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Datadog vs OpenObserve

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of Datadog and OpenObserve built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.

Reviewed by Palash BagchiUpdated 26 criteria comparedSources last checked

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 OpenObserve if…

Teams that want one bill they can predict — ingest, query, and retention included — with session replay and RUM in the same product rather than as separate purchases.

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.
  • OpenObserve: Ingest is $0.50 per GB against Grafana Cloud's $0.050, so the simplicity costs an order of magnitude at volume.

Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: Datadog alternatives · OpenObserve alternatives

18 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.

Visit Datadog documentationVisit OpenObserve documentation

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

01.

At a glance.

CriterionDatadogOpenObserve
Pricing
Free tier
Yes
No — Cloud offers a 14-day trial only; the self-hosted Enterprise build is free up to 50 GB/day
Kind of free offerFree trialFree trial
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.No minimum: Cloud Professional is pay-as-you-go from $0.50 per GB ingested plus $0.01 per GB queried, billed monthly with no upfront commitment.
Pricing modelPer 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.Two meters and nothing else: $0.50 per GB ingested and $0.01 per GB queried, with retention included rather than sold as a tier. OpenObserve frames it as no hidden tiers and no surprise bills.
Infrastructure
Regions
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.
Four OpenObserve Cloud regions: US West 2 (California, Azure), US East 2 (Ohio, AWS), EU Central 1 (Frankfurt, AWS) and Asia Pacific South 1 (Mumbai, AWS).
Observability
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.
Included rather than priced: 15 months for metrics and 30 days for logs, traces, RUM and everything else, at no extra cost on pay-as-you-go.
Session replaySupported — Billed separately from RUM, from $2.50 per 1,000 sessions; replays kept 30 days.Supported
Self-hostable
Limited — BYOC Logs runs the log engine in your own environment; Datadog hosts the UI, pipeline config and query routing.
Supported
Ingest price per GB
$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.
$0.50 per GB ingested, quoted with a 30% annual-commitment discount already applied.
Query price$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.$0.01 per GB queried, billed separately from ingest.
Compliance
SOC 2SOC 2 Type 2 listed among Datadog's own compliance certifications.SOC 2 Type II certified; the report is requested through security@openobserve.ai or the trust portal.
ISO 27001ISO/IEC 27001 listed among Datadog's own compliance certifications, with the certificate a featured downloadable document.ISO 27001 certification announced November 2025, with the certificate held in the trust portal; the security page itself makes no ISO representation.
HIPAA
HIPAA listed among Datadog's own compliance certifications.
Enterprise-tier Cipher Keys are documented as giving encryption and compliance support for HIPAA. A feature-level statement in the Enterprise Features docs, not a certification, audit report or BAA.
GDPR / data residencyGDPR listed among Datadog's own compliance certifications; a Data Processing Addendum is available under Legal documents.Customer selects the storage region and OpenObserve does not relocate stored data without instruction; a DPA covering EU and UK GDPR is published.
PCI DSS
PCI DSS listed among Datadog's own compliance certifications.
Enterprise-tier Cipher Keys are documented as giving encryption and compliance support for PCI. A feature-level statement in the Enterprise Features docs, not a PCI DSS attestation or AOC.
Encryption at rest
Stored data is protected by encryption, access controls and authentication; integration credentials are encrypted at rest and in transit.
Not guaranteed by OpenObserve: storage-layer encryption and key management depend on the hosting provider and deployment architecture.
Customer-managed keysLog Archives to Amazon S3 can be forced to use a customer-managed key (CMK) from AWS KMS; you supply the CMK ARN and key policy. Scope: archive objects in your own S3 bucket; the other dropdown options are SSE-S3 and the bucket default.Cipher Keys (Enterprise Edition and Cloud): you supply the key and may hold it in your own Akeyless external key management system. Keys decrypt encrypted log fields at query time; not storage-layer key management.
Role-based access controlDefault Admin, Standard and Read-Only roles, plus support for custom roles.Yes on Cloud (preconfigured) and Enterprise (via OpenFGA); not available in the open-source edition, where all users have unrestricted access.
Private networking / VPC
AWS PrivateLink supported for Agent and log traffic on supported Datadog sites.
Named for BYOC, where the customer manages VPC peering, Transit Gateway or PrivateLink; for Cloud the SLA names only the customer's own internet egress. Read from the shared-responsibility tables: Cloud in section 4.2, BYOC in 4.3.
Dedicated infrastructure
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.
Single-Tenant Hosted and OpenObserve-managed BYOC deployments are offered alongside multi-tenant Cloud, all under the 99.8% SLA.

Only criteria both providers publish appear here; a tinted cell marks a real difference. Criteria only one of them documents are listed below, and an absence there means we found no source — not that the feature is missing. How we source this.

The small bar above a value is inetGeek's own lean toward that side — computed from the same facts shown, never a number the provider published. See the picker below "The short answer" to weigh only the criteria you care about.

02.

Where they differ.

Free tier

Datadog
Yes
OpenObserve
No — Cloud offers a 14-day trial only; the self-hosted Enterprise build is free up to 50 GB/day
Sources (2) →

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.
OpenObserve
No minimum: Cloud Professional is pay-as-you-go from $0.50 per GB ingested plus $0.01 per GB queried, billed monthly with no upfront commitment.
Sources (2) →

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.
OpenObserve
Two meters and nothing else: $0.50 per GB ingested and $0.01 per GB queried, with retention included rather than sold as a tier. OpenObserve frames it as no hidden tiers and no surprise bills.
Sources (2) →
  • 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

  • Pricing — OpenObserve ↗

    “Pay-as-you-go from $0.50/GB ingested and $0.01/GB queried, with retention included. No hidden tiers, no surprise bills”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

Regions

Datadog

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.

OpenObserve

Four OpenObserve Cloud regions: US West 2 (California, Azure), US East 2 (Ohio, AWS), EU Central 1 (Frankfurt, AWS) and Asia Pacific South 1 (Mumbai, AWS).

Sources (2) →

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.

OpenObserve

Included rather than priced: 15 months for metrics and 30 days for logs, traces, RUM and everything else, at no extra cost on pay-as-you-go.

Sources (2) →
  • 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

  • Pricing — OpenObserve ↗

    “Included Retention Metrics 15 Months Non metrics (Logs, Traces and etc.) 30-Days [...] The Pay-as-you-Go plan includes the following default retention at no extra cost”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

Self-hostable

Datadog
Limited — BYOC Logs runs the log engine in your own environment; Datadog hosts the UI, pipeline config and query routing.
OpenObserve
Supported
Sources (2) →
  • BYOC Logs Architecture — Datadog Docs ↗

    “The BYOC Logs engine runs in your environment. [...] The Observability Pipelines Worker and the BYOC Logs engine process log data in your environment. Datadog hosts the pipeline configuration UI and Log Explorer, and routes queries to the engine. [...] No log data leaves your environment during ingestion.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

  • Pricing — OpenObserve ↗

    “Cloud Self Hosted Most Popular Cloud [...] Pay-as-you-go from $0.50/GB ingested and $0.01/GB queried, with retention included.”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

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.
OpenObserve
$0.50 per GB ingested, quoted with a 30% annual-commitment discount already applied.
Sources (2) →
  • 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

  • Pricing — OpenObserve ↗

    “Ingestion $0.50 per GB* Query $0.01 per GB [...] *Includes 30% discount for annual commitment”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

Query price

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.
OpenObserve
$0.01 per GB queried, billed separately from ingest.
Sources (2) →

SOC 2

Datadog
SOC 2 Type 2 listed among Datadog's own compliance certifications.
OpenObserve
SOC 2 Type II certified; the report is requested through security@openobserve.ai or the trust portal.
Sources (2) →

ISO 27001

Datadog
ISO/IEC 27001 listed among Datadog's own compliance certifications, with the certificate a featured downloadable document.
OpenObserve
ISO 27001 certification announced November 2025, with the certificate held in the trust portal; the security page itself makes no ISO representation.
Sources (2) →

HIPAA

Datadog
HIPAA listed among Datadog's own compliance certifications.
OpenObserve
Enterprise-tier Cipher Keys are documented as giving encryption and compliance support for HIPAA. A feature-level statement in the Enterprise Features docs, not a certification, audit report or BAA.
Sources (2) →

GDPR / data residency

Datadog
GDPR listed among Datadog's own compliance certifications; a Data Processing Addendum is available under Legal documents.
OpenObserve
Customer selects the storage region and OpenObserve does not relocate stored data without instruction; a DPA covering EU and UK GDPR is published.
Sources (2) →
  • Datadog Trust Center ↗

    “Compliance [...] GDPR [...] Legal Subprocessors Cyber Insurance Data Processing Addendum”

    Read 2026-09-12 · official site · Report a correction

  • Security & Compliance | OpenObserve ↗

    “Customers select among the storage regions available for their service, as reflected in their order or deployment configuration. OpenObserve does not relocate stored Customer Data to another region without customer instructions or agreement.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction

PCI DSS

Datadog
PCI DSS listed among Datadog's own compliance certifications.
OpenObserve
Enterprise-tier Cipher Keys are documented as giving encryption and compliance support for PCI. A feature-level statement in the Enterprise Features docs, not a PCI DSS attestation or AOC.
Sources (2) →

Encryption at rest

Datadog
Stored data is protected by encryption, access controls and authentication; integration credentials are encrypted at rest and in transit.
OpenObserve
Not guaranteed by OpenObserve: storage-layer encryption and key management depend on the hosting provider and deployment architecture.
Sources (2) →

Customer-managed keys

Datadog
Log Archives to Amazon S3 can be forced to use a customer-managed key (CMK) from AWS KMS; you supply the CMK ARN and key policy. Scope: archive objects in your own S3 bucket; the other dropdown options are SSE-S3 and the bucket default.
OpenObserve
Cipher Keys (Enterprise Edition and Cloud): you supply the key and may hold it in your own Akeyless external key management system. Keys decrypt encrypted log fields at query time; not storage-layer key management.
Sources (2) →
  • Log Archives — Datadog Docs ↗

    “This option ensures that all archives objects are uploaded using a customer-managed key (CMK) from [...] Ensure that you have completed the following steps to create a valid CMK and CMK policy. Then, provide the CMK ARN to successfully configure this encryption type.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

  • Cipher Keys | OpenObserve Docs ↗

    “This feature is available in Enterprise Edition and Cloud. Not available in Open Source. [...] Allow using Akeyless as an external key management system to store keys.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

Role-based access control

Datadog
Default Admin, Standard and Read-Only roles, plus support for custom roles.
OpenObserve
Yes on Cloud (preconfigured) and Enterprise (via OpenFGA); not available in the open-source edition, where all users have unrestricted access.
Sources (2) →

Private networking / VPC

Datadog
AWS PrivateLink supported for Agent and log traffic on supported Datadog sites.
OpenObserve
Named for BYOC, where the customer manages VPC peering, Transit Gateway or PrivateLink; for Cloud the SLA names only the customer's own internet egress. Read from the shared-responsibility tables: Cloud in section 4.2, BYOC in 4.3.
Sources (2) →

Dedicated infrastructure

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.
OpenObserve
Single-Tenant Hosted and OpenObserve-managed BYOC deployments are offered alongside multi-tenant Cloud, all under the 99.8% SLA.
Sources (2) →

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

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03.

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.

Credit card to startOpenObserve: No
When the free offer endsOpenObserve: 14 days.
Uptime SLAOpenObserve: SLAs appear in the enterprise feature list alongside architecture reviews and volume discounts. No percentage is published on the pricing page.
Events includedDatadog: 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.
Audit logsDatadog: 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.
Support on entry paid planOpenObserve: Premium support is listed among the enterprise features. The pay-as-you-go cloud plan's support level is not stated; the page directs anyone wanting enterprise support to sales.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Entry paid plan: Datadog or OpenObserve?

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.

OpenObserve: No minimum: Cloud Professional is pay-as-you-go from $0.50 per GB ingested plus $0.01 per GB queried, billed monthly with no upfront commitment.

Free tier: Datadog or OpenObserve?

Datadog: Yes

OpenObserve: No — Cloud offers a 14-day trial only; the self-hosted Enterprise build is free up to 50 GB/day

Should I choose Datadog or OpenObserve?

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 OpenObserve if Teams that want one bill they can predict — ingest, query, and retention included — with session replay and RUM in the same product rather than as separate purchases.

Provider pages

DatadogObservability suite priced per product — this profile follows Log Management, the closest analogue to the per-GB platforms it competes with.OpenObserveOpen-source observability covering logs, metrics, traces, RUM and session replay, priced per GB with retention included.

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Comments

Every page here is sourced and dated.