grafana Cloud plan limits, full rates and cheaper alternatives · official pricing page
Frequently asked questions
Is Datadog cheaper than Grafana Cloud?
Grafana Cloud has the lower estimated bill at every usage level we tested, from 300 GB log ingest / month, 5 monitored hosts to 300,000 GB log ingest / month, 5,000 monitored hosts. At 3,000 GB log ingest / month, 50 monitored hosts, the estimates are $102,600/yr for Datadog and $22,248/yr for Grafana Cloud. Estimates use list prices and leave out features, support and operating costs.
Do Datadog and Grafana Cloud offer EU data residency?
Both offer EU data residency on a self-serve plan. Check which plans and regions qualify.
Do Datadog and Grafana Cloud have a free tier or trial?
Datadog: Free plan for up to 5 hosts with 1-day metric retention; no log management. Grafana Cloud: 50 GB logs, 10k metric series, 2,232 host hours per month (14-day retention).
Where are Datadog and Grafana Cloud based?
Datadog is headquartered in the United States. Grafana Cloud is headquartered in the United States.