Can I self-host an alternative to Datadog?

Yes — Grafana + Prometheus + Loki, SigNoz, OpenObserve all support self-hosting. Most ship as Docker containers and run on any VPS.

Is Grafana + Prometheus + Loki free?

Grafana + Prometheus + Loki is open-source under AGPL-3.0. You can self-host for free. Many also offer a hosted cloud option with a free tier and paid plans.

All alternatives

Observability

Best Open-Source Alternatives to Datadog

Q: What is the best open-source alternative to Datadog?

The top open-source alternative to Datadog is Grafana + Prometheus + Loki: The classic open-source observability triad: Prometheus collects metrics, Loki collects logs, Grafana visualizes both. Mature, well-understood, scales to billions of data points. Setup is more work th

Datadog's pricing is the running joke of every infra engineer in 2026 — startups regularly see their Datadog bill exceed their AWS bill. The open-source alternatives give you metrics + logs + traces on a $20 VPS instead of $2,000/mo.

TL;DR — top pick

Grafana + Prometheus + Loki

The classic open-source observability triad: Prometheus collects metrics, Loki collects logs, Grafana visualizes both. Mature, well-understood, scales to billions of data points.

github.com/grafana/grafana

All 3 alternatives ranked

Grafana + Prometheus + Loki

AGPL-3.0Self-hostable★ ~67k

github.com/grafana/grafana

The classic open-source observability triad: Prometheus collects metrics, Loki collects logs, Grafana visualizes both. Mature, well-understood, scales to billions of data points. Setup is more work than Datadog (you're wiring 3 services) but you fully own the data and the bill never surprises you.

Pick Grafana + Prometheus + Loki if

You have a DevOps engineer or want to learn observability properly. Self-host on a $20 box for a 50-service stack.

Skip if

You want one-click setup and don't care about the bill — Datadog Free tier or Sentry covers small teams.

SigNoz

MITSelf-hostable★ ~21k

github.com/SigNoz/signoz

SigNoz is the modern, OpenTelemetry-native Datadog clone. One UI for metrics + logs + traces + alerts, no stitching needed. ClickHouse-backed for fast queries. Cloud free tier or self-host with Docker Compose. The closest single-pane-of-glass Datadog replacement in OSS.

Pick SigNoz if

You want Datadog's unified UX without Datadog's bill, and you can run one more Docker stack.

Skip if

You're tiny — Sentry (errors) + UptimeRobot (uptime) covers most early-stage needs for free.

OpenObserve

AGPL-3.0Self-hostable★ ~14k

github.com/openobserve/openobserve

OpenObserve is the Rust-built, S3-backed observability stack — claims 140× lower storage cost than Elasticsearch. Logs + metrics + traces, OpenTelemetry-native. Younger than SigNoz but faster on large datasets. The choice when you're scaling past terabytes of logs.

Pick OpenObserve if

You're generating tons of logs and ES-based stacks (ELK) are killing your budget.

Skip if

You're early-stage — SigNoz or Grafana Cloud free tier is easier to start with.

Want the full curated stack?

StackPicks members get 100+ open-source tools across 22 categories with curator takes, 13 stack bundles, and 12 skill tracks. ₹99 lifetime.

See pricing