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If you’re trying to find a community monitoring instrument that may sustain with hybrid and cloud-first IT environments, Datadog is probably going in your shortlist. We’ve spent weeks researching each main IT platform and Datadog is close to the highest for its feature-rich strategy and spectacular integrations. For a broader have a look at your choices, try our best network monitoring tools checklist.
Our crew at TechSwitch has deep expertise evaluating IT platforms — utilizing, evaluating, and stress-testing them in real-world eventualities. LogicMonitor is our choose for the very best community monitoring instrument of 2025. Its AI-powered suite automates many day-to-day IT workflows, making it a best choice for organizations wanting proactive, hands-off monitoring.
Still, Datadog’s popularity is no accident. It’s a favorite among IT teams for its real-time visibility, rich analytics, and ability to unify monitoring across multi-cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments. But is it the right fit for your team? Let’s dive in.
Datadog network monitoring: Features
Datadog is one of the most feature-rich platforms in the network monitoring space. It’s packed with tools for real-time analytics, customizable dashboards, anomaly detection, and integrations with over 850 services and devices.
These features are best suited for IT teams managing complex, hybrid, or cloud-native environments who need granular visibility and automation. Everything comes collectively fairly effectively, although some customers have requested for simpler self-remediation and extra clear pricing, particularly as information volumes develop.
At its worth level, although, you’re paying for depth and breadth. So, for those who want solely fundamental monitoring, there are cheaper choices.
Infrastructure monitoring
Datadog’s core element offers you a chicken’s eye view of servers, cloud cases, containers, and community units. It auto-discovers assets and collects information from CPUs, reminiscence, disk, and community efficiency, all visualized in actual time.
Network efficiency monitoring (NPM)
NPM gives deep visibility into your community site visitors, exhibiting you which ones providers are speaking to one another, the place bottlenecks are, and the way site visitors flows throughout your surroundings. You can drill all the way down to particular person connections, monitor bandwidth utilization, and arrange alerts for uncommon exercise.
Log administration
Datadog mechanically ingests, parses, and analyzes logs from throughout your stack. You can search logs in actual time, correlate them with metrics and traces, and arrange alerts for error spikes or suspicious exercise.
Application efficiency monitoring (APM)
APM traces requests throughout distributed programs, serving to you see slowdowns, errors, and efficiency bottlenecks on the code or service degree. It helps main programming languages and frameworks.
Synthetic monitoring
This instrument simulates person interactions along with your apps and connectors, operating exams from places around the globe to measure uptime and efficiency. It’s helpful for catching points earlier than customers discover them.
Real person monitoring (RUM)
RUM tracks the precise expertise of your customers, measuring load instances, errors, and engagement in actual time. This is necessary for groups targeted on optimizing user-facing purposes.
Security monitoring
Datadog’s security suite contains anomaly detection, risk intelligence, and compliance monitoring, serving to you see vulnerabilities and suspicious conduct because it occurs.
Integrations and APIs
With assist for 850+ integrations, together with AWS, Azure, Kubernetes, Chef, Puppet, and extra — Datadog can slot into nearly any IT surroundings, making it straightforward to unify monitoring throughout instruments and platforms.
Datadog network monitoring: Ease of use
Datadog is generally user-friendly, with a modern, intuitive interface and customizable dashboards that make it easy to visualize the metrics that matter most to you. Many users find setup and configuration straightforward, especially compared to older tools like SolarWinds. You can drag and drop widgets, create custom views, and filter data with just a few clicks.
However, the initial setup can feel overwhelming for newcomers. With so many features and integrations, it’s not always clear where to start, and some users report that onboarding documentation could be more beginner-friendly. Once you’re past the learning curve, though, day-to-day use is smooth and efficient.
Datadog also supports accessibility features and offers a REST API for advanced customization and integration with other tools. While the platform is designed to scale with your needs, we’d love to see more guided onboarding for first-time users.
Datadog network monitoring: Pricing
|
Plan |
Starting price (paid annually) |
What’s included |
|---|---|---|
|
Infrastructure Monitoring |
$15 per host/month |
Core metrics, dashboards, 850+ integrations |
|
APM |
$31 per host/month |
Distributed tracing, service maps, code profiling |
|
Log Management |
$0.10 per GB ingested |
Log ingestion, search, analytics |
|
Network Performance |
$5 per host/month |
Network traffic analysis, flow monitoring, device health |
|
Synthetic Monitoring |
$5 per 10,000 API tests |
API and browser tests, uptime checks |
|
Real User Monitoring |
$2 per 10,000 sessions |
End-user experience metrics, session replay |
|
Security Monitoring |
$0.20 per GB analyzed |
Threat detection, compliance monitoring |
|
Database Monitoring |
$21 per host/month |
Database performance, query analytics |
|
Continuous Profiler |
$8 per host/month |
Code profiling, performance optimization |
|
Incident Management |
$15 per user/month |
Incident tracking, collaboration tools |
|
CI Visibility |
$5 per 25,000 test runs |
CI/CD pipeline monitoring, job analytics |
Datadog’s pricing is modular and can add up quickly as you layer on more features or monitor more hosts. While the entry price for network monitoring is competitive, costs for log ingestion, APM, and other advanced features can become significant for large environments.
The flexibility to pick and choose modules is great, but budgeting can be tricky. Compared to competitors like LogicMonitor, Datadog is often pricier at scale, though it offers more control over what you pay for.
Datadog network monitoring: Customer support
Datadog’s customer support is generally responsive and knowledgeable, with 24/7 availability for most plans. Users can access support via email, chat, or ticketing, and there’s a robust knowledge base and active community forums. Enterprise customers get priority support, including a dedicated account manager and faster response times.
But, some users have reported mixed experiences, especially with lower-tier plans or complex billing issues. A few customers mention delays in getting detailed technical answers or feeling like their concerns weren’t fully addressed. For mission-critical environments, we recommend opting for enterprise support to ensure the fastest resolution times.
Datadog network monitoring: Alternatives
Datadog is a leader in network monitoring, but it’s not the only option. It’s best suited for mid-sized to large IT teams managing hybrid or cloud-first environments who need deep analytics and extensive integrations. If you’re a smaller business or just need basic monitoring, you might find Datadog’s cost and complexity overkill.
Top competitors include LogicMonitor for its AI-powered automation and intuitive interface, Dynatrace for AI-driven anomaly detection, and Nagios or Zabbix for IT teams who want open-source options. That said, Datadog’s main edge is its unified, cloud-native approach and real-time analytics. But if you value simplicity or lower costs, it’s worth comparing alternatives.
Datadog network monitoring: Final verdict
Datadog brings a powerful, unified approach to network monitoring, with real-time analytics, deep integrations, and customizable dashboards. It’s a top choice for IT teams that need to monitor complex, hybrid, or cloud-native environments and want to correlate network data with logs, traces, and application metrics.
However, cost and complexity can be drawbacks, especially for smaller teams or those new to monitoring platforms. If you need the most advanced features and can invest in setup and training, Datadog is a strong contender. For simpler needs or tighter budgets, other platforms may offer better value.
FAQs
What types of environments can Datadog monitor?
Datadog supports on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments, with integrations for AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and more. It’s designed to provide unified visibility across all your infrastructure.
Is Datadog suitable for small businesses?
While Datadog can be used by businesses of any size, its pricing and feature set are best suited for mid-sized to large organizations with complex monitoring needs. Smaller teams may find the cost and learning curve steep.
Can Datadog alert me to network issues in real time?
Yes, Datadog provides real-time alerts for network performance issues, outages, and anomalies. You can customize alert thresholds and receive notifications via email, Slack, PagerDuty, and other channels.
Does Datadog offer a free trial?
Datadog typically offers a 14-day free trial for new users, allowing you to test core features and integrations before committing to a paid plan.
How does Datadog compare to LogicMonitor?
LogicMonitor is our top pick for 2025, thanks to its AI-powered automation and revamped UI. Datadog offers more granular analytics and integrations but can be more expensive and complex to set up. Both are excellent, but LogicMonitor is better for teams wanting automation while Datadog excels in analytics and customization.