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Head-to-head · Application Performance Monitoring

Elastic APM vs Datadog APM

  • Updated Oct 2026
  • Both researched from official sources
  • 6 checks side by side
Higher score Elastic APM #1 in Application Performance Monitoring 9.4/10 Free plan · 14-day trial Free planFree trial✓ 5 of 5 features Visit Elastic APM
Datadog APM #5 in Application Performance Monitoring 9.0/10 14-day trial Free trial✓ 5 of 5 features Visit Datadog

Elastic APM leads on 1 check, Datadog APM on 0, and 5 are even. Who comes out ahead on the 6 yes/no, price and count checks where we have data for both products. The editor score weighs everything else too.

Our verdict

  • Highest scoreElastic APM · 9.4/10
  • Free planonly Elastic APM
  • Free trialboth

Elastic APM scores higher on our rubric for application performance monitoring: 9.4 against 9.0 out of 10; our editors rank them #1 and #5.

Elastic APM offers free plan; Datadog APM doesn't. On deployment model, Elastic APM gives you Hybrid where Datadog APM offers Cloud.

Elastic APM is the better fit for open, hybrid APM with broad observability. Datadog APM is the better fit for full-featured cloud APM at host scale.

  • Elastic APM fits best

    Open, hybrid APM with broad observability

  • Datadog APM fits best

    Full-featured cloud APM at host scale

Advertiser disclosure: iTechGuides is reader-supported. Vendors can pay for top positions in our rankings and for a place on other products' pages, and we may earn a commission when you click some links. Bought places stand at the number bought; this page and our disclosure say so. Paying vendors may get a fuller, more detailed review from our editors, and that review can change their score. How we rank.

Side by side

Feature Elastic APM 9.4/10 Visit ↗ Datadog APM 9.0/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score 9.4 9.0
Ranking #1 in Application Performance Monitoring #5 in Application Performance Monitoring
Best for Open, hybrid APM with broad observability Full-featured cloud APM at host scale
Pricing model Free plan + paid Paid
Starting price $99/mo $31/unit/mo
Free plan ✓ (best) —
Free trial 14 days 14 days
Free trial length 14 days 14 days
Deployment Cloud, Self-hosted Cloud
Platforms Web, Linux, Windows, macOS Web, iOS, Android
Support Phone, Docs · 24/7 Live chat, Email, Community, Docs
Integrations 4 integrations 1 integrations
Built for Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise
Features Elastic APM 5/5 · Datadog APM 5/5
Distributed tracing ✓ ✓
Transaction tracing ✓ ✓
Dependency mapping ✓ ✓
Real user monitoring ✓ ✓
Log correlation ✓ ✓
Specs
Deployment model Hybrid Cloud
Our review
Pros
  • Distributed tracing, transaction views, and service dependency maps
  • Free self-managed Elastic Stack deployment
  • OpenTelemetry ingestion plus logs, metrics, traces, and RUM
  • 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
Cons
  • Usage-based pricing can vary with ingestion volume
  • Self-managed deployment requires Elastic Stack administration
  • Full-stack observability costs $0.09 per GB ingested monthly
  • 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
Our verdict

Elastic APM monitors application performance across services, databases, external HTTP calls, errors, traces, logs, and metrics. It is designed for teams managing distributed applications across web, API, iOS, Android, and self-hosted…

Read the review →

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 →
  1. Elastic APMApplication Performance Monitoring 9.4Free plan · 14-day trial
  2. Datadog APMApplication Performance Monitoring 9.014-day trial

Strengths and trade-offs

  • Elastic APM — where it wins

    • Distributed tracing, transaction views, and service dependency maps
    • Free self-managed Elastic Stack deployment
    • OpenTelemetry ingestion plus logs, metrics, traces, and RUM

    Where it doesn't

    • Usage-based pricing can vary with ingestion volume
    • Self-managed deployment requires Elastic Stack administration
    • Full-stack observability costs $0.09 per GB ingested monthly

  • 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

More comparisons

All application performance monitoring comparisons → · Full ranking →

Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026

Last updated · How we research and update