Datadog, Grafana Cloud, and New Relic are the three platforms engineering teams reach for most often when they need metrics, logs, and traces in one place. All three are usage-based, which makes them powerful and genuinely confusing to price. This review pulls the actual numbers from each vendor’s own pricing page so you can see where the real cost differences are before you commit.
At a Glance
| Platform | Free Tier | Entry-Level Pricing | Pricing Model | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Datadog | Up to 5 “Basic” infra hosts (1-day retention); no free logs/APM | Infra Pro from $15/host/mo (annual) | Per host + per GB/million events, modular by product | Teams that want one platform for everything and can manage per-product billing |
| Grafana Cloud | Full feature set with usage caps (10k metric series, 50GB logs/traces, 14-day retention) | Pro from $19/mo platform fee + usage | Per-GB processed/written/retained, per-series, per-user | Teams already using open-source Grafana/Prometheus/Loki/Tempo who want a hosted version |
| New Relic | 100GB ingest/month + 1 full platform user, free forever | Standard: $0.40/GB over 100GB + $10 for the first full user | Per-GB ingest + per-user, unlimited free “Basic” users | Small teams and solo developers who want a generous permanent free tier |
Short Verdict
New Relic has the most forgiving free tier (100GB of data a month, forever, no credit card), which makes it the easiest to try and the cheapest for small teams. Grafana Cloud is the best value if your team already thinks in Prometheus/Loki/Tempo terms and wants to self-serve on usage-based pricing without a sales call. Datadog is the most complete single platform — infrastructure, APM, logs, security, and dozens of integrations under one roof — but its per-product, per-host pricing adds up fast and the most useful retention and indexing tiers are gated behind “contact sales.”
What It Is
All three are observability platforms: they collect metrics (numeric time series), logs (text records), and traces (request-level timing across services) so engineers can find out why something broke or slowed down. Datadog and New Relic are commercial SaaS platforms built from the ground up as all-in-one products. Grafana Cloud is the hosted, managed version of the open-source Grafana stack (Grafana for dashboards, Prometheus-compatible Mimir for metrics, Loki for logs, Tempo for traces, Pyroscope for profiles) — so it’s the natural fit for teams who want OSS-compatible tooling without running the infrastructure themselves.
Pricing Breakdown
| Item | Datadog | Grafana Cloud | New Relic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infra/host monitoring | Pro: $15/host/mo (annual) or $18 on-demand | Kubernetes/App Observability: ~$7.20–$18/host (usage-based) | Included in per-GB ingest pricing, no separate per-host fee |
| Logs | Ingest from $0.10/GB; indexing from $1.70 per million events/mo (15-day retention) | $0.40/GB write, $0.05/GB process, $0.10/GB retain (Pro) | Included in the $0.40–$0.60/GB ingest price (Standard/Pro) |
| APM/traces | APM from $31/host/mo (annual, with Infra attached) or $36 standalone | Traces: $0.40/GB write, $0.05/GB process, $0.10/GB retain (Pro) | Included in per-GB ingest price |
| Metrics/series | Bundled into Infra Monitoring host price | $6.50 per 1,000 active series beyond the free 10k (Pro) | Included in per-GB ingest price |
| Per-user cost | Not separately priced (host/product based) | $8/user for Grafana Visualization (Pro) | $10 for 1st full user, $99 each for up to 4 more (Standard); Pro is $349–$418.80/user; Basic users free & unlimited |
| Free tier | 5 Basic infra hosts, 1-day retention only | 10k metric series, 50GB logs/traces/profiles, 14-day retention, 3 users | 100GB ingest/month forever + 1 full user |
| Enterprise | Enterprise Infra from $23/host/mo; custom retention via sales | Custom, $25,000/year minimum commit | Contact sales |
A practical note on reading these numbers: Datadog and Grafana Cloud both split “ingest,” “process,” and “retain/index” into separate line items, so the headline per-GB figure is rarely the whole story — a GB of logs can be billed for ingestion and again for indexed retention. New Relic collapses this into one ingest price per GB, which is simpler to estimate but means heavier log or trace volume hits the same meter as your metrics.
Pros
- Datadog — the broadest product catalog (APM, RUM, security, CI visibility, synthetics) with deep integrations (900+); best if you want one vendor for nearly everything.
- Grafana Cloud — OSS-compatible (Prometheus/Loki/Tempo APIs), so you can self-host part of the stack and move workloads in or out without lock-in; transparent public pricing calculator.
- New Relic — simplest mental model (GB ingested, full vs. basic users), a genuinely usable permanent free tier, and unlimited free “Basic” (read-only) users for stakeholders.
Cons
- Datadog — per-host, per-product billing compounds quickly across infra + APM + logs; several retention/indexing tiers require contacting sales rather than self-serve pricing.
- Grafana Cloud — the number of separately metered products (14+ line items on the pricing page) makes forecasting a bill harder than it should be; Enterprise jumps straight to a $25,000/year commit.
- New Relic — Pro-tier full users are expensive ($349–$418.80/user/month), and once you exceed the 100GB free ingest in a month, data stops flowing until you upgrade or the month resets.
Who It’s a Good Fit For
Small teams and solo developers who want to try real observability without a credit card should start with New Relic’s free 100GB tier. Teams already running Prometheus, Loki, or Grafana OSS and want a managed, scalable version of the same stack should look at Grafana Cloud. Organizations that want a single vendor covering infrastructure, APM, security, and user-experience monitoring — and have the budget to negotiate annual contracts — are the clearest fit for Datadog.
Who Should Look Elsewhere
Budget-conscious teams with high log or trace volume should be cautious with Datadog, since ingestion, indexing, and retention are billed separately and can surprise you. Teams that want a single flat number with no usage math should be wary of all three usage-based platforms generally; a flat-rate competitor may suit them better. Teams that need deep enterprise support and compliance guarantees from day one will find New Relic’s self-serve Standard/Pro tiers too limited and will need to go straight to its Enterprise sales process.
Bottom Line
There’s no single winner — the right pick depends on which meter you’re most afraid of. If you want to avoid a credit card and a learning curve, start with New Relic’s free tier. If you want open standards and predictable, self-serve usage pricing, Grafana Cloud is the better long-term bet. If you want maximum feature breadth and are prepared to manage a more complex, negotiated bill, Datadog remains the category leader.
FAQ
Which is cheapest for a small startup?
New Relic, in most cases — its 100GB/month free tier and single free full-platform user cost nothing, and additional data is a flat $0.40/GB beyond that on the Standard plan.
Can I self-host any of these to avoid cloud pricing?
Only Grafana’s underlying stack (Grafana, Prometheus/Mimir, Loki, Tempo) is open source and self-hostable. Datadog and New Relic are closed, cloud-only SaaS platforms.
Do these prices include support?
Standard support is generally included; premium/enterprise support (faster SLAs, dedicated contacts) is an add-on or bundled only into Enterprise-tier contracts on all three platforms.
Sources
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