Grafana is an open-source visualization and dashboarding platform ideal for teams managing their own monitoring stacks with lower costs, while Dynatrace is an enterprise AI-powered observability platform offering automatic full-stack monitoring with higher pricing but less operational overhead.
Grafana vs Dynatrace — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
Open-source observability platform for metrics visualization and dashboarding
Enterprise APM platform with AI-powered root cause analysis and full-stack infrastructure monitoring.
Architecture. Total Cost of Ownership (Annual for 10,000 hosts). Setup Time. AI/ML Capabilities. Data Source Support. Operational Overhead. Customization Flexibility
Choose Grafana if you have skilled DevOps/SRE teams, require deep customization, manage multiple monitoring tools, and operate under tight budget constraints. Choose Dynatrace if your organization prioritizes rapid time-to-value, wants automatic instrumentation across languages/frameworks, needs AI-driven insights out-of-the-box, and can justify higher enterprise spending for reduced operational complexity.
Grafana: Yes, full support | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: Free (open-source) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: Requires Loki plugin | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: Plugin-based with limited support | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: Unlimited users | Dynatrace: N/A
Mean Time to Response (MTTR) Improvement
Grafana: Available (Apache 2.0) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: Alert grouping available | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: Requires integration (OnCall) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: 58,000+ (as of 2026) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: 90+ (Prometheus, Elasticsearch, Datadog, etc.) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: None (external source dependent) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: 2-4 (depends on datasource type) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: Basic (via connected datasources) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: No—requires external datasource | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: 30-60 (needs datasource setup) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: $0 (self-hosted) | Dynatrace: $50,000
Grafana: 14-28 days | Dynatrace: 3-5 days
Supported Technologies (Languages/Frameworks)
Grafana: 300+ via integrations | Dynatrace: 100+ with native agents
Grafana: 500K+ monthly active users | Dynatrace: 100K+ enterprise customers
Grafana: $25-150+ per user | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: PromQL, SQL, or source-native language | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: Visualization only (external routing required) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: $0 (open-source) or $9 (Grafana Cloud) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: 450+ pre-built plugins | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: 100+ via plugins (manual integration required) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: 2-5 days (infrastructure knowledge required) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: Limited; basic alerting rules, ML via separate module | Dynatrace: Proactive Davis AI engine
Grafana: Community support; no guaranteed SLA | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: Unlimited (self-hosted) or 15 days (Grafana Cloud free) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: Unlimited on self-hosted; 1 on Grafana Cloud free | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: $0 (free open-source) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: Basic text filtering | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: Limited (requires integration with APM platforms) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: AGPL v3 (user-friendly for most use cases) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: $0 (open-source) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: 0.001 seconds (milliseconds) | Dynatrace: N/A
Enterprise Annual License Cost (Single Server)
Grafana: $0 (self-hosted free tier) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: 5-10 (intuitive interface) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: Supported via RBAC and data source filtering | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: $10 (Grafana Cloud Starter) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: 5,000-10,000 (Loki) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: 470+ integrations | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: 3-5 (basic anomaly detection) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: Basic RBAC, no SIEM module | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: $12,000 for Grafana Enterprise | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: Limited—primarily Prometheus-style queries | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: Single container with optional Prometheus | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: $0-3 (self-hosted) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: No, requires external tools | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: 30-240 minutes (varies) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: Fully supported | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: No native features | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: SOC 2, ISO 27001 | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: $0-2,500 (self-hosted) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: $0 (open-source) | Dynatrace: $600-$5000+ (SaaS only)
Grafana: 60+ official plugins + 150+ community plugins | Dynatrace: 40+ native integrations
Grafana: Not applicable (requires manual integration) | Dynatrace: 650+ supported technologies
Grafana: 2-4 weeks (with data pipeline setup) | Dynatrace: 1-2 weeks (with auto-instrumentation)
Grafana: Not included (requires manual alerting rules) | Dynatrace: Yes (Davis AI engine)
Grafana: Self-hosted, Docker, K8s, multi-cloud, air-gapped | Dynatrace: SaaS only (limited on-premises for enterprise)
Grafana: 10,000+ community-created dashboards | Dynatrace: Curated pre-built dashboards (proprietary)
Grafana: 500 MB | Dynatrace: 2000+ MB (full SaaS service)
Grafana: 400+ plugins (Prometheus, InfluxDB, CloudWatch, etc.) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: 5-10 seconds (typical) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: Self-hosted, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: 7-14 days (JSON, API, plugin config) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: $120-$3,588/year (Grafana Cloud) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: Basic math and aggregation functions | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: No (time-series focused) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: 3-5 (via plugins) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: 5-10 minutes with templates | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: Basic text filters | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: No (plugin-based) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: $0 (open-source) or $231 (Pro) | Dynatrace: $400
Grafana: 5+ (requires manual agent setup) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: Unlimited panels, custom plugins, full code access | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: 4 options (Self-hosted, Cloud, Hybrid, Kubernetes) | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: Basic threshold-based alerts only | Dynatrace: N/A
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: Full-stack (hosts, containers, DBs, k8s)
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: 14 days (limited)
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: Full bytecode line-level
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: ML-based automatic baselines
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: Native zero-code instrumentation
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: Built-in Kubernetes Observer
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: 450+ integrations
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: 12-month commitment
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: $0.10 per metric
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: AI-driven Davis engine with code-level insights
Monthly Platform Cost (100GB/month ingestion)
Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR) Improvement
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: 40-60% reduction with AI
Setup Time for Multi-Service Environment
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: 2-4 days (automatic)
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: Native, automatic service mapping
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: 4.5 stars (1,200+ reviews)
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: Full transaction tracing
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: Available but often separate
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: Advanced Davis AI with causality mapping
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: 15-30 (with Davis AI)
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: 650+ out-of-box
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: 15-30 days (configurable)
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: 100,000+ EPS per cluster
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: Simplified REST API with UI-first approach
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: $45-65 per host
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: Automatic detection up to 4+ hops
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: 700+ pre-built integrations
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: 1 unified agent (OneAgent)
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: 4.7/5.0 (1,800+ reviews)
Typical Enterprise Annual Cost (1000 hosts)
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: 45% faster than legacy APM
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: Davis AI included
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: Limited to predefined queries and dashboards
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: ~10,000 community members
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: 20-40 hours (minimal)
Total Cost of Ownership (3-year, 500GB/month ingestion)
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: $360,000 (6,000 GB × $3/GB × 3 years + support)
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: Logs, metrics, traces, user sessions, synthetics
Required Infrastructure Team Size (100 users)
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: 0.25 (mostly monitoring)
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: 5,000+ (proprietary)
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: Full native support with auto-discovery
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: SaaS, on-premise, hybrid
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: 400+ integrations
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: $5,000-15,000 (host-based licensing)
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: Continuous profiling with memory/CPU/I/O analysis
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: ~75-85% with Davis AI
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: Limited third-party integration only
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: 5,000+ (enterprise focus)
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: 500+ (incl. Slack, Splunk, Okta)
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: $12,000-20,000
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: Full-stack (apps, infra, K8s, serverless, on-prem)
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: Advanced (causal, predictive, auto-remediation)
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: 500+ engineers
Grafana: N/A | Dynatrace: 2-5 minutes (after setup)
How to choose between Grafana and Dynatrace
Grafana vs Dynatrace — Structured Comparison Data
Machine-readable comparison dataset for Grafana vs Dynatrace. Contains 208 attribute comparisons, 5 FAQ pairs.
Grafana vs Dynatrace — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for Grafana vs Dynatrace.
Can Grafana replace Dynatrace completely?
Partially. Grafana can visualize the same metrics Dynatrace collects if you add separate agents (Prometheus Node Exporter, Telegraf, Elastic Agent), but you'll need to manually configure monitoring, build your own anomaly detection logic, and won't have Dynatrace's automatic instrumentation or AI-powered root cause analysis. Total cost becomes comparable once you factor in engineering effort.
What's the real cost difference over 3 years?
For a mid-size deployment (1,000 hosts): Grafana self-hosted costs $15K-$45K annually ($45K-$135K over 3 years) plus 3-4 FTE staff ($300K-$400K salary costs). Dynatrace averages $200K-$500K annually ($600K-$1.5M over 3 years) but requires minimal staff. Grafana is cheaper if you have in-house expertise; Dynatrace wins on total operational cost if staff time is factored in.
How long until Grafana gets AI anomaly detection like Dynatrace?
Grafana has added some ML features (Grafana ML for forecasting, released 2023), but native AI-powered root cause analysis comparable to Dynatrace's Davis AI is not yet available. You can integrate third-party ML services or use community plugins, but it requires additional work and isn't as polished as Dynatrace's built-in solution.
Which is better for Kubernetes monitoring?
Dynatrace has native Kubernetes support with automatic service discovery and dashboard generation. Grafana requires installing Prometheus with kube-state-metrics and node-exporter, then manually building dashboards. Dynatrace gets visibility faster (days vs. weeks), but Grafana offers more customization once deployed.
Can I use Grafana and Dynatrace together?
Yes. Many enterprises use Dynatrace for production monitoring/AI analysis and Grafana for cost-focused metrics visualization, internal tools, or non-critical systems. Dynatrace can push data to Grafana via APIs, and Grafana can query Dynatrace metrics, though this creates operational complexity.
How to Choose Between Grafana and Dynatrace
Architecture: Grafana has Open-source visualization layer; requires separate data collection tools, while Dynatrace has All-in-one SaaS with built-in agents and AI-powered analytics.
Consider: Total Cost of Ownership (Annual for 10,000 hosts)
Total Cost of Ownership (Annual for 10,000 hosts): Grafana has $50,000-$150,000 (self-managed), while Dynatrace has $500,000-$2,000,000 (managed service).
Setup Time: Grafana has 2-4 weeks with manual configuration, while Dynatrace has 3-5 days with auto-instrumentation.
AI/ML Capabilities: Grafana has Limited; requires third-party integrations, while Dynatrace has Native AI-powered anomaly detection and root cause analysis.
Data Source Support: Grafana has 800+ integrations and plugins, while Dynatrace has 600+ integrations with automatic discovery.
Operational Overhead: Grafana has High; requires dedicated team for maintenance, while Dynatrace has Low; fully managed by vendor.
Customization Flexibility: Grafana has Unlimited; source code available, while Dynatrace has Limited to vendor configuration options.