2 Free & Open-Source Datadog Alternatives
Datadog prices per monitored host, which scales uncomfortably as infrastructure grows. Grafana (metrics and dashboards) paired with Sentry (error tracking) covers most of what small-to-mid teams actually use Datadog for, both self-hostable with no per-host fee.
The best Datadog alternatives
Grafana
Our top pickOpen sourceSelf-hostedThe standard open-source tool for metrics dashboards and alerting.
Grafana doesn't collect data itself — it visualizes metrics from sources like Prometheus, giving you Datadog-style dashboards and alerting once paired with a metrics backend, all self-hosted with no per-host cost.
- Dashboards across dozens of data source types
- Alerting with multiple notification channels
- Log exploration when paired with Loki
- Self-hosted or Grafana Cloud's free tier
Sentry
Open sourceSelf-hostedError tracking and performance monitoring, self-hostable.
Sentry covers the application-error and performance-tracing side of what Datadog offers, with detailed stack traces and release tracking — genuinely open-source if you self-host rather than use Sentry's own cloud.
- Real-time error tracking with full stack traces
- Performance tracing across requests
- Release tracking to catch regressions
- Self-hosted or Sentry's hosted free tier
Licensing and pricing models change over time — confirm current terms on each project's own site before making a procurement or compliance decision.
Frequently asked questions
Do Grafana and Sentry together fully replace Datadog?
For most small-to-mid teams' core needs — dashboards, alerting, error tracking — yes. Datadog's single-pane-of-glass integration across dozens of data sources is more polished if you rely on many of its specific integrations.
Do I need a separate metrics database for Grafana?
Yes — Grafana is a visualization layer, typically paired with Prometheus (metrics) and/or Loki (logs), both also open-source and self-hostable alongside it.
Is self-hosted monitoring reliable if the monitored server itself goes down?
Worth planning for — if your monitoring stack runs on the same infrastructure it's watching, an outage can take both down together. Many teams host monitoring on separate infrastructure for this reason.
More free alternatives
Not sure which way to go?
A free Growth Audit can help you weigh self-hosting against the tool you already pay for.