Grafana vs Datadog

Quick verdict

Grafana, from Grafana Labs, is a visualisation and alerting application licensed AGPL-3.0-only (with some parts under Apache 2.0); version 13.3.0 was released on 27 October 2026. It queries data sources rather than storing metrics: Prometheus and other time-series stores, and relational databases such as PostgreSQL, MySQL and SQL Server through SQL. Grafana Cloud is the hosted service, with Free, Pro and Enterprise tiers, and its Database Observability feature uses the Grafana Alloy collector to add query samples, explain plans, wait events and table schemas for MySQL and PostgreSQL. See our Grafana profile.

Datadog is a SaaS observability platform. Its products, including Infrastructure Monitoring, APM, Log Management and Database Monitoring (DBM), are billed separately. DBM uses the Datadog Agent to collect normalized query metrics, query samples and explain plans, with database host pages showing activity and blocking queries, and recommendations. Datadog also has prebuilt integration dashboards and its own dashboard and monitor features. For Datadog in other match-ups, see Prometheus vs Datadog and Datadog vs New Relic.

Side by side

Key differences

Dashboard layer versus complete platform

The two are not the same kind of product. Grafana OSS is the visual and alerting layer: it reads from data sources and draws panels, but it stores and collects nothing itself. A typical self-hosted database stack pairs it with Prometheus and exporters, PMM (which bundles Grafana) or pgwatch. Datadog is the whole pipeline: the Agent collects, Datadog stores, and dashboards, monitors and DBM views display it, all in one SaaS account.

Grafana Cloud narrows the gap. It hosts metrics, logs, traces and profiles, and Database Observability adds query-level analysis, so a team can get a hosted collection-and-dashboard service from Grafana Labs too. The practical question is whether you want to own the parts (Grafana) or buy one integrated product (Datadog).

Query-level database monitoring

Grafana Cloud Database Observability supports MySQL 8.0 or later with Performance Schema and PostgreSQL 14 or later with pg_stat_statements, self-managed or on AWS RDS, Aurora, Azure Database and Google Cloud SQL; MariaDB is not supported. It needs Grafana Alloy 1.17.0 or later. Grafana says explain plans run EXPLAIN rather than EXPLAIN ANALYZE, so the sampled query is not executed again, and the collection interval and explain plan ratio can be tuned to reduce overhead.

Datadog DBM covers eight engines, including Oracle (self-hosted, RDS, RAC, Exadata, Autonomous Database), SQL Server, MongoDB (self-hosted and Atlas) and ClickHouse. It offers query metrics on normalized queries, query samples compared against averages, explain plans tracked over time, a databases page with host health, activity and blocking queries, and recommendations. If you need query-level monitoring for SQL Server or Oracle, Grafana Cloud Database Observability does not cover them today; Grafana can still chart their metrics from other collectors.

Querying the database directly

Grafana can use PostgreSQL, MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server as data sources and chart the result of a SQL query, which is handy for business or application tables as well as statistics views. A PostgreSQL panel might use Grafana's time macros like this:

-- PostgreSQL data source in Grafana: orders per 5 minutes in the dashboard time range
SELECT $__timeGroupAlias(created_at, '5m'),
       count(*) AS orders
FROM orders
WHERE $__timeFilter(created_at)
GROUP BY 1
ORDER BY 1;

Datadog does not query your database from the dashboard. Instead, the Agent's custom_queries option runs SQL on a schedule and sends the results as metrics, which you then chart. That route is billed as custom metrics (listed at USD 5 per 100 custom metrics a month), so high-cardinality results need care.

Cost structure

Grafana can cost nothing in licences if you self-host OSS, though you pay for servers and the time to run Prometheus or similar. Grafana Cloud bills a Pro platform fee plus usage: active metric series, GB of logs and traces, active visualisation users and Database Observability host hours, with telemetry from Database Observability billed separately. Datadog bills each product per host: an infrastructure host, an APM host and a database host are separate line items, plus logs and custom metrics. In our view, Grafana is usually cheaper where you already run the collectors, while Datadog's cost is easier to predict per host but grows with every product you add.

Pricing and licensing

Grafana. Grafana OSS is free under AGPL-3.0-only. Listed on grafana.com/pricing in November 2026 (prices shown with a dollar sign): Free includes 10k active metric series, 50 GB each of logs, traces and profiles a month, 3 active visualisation users and Database Observability for 2,232 host hours (three database hosts), with 14-day retention. Pro has a $19 monthly platform fee, then usage from $6.50 per 1k series, $0.05 per GB processing plus $0.40 per GB write plus $0.10 per GB retain for logs, $8 per active visualisation user and $0.07 per Database Observability host hour (about $51 per host a month); metrics are kept 13 months. Enterprise starts at a $25,000 annual commit. Self-managed Grafana Enterprise is not priced on the page.

Datadog. Listed on datadoghq.com/pricing/list in November 2026: Database Monitoring $70 per database host per month billed annually, or $84 month-to-month or on demand; Infrastructure Pro $15 (annual) or $18, Infrastructure Enterprise $23 (annual) or $27 per host per month; APM from $31 per host per month (annual); log ingestion $0.10 per GB plus indexing by retention; custom metrics $5 per 100 a month. An Infrastructure Free tier covers up to five hosts with one-day metric retention. Example: four database hosts on annual billing list at 4 x $70 = $280 a month in DBM, versus 4 x about $51 = about $204 a month in Grafana Cloud Pro Database Observability host hours before telemetry and the platform fee; Datadog DBM covers more engines, so compare like for like.

Pricing checked on the vendors' official pages on 7 November 2026. Prices change; confirm before buying.

Where each one leads

Limitations

When to choose each

When neither is right

• You want a free, self-hosted package with query analytics included: see pganalyze vs Percona PMM.
• You want usage-based SaaS without per-host charges: see Datadog vs New Relic and New Relic vs Dynatrace.
• You want business reporting rather than monitoring: see Metabase vs Grafana and Grafana vs Power BI.
• A DBA team needs SQL Server depth: see Datadog vs Redgate Monitor.

Final recommendation

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Grafana repository (AGPL-3.0-only)
• Grafana releases
• Grafana pricing
• Grafana Cloud Database Observability
• Database Observability requirements and overhead
• Datadog pricing
• Datadog pricing list
• Datadog docs: Database Monitoring
• Datadog docs: billing and pricing

Checked November 2026.

How we research comparisons: our editorial method.