PagerDuty is an incident response and on-call management platform focused on alerting and escalation workflows, while Datadog is a comprehensive observability platform that includes monitoring, logging, APM, and incident management in one suite. Datadog offers deeper infrastructure visibility; PagerDuty excels at incident coordination.
PagerDuty vs Datadog — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
Choose PagerDuty if your primary need is incident response orchestration, on-call scheduling, and alert routing—it's the market leader in incident management with superior escalation workflows and team collaboration features. Choose Datadog if you need a unified observability platform that eliminates tool sprawl by combining infrastructure monitoring, log management, APM, and incident management in one product with better cost efficiency at scale.
Incident response and on-call management platform for alert orchestration and team coordination.
Cloud monitoring and observability platform with integrated APM and infrastructure monitoring
APM (Application Performance Monitoring)
Structured comparison data for PagerDuty vs Datadog with 195 attributes.
Mean Time to Response (MTTR) Improvement
Average Incident Resolution Time Improvement
Base Monthly Cost (5 Users, Annual Commitment)
Default Data Retention (included in pricing)
Base Monthly Pricing (1GB/day ingestion)
Maximum Data Ingestion Per Day (Enterprise)
Typical Enterprise Annual Cost (1000 hosts)
PagerDuty vs Datadog — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for PagerDuty vs Datadog.
Can I use PagerDuty without another monitoring tool?
Not effectively. PagerDuty is an incident response platform that requires data sources (alerts) from monitoring tools like Datadog, Prometheus, or New Relic. While it can receive webhooks, it lacks native infrastructure monitoring and observability features. You must integrate it with a separate monitoring solution to send alerts.
Does Datadog replace PagerDuty for incident management?
Datadog includes basic incident management features triggered from alerts, but it lacks PagerDuty's specialized incident response capabilities like multi-level escalation policies, sophisticated on-call scheduling, and war room collaboration tools. For simple, small-scale incident response, Datadog may suffice; for complex incident orchestration, PagerDuty is superior.
What's cheaper at enterprise scale: PagerDuty + Datadog or just Datadog?
At enterprise scale (1,000+ hosts), using just Datadog typically costs less. PagerDuty charges $9/user minimum, and large on-call teams easily exceed $50K/year. Datadog's per-host pricing (~$15-30/host depending on plan) can be cheaper when combined for observability. However, if you have complex multi-team incident workflows, PagerDuty's specialization often justifies the cost.
Can PagerDuty and Datadog integrate together?
Yes, they integrate bidirectionally. Datadog can send alerts to PagerDuty for incident creation and triggering, and PagerDuty can send incident status updates back to Datadog. This is a common enterprise setup where Datadog provides observability and PagerDuty handles incident response workflows. The integration is native and well-maintained.
Which platform is better for small startups (under 20 people)?
PagerDuty is more cost-effective for small teams. Starting at $9/user/month, a 5-person team pays only $45/month. However, you'll need a separate monitoring tool. If you're starting from scratch with zero tools, Datadog's unified platform may be simpler despite higher per-host costs, as it eliminates tool sprawl and onboarding complexity for early-stage teams.