# Better Stack vs Datadog

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/betterstack-vs-datadog/

Every value below is read from Better Stack's and Datadog's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | Better Stack | Datadog |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Entry paid plan | From $29/month, or $34/month depending on the plan selected; Better Stack advertises both figures as starting prices on the same page. | $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 | One plan covering uptime monitoring, log management and error tracking together, with exceptions counted per month and web events metered by volume and retention rather than by count. | 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. |
| Events included | 100,000 exceptions and 5,000 session replays a month on the free personal plan, plus 30 GB metrics and 3 GB each of logs, traces and web events. Six meters, priced separately: exceptions at $0.000050 each, replays at $0.00150, metrics at $0.50 per GB per month. | 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 | 90 days for errors and session replays. Logs, traces and web events are retained 3 days on the free personal plan, where retention is what the 3 GB allowance buys rather than a fixed window. | 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 | Supported | Supported |

## Where they differ

### Entry paid plan

- Better Stack: From $29/month, or $34/month depending on the plan selected; Better Stack advertises both figures as starting prices on the same page. ([source](https://betterstack.com/pricing))
- 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. ([source](https://www.datadoghq.com/pricing/))

### Pricing model

- Better Stack: One plan covering uptime monitoring, log management and error tracking together, with exceptions counted per month and web events metered by volume and retention rather than by count. ([source](https://betterstack.com/pricing))
- 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. ([source](https://www.datadoghq.com/pricing/))

### Events included

- Better Stack: 100,000 exceptions and 5,000 session replays a month on the free personal plan, plus 30 GB metrics and 3 GB each of logs, traces and web events. Six meters, priced separately: exceptions at $0.000050 each, replays at $0.00150, metrics at $0.50 per GB per month. ([source](https://betterstack.com/pricing))
- 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. ([source](https://www.datadoghq.com/pricing/))

### Retention window

- Better Stack: 90 days for errors and session replays. Logs, traces and web events are retained 3 days on the free personal plan, where retention is what the 3 GB allowance buys rather than a fixed window. ([source](https://betterstack.com/pricing))
- Datadog: 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. ([source](https://www.datadoghq.com/pricing/))

## Which should you choose?

Pick Better Stack if Teams who would otherwise buy uptime monitoring, log management and error tracking separately, and would rather have one bill and one dashboard.

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.

Consider something else: Better Stack — Web event retention is 3 days on the free plan, which is short enough to miss a Monday-morning investigation of a Friday-night incident.

Consider something else: 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.

## Documented by only one

- Ingest price per GB: 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.
- SOC 2: Datadog: SOC 2 Type 2 listed among Datadog's own compliance certifications.
- ISO 27001: Datadog: ISO/IEC 27001 listed among Datadog's own compliance certifications, with the certificate a featured downloadable document.
- HIPAA: Datadog: HIPAA listed among Datadog's own compliance certifications.
- GDPR / data residency: Datadog: GDPR listed among Datadog's own compliance certifications; a Data Processing Addendum is available under Legal documents.
- PCI DSS: Datadog: PCI DSS listed among Datadog's own compliance certifications.
- Role-based access control: Datadog: Default Admin, Standard and Read-Only roles, plus support for custom roles.

## Questions this comparison answers

**Entry paid plan: Better Stack or Datadog?**

Better Stack: From $29/month, or $34/month depending on the plan selected; Better Stack advertises both figures as starting prices on the same page.
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 Better Stack or Datadog?**

Pick Better Stack if Teams who would otherwise buy uptime monitoring, log management and error tracking separately, and would rather have one bill and one dashboard.
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.