# Datadog vs SigNoz

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

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

## At a glance

| Criterion | Datadog | SigNoz |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free tier | Yes | No |
| 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. | $49/month for Teams, and the $49 is usage credit rather than a fee on top — SigNoz bills against it before charging more. |
| 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. | Per GB ingested, with no per-user, per-host or custom-metric pricing — SigNoz states all three exclusions explicitly. Retention is a per-signal choice that changes the rate. |
| 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. | 15 days by default for logs and traces, selectable up to 30, 90, 180 days or 1 year at higher rates. |
| 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. | $0.30 per GB ingested for logs, and the same for traces. Retention is chosen per signal and priced with it. |

## Where they differ

### Free tier

- Datadog: Yes ([source](https://www.datadoghq.com/pricing/))
- SigNoz: No ([source](https://signoz.io/pricing/))

### 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. ([source](https://www.datadoghq.com/pricing/))
- SigNoz: $49/month for Teams, and the $49 is usage credit rather than a fee on top — SigNoz bills against it before charging more. ([source](https://signoz.io/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. ([source](https://www.datadoghq.com/pricing/))
- SigNoz: Per GB ingested, with no per-user, per-host or custom-metric pricing — SigNoz states all three exclusions explicitly. Retention is a per-signal choice that changes the rate. ([source](https://signoz.io/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. ([source](https://www.datadoghq.com/pricing/))
- SigNoz: 15 days by default for logs and traces, selectable up to 30, 90, 180 days or 1 year at higher rates. ([source](https://signoz.io/pricing/))

### 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. ([source](https://www.datadoghq.com/pricing/))
- SigNoz: $0.30 per GB ingested for logs, and the same for traces. Retention is chosen per signal and priced with it. ([source](https://signoz.io/pricing/))

## Which should you choose?

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 SigNoz if Teams that want per-GB billing without per-host or per-seat charges, and the option to run the same product themselves rather than being locked to the cloud version.

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.

Consider something else: SigNoz — $0.30 per GB is six times OpenObserve's rate, so a high-volume log pipeline pays a large premium for the packaging.

## Documented by only one

- Events included: 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.
- Session replay: Datadog: Supported
- Self-hostable: SigNoz: Supported

## Questions this comparison answers

**Entry paid plan: Datadog or SigNoz?**

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.
SigNoz: $49/month for Teams, and the $49 is usage credit rather than a fee on top — SigNoz bills against it before charging more.

**Free tier: Datadog or SigNoz?**

Datadog: Yes
SigNoz: No

**Should I choose Datadog or SigNoz?**

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 SigNoz if Teams that want per-GB billing without per-host or per-seat charges, and the option to run the same product themselves rather than being locked to the cloud version.