Datadog excels in log management and multi-cloud visibility with a flexible pricing model, while Dynatrace specializes in application performance monitoring with superior AI-driven root cause analysis and lower pricing at enterprise scale.
Datadog vs Dynatrace — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
Cloud-native observability platform with comprehensive log management, metrics, traces, and synthetics.
AI-powered application performance monitoring platform with automated root cause analysis and unified observability.
Primary Strength. Pricing Model. Log Management Capability. AI Root Cause Analysis. Implementation Complexity. Enterprise Customer Satisfaction. Multi-Cloud Support
Choose Datadog if you need unmatched log management, multi-cloud flexibility, and prefer pay-per-use pricing for variable workloads. Choose Dynatrace if you prioritize AI-driven root cause analysis, require a unified observability platform with simpler deployment, and value predictable fixed pricing for enterprise environments.
Datadog: Distributed tracing and session replay | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: Comprehensive with advanced orchestration | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: Native distributed tracing | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: Built-in with retention policies | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: $32 per host/month | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: Most comprehensive with custom parsing | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: Advanced features, steeper learning curve | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: $0 - limited (3 hosts max) | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: Advanced with ML insights | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: $15 per host minimum | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: $15.00 (base) + metered | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: 600+ native integrations | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: 60% alert reduction via AI | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: Yes (full distributed tracing) | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: Basic (limited schedule management) | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: $180+/month (Standard plan) | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: Full coverage included | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: Full log aggregation and analytics | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: $15/month | Dynatrace: $50/month
Datadog: 15+ major frameworks | Dynatrace: 95+ languages
Datadog: 600+ integrations | Dynatrace: 450+ integrations
Datadog: 200 metrics | Dynatrace: 70 metrics
Datadog: Monthly/pay-as-you-go | Dynatrace: 12-month commitment
Datadog: $0.05 per metric | Dynatrace: $0.10 per metric
Datadog: Machine learning-based pattern recognition | Dynatrace: AI-driven Davis engine with code-level insights
Datadog: 35% reduction (typical) | Dynatrace: 60% reduction
Datadog: $15/month (Standard tier) | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: 450 days (15 months default) | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: 650+ technologies | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: Unlimited with tag aggregation | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: 800-1200 (with agent) | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: 24/7 phone, email, chat | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: Native with 0.1s granularity | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: Method-level with sampling | Dynatrace: Full transaction tracing
Datadog: Yes, standard in most plans | Dynatrace: Available but often separate
Datadog: Basic anomaly detection | Dynatrace: Advanced Davis AI with causality mapping
APM (Application Performance Monitoring)
Datadog: Advanced APM with distributed tracing | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: Advanced session replay with pixel-perfect reproduction | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: SAML, SSO, SOC2 Type II, HIPAA compliance, security monitoring | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: ~600+ integrations | Dynatrace: 500+
Datadog: 5-15 days | Dynatrace: 2-4 weeks
Default Data Retention (included in pricing)
Datadog: 100% of traces stored | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: 0 (add-on only) | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: 19,000+ (2024) | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: 15 days (standard tier) | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: Limited query builder; UI-driven | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: 2/10 (plug-and-play) | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: Infrastructure, APM, logs, metrics, synthetics, RUM | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: SaaS, full on-premise, hybrid | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: Available with RUM plan | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: 600+ pre-built integrations | Dynatrace: 700+ pre-built integrations
Datadog: Basic container metrics and logs | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: Yes, with distributed tracing | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: Yes (anomaly detection, AI Advisor) | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: SOC 2, ISO 27001, FedRAMP, HIPAA | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: $28,200-38,400 | Dynatrace: N/A
Datadog: $15-20 per host (estimated) | Dynatrace: $45-65 per host
Datadog: 3 hops (with manual configuration) | Dynatrace: Automatic detection up to 4+ hops
Datadog: 3+ agents (APM, Infrastructure, Logs) | Dynatrace: 1 unified agent (OneAgent)
Typical Enterprise Annual Cost (1000 hosts)
Datadog: $180K-240K (with logs) | Dynatrace: $540K-780K
Datadog: 32% faster than legacy APM | Dynatrace: 45% faster than legacy APM
Supported Technologies (Languages/Frameworks)
Datadog: N/A | Dynatrace: 100+ with native agents
Datadog: N/A | Dynatrace: 100K+ enterprise customers
Datadog: N/A | Dynatrace: Custom quote (typically $1000+)
Datadog: N/A | Dynatrace: Full-stack (hosts, containers, DBs, k8s)
Datadog: N/A | Dynatrace: Full bytecode line-level
Datadog: N/A | Dynatrace: ML-based automatic baselines
Monthly Platform Cost (100GB/month ingestion)
Mean Time To Resolution (MTTR) Improvement
Datadog: N/A | Dynatrace: 60% faster (with Davis AI)
Setup Time for Multi-Service Environment
Datadog: N/A | Dynatrace: 2-4 days (automatic)
Datadog: N/A | Dynatrace: Native, automatic service mapping
Datadog: N/A | Dynatrace: 4.5 stars (1,200+ reviews)
Datadog: N/A | Dynatrace: 15-30 (with Davis AI)
Datadog: N/A | Dynatrace: 650+ out-of-box
Datadog: N/A | Dynatrace: 15-30 days (configurable)
Datadog: N/A | Dynatrace: 100,000+ EPS per cluster
Datadog: N/A | Dynatrace: Simplified REST API with UI-first approach
How to choose between Datadog and Dynatrace
Datadog vs Dynatrace — Structured Comparison Data
Machine-readable comparison dataset for Datadog vs Dynatrace. Contains 152 attribute comparisons, 5 FAQ pairs.
Datadog vs Dynatrace — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for Datadog vs Dynatrace.
Which platform is more cost-effective for high log volumes?
Datadog's pay-per-use model ($0.70-$1.40/GB) is more cost-effective for organizations with unpredictable or high log volumes (>500GB/day). Dynatrace's fixed pricing becomes more attractive for stable workloads under 200 hosts where log analysis is secondary. At 2TB daily log ingestion, Datadog typically costs $42K-$84K/month while Dynatrace would be $18K-$26K/month for equivalent hosts, making Dynatrace cheaper overall for traditional APM-focused use cases.
How does deployment time differ between the two platforms?
Dynatrace's OneAgent achieves full observability (APM, infrastructure, logs, real user monitoring) in 15-20 minutes across all hosts via a single deployment. Datadog requires deploying the main agent (5 min), APM agent (10 min), and log agent (10 min) separately, totaling 25-35 minutes per infrastructure type. For environments with 100+ hosts, this results in Dynatrace saving approximately 8-12 hours of deployment and configuration work.
Which platform is better for Kubernetes-native environments?
Dynatrace has superior Kubernetes support with automatic service discovery (no manual instrumentation), native Prometheus ingestion, and automatic containerization tagging. Datadog requires additional configuration through DaemonSets and requires more manual annotation for full visibility. For pure Kubernetes environments, Dynatrace reduces setup time by 60% and provides out-of-the-box multi-environment visibility across staging and production.
Yes, but rarely recommended. Both platforms can read from the same sources (Prometheus, StatsD, OpenTelemetry), but running both agents on the same infrastructure creates 15-20% CPU overhead and doubles observability costs without proportional benefit. Most enterprises choose one platform per business unit, using Datadog for log-heavy workloads and Dynatrace for performance-critical applications.
Which platform has better customer support for troubleshooting?
Dynatrace's 2024 Gartner report shows 89% customer satisfaction with support (vs. 82% for Datadog). Dynatrace includes 24/7 premium support at enterprise tier with dedicated technical account managers; Datadog requires additional paid support tiers. However, Datadog's community (150,000+ organizations) offers faster crowdsourced solutions. Enterprise customers report Dynatrace support responds to critical issues in <1 hour; Datadog averages 2-3 hours.
How to Choose Between Datadog and Dynatrace
Primary Strength: Datadog has Comprehensive observability (logs, metrics, traces, synthetics), while Dynatrace has AI-powered application performance monitoring and root cause analysis.
Pricing Model: Datadog has $0.70-$1.40 per GB of logs ingested (pay-per-use), while Dynatrace has $45-$65 per host/month (fixed capacity-based).
Log Management Capability: Datadog has Industry-leading with full-text search, parsing, and 30-day retention standard, while Dynatrace has Secondary focus; limited to 5-day retention without additional purchase.
AI Root Cause Analysis: Datadog has Basic anomaly detection; requires manual investigation setup, while Dynatrace has Advanced AI with automatic problem detection and dependency mapping across 4+ hops.
Implementation Complexity: Datadog has Requires separate agent installation for each data type (APM, logs, infrastructure), while Dynatrace has Single unified agent (Dynatrace OneAgent) for all observability data.
Consider: Enterprise Customer Satisfaction
Enterprise Customer Satisfaction: Datadog has 4.6/5.0 stars (2,100+ Gartner reviews) - strong on flexibility, while Dynatrace has 4.7/5.0 stars (1,800+ Gartner reviews) - strong on ease-of-use.
Multi-Cloud Support: Datadog has Native integrations with 600+ technologies; AWS, Azure, GCP first-class support, while Dynatrace has Comprehensive support for all clouds; 700+ pre-built integrations.