← TrueCost
Datadog vs Grafana Cloud: true cost
Datadog
The broadest platform, priced per host with every module billed on its own line.
Grafana Cloud
Pay-as-you-go on top of a small platform fee, with a per-active-user charge to view dashboards.
Cost across three workloads
| Workload | Datadog | Grafana Cloud | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
Startup 5 hosts, 50 GB/mo, 3 users | $80 | $71 | Grafana Cloud |
Growth 25 hosts, 300 GB/mo, 10 users | $405 | $264 | Grafana Cloud |
Scale 100 hosts, 2 TB/mo, 25 users | $1,700 | $1,319 | Grafana Cloud |
Datadog gotcha
The bill stacks because Infrastructure, APM, and Logs are each priced separately, and log indexing is a second charge on top of ingestion. On-demand rates run about 20% over the annual numbers.
Grafana Cloud gotcha
The generous free tier hides that Pro adds a $19 platform fee, splits each GB into process plus write plus retain, and charges $8 per user just to view dashboards. Most teams report the real bill lands two to five times over their first estimate.
Totals use list rates on hosts, data, and seats; tune them in the calculator. Sources: Datadog 2026-06-25, Grafana Cloud 2026-06-25.