Datadog APM vs Apache SkyWalking

Datadog APM9.0Visit Apache SkyWalking8.7Visit

Higher score Datadog APM #5 in Application Performance Monitoring 9.0/10 14-day trial Free trial✓ 5 of 5 features Visit Datadog

vs

Apache SkyWalking #8 in Application Performance Monitoring 8.7/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 5 of 5 features Visit SkyWalking

• Datadog APM fits best

  Full-featured cloud APM at host scale

• Apache SkyWalking fits best

  Self-hosted teams needing deep observability

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Side by side

Feature	Datadog APM 9.0/10 Visit ↗	Apache SkyWalking 8.7/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	9.0	8.7
Ranking	#5 in Application Performance Monitoring	#8 in Application Performance Monitoring
Best for	Full-featured cloud APM at host scale	Self-hosted teams needing deep observability
Pricing model	Paid	Free
Starting price	$31/unit/mo	Free plan
Free plan	—	✓ (best)
Free trial	14 days	—
Deployment	Cloud	Self-hosted
Platforms	Web, iOS, Android	Web, Windows, Linux
Support	Live chat, Email, Community, Docs	Community, Docs
Integrations	1 integrations	7 integrations
Built for	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise
Features Datadog APM 5/5 · Apache SkyWalking 5/5
Distributed tracing	✓	✓
Transaction tracing	✓	✓
Dependency mapping	✓	✓
Real user monitoring	✓	✓
Log correlation	✓	✓
Specs
Deployment model	Cloud	Self_hosted
Our review
Pros	Distributed tracing across browser, mobile, backend, and database services Service maps, request flow maps, and span-level trace analysis Correlates traces with logs, metrics, RUM, dashboards, monitors, and SLOs	Combines tracing, topology maps, metrics, logs, profiling, and alerts Supports Kubernetes, service meshes, browser monitoring, and eBPF profiling Ingests telemetry through OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Zipkin, and more
Cons	No free plan is available Starts at $31 per APM host per month with annual billing Requires the Datadog Agent for telemetry collection in supported environments	Self-hosting requires teams to manage deployment and operations Its wide feature set may exceed the needs of smaller applications It is not presented as a conventional hosted SaaS product
Our verdict	Datadog APM is a cloud application performance monitoring service for teams managing browser and mobile applications, backend services, databases, and distributed systems. It combines code-level tracing with service dependency views, trace… Read the review →	Apache SkyWalking is an open-source application performance monitoring and observability platform for distributed, microservices, cloud-native, and container-based applications. It is designed for teams that want to run observability… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• Datadog APM — where it wins

  • Distributed tracing across browser, mobile, backend, and database services
  • Service maps, request flow maps, and span-level trace analysis
  • Correlates traces with logs, metrics, RUM, dashboards, monitors, and SLOs

  Where it doesn't

  • No free plan is available
  • Starts at $31 per APM host per month with annual billing
  • Requires the Datadog Agent for telemetry collection in supported environments

• Apache SkyWalking — where it wins

  • Combines tracing, topology maps, metrics, logs, profiling, and alerts
  • Supports Kubernetes, service meshes, browser monitoring, and eBPF profiling
  • Ingests telemetry through OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Zipkin, and more

  Where it doesn't

  • Self-hosting requires teams to manage deployment and operations
  • Its wide feature set may exceed the needs of smaller applications
  • It is not presented as a conventional hosted SaaS product

• Datadog APM9.0/10 · 14-day trial

  A broad cloud APM suite with strong tracing and telemetry links, priced per host.

  Visit DatadogFull verdict →
• Apache SkyWalking8.7/10 · Free plan

  A broad self-hosted APM suite for teams that need tracing, metrics, logs, and topology.

  Visit SkyWalkingFull verdict →