Datadog bundles metrics, logs, traces, RUM, security, and on-call into one billable surface. Self-hosting means picking a stack — usually Grafana-LGTM or SigNoz — and accepting that you're now also the SRE for your monitoring.
Datadog pricing anchor: $15-23/host/mo for Pro/Enterprise APM, plus per-GB log charges.
- GitHub
- ★ 26.9k · last commit 1d ago · 1531 open issues
- License
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MIT - Setup time
- 20min docker-compose
- Monthly cost
- $20 VPS (4GB RAM minimum) for a small fleet; ClickHouse is the heavy part.
Migration sketch. SigNoz speaks OpenTelemetry natively. Replace the Datadog agent on each host with the OTel collector pointed at SigNoz; ship traces and metrics in the same shapes you already use. Existing Datadog dashboards need to be rebuilt — there is no auto-import.
Good fit forTeams already on (or willing to move to) OpenTelemetry that want unified traces + metrics + logs in one UI.
Weak atRUM, synthetic monitoring, and the Datadog-style alerting DSL are missing or thinner.
- GitHub
- ★ 73.7k · last commit 1d ago · 3663 open issues
- License
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AGPL-3.0 - Setup time
- 1-2h to wire up the LGTM stack via docker-compose; multi-day to do it production-grade
- Monthly cost
- $20-40 VPS for a small setup; cost scales with retention (S3 / object store strongly recommended).
Migration sketch. Replace Datadog agent with Grafana Alloy (or vendor-neutral OTel collector). Metrics go to Mimir, logs to Loki, traces to Tempo. Each Datadog dashboard maps to a Grafana dashboard; PromQL/LogQL replace Datadog's query syntax. Plan a week for dashboard parity.
Good fit forTeams that want best-in-class composable observability and have an SRE who enjoys it.
Weak atOperational burden is real — you are now responsible for keeping Mimir/Loki/Tempo healthy.
- GitHub
- ★ 4.20k · last commit 10d ago · 38 open issues
- License
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AGPL-3.0 - Setup time
- 30min docker-compose
- Monthly cost
- $10-20 VPS for a small fleet; ClickHouse + Postgres backend.
Migration sketch. Uptrace is OpenTelemetry-native. Same migration recipe as SigNoz: swap the Datadog agent for an OTel collector and re-target. Dashboards rebuild manually.
Good fit forSmaller teams that want SigNoz's shape with a lighter ops surface.
Weak atSmaller community than SigNoz; UI features lag a bit.