Datadog vs GlitchTip
SEPT 2026 auditA comparison of Datadog and GlitchTip built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
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
Choose GlitchTip if…
Anyone who wants Sentry-shaped error tracking without Sentry's bill — the SDKs are compatible, so switching is a DSN change, and self-hosting is free and genuinely supported.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Consider something else if…
- 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.
- GlitchTip: It tracks errors and nothing else. No tracing, no replays, no uptime monitoring, so a team wanting one pane of glass will be assembling it from parts.
4 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.
Datadog 0
GlitchTip 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | Datadog | GlitchTip |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Entry paid plan | $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. | $15/month for the 100,000 event plan; $50 for 500,000 and $250 for 3 million |
| Pricing model | 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. | Flat monthly tiers bought by event ceiling, with a free self-hosted build as the alternative to paying at all |
| Observability | ||
| Events included | 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. | 100,000 events a month on the cheapest paid plan; 1,000 on the free hosted plan. One meter, not several — GlitchTip counts events and nothing else. |
| Retention 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. | 90 days by default when self-hosted, set by GLITCHTIP_RETENTION_DAYS and configurable per data type — events, transactions, logs, uptime checks and files all inherit it, releases keep 365 days. Events move from Postgres to cold storage after 30 days but stay queryable. GlitchTip publishes no retention figure for its hosted plans. |
Where they differ.
Entry paid plan
- 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.
- GlitchTip
- $15/month for the 100,000 event plan; $50 for 500,000 and $250 for 3 million
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- 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
- Pricing — GlitchTip ↗
“Up to 100k events/mo [...] $15 / month [...] Up to 500k events/mo [...] $50 / month [...] Up to 3 million events/mo [...] $250 / month”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
Pricing model
- 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.
- GlitchTip
- Flat monthly tiers bought by event ceiling, with a free self-hosted build as the alternative to paying at all
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- 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
- Pricing — GlitchTip ↗
“Self-hosted version Free [...] Up to 100k events/mo $15 / month [...] Up to 500k events/mo $50 / month [...] Up to 3 million events/mo $250 / month”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
Events included
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.
100,000 events a month on the cheapest paid plan; 1,000 on the free hosted plan. One meter, not several — GlitchTip counts events and nothing else.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- 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
- Pricing — GlitchTip ↗
“Up to 1,000 events/mo [...] Up to 100k events/mo [...] $15 / month”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
Retention window
- 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.
- GlitchTip
- 90 days by default when self-hosted, set by GLITCHTIP_RETENTION_DAYS and configurable per data type — events, transactions, logs, uptime checks and files all inherit it, releases keep 365 days. Events move from Postgres to cold storage after 30 days but stay queryable. GlitchTip publishes no retention figure for its hosted plans.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- 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
- Installation — GlitchTip documentation ↗
“Data Retention [...] GlitchTip automatically cleans up old data based on configurable retention periods. [...] GLITCHTIP_RETENTION_DAYS 90 Master default for all retention periods [...] GLITCHTIP_EVENT_HOT_DAYS 30 Days to keep events in PostgreSQL before archival [...] GLITCHTIP_RELEASE_RETENTION_DAYS 365 Release retention”
Read 2026-09-06 · official docs
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.
Questions this comparison answers.
Entry paid plan: Datadog or GlitchTip?
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.
GlitchTip: $15/month for the 100,000 event plan; $50 for 500,000 and $250 for 3 million
Should I choose Datadog or GlitchTip?
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.
Pick GlitchTip if Anyone who wants Sentry-shaped error tracking without Sentry's bill — the SDKs are compatible, so switching is a DSN change, and self-hosting is free and genuinely supported.