Datadog vs Openobserve
Self-hosted for $4/mo on hetzner CAX11, versus $15-$34/user/mo on Datadog.
Side-by-side
| Datadog | Openobserve (self-hosted) | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | $15-$34/user/mo | $4.13/mo flat (any team size) |
| Hosting | Datadog's servers | Your VPS (hetzner CAX11) |
| Data ownership | Datadog controls the data | Your disk, your encryption |
| Source code | Closed | Open (AGPL-3.0) |
| Customization | API + integrations only | Full source access; modify freely |
| Maintenance burden | Zero | Backups + updates (Docker available) |
| Health score (ossreplace) | — | 72 / 100 |
Why teams leave Datadog
- Per-host + per-feature pricing stacks aggressively
- Log ingestion fees compound fast at scale
- Custom-metric pricing surprises during traffic spikes
- Vendor lock-in across logs, metrics, traces
Openobserve answers this by: Grafana + Prometheus + Loki + Tempo give the same dashboards + metrics + logs + traces on infra you already pay for.
The cost math
Assumes 5-person team using Datadog at the midpoint price ($24.5/user/mo).
| Period | Datadog | Openobserve on hetzner | You save |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $122.5 | $4.13 | $118.37 |
| Yearly | $1470 | $49.56 | $1420.44 |
| 3 years | $4,410 | $149 | $4,261 |
Deploy Openobserve now
One-click deploys at the cheapest provider for this workload:
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Common questions
Is Openobserve a good alternative to Datadog?
Openobserve is an open-source, self-hostable alternative to Datadog with an ossreplace health score of 72/100 — a composite of project activity, maturity, community, security, and adoption. It runs on your own hetzner VPS from $4.13/mo with full source access under the AGPL-3.0 license, versus Datadog's $15–34/user/mo hosted plans.
How much cheaper is Openobserve than Datadog?
A 5-person team pays about $122.5/mo on Datadog. Self-hosting Openobserve on hetzner CAX11 costs a flat $4.13/mo regardless of team size — roughly $4,261 less over three years (97% lower).
Is Openobserve hard to self-host?
Openobserve ships a Docker setup, so deployment is usually a single docker-compose command on a $4.13/mo VPS. You own the backups and updates, and there are no per-seat fees.
Do you keep control of your data with Openobserve vs Datadog?
Yes. Because Openobserve runs on your own server, the data lives on your disk under your encryption. With Datadog, Datadog controls the hosting, storage, and access.