Axiom vs Datadog
SEPT 2026 auditA comparison of Axiom and Datadog built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
Choose Axiom if…
Small projects that want a real telemetry platform for nothing — 500 GB a month loaded with 30-day retention, permanently, is the most generous free allowance in this category.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Choose Datadog if…
Teams that need one vendor across infrastructure, logs, traces and replay, and can model a bill that has a separate meter for each.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Consider something else if…
- Axiom: Query compute is billed as its own meter in GB-hours, so an expensive dashboard costs money even when ingest is inside the allowance.
- Datadog: Ingest and indexing are billed separately on the same logs, so $0.10 per GB is not the cost of keeping a log — the indexing charge above it is where the bill actually lands.
Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: Axiom alternatives · Datadog alternatives
18 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.
Pick the criteria you care about. The chart counts how many of them lean toward each provider — the same read as scanning the bars below, just totalled for the ones you chose.
Axiom 0
Datadog 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | Axiom | Datadog |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Kind of free offer | Always free | Free trial |
| Entry paid plan | $25/month platform fee for Cloud, plus usage, with no minimum commitment. The plan carries an always-free allowance of 1 TB loaded, 100 GB-hours of query compute and 100 GB stored. | $15 per host per month for Infrastructure Pro, the entry paid product. Datadog prices per product rather than per plan, so this is one meter of many rather than a platform fee. |
| Pricing model | A platform fee plus three separate meters — data loaded, query compute in GB-hours, and stored GB — each with an always-free allowance included on every plan and automatic volume discounts above it. | Per product, not per plan: infrastructure per host, logs split between ingest per GB and indexing per million events, with retention chosen per index and priced accordingly. There is no single Datadog price — this profile follows Log Management, which is the meter comparable to the per-GB platforms in this category. |
| Infrastructure | ||
| Regions | Two, both on AWS: US East 1 and EU Central 1. Axiom calls them edge deployments — you pick one per organisation and event data is stored at rest there, while the console stays at app.axiom.co. Datasets in one organisation can sit in different deployments. New ones are added on request rather than published as a roadmap. | Nine sites: US1, US3, US5, EU1 (Germany), US1-FED, US2-FED, AP1 (Japan), AP2 (Australia) and UK1; each site is a separate instance chosen at signup. |
| Observability | ||
| Events included | Not counted in events: 500 GB/month data loading, 10 GB-hours query compute and 25 GB storage on free Personal; 1 TB, 100 GB-hours and 100 GB included in the Cloud platform fee. | None included. Log indexing is $1.70 per million events per month at 15-day retention, and Flex Storage is $0.05 per million events stored — ingest and indexing are separate charges on the same logs. |
| Retention window | 30 days on the free Personal plan; configurable on Cloud rather than fixed. | Chosen per index and priced with it: 3, 7, 15 or 30 days, or greater than 30 by arrangement. The $1.70 per million rate is the 15-day tier. Infrastructure metrics retain 1 day on the free plan. |
| Session replay | Not supported — Axiom's own product-analytics page sends session replay to dedicated tools. | Supported — Billed separately from RUM, from $2.50 per 1,000 sessions; replays kept 30 days. |
| Self-hostable | Limited — Docs FAQ names a Bring Your Own Cloud plan; the deployment answer on the same page describes only managed Axiom Cloud. | Limited — BYOC Logs runs the log engine in your own environment; Datadog hosts the UI, pipeline config and query routing. |
| Ingest price per GB | No per-GB rate published: 1 TB/month of data loading is included in the $25/month Cloud platform fee, with further usage metered as compute credits under automatic volume discounts. | $0.10 per ingested or scanned GB per month for Log Management, billed annually — the same rate on demand. Indexing those logs is charged separately. |
| Query price | Metered in GB-hours of query compute: 10 GB-hours/month free on Personal and 100 GB-hours/month included on Cloud; no per-GB-hour rate is published. | $0.05 per GB scanned for Archive Search on an annual commitment ($0.07 per GB scanned on-demand); log Rehydration costs $0.10 per compressed GB scanned. |
| Auth | ||
| Audit logs | Every access and configuration change is recorded to an immutable audit trail you can query in APL like any other dataset. | Datadog Audit Trail helps customers monitor user and system activity within their organization, including who performed an action, what action was taken, and relevant context about the activity. |
| Compliance | ||
| SOC 2 | SOC 2 Type II audited; report available under NDA in the Trust Center. | SOC 2 Type 2 listed among Datadog's own compliance certifications. |
| ISO 27001 | ISO 27001 certified information security management. | ISO/IEC 27001 listed among Datadog's own compliance certifications, with the certificate a featured downloadable document. |
| HIPAA | BAA available on the Axiom Cloud plan once the RBAC, SAML SSO and audit-log add-ons are enabled; sessions then time out after 24 hours. | HIPAA listed among Datadog's own compliance certifications. |
| GDPR / data residency | Built to support GDPR with a DPA available; regional residency lets you keep data in your chosen region via the multi-region edge architecture. | GDPR listed among Datadog's own compliance certifications; a Data Processing Addendum is available under Legal documents. |
| Encryption at rest | AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.2+ in transit; keys are managed and rotated by Axiom. | Stored data is protected by encryption, access controls and authentication; integration credentials are encrypted at rest and in transit. |
| Role-based access control | Available as a $50/month self-serve add-on on Axiom Cloud, scoped to datasets and actions. | Default Admin, Standard and Read-Only roles, plus support for custom roles. |
| Private networking / VPC | AWS PrivateLink supported, so AWS workloads can reach Axiom without an internet gateway or NAT. | AWS PrivateLink supported for Agent and log traffic on supported Datadog sites. |
| Dedicated infrastructure | Multi-tenant by design: workspaces are logically isolated on a managed multi-tenant event store; pricing lists dedicated only as a support add-on. | BYOC Log Management runs a petabyte-scale log engine in your own infrastructure while the Datadog platform is used for querying, analytics and investigations. Scope: log management deployed into your own cloud environment; other Datadog products are not covered by BYOC. |
Where they differ.
Kind of free offer
- Axiom
- Always free
- Datadog
- Free trial
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Axiom ↗
“Personal For individual developers and small projects. $0 / month Permanent. No credit card required. → 500 GB/mo data loading → 10 GB-hours query compute → 25 GB storage → 30-day retention → Full APL access”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Pricing — Datadog ↗
“Free Starting At $ 0 Core collection and visualization features 1-day metric retention Up to 5 hosts Start Free Trial”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
Entry paid plan
- Axiom
- $25/month platform fee for Cloud, plus usage, with no minimum commitment. The plan carries an always-free allowance of 1 TB loaded, 100 GB-hours of query compute and 100 GB stored.
- Datadog
- $15 per host per month for Infrastructure Pro, the entry paid product. Datadog prices per product rather than per plan, so this is one meter of many rather than a platform fee.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Axiom ↗
“Cloud For teams scaling from first deployment to hyperscale. $25 / month Platform fee + usage. No minimum commitment. → Always Free allowance (1 TB / 100 GB-hrs / 100 GB) included”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Pricing — Datadog ↗
“Pro Starting At $ 15 Per host, per month* Centralize your monitoring of systems, services, and serverless functions 1,000+ integrations”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
Pricing model
- Axiom
- A platform fee plus three separate meters — data loaded, query compute in GB-hours, and stored GB — each with an always-free allowance included on every plan and automatic volume discounts above it.
- Datadog
- Per product, not per plan: infrastructure per host, logs split between ingest per GB and indexing per million events, with retention chosen per index and priced accordingly. There is no single Datadog price — this profile follows Log Management, which is the meter comparable to the per-GB platforms in this category.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Axiom ↗
“Platform fee + usage. No minimum commitment. → Always Free allowance (1 TB / 100 GB-hrs / 100 GB) included → Automatic volume discounts on usage beyond the allowance → Configurable retention”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Pricing — Datadog ↗
“Flex Ingest Starting At $ 0.10 Per ingested or scanned GB [...] Standard Indexing [...] $ 1.70 Per million log events, per month [...] Pro Starting At $ 15 Per host, per month”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
Regions
Two, both on AWS: US East 1 and EU Central 1. Axiom calls them edge deployments — you pick one per organisation and event data is stored at rest there, while the console stays at app.axiom.co. Datasets in one organisation can sit in different deployments. New ones are added on request rather than published as a roadmap.
Nine sites: US1, US3, US5, EU1 (Germany), US1-FED, US2-FED, AP1 (Japan), AP2 (Australia) and UK1; each site is a separate instance chosen at signup.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Edge deployments — Axiom Docs ↗
“US East 1 (AWS) us-east-1.aws.edge.axiom.co [...] EU Central 1 (AWS) eu-central-1.aws.edge.axiom.co [...] Axiom prioritizes new edge deployments based on interest.”
Read 2026-09-08 · official docs · Report a correction
- Getting Started with Datadog Sites ↗
“US1 https://app.datadoghq.com datadoghq.com US US3 https://us3.datadoghq.com us3.datadoghq.com US US5 https://us5.datadoghq.com us5.datadoghq.com US EU1 https://app.datadoghq.eu datadoghq.eu EU (Germany)”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Events included
- Axiom
- Not counted in events: 500 GB/month data loading, 10 GB-hours query compute and 25 GB storage on free Personal; 1 TB, 100 GB-hours and 100 GB included in the Cloud platform fee.
- Datadog
- None included. Log indexing is $1.70 per million events per month at 15-day retention, and Flex Storage is $0.05 per million events stored — ingest and indexing are separate charges on the same logs.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing that scales with you, not against you - Axiom ↗
“Data loading 500 GB / mo 1 TB / mo (included in platform fee) Query compute 10 GB-hours / mo 100 GB-hours / mo Storage 25 GB 100 GB”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Pricing — Datadog ↗
“Standard Indexing 15-day retention [...] $ 1.70 Per million log events, per month* [...] Flex Storage Starting At $ 0.05 Per million events stored, per month*”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
Retention window
30 days on the free Personal plan; configurable on Cloud rather than fixed.
Chosen per index and priced with it: 3, 7, 15 or 30 days, or greater than 30 by arrangement. The $1.70 per million rate is the 15-day tier. Infrastructure metrics retain 1 day on the free plan.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Axiom ↗
“→ 25 GB storage → 30-day retention → Full APL access [...] → Configurable retention”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Pricing — Datadog ↗
“3-day retention 7-day retention 15-day retention 30-day retention Greater than 30 days $ 1.70 Per million log events, per month* [...] 1-day metric retention”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
Session replay
- Axiom
- Not supported — Axiom's own product-analytics page sends session replay to dedicated tools.
- Datadog
- Supported — Billed separately from RUM, from $2.50 per 1,000 sessions; replays kept 30 days.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Product Analytics - Axiom ↗
“Not a replacement for every analytics tool. Session replay, heatmaps, and marketing attribution still belong in dedicated tools.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
- Pricing — Datadog ↗
“Session Replay Starting At $ 2.50 Per 1,000 sessions, per month* [...] Replay sessions are billed separately at $ 2.50 per 1,000 sessions.”
Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction
Ingest price per GB
- Axiom
- No per-GB rate published: 1 TB/month of data loading is included in the $25/month Cloud platform fee, with further usage metered as compute credits under automatic volume discounts.
- Datadog
- $0.10 per ingested or scanned GB per month for Log Management, billed annually — the same rate on demand. Indexing those logs is charged separately.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing that scales with you, not against you - Axiom ↗
“Platform fee $0 / mo, permanent $25 / mo platform fee + usage Volume discounts n/a Automatic, in-console, sub-linear”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Pricing — Datadog ↗
“Flex Ingest Starting At $ 0.10 Per ingested or scanned GB, per month* [...] *Per GB of uncompressed data ingested for processing, or compressed data scanned for rehydrating. **Billed annually or $ 0.10 on-demand”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
Query price
- Axiom
- Metered in GB-hours of query compute: 10 GB-hours/month free on Personal and 100 GB-hours/month included on Cloud; no per-GB-hour rate is published.
- Datadog
- $0.05 per GB scanned for Archive Search on an annual commitment ($0.07 per GB scanned on-demand); log Rehydration costs $0.10 per compressed GB scanned.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing that scales with you, not against you - Axiom ↗
“Query compute 10 GB-hours / mo 100 GB-hours / mo”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Pricing | Datadog (Archive Search) ↗
“Starting At $ 0.05 Per GB scanned [...] Billed annually at $ 0.05 per GB of committed scan capacity or monthly at $ 0.07 per GB scanned on-demand [...] Datadog charges $ 0.10 per compressed GB of log data that is scanned.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
Audit logs
- Axiom
- Every access and configuration change is recorded to an immutable audit trail you can query in APL like any other dataset.
- Datadog
- Datadog Audit Trail helps customers monitor user and system activity within their organization, including who performed an action, what action was taken, and relevant context about the activity.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Security and compliance, by default - Axiom ↗
“Every access and configuration change is recorded to an immutable audit trail you can query in APL like any other dataset.”
Read 2026-09-21 · official site · Report a correction
- Trust Hub | Datadog ↗
“Datadog Audit Trail helps customers monitor user and system activity within their organization, including who performed an action, what action was taken, and relevant context about the activity.”
Read 2026-09-21 · official site · Report a correction
SOC 2
- Axiom
- SOC 2 Type II audited; report available under NDA in the Trust Center.
- Datadog
- SOC 2 Type 2 listed among Datadog's own compliance certifications.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Security and compliance, by default - Axiom ↗
“SOC 2 Type II Independently audited security controls with reports available in our Trust Center.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
- Datadog Trust Center ↗
“PCI DSS TISAX VPAT EU AI Act IRAP SOC 2 Type 2”
Read 2026-09-14 · official site · Report a correction
ISO 27001
- Axiom
- ISO 27001 certified information security management.
- Datadog
- ISO/IEC 27001 listed among Datadog's own compliance certifications, with the certificate a featured downloadable document.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Security and compliance, by default - Axiom ↗
“ISO 27001 Certified information security management, audited to the international standard.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
- Datadog Trust Center ↗
“Compliance [...] ISO/IEC 27001 [...] Featured Documents COMPLIANCE ISO/IEC 27001”
Read 2026-09-12 · official site · Report a correction
HIPAA
- Axiom
- BAA available on the Axiom Cloud plan once the RBAC, SAML SSO and audit-log add-ons are enabled; sessions then time out after 24 hours.
- Datadog
- HIPAA listed among Datadog's own compliance certifications.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Security | Axiom Docs ↗
“You can request a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with Axiom if you meet the following requirements”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Datadog Trust Center ↗
“Compliance CCPA CSA STAR DORA EU-US DPF FedRAMP High GovRAMP GDPR HIPAA ISO/IEC 27001”
Read 2026-09-14 · official site · Report a correction
GDPR / data residency
- Axiom
- Built to support GDPR with a DPA available; regional residency lets you keep data in your chosen region via the multi-region edge architecture.
- Datadog
- GDPR listed among Datadog's own compliance certifications; a Data Processing Addendum is available under Legal documents.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Security and compliance, by default - Axiom ↗
“GDPR Built to support GDPR requirements with privacy-first data handling. [...] Regional residency Keep your data in your chosen region with multi-region edge architecture.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
- Datadog Trust Center ↗
“Compliance [...] GDPR [...] Legal Subprocessors Cyber Insurance Data Processing Addendum”
Read 2026-09-12 · official site · Report a correction
Encryption at rest
- Axiom
- AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.2+ in transit; keys are managed and rotated by Axiom.
- Datadog
- Stored data is protected by encryption, access controls and authentication; integration credentials are encrypted at rest and in transit.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Security and compliance, by default - Axiom ↗
“TLS 1.2+ in transit and AES-256 at rest. Keys are managed and rotated; nothing is written unencrypted.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
- Reducing Data Related Risks ↗
“Data stored by Datadog is protected by encryption, access controls, and authentication.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Role-based access control
- Axiom
- Available as a $50/month self-serve add-on on Axiom Cloud, scoped to datasets and actions.
- Datadog
- Default Admin, Standard and Read-Only roles, plus support for custom roles.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Security | Axiom Docs ↗
“SAML-based SSO, role-based access control (RBAC), and full access to the audit log are available as add-ons on the Axiom Cloud plan.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Datadog Security ↗
“Datadog includes default roles, including Admin, Standard, and Read-Only, and supports custom roles for more granular access management.”
Read 2026-09-14 · official site · Report a correction
Private networking / VPC
- Axiom
- AWS PrivateLink supported, so AWS workloads can reach Axiom without an internet gateway or NAT.
- Datadog
- AWS PrivateLink supported for Agent and log traffic on supported Datadog sites.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Enrich Axiom experience with AWS PrivateLink | Axiom Docs ↗
“With AWS PrivateLink, you can access Axiom directly from your AWS without an internet gateway or NAT device”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Connect to Datadog over AWS PrivateLink ↗
“This guide walks you through configuring AWS PrivateLink for use with Datadog.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Dedicated infrastructure
- Axiom
- Multi-tenant by design: workspaces are logically isolated on a managed multi-tenant event store; pricing lists dedicated only as a support add-on.
- Datadog
- BYOC Log Management runs a petabyte-scale log engine in your own infrastructure while the Datadog platform is used for querying, analytics and investigations. Scope: log management deployed into your own cloud environment; other Datadog products are not covered by BYOC.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Security and compliance, by default - Axiom ↗
“Workspaces are logically isolated on a fully managed, multi-tenant event store with strict per-tenant access boundaries.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
- Bring Your Own Cloud Log Management | Datadog ↗
“Datadog Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) Log Management lets you keep your logs in your own environment while using the Datadog platform for querying, analytics, and investigations. [...] it runs a high-performance, petabyte-scale log engine in your infrastructure, giving you full control over costs, scale, and compliance.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.
Documented by only one.
These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing — except where we say we read the other provider's own page on a given date and it does not state it. Those rows lean, and the provider can correct them with a link.
Questions this comparison answers.
Entry paid plan: Axiom or Datadog?
Axiom: $25/month platform fee for Cloud, plus usage, with no minimum commitment. The plan carries an always-free allowance of 1 TB loaded, 100 GB-hours of query compute and 100 GB stored.
Datadog: $15 per host per month for Infrastructure Pro, the entry paid product. Datadog prices per product rather than per plan, so this is one meter of many rather than a platform fee.
Should I choose Axiom or Datadog?
Pick Axiom if Small projects that want a real telemetry platform for nothing — 500 GB a month loaded with 30-day retention, permanently, is the most generous free allowance in this category.
Pick Datadog if Teams that need one vendor across infrastructure, logs, traces and replay, and can model a bill that has a separate meter for each.
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